I got an email telling me that today is a lucky day...11/11/11. It didnt exactly feel any different than any other day. I seem to lose track of days here...weeks...its been a month since I left home. Crazy...but good. At first I was disappointed since the house isnt done, I was/am really excited about getting things going...but things happen for a reason and in the right time. I am apparently supposed to be learning patience. Since up until now in my life I have had no patience maybe at 27 I will learn what it means to just sit back and watch things happen and not always be in such a hurry. One can only hope...
So the events of last week proved to be the same every day, we cleaned house, cooked, did laundry, all those sorts of things during the day and at night went out. Pimampiro was full! It was a great time of just getting to hang out with everyone and to experience the culture.
Little did I know that I should have rested some last week, or the weekend cause this past week has been one of the busiest since I have been here. A friend of a friend arrived to volunteer, she is full of great ideas and enthusiastic to help get some things going. For instance, today we took 12 kids between the ages of 11 and 15 to Ibarra. Doesnt seem like a big deal, except for most of these girls have never been to Ibarra. Keep in mind that Ibarra is the closest city to us, about an hour away. Most of these girls are from areas in the mountains where they never get the opportunity to go many places. For this reason we collaborated with the school to take them to the University, out to lunch, to do some exploring, and shopping for things that are needed in the daycare in Paragachi. The goal of this trip was to 1. show these adolescents that there are other opportunities out there 2. help them get to know a place close to them so that they are not afraid to go there to continue their education 3. and to have a day away from the normal for them. We also talked to them about how hard that it is to finish school if they would have a baby. This is the age that we are trying to reach...kids who can make decisions and who we can educate to make the right decisions.
We have spent almost every day in the daycare, the daycare lacks so much. There are 4 teachers and over 30 kids. The kids arrive about 7am and dont leave til about that time in the evening. These kids are fed 5 times a day (3 meals and 2 snacks), bathed, changed, played with, etc 6 days a week. I love just playing with them, feeding them, holding them to go to sleep...so many things that they dont get on a normal basis. The teachers have said that they send the kids home in the evenings and they come back in the morning with the same clothes. So sad. These kids are so happy and so full of love...and they have absolutely nothing. It breaks my heart to see dirt under their finger nails and their dirty clothes....
I have been doing some nursing stuff too! I live with a family and the mom was in an accident almost a month ago now, she has third degree burns on mostly her right foot/ankle. The first doctor that saw her told her that the black dead skin did not need to come off, for her to put vaseline and eventually it would just come off. Every day I cleaned her leg, scrubbed and tried to get rid of that dead skin. But, from the beginning I did not understand why the doctor did not remove the dead black skin so after some coercion I convinced her to let me talk to the doctor in town and have him come look at it. As soon as he saw it he told her that she needed to have it removed, so the next day she went to a plastic surgeon who removed all of the dead skin. Three days later we went to the hospital, to have the bandages changed and it cleaned. This doctor scrubbed her raw burned skin with no anesthesia with her holding her legs on the edge of a metal bowl. It hurt me, she was in so much pain that the whole way home she was moaning. So awful! I cant even imagine trying to do that in the states, Im pretty sure that most of us wouldnt be able to handle it, nor would we allow someone to put is through that torture. But, the good news is that she is walking some (which she wasnt doing just the other day) and soon she will be back to new!
Update on the house...we have bathrooms! The guy went down to measure for the window frames, as soon as they are done then the windows go in! Step by step things are getting done...
