Hi guys!
Today was pretty busy. I spent all day (literally from 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM, minus a lunch break) in the orphanage for kids with special needs. I love it there--they are so sweet, and it's interesting to see how they live, but it's also quite exhausting.
This morning, I was put in charge of feeding a girl named Lucy. We got two bites in, but Lucy then decided that she didn't want to eat. I was holding the bowl fairly close to her hand, so she reached out and swatted her breakfast...all over me (and my llama-fur jacket and completely clean jeans. I was briefly minorly irritated). I ran over to the sink to clean up, and then got to spend the next 15 minutes cleaning up the floor. All the other kids at the orphanage thought that it was absolutely hilarious, because they didn't have a mop, so I was down on my hands and knees with a rag, Cinderella style. It's nothing terribly unexpected, though, and I can wash my clothes.
Speaking of that, I had my first experience with Ecuadorean laundry today, because of that incident. I thought I would be able to hold out for a few more days, but that was my last pair of jeans. All the buttons on the washing machine were in Spanish, so my awesome roommate who is fluent came out beforehand and showed me which ones to push in order to prevent my clothes from turning strange colors. All is well now. I have a week's worth of clean clothes again.
After I fed Lucy, she had another incident. One girl, Laura, who is normally very sweet and protective of all of the kids at the orphanage (she's the one who carries around a doll all the time), seriously lost her temper. She scratched Lucy across her face, leaving a long gash. Laura spent the rest of the day in pretty big trouble with the tias.
Another boy made me a bracelet out of pipe cleaners--it was the cutest thing. I tried to show him how to braid them, but that proved too difficult, so he just sort of twisted them together.
After the shift was over, we all went back to the volunteer house to eat lunch. After lunch, one of my friends was craving American-style ice cream, so we took a trip to the little convenience store across the street. We bought our desserts, and she saw another thing that looked odd--these little flat disks. She's the one who speaks Spanish, so she confirmed with the clerk that yes, they were edible. We took them back and tried them, and they literally were like eating paper. Another volunteer suggested that next time, we should just use them for crafts. It was an experience, though.
After lunch, I went back to the special needs Orphanage. I was with the younger kids this time. They have one girl who is completely bed-bound, so I tried out my Spanish reading skills on her. The OSSO house had a copy of a few different Magic Treehouse books, so I read a few chapters of one of those to her (I love that series when I was little. I tried to write one and got about 2 pages in). I have no idea if what I was reading was comprehensible Spanish, but I can always hope.
While I was reading to her, a little boy came up to me and gave me the biggest hug--he held onto me for probably five minutes, and just buried his face in my hair.
I also spent a bit of time chasing around Bryan, a little 5-year-old. He found a foam ball, and learned quickly that if he tosses it, the volunteers will go chase it, so we spent quite a while playing catch. He has the best laugh--whenever something even barely funny happens, he will bust out in ferocious giggles.
At dinner, I fed a little boy named Jhon, who I learned really does not like to eat. And he knows quite a few tricks to avoid eating--he will open his full mouth when I'm wiping his chin, in hopes that I'll wipe his food out; start fake coughing in order to force stuff out of his mouth, close his lips whenever I come near with a spoon, and spit out anything that comes near him. Feeding him was quite the experience, but we got through the whole bowl. About a quarter of it ended up on him, but I'm pretty sure that the tias give him extra for that reason.
We then had a Star Wars party with a few kids from the group. Someone found a copy of Rogue One, and we showed it in a little room with a TV. We made popcorn, and someone had bought little glow stick lightsabers to hand out. I think I would have liked the movie, but I didn't really get to watch it--I was watching the kids, holding one on my lap, and doing laundry at the same time. (Plus, the movie was in Spanish, with English subtitles, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to read the subtitles through the film.) They all had so much fun, though. One boy doesn't get to go out much, because he's on oxygen full-time, but was able to go to the party, and he beamed through the whole thing. He has the biggest smile--I didn't realize that many teeth could be visible in a grin.
One boy watching the movie always laughed at the worst moments--whenever there was a death or a serious scene, he would start cracking up, which would make us all laugh as well.
Anyway, it's getting late. Thanks for reading, guys! Stay wonderful!
Today was pretty busy. I spent all day (literally from 7:30 AM to 9:30 PM, minus a lunch break) in the orphanage for kids with special needs. I love it there--they are so sweet, and it's interesting to see how they live, but it's also quite exhausting.
