So after a week of recovering I can now say that I am feeling better, not perfect but definitely better than before. We got back from the states on Tuesday mid afternoon and so I had the rest of the day to get settled in. Walking into the door and seeing Melissa and Elizabeth was sooo nice. Even though taking a little vacation in the states was nice I sure did miss my ninos and my roommates. Wednesday I usually work but instead I went to Ensenada with Alison, Elizabeth, Melissa and the group. The group was taking their touristy day and invited us to go with them. We went to the Bufadora which is a blow hole. Let me tell you it sounds a lot cooler than what it was. To get to the Bufadora you have to walk through the market where you are constantly bombarded by Mexicans wanting you to come in their shop and buy their stuff. Melissa, Elizabeth and I went off by ourselves and walked through the tourist place and I am pretty sure we got called Barbie about ten times then charlies angels and beautiful a couple more times. It got pretty annoying because we didn’t want really want to buy anything cause we did all our shopping for that kind of stuff the week before. So after we saw the Bufadora Melissa, Elizabeth, Alison and I went to a cool restaurant called Habana Cabana. That was the first time that I had real food since I had been sick so I was excited. After we ate we had to leave so we could get back to the park in time for our VBS. Our VBS has been going really well. We started out with only six kids and now have gotten a little over 20 now. We have 3 little kids that come every night and they are from an Indian tribe called Oaxacan. They don’t speak Spanish so at first it was a little difficult to explain things to them. The little boy who is 3 though knows the most Spanish and the other day out of nowhere starting rambling off in Spanish … we were so excited. The sad thing about the three little kids is that they most likely won’t be able to go to school because they don’t have birth certificates. To go to school here you have to have a birth certificate and if you didn’t get one when you were born you have to buy one. Birth certificates are pretty expensive so they most likely wont be able to afford it.
Thursday was my first day back at work and it was awesome. I walked in and Lety was there waiting for me and gave me the biggest hug ever. It was so nice seeing all the kids again. It has gotten a lot hotter since I had been gone. The kids got out the pool and were playing in it when I got there. It was Elizabeth’s day off so it was just me and Melissa there. We ate outside then the kids went right back into the pool. Then out of nowhere it started to rain or should I say pour. It was weird because it does not rain in the summer so this was a big surprise for everyone. Me and Melissa then decided it would be fun to play in the rain so we got the kids and played in it for hours. The cook, Maria, told me that I should not be playing in the rain because I was sick. I thought about it then I decided I didn’t care because playing in the rain sounded way too much fun. I then went to the shed and got out the slip and slide, I thought the kids would enjoy it a lot and it was a hit. By the time we were finished playing in the rain Melissa and I were absolutely drenched so we went back to the house for new clothes. When I came back to the orphanage the group was there to play with the kids and say their goodbyes. They brought blankets for all the kids and had their names embroidered on them it was so sweet. Only one person in the group spoke Spanish so they needed my help for some translating. Gosh it’s so sad when I am their best help for translating haha. it was so entertaining though because there was this guy who thought that if he spoke English with a Spanish accent they would understand him better, it was so terrible to watch cause really he was just making a fool out of himself. Oh yeah I got more kisses from the creeper. He came up to me when I was at the park but I didn’t know he was behind me and he pulled me over and kissed me again. I was in shock at what happened so I got on my bike and rode away to get Phil and Alison haha. It is so weird and he is so creepy Phil said he was going to talk to Marcos (the pastor at our church) about it. He had a crush on the last intern from Illinois so who knows maybe it’s an Illinois thing.
So Friday came around and once again it was another wet day. Not because of the rain but because I got in the little baby pool with the kids. When I first got there all the older boys were in it and wanted me to get in with them. I didn’t really want to get wet so I said no pool today. Well I guess I thought wrong because thanks to Tia Zelena threw me in the pool. I was glad to be in the pool though because it was so stinkin hot out that was really nice to cool down. I ended up just playing with the kids in to pool for the rest of playtime outside. It was such a fun day. I am so thankful for the relationships I have with the Tia’s because we can joke around all day and it’s so fun. Zelena got the hose out and started spraying me so the war was on between us. It was great. We then bathed the kids and then put in a movie and ate dinner. It was a great way to end the day. When me and Elizabeth got off work we went home to get Melissa so we could go to the taco stand. It was so sad because I couldn’t eat that kind of food yet so I just went a long for fun. I can’t wait till next week when I can eat at the taco stand.
