I'm writing this blog from the comfort of my parents dining room, to tell you the tiny little last bit of my journey in Bolivia and where I go from here. I had a very enjoyable, if very sad, last few weeks in Bolivia the highlight of which was having a wonderful Hawain themed surprise party thrown for me by the staff and all the girls. I also had the opportunity to take all the girls out for a nice dinner, and the privelidge of attending school celebrations for mothers day. It was very difficult to me to have to say goodbye to so many people I have grown to love, especially to the girls, but I left in the full confidence that things are very much changing for the better in El Alfarero.
This time in Bolivia has certainly been one of many ups and downs, and while sometimes the downs have felt quite a lot more dramatic than the ups but overall this has been an amazing journey for me. I have learned many amazing things through the privelidge of being able to stay in a different culture and do things I have never down before. I feel like I have grown a lot in personal authority and leadership, as well as having learned how to take more initiative: if I see the problem, I am the one who must try to solve it! The experiences I have had are almost too overwhelming to sum up, but I look foward to doing that when I see some of you individually.
I really am looking forward to seeing all of my friends and family again - if I don't get in touch within the next week or so to arrange some kind of social engagement (!) then please get in touch with me! Anyone who is interested in hearing more about the ministry and my experiences in Bolivia, either on a personal or a group level, can also feel free to get in touch, either via this blog or through facebook or email.
As most of you probably now know, I still have two years on university to complete, studying french and spanish at Glasgow. I am very excited about getting stuck into honours, but I will have to wait till September to do that! My plans for the summer to remain quite vague, with various notions about getting a job, making visits and possbley going to France for a bit are all in the pipeline. Anyone with exciting things I could potentially do or help out with... please tell me!
Thank you very much again for being faithful in reading this blog, it is so amazing to me that there are this many people who might actually be interesting to so many people! I doubt that I will be updating it again, but it has been incredible, and I am pleased to have been able to share it with you.
Saturday, 30 May 2009
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Overdue news.... again
Well, this is very possibley going to be the last blog that I ever get the chance to write while still in Bolivia as I am almost down to counting single figures to the amount of days before I go back home again! I must apologise for the long time without any updates at all, while there is no real excuse for this behaviour, there have been a great deal of changes going on in the ministry which has resulted in a very busy, sometimes stressed out, me!
The most significant change in the home has been the rather sudden departure of the house parents for various reasons, which, while having been an understandabley difficult time for both the girls and the staff (and myself) has brought us the chance to bring some necessary change into the way the home is run, and some new perspectives. The timetable of the home has seen an overhall, having the girls spending a bit more time in class, and having a new worked out timetable of practical activities including computing, English and drawing classes replacing the time spent doing handcrafts. Changes have also taken place physically in the home, including a new living/tv room for the girls to use, a classroom for the teachers, floodlights for the basketball court and a huge amount of things in the kitchen have been replaced. All of this has required a lot of practical work both by the staff and the girls, as we work to make the home the best possible place for the girls to live in. These changes are all exciting and good, and the girls are thriving with a little bit more freedom than they used to have, and a lot more space to learn.
I continue going out on the street once a week which is very interesting. Recently the other team took one of the boys who we see regularly into hospital after having been beaten up badly by the police. Sadly, his girlfriend was injured so badly that she died but the boy himself is doing really well. I was able to go visit him in hospital to check on how he was doing and pay for any necessary medication or tests, and he seemed to be getting a lot better. The story ends up very happily, as the staff at the hospital went above and beyond the call of duty in taking care of hime during his stay, and have offered him a job in the hosptial. He plans on moving back in with his parents, and we would really appreciate your prayers for him that he can have success in his efforts to turn his life around.
Another new experience for me over the last couple of weeks was the chance to go to the palace of justice with one of the girls for her to testify at the trial of the couple who prostituted her and other minors. In the end she was unable to testify because one of the accused did not present himself. This is possibley one of hte most ridiculous situations I have ever been involved in, as the accused is in jail, so it seems that what happened is not that he was trying to escape trial, but just that the staff from the jail didn't bother to bring him in! Again, I would really appreciate your prayers that this situation would be resolved the next time she has to go in, as its a distressing experience for her every time, and ridiculous for it to have been prolonged as much as it has. On the plus side, I was really pleased that she asked for me to go with her, as I felt like it was a sign of her trust in me, and I have always really wanted for the girls to be able to trust me.
