Hi guys!
Today, I spent the morning shift in Cunas, the section for the babies. I was partnered with Janessa, my roommate from Idaho, and we had three babies in there--Kimberly, Miguel, and Erika. All of the babies were a bit fussy today, and tried to climb over each other and squabble amongst themselves. (Which is a bit funny, considering that they're all tiny--their fights are basically them trying to use each the as ladders until we pull them apart and bounce them around the room.)
And I'm pretty sure that they are all sick--they all seemed warmer than normal, and the tias were giving them what I think was amoxicillin (I only saw the pink liquid, not the bottle). A cold has been going around both the volunteers and the orphans, though--I was sick last week (I'm totally fine now--it lasted like 48 hours), and a lot of the other volunteers have been coughing and sneezing. I was actually supposed to be in the OSSO orphanage today, with the special needs kids, but I switched with Drew, because he didn't want to be coughing around the babies.
We found that the babies really loved a certain toy--a small drum with a string attached to a bead on both sides. They were very excited to make loud noises, and even more excited when Janessa and I were able to use it properly (spin it between our hands) to make even louder noises.
Miguel is slowly learning how to walk--he can now toddle around while holding onto only one person's hand, or while supporting himself against the wall, and it's so fun to see! Although it's sort of sad--when he finally learns to walk, the person who witnesses it will probably be just a volunteer, and not someone who will know him and love him long-term.
We then went on to feed the babies--they give them a ton of food here, and it seems like it's too much. They had this huge bowl of applesauce that, in all honesty, I wouldn't be able to finish. And they're babies.
After that shift, we went to church. A few of the kids from the OSSO orphanage wanted to get out, so they were allowed to come with us, wearing their nice shirts and ties. During church, I sat with a young boy with an illness that has many of the same symptoms as autism, which meant that I wasn't able to sit and listen much in church. Instead, I was managing a very wiggly young boy--for the first few minutes, he was fascinated by the pattern of my dress, but eventually his attention to that ended, and we had to find other ways to keep him distracted. He ended up sort of laying on my lap while I rubbed his back to keep him calm. Although this isn't exactly how you're supposed to spend sacrament meeting, I figure that service to others is equally pure religion.
Also--the only thing that I forgot to pack was my razor, so my legs were visibly furry this morning in my knee-length dress. Whoops. But it probably kept me warm in the unheated chapel.
For my second shift of the day, I went to the casas for the older kids (3-7). They're always a bit crazy. We started out with jumping rope, and the kids loved that (especially the little girls). No one was very good at keeping the rhythm of the rope (it's easier if you hop in between each jump, but that's hard to explain with my minimal Spanish, and they didn't understand if I tried to demonstrate it_, but they were happy to let us spin and spin and spin while they tripped over the rope time and time again.
We also brought twister, but not a lot of kids were interested in it, so I ended up calling out "mano izquierda, amarillo," for only 2 kids. But they were fascinated by it, and it was 2 kids less for everyone else to worry about.
I also spent a lot of time with Diana today, because she's sort of clingy and really wants attention. She usually calls me "amiga," but sometimes she will call me "Mama," which breaks my heart. She's so desperate for any female to love her that she sees all the volunteers as substitutes for her mother. (I have no idea what happened to her family, but I know that she has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, so her home situation was likely not a good one.)
We have a new girl in the orphanage. She's probably around three, and she just came last week. (If you don't want your heart slightly cracked, skip to the next paragraph. This is a really sad story.) On the first day that she got here, she was crying for her mother to come take her home. One of the older boys came over and told her that she had no mother, and that's why she was here at the orphanage. I can't even imagine the pain the poor girl was feeling then. But she smiled a little bit today. I guess that's what the volunteers are here for--to make the situation a bit less horrible for the kids.
Everyone at the orphanage got a haircut today, which was quite comical. I spent a lot of time unbraiding and brushing the kids' hair to prepare them. One of the boys was so embarrassed about his new hair that he hid from everyone else until we could coax him out, which is funny, because most of the boys here grow up really quickly. They like to try off their curse word and obscene gestures on us (they learn to curse in English just to see the looks of horror on the volunteers' faces). And the girls too--at the orphanages for teenagers, a lot of the girls have babies of their own by the time they're fifteen or sixteen. It's a difficult life.
But some of the little kids are still little. Today, we also had a raucous game of tickle tag (which is exactly the same as regular tag, but I'm always it, and when I tag someone, I tickle them until they escape.) Some of the kids really got into it--one of the nuns was watering her garden while we were playing, and they would run straight through the water, so I ended up soaking wet as well.
Anyway, that's all for tonight. Love you all!
