This morning I was at the clinic from 6:30-9:30am. After that, Leigh & I ran to town. Due to the demands of the clinic, I have not yet had a chance to get to town (for phone cards, groceries, etc) since our arrival on the 1st of August. My plan was to stop at the internet café to type up my blog, but Leigh suggested that I use her laptop back at the dorm when I'm not in the clinic rather than using time in town to catch up. That sounded good to me!
We first stopped at the TIGO store. TIGO is probably the main cell phone carrier down here. My Verizon phone doesn't work down here and even if it would, TIGO offers much better rates than Verizon ever could to call home. I bought 3 of the $100 Lempira cards, planning to give one card to Andrés and the other two should allow me to call home multiple times to chat with my 3 precious children left behind: Alina (7 yrs), Noah (5 yrs), and Kaylyn (2 yrs); and of course my AWESOME husband Bob who allows me to come down here for such a length of time while he watches the kids who are still too young to come down & help. I am also thankful that I have sisters, parents, aunts, cousins, and other family close-by, to help with the kids while I'm down here!
Lempiras is the currency of Honduras and 1 U.S. dollar will yield about 18-19 Lemps in exchange (so I purchased $15 worth of minutes to the States which should be MORE than enough to get us through this week & next). Leigh also offered to buy our extra unused minutes before we head back if we had any, but I'll probably take them with me to San Pedro Sula so I can maintain contact with Blanca & Luis (from the bed & breakfast we stay at before heading home) and also to make some last minute phone calls home the night before our arrival back to the States.
We headed to the supermarket next. Generally I've eaten with the little girls the last 2 years, but have found it difficult this trip because of the clinic needs. The hours I'm in the clinic usually run right through the eating times of the girls, so I think I've only been over there to eat twice now. It's best to have some food "on hand". This supermarket is nothing like our Super-Walmarts back in the States. It's even smaller than a small local supermarket back in the States, but since it's bigger than the other stores in Guaimaca...it is THE supermarket. I bought some spaghetti noodles and some sauce (which comes in packets rather than a glass jar or can), some Honduran cheese (which is similar to the cheese that our old babysitter Patti brings us from El Salvador), 4 boxes (yes, BOXES) of milk, and some orange juice. We stopped at Glenda's small stand on the way back to Emmanuel for tomatoes, eggs & onions. There is an avocado tree next to our volunteer dorm, so I'll try to make some guacamole at some point for everyone.
Katja held a volunteer meeting at 4:30. Rachel and Malorie (two long-term volunteers) made donuts for the meeting and brought sodas. The focus of the meeting turned to the clinic demands. Katja mentioned that there was a couple just arriving as we met who were going to be at Emmanuel during the week "on vacation", but that the husband, David, was a paramedic. If it were a vacation, I really didn't want to ask him to do it (who wants to work on vacation, right?)...but noticing Leigh & my exhaustion, she called and asked David to help out at the clinic from 6:30am - 12:30pm the next day - just as he was bringing his suitcases in to where they were about to stay. He agreed to be there.
After the meeting, I hurried home to call my kids & was excited to hear from each one. Kaylyn said "hello" but the next thing out of her mouth was "When are you coming home?" Did she come up with that one, or was that Bob helping her to talk in the phone...I'm not sure. I let her know that I'd absolutely love it if she was there at the airport when I flew home in 2 weeks. I got to talk to Noah and Alina as well before talking to Bob & saying "good-nights" to all. Although the bus rides back to San Pedro Sula will be torture on me ('cuz they're all I'll think about, which will make me miss them more), the blessing of Emmanuel is that each year I come, I am SO NEEDED and they fill my hours - giving me little time to dwell on having left the rest of my family back home.
I spent the night at the clinic (6:30pm - 6:30am) and it was a long night. Two toddlers were rushed in to the clinic about 9:30 with Karelia. They had high fevers and she needed to check them out. With all of the lights going on in that room & all of the commotion, most of the children who were there with chicken pox woke up and it took them quite a while to get settled back to sleep. I was more appreciative of David agreeing to be in at 6:30am so that I could get some rest the next day!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
August 8th - Andrés
This morning I was at the clinic from 6:30am - 12:30pm, meaning I missed church. I am going to try to be able to get to church next Sunday as it is our last Sunday here & I have not yet been able to sit through a service, due to the demands of the clinic and all of the children here with chicken pox. We'll see what we can work out now that Leigh is here.
I found out that Andrés made it to church and immediately made a point of seeing him when my shift was done for the morning. He's been sick all this last week and has only been out of the boys volunteer dorm working for about a day or two. I'm thankful that he's 15 years old and, for the most part, can fend for himself but it was time to check in on him. He said that he's feeling 80% (that's how we measure our health, since it's easy for me to understand...being a mathematician), so that made me feel better. I told him to stop down at the clinic during my late afternoon hours to check in once again because I had a cell phone for him that one of the volunteers who had come earlier in the summer had left behind for future volunteers. That way we could communicate daily if I wasn't able to see him (as was the case last week).
I was back at the clinic from 3:00 - 7:00pm and it was eventful. Between 3 other volunteers (who stopped by for various reasons) and myself, we spent 2 hours trying to get a tangled comb out of the hair of a girl who tried to "roll the comb up her hair until it got stuck". I think that this is something every girl tries (I know I have and the other 3 volunteers admitted to it too), but once you get to the point where it's completely stuck and it either kills your scalp to get it out or it needs to get cut out - that's really the last time you try it. We got as much as we could out, but the last bit had to be cut. She cried and cried (the girls really don't like having their hair cut here), but unfortunately the comb was knotted so tight in her hair that there were no other options. She was still sobbing after the comb was out, so I ran back to our dorm to get all of the clips I had brought along and a few glittered bobby-pins that were left by another volunteer and showed her how to put up her hair so that no one would notice that small patch that was cut only an inch from her scalp. That seemed to help and she's had her hair done beautifully ever since!
Andrés stopped by and I had him bathe the boys before he left. Each of the children at the clinic needs to shower in the morning after they wake and then again before bed. It was nice to have a second person there helping like that because it's difficult to monitor the showers and the children who are still playing in the clinic. When Andrés left, just the girls had to shower, and since they are older - it went much smoother.
I found out that Andrés made it to church and immediately made a point of seeing him when my shift was done for the morning. He's been sick all this last week and has only been out of the boys volunteer dorm working for about a day or two. I'm thankful that he's 15 years old and, for the most part, can fend for himself but it was time to check in on him. He said that he's feeling 80% (that's how we measure our health, since it's easy for me to understand...being a mathematician), so that made me feel better. I told him to stop down at the clinic during my late afternoon hours to check in once again because I had a cell phone for him that one of the volunteers who had come earlier in the summer had left behind for future volunteers. That way we could communicate daily if I wasn't able to see him (as was the case last week).
I was back at the clinic from 3:00 - 7:00pm and it was eventful. Between 3 other volunteers (who stopped by for various reasons) and myself, we spent 2 hours trying to get a tangled comb out of the hair of a girl who tried to "roll the comb up her hair until it got stuck". I think that this is something every girl tries (I know I have and the other 3 volunteers admitted to it too), but once you get to the point where it's completely stuck and it either kills your scalp to get it out or it needs to get cut out - that's really the last time you try it. We got as much as we could out, but the last bit had to be cut. She cried and cried (the girls really don't like having their hair cut here), but unfortunately the comb was knotted so tight in her hair that there were no other options. She was still sobbing after the comb was out, so I ran back to our dorm to get all of the clips I had brought along and a few glittered bobby-pins that were left by another volunteer and showed her how to put up her hair so that no one would notice that small patch that was cut only an inch from her scalp. That seemed to help and she's had her hair done beautifully ever since!
Andrés stopped by and I had him bathe the boys before he left. Each of the children at the clinic needs to shower in the morning after they wake and then again before bed. It was nice to have a second person there helping like that because it's difficult to monitor the showers and the children who are still playing in the clinic. When Andrés left, just the girls had to shower, and since they are older - it went much smoother.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
August 7th - Leigh Arrives!
When I got home this morning, I napped for about an hour & 1/2 since I had gotten so little sleep at the clinic. When I woke, I arranged the Community Food Cupboards. These cupboards are food that is available for any of us to use, generally left over from volunteers that have went home. Since there were 20+ girls in here prior to my arrival, the cupboards were very full, and there were many containers that could be combined. For example, there was about 10-15 bottles of pancake syrup...each one had anywhere from 1/4 or more syrup in it. Rather than letting that many bottles take up space, I combined like-brands into one or two containers and threw out a bunch of the extra bottles. I wiped down the cupboards. This is something that needs to be done on a regular basis. In these countries, ants are agressive and if any food is left out...the ants (and other critters) show up immediately. It is very important to have a clean kitchen for that reason alone.
I went back to the clinic from 12:30 - 3:30pm and brought the movie The Princess Bride (which was on our entertainment center in the volunteer dorm. The kids had never seen it before and they sat through the whole movie watching intently. The girls helped me tidy the room up a bit for the volunteer team that arrived yesterday. Today they would stop by the clinic to visit.
I've been in constant communication with this team of 14 that arrived yesterday about helping out in the clinic, but it seems that the chicken pox is scaring them off. The team has older teenagers on up to senior citizens, and while the teens are worried about if they've ever had chicken pox (or might get it)...the older adults are worried about the possibility of shingles. There were 2 members of the team (Esau & Connie) that agreed to come from 3:30 - 6:30pm to watch the children. I am hoping that they will share their experiences with their groups in order to encourage a few more to volunteer to help staff the clinic this coming week that they are here.
On a positive note for the clinic, Leigh arrived yesterday. She is a long term volunteer who needed to go home because she was bitten by a mosquito & contracted Denge (not sure if I spelled that correctly). Generally this infection is only common between the tropics, so when she went home her blood sample had to be sent to the CDC for confirmation. Most cases of Denge is easily cured if caught early enough. Hers has lasted for 5 weeks down here before she had went home to get medical attention (since her blood tests down here came back negative, leading her doctors back home to believe it was something else). She will be helping to relieve me at the clinic...which means we'll soon be teaming to relieve each other from the long hours there.
I went back to the clinic from 12:30 - 3:30pm and brought the movie The Princess Bride (which was on our entertainment center in the volunteer dorm. The kids had never seen it before and they sat through the whole movie watching intently. The girls helped me tidy the room up a bit for the volunteer team that arrived yesterday. Today they would stop by the clinic to visit.
I've been in constant communication with this team of 14 that arrived yesterday about helping out in the clinic, but it seems that the chicken pox is scaring them off. The team has older teenagers on up to senior citizens, and while the teens are worried about if they've ever had chicken pox (or might get it)...the older adults are worried about the possibility of shingles. There were 2 members of the team (Esau & Connie) that agreed to come from 3:30 - 6:30pm to watch the children. I am hoping that they will share their experiences with their groups in order to encourage a few more to volunteer to help staff the clinic this coming week that they are here.
On a positive note for the clinic, Leigh arrived yesterday. She is a long term volunteer who needed to go home because she was bitten by a mosquito & contracted Denge (not sure if I spelled that correctly). Generally this infection is only common between the tropics, so when she went home her blood sample had to be sent to the CDC for confirmation. Most cases of Denge is easily cured if caught early enough. Hers has lasted for 5 weeks down here before she had went home to get medical attention (since her blood tests down here came back negative, leading her doctors back home to believe it was something else). She will be helping to relieve me at the clinic...which means we'll soon be teaming to relieve each other from the long hours there.
August 6th - Making Jewelry with Raquel
This morning I rested quite a bit (after having worked 20 of the last 24 hours). About 1:00pm, I went with Raquel (Rachel - long term volunteer) to her jewelry making class. The school had gotten a grant from the Danish to begin this class and then sell the jewelry to buy more beads...keeping them self sustaining. I know that my sister Julie makes jewelry, but if any of you out there had started this as a hobby, but nothing ever came of it - please let me know! We can send any extra, unwanted or leftover beads their way to help them in their efforts. The jewelry is beautiful: necklaces, bracelets & earrings. They will be having an art show next week for the volunteer team that's coming in where they display and sell their jewery. The children get to keep a percent of the sale (which is more motivation for them to work hard at creating great works of art), and the rest goes to buy more beads. I will most likely be in the clinic and not be able to attend, but am still hoping that I can purchase some jewelry before I head back.