On a note aside from the ministry, I had the fun experience of going on a wee trip with the two girls I've been working most closely with. We went to visit La Paz, Lake Titicaca and the salt flats at Uyuni. I really enjoyed going to the Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca which was unbelievabley beautiful, even if we did have to trek up what felt like a giant mountain with our backpacks on to get to the hostel. The salt flats were an incredible sight as well, 12 squared kilometers of pure salt which feels incredibley other wordly, a little bit like being on the moon. I really appreciated the chance to get out of Santa Cruz and seeing a bit more of the country before leaving here!
On a sad, or happy note, it really is just about time for me to leave Bolivia. I come back to Scotland on May 28th which is now less than 2 weeks away. I'm finding the thought of this really difficult, especially as I can see so many of the wonderful changes that are taking place in the girls home that I would so want to be a part of. Please pray for me that I will be able to leave her with peace of mind, and that I would be able to settle back in well to Scotland when I come home, and be able to find a nice job to last me over the summer. I'll try my best to get one last blog in before I go! Love to you all.
The most significant change in the home has been the rather sudden departure of the house parents for various reasons, which, while having been an understandabley difficult time for both the girls and the staff (and myself) has brought us the chance to bring some necessary change into the way the home is run, and some new perspectives. The timetable of the home has seen an overhall, having the girls spending a bit more time in class, and having a new worked out timetable of practical activities including computing, English and drawing classes replacing the time spent doing handcrafts. Changes have also taken place physically in the home, including a new living/tv room for the girls to use, a classroom for the teachers, floodlights for the basketball court and a huge amount of things in the kitchen have been replaced. All of this has required a lot of practical work both by the staff and the girls, as we work to make the home the best possible place for the girls to live in. These changes are all exciting and good, and the girls are thriving with a little bit more freedom than they used to have, and a lot more space to learn.
I continue going out on the street once a week which is very interesting. Recently the other team took one of the boys who we see regularly into hospital after having been beaten up badly by the police. Sadly, his girlfriend was injured so badly that she died but the boy himself is doing really well. I was able to go visit him in hospital to check on how he was doing and pay for any necessary medication or tests, and he seemed to be getting a lot better. The story ends up very happily, as the staff at the hospital went above and beyond the call of duty in taking care of hime during his stay, and have offered him a job in the hosptial. He plans on moving back in with his parents, and we would really appreciate your prayers for him that he can have success in his efforts to turn his life around.
Another new experience for me over the last couple of weeks was the chance to go to the palace of justice with one of the girls for her to testify at the trial of the couple who prostituted her and other minors. In the end she was unable to testify because one of the accused did not present himself. This is possibley one of hte most ridiculous situations I have ever been involved in, as the accused is in jail, so it seems that what happened is not that he was trying to escape trial, but just that the staff from the jail didn't bother to bring him in! Again, I would really appreciate your prayers that this situation would be resolved the next time she has to go in, as its a distressing experience for her every time, and ridiculous for it to have been prolonged as much as it has. On the plus side, I was really pleased that she asked for me to go with her, as I felt like it was a sign of her trust in me, and I have always really wanted for the girls to be able to trust me.
On a note aside from the ministry, I had the fun experience of going on a wee trip with the two girls I've been working most closely with. We went to visit La Paz, Lake Titicaca and the salt flats at Uyuni. I really enjoyed going to the Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca which was unbelievabley beautiful, even if we did have to trek up what felt like a giant mountain with our backpacks on to get to the hostel. The salt flats were an incredible sight as well, 12 squared kilometers of pure salt which feels incredibley other wordly, a little bit like being on the moon. I really appreciated the chance to get out of Santa Cruz and seeing a bit more of the country before leaving here!
On a sad, or happy note, it really is just about time for me to leave Bolivia. I come back to Scotland on May 28th which is now less than 2 weeks away. I'm finding the thought of this really difficult, especially as I can see so many of the wonderful changes that are taking place in the girls home that I would so want to be a part of. Please pray for me that I will be able to leave her with peace of mind, and that I would be able to settle back in well to Scotland when I come home, and be able to find a nice job to last me over the summer. I'll try my best to get one last blog in before I go! Love to you all.