Saturday was soooo awesome. We went to el parque de ninos which is a water park/pool/zoo near porvenir. We didn’t know that we were going to el parque de ninos till Raquel told us we might need extra clothes for el parque (which means park). We just thought we were going to the regular park and we were thinking why on earth would we need extra clothes for the park then we realized we weren’t just going to the normal park haha. So we loaded all the ninos in the van and we were off to the water park. It’s weird because no one in Mexico has swimsuits haha. There was a couple of people that had on swimsuits but most people just had on t shirts and short some even had on jeans. We just played in the kiddie pool with all the little ninos but it was still so much fun. After we got out and got all the kids changed we went and looked at the animals. It was funny because for awhile it was just Melissa, Elizabeth and I looking at the animals then we saw the older boys coming over and we thought they were coming to look at the animals but really they were coming to get us because it was time to leave haha. How sad that the kids had to come get us to leave. So yeah that was a pretty successful day at el parque and to top it off we didn’t even lose a kid :) So after we got back it was time to bathe the babies the only problem was that we were down two tia’s which meant that me and Elizabeth were on our own for washing the babies. So while Elizabeth went to get the kids new clothes I undressed them all. By the time I got to the last child I was taking off his clothes and I got to his diaper and wow did it smell. For some reason this kid always has a poopie diaper right before bath time and it is sooo bad. I promise Mexican poop is so bad compared to American poop. Well anyway back to Mario’s poopie diaper. When I took it off it was sooo bad and there were like pieces of corn in it and I was so grossed out and I went to get wipes and they weren’t there. So I had to do it the Mexican way and wash his butt in the shower. Elizabeth and I successfully bathed all the babies and got them dressed we were proud.
Sunday nothing too fun happened or at least nothing I can remember. I had a stupid Spanish moment with one of the tia’s. Mario had another really bad diaper and I remembered the corn from yesterday so I tried telling Kati about it. I mixed up my words so instead of saying that Mario had corn in his diaper I said that he had a tree in his diaper. Kati just looked at me then went back to washing the babies. She seemed really confused and then I realized what I had said and I quickly corrected myself. We then died laughing at how I had mixed up my words. After work we all went to the local pizzeria to get have our first pizza since being down here. Since there were four of us we got the grande pizza. It was huge but we devoured it. when we got home we put in a movie but Melissa and Elyssa (the new intern) went to bed. By the time the movie ended me and Elizabeth were still not ready to go to bed so we stayed up talking and looking at the map puzzle we have till 2:30am. When we were looking at the map we were picking out what country we wanted to start our orphanage in. We decided Ghana was our best bet because they speak English haha. Melissa and Elizabeth started working on the details for our orphanage haha. Melissa is going to be the person that does the laundry, Elizabeth is going to be the cook and I am going to be in charge of the kids. Elizabeth has already started on her recipes of snakes and poptarts its pretty great lol.
Monday was my day off so I got to sleep in. I did a little cleaning before Melissa got off. When Melissa got back we decided to do something with our lives and go play basketball at the park. We played around for a little bit then the little Oaxcan kids showed up so we got to play with them for awhile. It really made my day that we got to hang out with them for a little bit. They are the most adorable kids and now that Lencho (the 3 year old boy) speaks more Spanish we can now communicate more! After VBS we went over to use the internet and then to our surprise of friends from church came over to hang out with us. We were so excited because we never had visitors before. We went back to our house and got all settled in when our new roommate told us it was too late to have people over. I was pretty annoyed not gonna lie because I have been here for over 2 months and this is the first time we have actually had friends come over. We have the perfect hang out house for stuff like that and its really hard because we all work till 8 so the only time we can have people over is late. So to please her we left and went and hung out at the park. We still had a pretty good time and it was really great to be able to hang out with other kids. I mean I love Melissa and Elizabeth but having other people to hang out with us is nice for a change. One of the kids name is Tatan and I have known him since my first week. He is fluent in English so he speaks spanglish with us and its awesome. Tatan learned his English from hanging out with the kids from the Ventana ministry. It has taken him four years but if you talked to him you wouldn’t even know the English is his second language. On our walk back home we decided that we should do something on Tuesday during the day since its mine and Melissa’s day off. We told them to just come over in the morning and we could figure something out.
