 Magali's apellido (nickname) is gorda - I love it :) |  Offelia posing, buggers and all |  PLAY TIME! "Mas Vueltas!" |  Dulce is so sweet! |
It’s Saturday, a week since I wrote my last post, and I must say today has been just a little different than last Saturday: THANKFULLY! Bare with me in this post, my thoughts today have been a bit rambling today. I blame it on being Saturday. By that I mean probably the first time in 2 years that I have actually understood why people with normal jobs and regular time schedules truly look forward to the weekend. This weekend is my weekend off, which will be every other. To understand why today is so great, I should probably clue you in to what my week looked like after surviving the diarrhea ridden weekend.
Every morning the ninos are up by 6. Once awake, they are all herded into the 2 showers to wash off all the grime before school (still not really sure why this isn’t done before bed). The boys head to their room to dress, as do the girls, whom I follow and help with their clothes and hair for school (French braiding x 6!). Hopefully this process finishes fairly soon because breakfast needs to be picked up from the kitchen, dished out, and then consumed by all 16 kids so that 12 of them can head out for school by 7:15. The main contributors in this process are Betty and Anna Louisa, mom and daughter respectively, who live in the house. The other daughter Andrea also helps in the afternoon and evenings after school in the mornings, where she teaches special education.
Now while the kids may up by 6, I have, myself, braved a couple of 5 am mornings so far. My parents and college roommates (really everyone), feel free to gasp. Monday, running with Edgar at 5 (the husband of my American contact Sara and really just the go to guy at the orphanage), and Wednesday also waking up a bit before 5 to head to the market to purchase the weeks worth of fresh food.
After the kids head off to school, I then get myself ready for the day, and walk on up to the main building where the clinic resides – which I am going to term as my own little slice of heavenly silence ☺. While the “clinic” really juts means a tiny little room filled to the brim with donated medical supplies, it is away from the business of the toddler house and most of the other activities as well. It’s a little dusty, but cleaning and organizing were on my list of things to do this week. The organizing is going to take a bit more time, but at least I have one clean place I can go after the expected am bathroom routine. Also, there is wifi, which means I can just hang out on gchat and still feel a bit connected to life at home.
I head back to the house about 1 to bring lunch from the kitchen. After lunch, nap time from 2-4. I’m still trying to find the best way to fill this time. It may be with garden help or possibly hanging out with some of the adolescent girls and helping them with their homework – this would be a great help with my language skills, which I’m sad to say have felt a little delayed since coming. Even the toddlers talk circles around me! And since they don’t quite understand why I’m not rapidly speaking back to them in Spanish, I just feel all the more useless. But, I’m praying that will come, I hope …
After nap time we generally head outside to play for a bit, then back to the house. I try to get them all to wash their hands and dinner is about 6. During the week the kids are in bed around 7:30ish. I’ve been following soon after. Or at least I sit in my bed for a while winding down from the day and then pass out around 9.
So there’s a little outline of what may become my normal routine … now back to waking up at 5…
Running early is actually amazing. There is something quite invigorating about being up before everyone else and watching the sun rise after a full night of sleep (yes, which means I’ve been asleep by about 8:30/9 every night). This would have continued throughout the week however, Tuesday I instead went for a late walk/run with Andrea (with whom I’m living), and well, Wednesday was the market.
For those who know me well, you know my affinity for food: either in eating, cooking, growing, or just appreciating it. Which means that a trip to any open air market is quite a treat for my sensory and cultural experience. Inevitably, every area has a different style to their market, this one no exception. Cema (sp?) is the largest outdoor market in Guatemala and kind of resembles a series of truck loading docks; well, covered with end to end produce that is. Each section is divided into the different types of produce, which meant that we moved our straight truck about 6 times in the course of the morning. First the veggies, on to citrus, next dried goods, a whole section for bananas / plantains, then the dock for eggs and yeast, and last stop the melons area. I wore my cowboy boots. I forget that rancheros and more indigenous people wear on a daily basis … not sure if that’s why everyone started at me or because I was the only white person for the entire mile stretch. Regardless, it was a great experience. I was able to watch Edgar barter a bit and tasted some amazing fruits that I will definitely be purchasing on my next trip to the market.
Unfortunately after that, my week went a little south, or I should say my health did. I must have caught some type of virus, which included sore/raw throat, increased congestion, nausea, diarrhea, cramps … pretty much just a lot of unpleasentries. As in my normal fashion, I tried to ignore what I felt was brewing on Monday and Tuesday, and of course it just hit me Wednesday afternoon. Ohh and did I mention that I re-twisted my knee and then ohhh a new ankle. I ended up actually napping while the toddlers did and then going to bed bout 8, this repeated Thursday and Friday … with a couple of hours in the morning where I felt normal and then the rest void of relief. Of course like most things in life, this passed quickly. Bringing us to today, Saturday, which has been truly wonderful.
I woke up about 7:30 (so late!), didn’t have to help with kiddies and just stayed in bed reading and zoning out online till about 10. It was wonderful ☺ To top it all off, I actually was hungry when I woke up and was able to eat some home made raison bread from the kitchen with the fresh strawberry topping … mm,mm good! I even felt energetic enough to help with some planting in the garden. What a great excuse to get out a of a noisy/busy house and just play in the silence and dirt – thankfully work is never finished in a garden and I hope to continue to play throughout my time here.
Seeing at though this post is getting to the 2 page mark, I think it’s time to wrap up. This week was good, health stuff aside, I’m starting to feel out a routine. However, I’m a little unsure about the fit with toddler house and more specifically the family with whom I’m living. Casa Bernabe is amazing in that instead of just housing all of their children in one big dorm, they have individual houses with “host families” if you will for the different age groups. My family has been here 3 years, 2 with the Toddlers, and has their routine established. This means, among other things, that they tend to ignore the constant crying, smells, and overall craziness of the kids. There are a lot of things in their discipline style which seem at once petty and not to the point – making it hard to understand their reasoning. It’s also been hard to figure out the best way to help, since a lot of the time I just feel like an extra body. This probably has something to do with the fact that 2/3 family members rarely address me, ever. Now I say this after only 1 week, but I did go through a similar experience in Costa Rica and I just want to be mindful of using my time here wisely as well as respectfully to those who are already established. Prayer for my “fit” would be much appreciated. My health will be fine, I could stand a couple of weeks without eating, and I am confident that language skills will increase as well. However, with relationships, it’s impossible to just push through and make them better through effort – it requires communication, effort from both parties, and a mutual desire. I am hoping that all of those will increase. If not, there are other options, but I want to make the most out of this opportunity and not end it before it has a chance to blossom.
Phew, that was a long one guys, sorry. Maybe I’ll start trying to give up dates during the week so that the weekend one’s are quite so long? Let me know what you think. Miss you all and thanks for reading!
The view from the market ... hope I get to hike this soon!
Women from another time in Guatemala ... seen all over at the market
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