Friday, 10 April 2009
Easter Joy
Well, I would like to begin this blog by wishing a happy Easter to everyone, I hope that you have a great, meaningful Easter weekend as we remember the tumultous events of this weekend several thousand years ago. :-) As we remember on Sunday the new life created by Jesus rising from the dead I have another exciting story about new life... Yesterday and 10am the new entrant at El Alfarero was born by Caesarean in a local hospital and despite some initial resistance by his mother, the operation went well. His name is Samuel, he weighs 3.5 kilos and he is absolutely beautiful! I went to visit his mother and him last night at the hospital, which was really amazing for me. He is so tiny and beautiful. His mum is in quite a lot of pain from the caesarian and it bothers her that this pain won´t let her pick up the baby, but overall I would say that she´s doing a good job as a first day mum. It is all very exciting.
However, in this kind of work every joy does seem to come with some measure of sadness. Unfortunately, last week another two girls left the home. On the plus side, however, neither have gone back to totally impossible situations. One girl had to be asked to leave the home due to consistant bad behaviour and the level of bad influence that she exercised over the other girls, but has gone to stay with her aunt, a good woman who visited regularly and whom I know will take good care of her and help her on the road to recovery. Perhaps more upsettingly, our other home mother made the decision to leave the home with her baby, in part due to constant clashes with the other girls. After a very brief stay in a catholic home, I believe that she is now working with a family and I hope that she will get on well and be able to continue taking good care of her son.
Last week in the home was quite fun, as two days in a row the home teachers were not able to come in to give classes: one days because of protests and blockades, and another day because they both had to go and have a health check. Because we had the extra free time, and didn´t want to spend the whole day doing handcrafts, we made the most of the free time to play some more sports with the girls, and one day we took them all out to the village for ice cream! Ok, it wasn´t the most exciting, fancy of ice-creams, but it was still a lot of fun for everyone to get out and about for a bit.
Today when myself and the other girls go back to the home, the home directors leave for two weeks holiday so it would be really good if you could pray for us as we look to being in the home without them, although with the support of other members of staff who do not normally spend as much time in the home. I am sure that all will go just fine, but as I am sure you can all imagine, it is not easy for the girls to spend a significant chunk of time without their parents.
This week in first contacts was good, although we only managed to get out on the streets once because of all the other things we had to do ie visit pregnant woman! It was very interesting the one time we did go out though, as we met a little boy who was living under a bridge, totally alone, who seemed to be completely deaf. It was really sad to see him living there, and frustrating not really to be able to communicate with him but he seemed to have a really sweet personality, if a little shy. And slightly nervous about all these stange people coming into his home! I´m enjoying the experience of goign out on the streets, although I don´t always feel like the most useful person when I am there. Although, at the end of the day, its not really about me feeling useful, is it.
Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. I´ll see you in 7 weeks!
However, in this kind of work every joy does seem to come with some measure of sadness. Unfortunately, last week another two girls left the home. On the plus side, however, neither have gone back to totally impossible situations. One girl had to be asked to leave the home due to consistant bad behaviour and the level of bad influence that she exercised over the other girls, but has gone to stay with her aunt, a good woman who visited regularly and whom I know will take good care of her and help her on the road to recovery. Perhaps more upsettingly, our other home mother made the decision to leave the home with her baby, in part due to constant clashes with the other girls. After a very brief stay in a catholic home, I believe that she is now working with a family and I hope that she will get on well and be able to continue taking good care of her son.
Last week in the home was quite fun, as two days in a row the home teachers were not able to come in to give classes: one days because of protests and blockades, and another day because they both had to go and have a health check. Because we had the extra free time, and didn´t want to spend the whole day doing handcrafts, we made the most of the free time to play some more sports with the girls, and one day we took them all out to the village for ice cream! Ok, it wasn´t the most exciting, fancy of ice-creams, but it was still a lot of fun for everyone to get out and about for a bit.
Today when myself and the other girls go back to the home, the home directors leave for two weeks holiday so it would be really good if you could pray for us as we look to being in the home without them, although with the support of other members of staff who do not normally spend as much time in the home. I am sure that all will go just fine, but as I am sure you can all imagine, it is not easy for the girls to spend a significant chunk of time without their parents.