Today, I spent the morning shift in Cunas, the section for the babies. I was partnered with Janessa, my roommate from Idaho, and we had three babies in there--Kimberly, Miguel, and Erika. All of the babies were a bit fussy today, and tried to climb over each other and squabble amongst themselves. (Which is a bit funny, considering that they're all tiny--their fights are basically them trying to use each the as ladders until we pull them apart and bounce them around the room.)
And I'm pretty sure that they are all sick--they all seemed warmer than normal, and the tias were giving them what I think was amoxicillin (I only saw the pink liquid, not the bottle). A cold has been going around both the volunteers and the orphans, though--I was sick last week (I'm totally fine now--it lasted like 48 hours), and a lot of the other volunteers have been coughing and sneezing. I was actually supposed to be in the OSSO orphanage today, with the special needs kids, but I switched with Drew, because he didn't want to be coughing around the babies.
We found that the babies really loved a certain toy--a small drum with a string attached to a bead on both sides. They were very excited to make loud noises, and even more excited when Janessa and I were able to use it properly (spin it between our hands) to make even louder noises.
Miguel is slowly learning how to walk--he can now toddle around while holding onto only one person's hand, or while supporting himself against the wall, and it's so fun to see! Although it's sort of sad--when he finally learns to walk, the person who witnesses it will probably be just a volunteer, and not someone who will know him and love him long-term.
We then went on to feed the babies--they give them a ton of food here, and it seems like it's too much. They had this huge bowl of applesauce that, in all honesty, I wouldn't be able to finish. And they're babies.
After that shift, we went to church. A few of the kids from the OSSO orphanage wanted to get out, so they were allowed to come with us, wearing their nice shirts and ties. During church, I sat with a young boy with an illness that has many of the same symptoms as autism, which meant that I wasn't able to sit and listen much in church. Instead, I was managing a very wiggly young boy--for the first few minutes, he was fascinated by the pattern of my dress, but eventually his attention to that ended, and we had to find other ways to keep him distracted. He ended up sort of laying on my lap while I rubbed his back to keep him calm. Although this isn't exactly how you're supposed to spend sacrament meeting, I figure that service to others is equally pure religion.
Also--the only thing that I forgot to pack was my razor, so my legs were visibly furry this morning in my knee-length dress. Whoops. But it probably kept me warm in the unheated chapel.
For my second shift of the day, I went to the casas for the older kids (3-7). They're always a bit crazy. We started out with jumping rope, and the kids loved that (especially the little girls). No one was very good at keeping the rhythm of the rope (it's easier if you hop in between each jump, but that's hard to explain with my minimal Spanish, and they didn't understand if I tried to demonstrate it_, but they were happy to let us spin and spin and spin while they tripped over the rope time and time again.
We also brought twister, but not a lot of kids were interested in it, so I ended up calling out "mano izquierda, amarillo," for only 2 kids. But they were fascinated by it, and it was 2 kids less for everyone else to worry about.
I also spent a lot of time with Diana today, because she's sort of clingy and really wants attention. She usually calls me "amiga," but sometimes she will call me "Mama," which breaks my heart. She's so desperate for any female to love her that she sees all the volunteers as substitutes for her mother. (I have no idea what happened to her family, but I know that she has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, so her home situation was likely not a good one.)
We have a new girl in the orphanage. She's probably around three, and she just came last week. (If you don't want your heart slightly cracked, skip to the next paragraph. This is a really sad story.) On the first day that she got here, she was crying for her mother to come take her home. One of the older boys came over and told her that she had no mother, and that's why she was here at the orphanage. I can't even imagine the pain the poor girl was feeling then. But she smiled a little bit today. I guess that's what the volunteers are here for--to make the situation a bit less horrible for the kids.
Everyone at the orphanage got a haircut today, which was quite comical. I spent a lot of time unbraiding and brushing the kids' hair to prepare them. One of the boys was so embarrassed about his new hair that he hid from everyone else until we could coax him out, which is funny, because most of the boys here grow up really quickly. They like to try off their curse word and obscene gestures on us (they learn to curse in English just to see the looks of horror on the volunteers' faces). And the girls too--at the orphanages for teenagers, a lot of the girls have babies of their own by the time they're fifteen or sixteen. It's a difficult life.
But some of the little kids are still little. Today, we also had a raucous game of tickle tag (which is exactly the same as regular tag, but I'm always it, and when I tag someone, I tickle them until they escape.) Some of the kids really got into it--one of the nuns was watering her garden while we were playing, and they would run straight through the water, so I ended up soaking wet as well.
Anyway, that's all for tonight. Love you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment