Overdue News

I fully expected to be able to update this blog quite a long time ago, but was not able to as my schedule was a whole lot busier than I actually expected it to be so I did not find the time. But I’m pretty sure that better late than never! Unfortunately, I have to start this blog with a piece of news that has been extremely distressing for me and for everyone at the home. The girl in the home who I previously mentioned as having had major head injuries after being assaulted has had serious health problems in the last week. After some time of mistreating her head, which is extremely delicate after an almost total skull reconstruction on one side of her head, various falls resulted in what seemed like a week long headache climaxing in a seizure one night that Yany was sleeping in her room. They rushed her to the hospital in the middle of the night, and after some scans discovered two lesions on her brain. They say that she will probably have seizures like this for the rest of her life, and she is notably mentally imbalanced, talking like a child. The anti-convulsion medication that she is taking has left her feeling ´drunk´ as she describes it, she has double vision and isn’t able to walk very straight. It has just been a terrible experience, as all the girls in the home are so worried about her, and I’ve been feeling really down as I feel like a lot of the hope that there was for her future life has just gone. It’s a really difficult time for the home directors as well as the doctors’ recommend that she goes home to live with her mother and son, so we are not sure what the best decision to take is. We would really appreciate your prayers for her right now, she is asking for them.

In other news, I have realised that I haven’t actually posted any blog updates since we first started working with the first contacts team every second week. This has been really interesting for me, to be able to go out to the streets and see how things work in the boys’ home. It has also been a lot more sociable which is really nice, as one of the things that I was suffering from previously was a lack of fun things to do.

This last week I spent in El Toborochi, the reception house for kids coming off the streets and entering the homes. We had two quite young children staying there for four days: a girl of eight and a boy of eleven. A brother and sister from Tarija, they were sent to us by the same project that one other girl in the home comes from. It was interesting again for me to see an aspect of the ministry that I’m normally not involved in. The girl is settling into the home with some difficulty, as she is clearly not used to the kind of discipline that is expected from the home timetable. She is also, to put it in a nice way, extremely disobedient, one of those children whose first answer to every instruction is always ´no´. This did not make my life any easier this weekend, but she really is still very young, so I am sure that she will continue improving!

However, on the plus side, my greatest fear was not realised and there was no birth at El Alfarero this weekend when Salustio and Yany were away and we had no minibus! This does however mean that the poor girl is still pregnant and actually looking ready to explode any day now: it is noticeable that she is now beginning to feel very uncomfortable. On Saturday night I slept over in the room that has her, the new girl, the girl who recently suffered a head injury AND one of the other girls had a bad stomach. It is fair to say that I did not get very much sleep at all that night, partly just because I was opening the day for her to go to the toilet, but partly just because I was so nervous that something would happen and I would sleep right through it! Other than the lack of sleep, and small disobedient children, the weekend did go fairly well though.

This week I am back in the girls home which I do love: I feel like only being there every second week now makes me realise how much love and affection I do feel now for the girls. I really do care for them so much, and am beginning to realise just how much I am going to miss them when I eventually do leave. It has been good as well to be able to spend some time on the streets to be able to see the way that my girls used to live, which is so very different from the way that they are living now: it has enabled me to appreciate the change in their lives more.

Well, thanks for still reading! I hope to be able to update with more news from the girls home as some point this weekend, and I hope that even those of you who do not pray so very often will find some time to pray for the girls this week. I hope that you are all well.