This week in first contacts was good, although we only managed to get out on the streets once because of all the other things we had to do ie visit pregnant woman! It was very interesting the one time we did go out though, as we met a little boy who was living under a bridge, totally alone, who seemed to be completely deaf. It was really sad to see him living there, and frustrating not really to be able to communicate with him but he seemed to have a really sweet personality, if a little shy. And slightly nervous about all these stange people coming into his home! I´m enjoying the experience of goign out on the streets, although I don´t always feel like the most useful person when I am there. Although, at the end of the day, its not really about me feeling useful, is it.
Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. I´ll see you in 7 weeks!
Monday, 30 March 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Back to the world
Well, as you have all probably guessed, I have now returned from Peru, hopefully refreshed, destressed and ready for my final three months with Operation Restauration! My holiday ended really well, it was wonderful to feel part of a family again, and it was a great time to relax in. I did manage to see some of Lima, as well as reading nine books in ten days: I saw the city centre and went to a really impressive water display park. Despite how much I love living in Santa Cruz, it did look awful dirty and bleak in comparison with Lima which had much more of a big city feel about it: Santa Cruz kind of feels like a small town of several million inhabitants.
I arrived back in time to cover my weekend shift at the home, although thankfully I was able to stay at Casa Alfa on Friday night at head back to the home early on Saturday morning. (I was out of the house by 7, my previous student self wouldn´t recognise me. I even make my bed every day!) Thankfully, although I did find the thought of going back into the home a little bit of an effort by Saturday afternoon I felt like i had never left, and my fear of having lost all authority with the girls over my time off did not come to pass! It was a fairly uneventful weekend, and in many ways, those are the best kind!
The biggest change in my life, which I believe I have not yet mentioned was in the pipeline, is the new timetabling for all the young female volunteers. Because there are now five, possibley soon to be six of us (hard to believe not that long ago I was the only one!) we will not be spending all of our time in the home. Rather, we will spend one week working in the home and another week in the first contact teams. I have mixed feelings about this, as while I am excited about getting the chance to get out and about in the city, I have always felt (despite how difficult it has been) that the things that I am good at fit better int he home. I am basically going to see how it goes this week, and then get back to the directors about how I feel.
There is one very good piece of news from El Alfarero this week: the neighbour has given us a nice bit of his land to grow vegetables on, so the girls have been spending a good part of this week clearing it all to put seeds in. This is particularly good, as the finances of the minsitry are in a much more precarious state than I mentioned before. Roger is saying that unless something dramatic happens, the ministry, after about 15 successful years, will be completely out of money. This is an extremely serious situation that everyone involved in leadership and finances, and, lets be honest, everyone else, is stressed out and worried about. If anyone does feel that they would like to give something to help out, either one off or regular (like sponsoring a child) PLEASE get in touch with me.
The most tragic decision that had to be taken this past week was to pull the two youngest girls out of school as they confessed to having developed sexual relationships with several of the boys from school. This was obviously extremely distressing news from such young girls, and shows that the restoration process is nowhere near complete with them. Our psychologist is trying to work out a process of rehabilition for them, to try and help them recover and be healed from the countless bad experiences they have had in their lives so far that lead them towards these kinds of activities that are so unnatural for children there age. But then, so many unnatural activities have already been forced on them. For me, this was one of the most distressing things to happen so far as it reminded me of how messed up they are, plus forcing us to take a decision that will put them even further behind in their studies. But at the moment, it is certainly better to keep them out of temptations way and within our protection.
Anyway, thank you all very much for your continued support and prayers. I am sure that the next three months will bring continued challenges and hopefully some excitement. I am even starting to build up a social life! (Thank you Caitlin and Emily!)
I arrived back in time to cover my weekend shift at the home, although thankfully I was able to stay at Casa Alfa on Friday night at head back to the home early on Saturday morning. (I was out of the house by 7, my previous student self wouldn´t recognise me. I even make my bed every day!) Thankfully, although I did find the thought of going back into the home a little bit of an effort by Saturday afternoon I felt like i had never left, and my fear of having lost all authority with the girls over my time off did not come to pass! It was a fairly uneventful weekend, and in many ways, those are the best kind!
The biggest change in my life, which I believe I have not yet mentioned was in the pipeline, is the new timetabling for all the young female volunteers. Because there are now five, possibley soon to be six of us (hard to believe not that long ago I was the only one!) we will not be spending all of our time in the home. Rather, we will spend one week working in the home and another week in the first contact teams. I have mixed feelings about this, as while I am excited about getting the chance to get out and about in the city, I have always felt (despite how difficult it has been) that the things that I am good at fit better int he home. I am basically going to see how it goes this week, and then get back to the directors about how I feel.