So Tuesday morning came pretty fast and I was awoken by Melissa jumping on my bed telling me to get up and get ready for Tatan and Caleb because they were going to be here soon. I am not a morning person and I think she found that our really fast haha. soon after I rolled out of bed Tatan and Caleb arrived ready to go on our adventure. They asked what we wanted to do and right away I said I wanted to climb a mountain. They are all use to the mountains so climbing them never really crosses their mind. But since I am from Illinois where everything is flat I am so amazed by all the mountains. Since they couldn’t think of anything else to do they decided that we could go find a mountain to climb… I was soooo excited. We got on our bikes and started out on our adventure. It was a pretty long ride to the mountain and we didn’t really know where we could get access to the mountain because there is private property in front of all the mountains. Caleb told us to pull over and that we were going to hop a barbed wire fence and ride through a pasture. I just thought to myself how interesting this is going to be because I have never hopped a barbed wire fence lol. Caleb was the first one to go so he got himself and his bike over and then a car drove by so he hopped back over and stopped them. I didn’t really know what he was doing then but he ended up asking them if we can ride through their property because they have a gate and it would be a lot easier. The people had no problem with it so we followed them to their property. We were that much closer to climbing the mountain and I was so excited. We made it a little bit up the mountain and decided that it was a good time to ditch the bikes. It was definitely an adventure. There was no path so it pretty rough haha but I was so excited I didn’t even care that my legs were getting all scratched up. Halfway up the mountain Tatan said he was hungry haha it was a little too late to say that because we were definitely not turning back. So we finally made it up the mountain and I was so proud that I could finally say that I climbed the mountain. The trek down the mountain was so much easier because we found a path haha. Halfway down I realized that I was getting fried and I had no sunscreen. By the time we made it to our bikes I was soooo red and ready to head back and go to Esmerelda’s for some hamberguesa’s. that was definitely my funnest day off I had ever had and it’s kind of a bummer that we just now started to really hang out with other kids when we’re going to leave in less than 2 weeks. After VBS Elizabeth, Melissa and I decided that we wanted to make a fort so we pulled out the blankets and chairs and started to work on our soon to be awesome fort. We were total kids but we had a good time. While Elizabeth and Melissa constructed the tent I was in charge of making the hats, rules and decorations. So after a lot of glitter, construction paper, paper towel rolls and blankets our fort, hats and telescopes were complete. We then ate tortillas and had a tea party in our tent. It feels so nice to be a kid sometimes. I am definitely going to miss my awesome roommates way too much :(
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
7-11-10
So this past week has been very interesting haha. One of the last things I talked about in my last blog was about how I was still sick … well of course it didn’t get better it just got worse lol. Before I jump to Thursday when I got really sick I’m going to talk about Wednesday, the day I thought I was getting better.
So Wednesday morning the other two interns and I decided to go to Ensenada for the some shopping and touristy things. We ventured out to the bus stop around 8:15 the only problem was we weren’t really sure what the bus looked like or even if we were at the right bus stop lol. The video I posted is of us waiting for the bus wondering where are bus was because we were there on time and the bus wasn’t but of course its Mexico and nothing is on time. We made it on the bus and in my head I was thinking is this bus ride going to be as bad as the one I took when I was in Africa last year. Good news it wasn’t. we were the first to be picked up on the route so we got some good seats and were all ready to set out on this awesome adventure. The drive to Ensenada is only about 40 minutes but since we were riding the bus it took about an hour and thirty minutes. After numerous stops through the different towns we made it to the final stop. We got off at the bus stop -which was a little different than what I expected haha- and headed towards the giant Mexico flag. A piece of advice that we were told was that if you are ever lost just look for the giant flag in the sky and walk towards it. on our way to the flag we were also looking for starbucks because you have to take advantage of a starbucks if its there. After living in Porvenir for 7 weeks whenever something like that is offered one thing I learned is always take advantage. We couldn’t find it so we decided to ask someone if they knew where it was. We went into a grocery and asked one of the ladies that worked there but it was definitely a bad idea because she had no clue what a starbucks was and when we said coffee she started taking us back to the coffee section in their store. After trying to explain that it was a coffee restaurant we