Well I have officially been living in
Montero for over a month now, which is crazy! And now that I have been back
from La Paz for a couple of weeks, I have settled into a (sort of) regular
routine, which I will do my best to describe in a minute. But first, I am going
to present to you the next episode of “The Weird Medical Happenings of Cara in
Bolivia!” So as I was going to bed one night, I realized that my face looked
darker than normal and felt kind of weird. I asked one of the other volunteers
about it, and she said it looked okay and that it was probably just tan or a
little sunburnt. Well I wake up at 5 am and realize that my face is itching
like crazy, so I look in the mirror, and my whole face (and part of my neck) is
red, hot, and swollen. The one dermatologist in Montero (who apparently isn’t
actually a dermatologist, but the brother of dermatologist) prescribed me a
bunch of pills, which I supplemented with Benadryl. Over the course of that
day, Madre Paulita came first to bring me ice to put on my face, then covered
my whole face with cucumbers, and then after that some sort of white milky
substance. By some combination of all of these forms of treatments (or the
allergic reaction to whatever it was wearing off), my face and neck gradually
returned to normal over the next couple of days, and I was able to resume my
normal routine.
|
Medical anomaly numero 2, Hitch-style |
For
anyone wondering the specifics of my “normal” routine, here they are as best as
I can give them. During the weekdays, I wake up at 6:30 am just in time to make
it to 6:45 am breakfast with the girls. I lead prayer before breakfast, and
then help serve the girls. Each of us five volunteers are in charge of a table
of 10 girls for meals, so we distribute food for our table (this is more of an
actual job during lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day, than during
breakfast or dinner, which usually consists of 1-2 pieces of bread and some
type of drink). After breakfast, my mornings are pretty free, and this is when
I take care of any responsibilities for the madrina, or godmother, program.
This is a program that was started by one of the first SLMs at the hogar that
gives each girl here a madrina to support them. The madrinas pay annual dues to
cover birthday gifts for each girl, in addition to medicines and supplies used
by all of the girls. They also correspond with their ahijadas, or godchildren,
by sending them letters or packages, and can send them money through an
American account for any specific needs of the girl. So my responsibilities
involve going to the post office once a week to pick up any letters or packages
for the girls, translating these from English to Spanish so that the girls can
read them, keeping track of the finances of the program as a whole and each
individual girl, putting together birthday packages for the girls, and making
sure that the girls correspond at least a couple times a year with their
madrinas. I also use the mornings to do my laundry, which is about an hour-long
process for a couple of days’ worth of clothes.
I
eat lunch, which is the biggest meal of the day, at 1 pm with my table of
girls, and then in the afternoon I open the library from 3-6 pm for the girls.
Depending on the day, I open up the library for various activities including
games, puzzles, and coloring books, in addition to the obvious activity of
reading. Then we eat dinner between 6:30 and 7 pm. On Mondays and Wednesdays,
the girls have music and dance lessons during the afternoons and evenings, but
on other days soccer is a popular nighttime activity in the concha, or
blacktop, of the hogar. I usually go to bed around 10:30 pm during the weekdays
(anyone who knows my typical sleep schedule knows this is ridiculously early
for me, but you gotta do what you gotta do). Then on Friday nights we go to
mass with the girls, and Saturday is our free day for the week! The five of us
volunteers usually go out into the town for a meal (my favorite is salteƱas,
which are pieces of fried dough filled with all kinds of deliciousness like
meat, egg, onion, potatoes, etc). They also make delicious fruit juices with
milk here, which taste kind of like a milkshake, but lighter. Sundays are also
pretty relaxed after mass in the morning.
Awesome post! The girls are precious, and you and Kelsey look fab in that skirt. Praying for you always :)
ReplyDeleteLove,
Anna
God keep you well from here on, Cara! That skin biz must have been a fright. Thanks for the details about your daily life, and the pix--and for remembering why you're there. God bless you, Kelsey, and all the other volunteers, the girls, and the sisters.
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