There is one very good piece of news from El Alfarero this week: the neighbour has given us a nice bit of his land to grow vegetables on, so the girls have been spending a good part of this week clearing it all to put seeds in. This is particularly good, as the finances of the minsitry are in a much more precarious state than I mentioned before. Roger is saying that unless something dramatic happens, the ministry, after about 15 successful years, will be completely out of money. This is an extremely serious situation that everyone involved in leadership and finances, and, lets be honest, everyone else, is stressed out and worried about. If anyone does feel that they would like to give something to help out, either one off or regular (like sponsoring a child) PLEASE get in touch with me.
The most tragic decision that had to be taken this past week was to pull the two youngest girls out of school as they confessed to having developed sexual relationships with several of the boys from school. This was obviously extremely distressing news from such young girls, and shows that the restoration process is nowhere near complete with them. Our psychologist is trying to work out a process of rehabilition for them, to try and help them recover and be healed from the countless bad experiences they have had in their lives so far that lead them towards these kinds of activities that are so unnatural for children there age. But then, so many unnatural activities have already been forced on them. For me, this was one of the most distressing things to happen so far as it reminded me of how messed up they are, plus forcing us to take a decision that will put them even further behind in their studies. But at the moment, it is certainly better to keep them out of temptations way and within our protection.
Anyway, thank you all very much for your continued support and prayers. I am sure that the next three months will bring continued challenges and hopefully some excitement. I am even starting to build up a social life! (Thank you Caitlin and Emily!)
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Dengue and holidays
I'm writing this blog post from a very different location to the last few, as I have, for the last week, been spending my holidays with the Heron family in Lima, Peru. I think that it was certainly a needed break,as I had been in the home for 5months before taking any time off, which is a long time to be working those kind of hours. So it has been much enjoyed, and a very relaxing time so far.
Before I left for my break, we did have some very exciting incidents at the home which, as ever, happened on the weekend that Yani and Salustio were taking there weekend off. Our home was not, as it had seemed, spared the dengue fever epidemic that has been sweeping the whole city. On Friday, one of the girls had a fever and one was complaining of stomach pains. By Saturday, the little girls fever had totally gone away but was complaining of a stomach ache: now, bearing in mind that this is a girl who makes the most of every sniffle,every mild cough to try and work her way out of everything, i didn't take much notice. However, by the next day, while at church one of the other girls took a major fever in the middle of her sunday school class, and I had to send her home with one of the older girls in a moter-bike taxi. I ended up taxi-ing back all of the girls, as the pregnant girl began complaining of dizziness and pain in her belly! Slightly concerned by now about all this (having thought that all complaints were mild!) I went into the village to look for a taxi to come to the home, and pick up the girls to take them to the clinic (I didn't want them walking in the sun). I couldn't find one, so Ihad to go to the next town on the bus for 15 minutes to find a taxi to take me all the way back to the home and then to the clinic: needless to say, that while I did find one, I was grossly overcharged!
On arriving home with the taxi, I heard one of the other girls had begun vomiting, so she got in alongside the pregnant girl and the two little girls, and Esther, who spent a few weeks volunteering at the home. The idea was that she (who doesn't speak Spanish!) would wait with the other girls while I went in with them for their appointments. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being that simple! The problems started when the taxi driver ran out of petrol, and had to go by foot to buy more, while my little girls are suffering and moaning in the back.
When we got there, the second problem came when the 50B I had been given 'in case of emergencies' didn't quite hold out, and so I had to go find a cash machine to get out more money. Being at the clinic was certainly a different experience to my normal experience of hospitals: every time they needed anything, they sent me out to the pharmacy to buy out, which meant leaving Esther surrounded by people telling her things she didn't understand! I did not find the nurses to be particularly compassionate individuals, probably because they have so many people with dengue coming through. We were instructed to give the three girls with high fevers cold showers, which I would normally have expected the nurses to at least help with, but they just pointed us to the shower. When one of the little ones dind't want an injection, the nurse just made some kind of a crass remark about her not being very brave and sat on her legs to hold her down! Not very impressive.