When I arrived to do the night shift in the clinic, there were 11 children there (that were supposed to stay the night). In the 3 years I have now been down here, I have never seen this many in the clinic. Generally there's only been between 1 & 4. I felt completely overwhelmed. there were only 4 beds and a couple of cushions to lay out on the floor. Finally we agreed that 3 boys would go home. Their chicken pox were completely dry and they hadn't had fevers for more than 24 hours. This left me with 8 children...still a handful - but I felt that the impossible task of staying the night (and staying sane) had now become possible.
It was a long night of cleaning the clinic (sweeping & mopping), washing dishes, lathering on the calamine lotion, taking temperatures, getting the cushions out & bedding on them and putting the children to bed. I was so wound up with adrenaline (mother's instinct to ensure that all is okay to settle down for the night?), that I had to read most of the night until I was finally tired enough to fall asleep in the rocker around 2:00 or 3:00am.
When I arrived to do the night shift in the clinic, there were 11 children there (that were supposed to stay the night). In the 3 years I have now been down here, I have never seen this many in the clinic. Generally there's only been between 1 & 4. I felt completely overwhelmed. there were only 4 beds and a couple of cushions to lay out on the floor. Finally we agreed that 3 boys would go home. Their chicken pox were completely dry and they hadn't had fevers for more than 24 hours. This left me with 8 children...still a handful - but I felt that the impossible task of staying the night (and staying sane) had now become possible.
It was a long night of cleaning the clinic (sweeping & mopping), washing dishes, lathering on the calamine lotion, taking temperatures, getting the cushions out & bedding on them and putting the children to bed. I was so wound up with adrenaline (mother's instinct to ensure that all is okay to settle down for the night?), that I had to read most of the night until I was finally tired enough to fall asleep in the rocker around 2:00 or 3:00am.
August 5th - More Clinic Hours
Because of the chicken pox going around here, I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this blog. Generally in any given 24-hour period, I'm at the clinic at least 8 of those hours...but sometimes up to 20 of those hours due to the small number of volunteers here right now. Of course, wouldn't you know that just a week before I came, there were more than 20 girls here in the volunteer house - too bad the chicken pox wasn't that bad then. But I have heard from pastors, family & friends over and over throughout my life that God will not give us MORE than we can handle. (He sure does know how to "max us out" though!) :-)
A volunteer here at the girls dorm has graciously suggested that I use her laptop to update this blog, since my hours at the clinic prevent me from going to town to update at the internet cafe. However, the internet here at Emmanuel is very delicate and some days it works...some days it doesn't. So, I'll try to update as much as I can when I have a free 2-3 hours during the day - if the internet is up & running.
This morning I was at the clinic from 6:30am - 2:30pm. Guzman (who is a 20-year-old boy that had been in the clinic with fever but not chicken pox) finally got to go home, however with his absence they brought another boy in WITH chicken pox, so the total number of children remains at 7 in the clinic. When the new boy came in, they mentioned that there were 2 more boys likely to come into the clinic at some point (because they were pretty sure that they had chicken pox as well).
The girl who was supposed to do tonight's shift (6:30pm - 6:30am) backed out. She is fairly young and knows very little Spanish, so I can hardly say that I blame her. Owen (one of the long-term volunteers) has already done 3 nights in a row and had had a couple of rough nights with the kids. Since he also teaches in the school during the day, I didn't want him doing a 4th night in a row, so I insisted on taking this shift to relieve him. I rested a bit during the 4 hours I would have off of the clinic, and then headed back to stay the night.
A volunteer here at the girls dorm has graciously suggested that I use her laptop to update this blog, since my hours at the clinic prevent me from going to town to update at the internet cafe. However, the internet here at Emmanuel is very delicate and some days it works...some days it doesn't. So, I'll try to update as much as I can when I have a free 2-3 hours during the day - if the internet is up & running.
This morning I was at the clinic from 6:30am - 2:30pm. Guzman (who is a 20-year-old boy that had been in the clinic with fever but not chicken pox) finally got to go home, however with his absence they brought another boy in WITH chicken pox, so the total number of children remains at 7 in the clinic. When the new boy came in, they mentioned that there were 2 more boys likely to come into the clinic at some point (because they were pretty sure that they had chicken pox as well).
The girl who was supposed to do tonight's shift (6:30pm - 6:30am) backed out. She is fairly young and knows very little Spanish, so I can hardly say that I blame her. Owen (one of the long-term volunteers) has already done 3 nights in a row and had had a couple of rough nights with the kids. Since he also teaches in the school during the day, I didn't want him doing a 4th night in a row, so I insisted on taking this shift to relieve him. I rested a bit during the 4 hours I would have off of the clinic, and then headed back to stay the night.