This morning, I was put in charge of feeding a girl named Lucy. We got two bites in, but Lucy then decided that she didn't want to eat. I was holding the bowl fairly close to her hand, so she reached out and swatted her breakfast...all over me (and my llama-fur jacket and completely clean jeans. I was briefly minorly irritated). I ran over to the sink to clean up, and then got to spend the next 15 minutes cleaning up the floor. All the other kids at the orphanage thought that it was absolutely hilarious, because they didn't have a mop, so I was down on my hands and knees with a rag, Cinderella style. It's nothing terribly unexpected, though, and I can wash my clothes.
Speaking of that, I had my first experience with Ecuadorean laundry today, because of that incident. I thought I would be able to hold out for a few more days, but that was my last pair of jeans. All the buttons on the washing machine were in Spanish, so my awesome roommate who is fluent came out beforehand and showed me which ones to push in order to prevent my clothes from turning strange colors. All is well now. I have a week's worth of clean clothes again.
After I fed Lucy, she had another incident. One girl, Laura, who is normally very sweet and protective of all of the kids at the orphanage (she's the one who carries around a doll all the time), seriously lost her temper. She scratched Lucy across her face, leaving a long gash. Laura spent the rest of the day in pretty big trouble with the tias.
Another boy made me a bracelet out of pipe cleaners--it was the cutest thing. I tried to show him how to braid them, but that proved too difficult, so he just sort of twisted them together.
After the shift was over, we all went back to the volunteer house to eat lunch. After lunch, one of my friends was craving American-style ice cream, so we took a trip to the little convenience store across the street. We bought our desserts, and she saw another thing that looked odd--these little flat disks. She's the one who speaks Spanish, so she confirmed with the clerk that yes, they were edible. We took them back and tried them, and they literally were like eating paper. Another volunteer suggested that next time, we should just use them for crafts. It was an experience, though.
After lunch, I went back to the special needs Orphanage. I was with the younger kids this time. They have one girl who is completely bed-bound, so I tried out my Spanish reading skills on her. The OSSO house had a copy of a few different Magic Treehouse books, so I read a few chapters of one of those to her (I love that series when I was little. I tried to write one and got about 2 pages in). I have no idea if what I was reading was comprehensible Spanish, but I can always hope.
While I was reading to her, a little boy came up to me and gave me the biggest hug--he held onto me for probably five minutes, and just buried his face in my hair.
I also spent a bit of time chasing around Bryan, a little 5-year-old. He found a foam ball, and learned quickly that if he tosses it, the volunteers will go chase it, so we spent quite a while playing catch. He has the best laugh--whenever something even barely funny happens, he will bust out in ferocious giggles.
At dinner, I fed a little boy named Jhon, who I learned really does not like to eat. And he knows quite a few tricks to avoid eating--he will open his full mouth when I'm wiping his chin, in hopes that I'll wipe his food out; start fake coughing in order to force stuff out of his mouth, close his lips whenever I come near with a spoon, and spit out anything that comes near him. Feeding him was quite the experience, but we got through the whole bowl. About a quarter of it ended up on him, but I'm pretty sure that the tias give him extra for that reason.
We then had a Star Wars party with a few kids from the group. Someone found a copy of Rogue One, and we showed it in a little room with a TV. We made popcorn, and someone had bought little glow stick lightsabers to hand out. I think I would have liked the movie, but I didn't really get to watch it--I was watching the kids, holding one on my lap, and doing laundry at the same time. (Plus, the movie was in Spanish, with English subtitles, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to read the subtitles through the film.) They all had so much fun, though. One boy doesn't get to go out much, because he's on oxygen full-time, but was able to go to the party, and he beamed through the whole thing. He has the biggest smile--I didn't realize that many teeth could be visible in a grin.
One boy watching the movie always laughed at the worst moments--whenever there was a death or a serious scene, he would start cracking up, which would make us all laugh as well.
Anyway, it's getting late. Thanks for reading, guys! Stay wonderful!
great blogs taylor! and i have to say, when i worked internationally for several years and would leave the U.S. for 2 months at a time, i learned a very similar thing. no, nothing about human relations, or culture, patience, or anything like that. just that getting a laundry done can be one of the most satisfying experiences when you're traveling for an extended period of time!! :)
ReplyDeleteI mean, I am learning about human relations and culture, and a lot about patience, but it is certainly wonderful to wear jeans today that have no baby food crusted on them :)
Delete