The other major cause of my stress was the pregnant girl, as no one seemed to want to tell me what was wrong with her, and they got distracted from her fever, dizziness, headache to deal with her apparent yeast infection. (Is there anyone in the home who doesn't have a yeast infection?!?!?!?!) The doctor really upset her by telling her, in quite a brutish way, that if she didn't get her fever down the baby would die. Eventually things calmed down a little, I sent two of them home with Esther, and stayed with one as she had to go on a drip, and the pregnant girl who had to wait to have her temperature taken again. The incompetancy of the nurses was reflected yet again when: as I was sitting watching all the patients on drips sleeping, a nurse came in and despite my protestations that 'they are all sleeping' turned all the lights on as 'they can't just stay there sitting in the dark'.... why oh why? Eventually I managed to leave after having been in the clinic for about six hours. Considering that Sunday was supposed to be the day I had to get through before going on holiday, it was quite a day!
I managed to escape on Monday, with a day to sort things out before flying out to Lima on Tuesday. Lima seems to be a lot more westernised than Santa Cruz: it has mcdonalds, pizza hut, kfc and starbucks! I haven't seen a great deal of it, but from what I have seen the streets are a lot wider, a lot cleaner than in Bolivia. And youc and you can the mountaints, which I like!
I have mostly just been doing a lot of relaxing, a lot of reading books, a lot of chatting. I got a bit of an upset stomach which put some plans on hold unfortunately! We may be going bowling tonight which should be much fun. its also been really good to be able to see where such good family friends have been living for the last 16 odd years.
I think thats all i have to say for now. I have officially been in South America for six months now, which is a bit terrifying, my time here is actually drawing to a close. Thank you for continuing to read my blog, and I really will see you in not too long a time!
Before I left for my break, we did have some very exciting incidents at the home which, as ever, happened on the weekend that Yani and Salustio were taking there weekend off. Our home was not, as it had seemed, spared the dengue fever epidemic that has been sweeping the whole city. On Friday, one of the girls had a fever and one was complaining of stomach pains. By Saturday, the little girls fever had totally gone away but was complaining of a stomach ache: now, bearing in mind that this is a girl who makes the most of every sniffle,every mild cough to try and work her way out of everything, i didn't take much notice. However, by the next day, while at church one of the other girls took a major fever in the middle of her sunday school class, and I had to send her home with one of the older girls in a moter-bike taxi. I ended up taxi-ing back all of the girls, as the pregnant girl began complaining of dizziness and pain in her belly! Slightly concerned by now about all this (having thought that all complaints were mild!) I went into the village to look for a taxi to come to the home, and pick up the girls to take them to the clinic (I didn't want them walking in the sun). I couldn't find one, so Ihad to go to the next town on the bus for 15 minutes to find a taxi to take me all the way back to the home and then to the clinic: needless to say, that while I did find one, I was grossly overcharged!
On arriving home with the taxi, I heard one of the other girls had begun vomiting, so she got in alongside the pregnant girl and the two little girls, and Esther, who spent a few weeks volunteering at the home. The idea was that she (who doesn't speak Spanish!) would wait with the other girls while I went in with them for their appointments. Unfortunately, it didn't end up being that simple! The problems started when the taxi driver ran out of petrol, and had to go by foot to buy more, while my little girls are suffering and moaning in the back.
When we got there, the second problem came when the 50B I had been given 'in case of emergencies' didn't quite hold out, and so I had to go find a cash machine to get out more money. Being at the clinic was certainly a different experience to my normal experience of hospitals: every time they needed anything, they sent me out to the pharmacy to buy out, which meant leaving Esther surrounded by people telling her things she didn't understand! I did not find the nurses to be particularly compassionate individuals, probably because they have so many people with dengue coming through. We were instructed to give the three girls with high fevers cold showers, which I would normally have expected the nurses to at least help with, but they just pointed us to the shower. When one of the little ones dind't want an injection, the nurse just made some kind of a crass remark about her not being very brave and sat on her legs to hold her down! Not very impressive.