Monday, August 9, 2010
August 4th - More Chicken Pox
I was at the clinic again from 6:30am - 2:30pm. This will most likely be the BIG job I have here, since children seem to keep coming & not many leave. Two of the boys with the pox had a pretty rough night for the volunteer that stayed with them.
Before I left, 2 girls from the medium girls house came in and 1 girl from the toddler house. Now the total in the clinic is 7.
I went to the church for the service @ 5:15 and saw David - who recognized me. YAY! I really hadn't seen him too much the 1st two years I was here because of just being in different places of the orphanage. Tammy asked me to help with the staff's children while the church service was going on. I don't have much experience working with little children, but it was nice to take them out.
Before I left, 2 girls from the medium girls house came in and 1 girl from the toddler house. Now the total in the clinic is 7.
I went to the church for the service @ 5:15 and saw David - who recognized me. YAY! I really hadn't seen him too much the 1st two years I was here because of just being in different places of the orphanage. Tammy asked me to help with the staff's children while the church service was going on. I don't have much experience working with little children, but it was nice to take them out.
August 3rd - The Clinic
My clinic hours today went from 6:30am - 2:30pm. I had to scramble to fill in the schedule for the week because there are only 3 of us that are "safe" to be here. Two of the 6 volunteers haven't had chicken pox OR the vaccine and a 3rd volunteer speaks NO Spanish (so we figure in an emergency situation...that'd be a necessity).
Andrés came in at noon and said he was sick (sick to the stomach & had a fever). Little did I know at this point (since I'm writing quite a bit after the fact) that he'd be sick for an ENTIRE week, and due to my being at the clinic so much...I wouldn't be able to see him & check up on him.
Around 4pm I went with 2 of the long term volunteers to make bread with 3 girls from the medium house before settling in for the night.
Andrés came in at noon and said he was sick (sick to the stomach & had a fever). Little did I know at this point (since I'm writing quite a bit after the fact) that he'd be sick for an ENTIRE week, and due to my being at the clinic so much...I wouldn't be able to see him & check up on him.
Around 4pm I went with 2 of the long term volunteers to make bread with 3 girls from the medium house before settling in for the night.
August 2nd - Trip to Emmanuel
We had to get up pretty early to catch the 4am Costeños but to Tegucigalpa. Andrés slept the entire way since we had to get some dramamine in him (he's been getting sick on these bus rides). When we got to Tegus around 9:30am, we headed to a Pizza Hut to get some food in his stomach before the ride out to the orphanage. We walked to the Aurora bus station to take the 10:30am bus to Guaimaca (and Andrés slept again while the dramamine did its trick).
Since there were no taxis at the bus stop, we grabbed our luggage and walked to Emmanuel. I'm thinking it's about a 2-mile walk, so it's a good thing that I started running back home (although for you Facebook friends, I still don't enjoy running). It's also a good thing that we only had ONE carry-on and ONE suitcase this year.
When we arrived, we stopped in at the office to meet with Katja and then took our stuff to our volunteer dorms. This year Andrés & I are in separate dorms (as opposed to staying at the farm together last year when Jenny was along). I had supper with the little girls.
There was a volunteer meeting at 4:30pm when I met the other volunteers. Katja put me in charge of the clinic schedule for the week (so I'm really missing Linda right about now, since I'm not really a nurse). Chicken pox is running rampant through the orphanage.
Since there were no taxis at the bus stop, we grabbed our luggage and walked to Emmanuel. I'm thinking it's about a 2-mile walk, so it's a good thing that I started running back home (although for you Facebook friends, I still don't enjoy running). It's also a good thing that we only had ONE carry-on and ONE suitcase this year.
When we arrived, we stopped in at the office to meet with Katja and then took our stuff to our volunteer dorms. This year Andrés & I are in separate dorms (as opposed to staying at the farm together last year when Jenny was along). I had supper with the little girls.
There was a volunteer meeting at 4:30pm when I met the other volunteers. Katja put me in charge of the clinic schedule for the week (so I'm really missing Linda right about now, since I'm not really a nurse). Chicken pox is running rampant through the orphanage.
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