The other major cause of my stress was the pregnant girl, as no one seemed to want to tell me what was wrong with her, and they got distracted from her fever, dizziness, headache to deal with her apparent yeast infection. (Is there anyone in the home who doesn't have a yeast infection?!?!?!?!) The doctor really upset her by telling her, in quite a brutish way, that if she didn't get her fever down the baby would die. Eventually things calmed down a little, I sent two of them home with Esther, and stayed with one as she had to go on a drip, and the pregnant girl who had to wait to have her temperature taken again. The incompetancy of the nurses was reflected yet again when: as I was sitting watching all the patients on drips sleeping, a nurse came in and despite my protestations that 'they are all sleeping' turned all the lights on as 'they can't just stay there sitting in the dark'.... why oh why? Eventually I managed to leave after having been in the clinic for about six hours. Considering that Sunday was supposed to be the day I had to get through before going on holiday, it was quite a day!
I managed to escape on Monday, with a day to sort things out before flying out to Lima on Tuesday. Lima seems to be a lot more westernised than Santa Cruz: it has mcdonalds, pizza hut, kfc and starbucks! I haven't seen a great deal of it, but from what I have seen the streets are a lot wider, a lot cleaner than in Bolivia. And youc and you can the mountaints, which I like!
I have mostly just been doing a lot of relaxing, a lot of reading books, a lot of chatting. I got a bit of an upset stomach which put some plans on hold unfortunately! We may be going bowling tonight which should be much fun. its also been really good to be able to see where such good family friends have been living for the last 16 odd years.
I think thats all i have to say for now. I have officially been in South America for six months now, which is a bit terrifying, my time here is actually drawing to a close. Thank you for continuing to read my blog, and I really will see you in not too long a time!
Saturday, 7 February 2009
February post 1
Well, thank you to all the people who are still reading this blog after it being going for five whole months now! I now officially have more time in Bolivia behind me than in front of me, which is a very scary thought. I'm hoping that you're all still thinking about me and praying for me, as I certainly still am doing for all of you!
For all of those who read last weekends blog, the week that Yani and Salustio went on holiday was not as insanely stressful as I thought it would be, but it certainly did have its challenges. We managed to keep the timetable pretty much going, and there were no enormous behaviour challenges, although some of the little ones did need pulling in line some of the time. Probably the biggest problem was that one of the older girls got Dengue Fever (there is a massive epidemic in the city at the moment) and so that meant a lot of trips to and from the clinic, and even one night slept outside under a mosquitoe night because her fever was way to high to be able to sleep inside. It was just unfortunate that there happened to be a major storm that night! In other health related emergencies, I had a slight scare when I found one of the little girls, who is booked in to have a hernia removed, crying on the toilet because she said a white liquid was coming out of her hernia. Not knowing what to do about a situation like this, and being alone in the home, I called Roger, who came and picked her up to take her to the clinic. It turned out that her hernia had not exploded (apparently they're not in the habit of doing that) but was just a run of the mill vaginal infection. This probably came about from a habit of masturbation with dirty hands, started hideously young because of a background in traumatic sexual abuse. Yours truely landed the lovely job of administring her treatment, which is certainly something that I never thought that I would do. I hope to be able to take more of them to the gynacologist some time this week to have a general check for infections, because some of them are just so used to having them they wouldn't think to point it out, and one girl has actually told me she thinks she has an infection.
The final week of the counselling teams teachings went really well, and they were also some chances for them to do some one on one counselling sessions with the girls. The session that they taught on the father heart of God, a teaching that encourages the girls to identify the ways in which their own fathers have failed them, and try to accept the concept of God as a perfect Father, was particularly interesting. A lot of the girls just got really angry, because they didn't even want to think about their dads - most of whom raped them, abused them, or just plain abandoned them, but at least one girl who confronted the hatred that she felt towards her father for abandoing her was able to find some kind of healing.
Traumatisingly, the day that Salustio and Yani were due to come back, one of the members of the counselling team had to change the gas canister which is used to give energy to the oven. Something went wrong with it though, which resulted in fire leaping across the kitchen wall. It is quite honestly a miracle that the entire kitchen didn't blow up, and the girls remained a little bit shaken afterwards. It did mean that we had to cook lunch outdoors on the fire that day, which was quite an adventure! That day the counselling team organised an afternoon of silly games, which was much fun for all!
Since they got back things have calmed down quite a lot, although I am still a bit tired from having so much extra work to do. The boys at El Camino sold us 20 chickens from the vast collection that they had been rearing, so there was a mass slaughter, plucking and general bowls of chicken insides lying around the place. Yuck! Thankfully I did miss most of the slaughter because i was at the dentist with the little ones, but it still smelt terrible when i got back.
Excitingly, the schools have officiallyl gone back, but disapointingly the mini bus chose this time to decide to break, so the day has been filled with lots of going backwards of forwards from the girls schools. Its been good to fall back into a familiar new routine, although it definately take a bit of effort to get back up that bit more early in the morning!
I spent this morning with Caitlin, Esther who is spending three weeks here, and Suzette, a Dutch girl who is starting two years with first contacts. We went out for a late breakfast, then went shopping, and then had ice cream. It is fun to have friends! On a sad note, Sandra moved all her stuff out of the home yesterday, as she'll be moving on to work full time with first contacts. I will still see her, but it does kind of feel like the first friend I made here is leaving me!
I think thats probably all the update that I want to give for now. THanks again for reading. Not sure when I'll upate again as my next free weekend I will be in PERU! So exciting! I am sending you all lots of love.
For all of those who read last weekends blog, the week that Yani and Salustio went on holiday was not as insanely stressful as I thought it would be, but it certainly did have its challenges. We managed to keep the timetable pretty much going, and there were no enormous behaviour challenges, although some of the little ones did need pulling in line some of the time. Probably the biggest problem was that one of the older girls got Dengue Fever (there is a massive epidemic in the city at the moment) and so that meant a lot of trips to and from the clinic, and even one night slept outside under a mosquitoe night because her fever was way to high to be able to sleep inside. It was just unfortunate that there happened to be a major storm that night! In other health related emergencies, I had a slight scare when I found one of the little girls, who is booked in to have a hernia removed, crying on the toilet because she said a white liquid was coming out of her hernia. Not knowing what to do about a situation like this, and being alone in the home, I called Roger, who came and picked her up to take her to the clinic. It turned out that her hernia had not exploded (apparently they're not in the habit of doing that) but was just a run of the mill vaginal infection. This probably came about from a habit of masturbation with dirty hands, started hideously young because of a background in traumatic sexual abuse. Yours truely landed the lovely job of administring her treatment, which is certainly something that I never thought that I would do. I hope to be able to take more of them to the gynacologist some time this week to have a general check for infections, because some of them are just so used to having them they wouldn't think to point it out, and one girl has actually told me she thinks she has an infection.
The final week of the counselling teams teachings went really well, and they were also some chances for them to do some one on one counselling sessions with the girls. The session that they taught on the father heart of God, a teaching that encourages the girls to identify the ways in which their own fathers have failed them, and try to accept the concept of God as a perfect Father, was particularly interesting. A lot of the girls just got really angry, because they didn't even want to think about their dads - most of whom raped them, abused them, or just plain abandoned them, but at least one girl who confronted the hatred that she felt towards her father for abandoing her was able to find some kind of healing.
Traumatisingly, the day that Salustio and Yani were due to come back, one of the members of the counselling team had to change the gas canister which is used to give energy to the oven. Something went wrong with it though, which resulted in fire leaping across the kitchen wall. It is quite honestly a miracle that the entire kitchen didn't blow up, and the girls remained a little bit shaken afterwards. It did mean that we had to cook lunch outdoors on the fire that day, which was quite an adventure! That day the counselling team organised an afternoon of silly games, which was much fun for all!
Since they got back things have calmed down quite a lot, although I am still a bit tired from having so much extra work to do. The boys at El Camino sold us 20 chickens from the vast collection that they had been rearing, so there was a mass slaughter, plucking and general bowls of chicken insides lying around the place. Yuck! Thankfully I did miss most of the slaughter because i was at the dentist with the little ones, but it still smelt terrible when i got back.
Excitingly, the schools have officiallyl gone back, but disapointingly the mini bus chose this time to decide to break, so the day has been filled with lots of going backwards of forwards from the girls schools. Its been good to fall back into a familiar new routine, although it definately take a bit of effort to get back up that bit more early in the morning!
I spent this morning with Caitlin, Esther who is spending three weeks here, and Suzette, a Dutch girl who is starting two years with first contacts. We went out for a late breakfast, then went shopping, and then had ice cream. It is fun to have friends! On a sad note, Sandra moved all her stuff out of the home yesterday, as she'll be moving on to work full time with first contacts. I will still see her, but it does kind of feel like the first friend I made here is leaving me!
I think thats probably all the update that I want to give for now. THanks again for reading. Not sure when I'll upate again as my next free weekend I will be in PERU! So exciting! I am sending you all lots of love.
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