decided to just leave and find it on our own. We made it to the touristy section of Ensenada and no joke we turned the corner and everyone spoke English, probably the funniest thing of the day by far. At that moment we were ambushed by Mexicans trying to sell us things and all we wanted was some starbucks haha. After walking a little more through the different touristy streets we finally found it and we were so happy. We got ourselves some awesome coffee and then headed out to do some shopping and get ambushed by more Mexicans trying to sell us things. It was really funny because a cruise ship had stopped there for the day so there were a bunch of Americans there and they all thought we were a part of the cruise and kept offering us cruise bracelets and stuff. We then started speaking in Spanish to some of the workers and they went crazy, they were so excited to hear us speak Spanish. Now yes we don’t speak it very well but compared to all the people on the cruise we did pretty well. After too much money was spent on jewelry, blankets, and other stuff we decided to get some lunch. We walked a little bit out of the way of the touristy area and found a little taco place and best part about the restaurant was that it had a world cup game playing so I was all for eating there. The tacos were awesome of course but I knew I needed to be careful on what I ate because my stomach was still hurting and I wasn’t feeling 100% better yet so I couldn’t try anything new like the two other girls could. After we ate Melissa and Elizabeth really wanted to go see the movie eclipse so having no other choice I went to haha but it wasn’t that bad, a little weird but it was only $3 so I can’t really complain and who know I may even watch the two first movies when I get back to the states in August. After the movie we needed to get some groceries so once again we ventured out to find a grocery store. We knew there wouldn’t be one by the tourist section because what person on a cruise needs to buy groceries lol. Elizabeth and I decided that if we came here without Melissa we probably would not have made it off the bus so we gotta give a lot of the credit to Melissa for getting us around everywhere. The sad part was I had been to Ensenada twice and Melissa had never been there before. We got our groceries stopped off at a local bakery and then were headed home. We got a lot of stares on the ride home. There were a bunch of young guys behind us talking about us lol we could only make out a couple of words so weren’t really sure what they were saying but they couldn’t stop staring lol. About thirty minutes into the bus ride I started to feel really sick again yikes and then to top it off the bus got so full all three of us had to squeeze into one seat. Gosh by the time we got home I was feeling so nauseous and dizzy it was awful. The walk back to the house was awful and it wasn’t even that long but every step I took my stomach ached more and more. I had VBS that night to and I had taken work off to be able to go to Ensenada with the girls so I didn’t want to miss that too so I decided to toughen up and go to it. Probably not the brightest idea I have ever had because it seemed to have only made things worse. By the time I got home all I wanted to do was go to sleep but my stomach had other ideas.
Im pretty sure I was in the bathroom more than I was in my bed. After a long night of fevers, trips to the bathroom and no sleep I was absolutely exhausted. I knew something was really wrong with me so I went to talk to Alison. She took me to the local Doctor to see what she could do. We got there, she asked a few questions about my symptoms told me she was going to give me a shot to stop the vomiting the prescribed me some prescriptions and then I was off. The interesting thing to me was that she didn’t touch me once other than to give me the shot, she didn’t examine me or anything so pretty much I could have made up all those symptoms and it wouldn’t have mattered if I was really sick because she would have given it to me anyway. So we went back to the house and I tried to sleep, tried is the key word. I could not sleep worth my life so I ended up just laying in bed and watching One Tree Hill all day. For those of you who don’t know what One Tree Hill is, it is my favorite TV show so I was definitely glad to have that with me. Four disks later I finally fell asleep but only to be woken up 30 minutes later to Melissa and Elizabeth telling me that Danna and Joshua were being adopted and leaving in 45 minutes. I immediately started to freak out because I didn’t know how to handle what they just told me. Danna was my favorite little girl there. The week before I had to say goodbye to Isabel and that hurt a lot but I never thought I would have to say bye to Danna this soon and to top it off I was too sick to leave my house to say goodbye. I was an emotional wreck and I couldn’t even cry because it hurt my stomach too much. I was very thankful that Danna got a home but also so sad to know that she won’t be there when I return to work. I don’t understand DIF at all. It takes months maybe even years to be able to adopt a child but they only give the orphanage maybe a days notice that the kid is leaving and in this case only 45 minutes. How can you give a child 45 minutes to say goodbye to all her friends and pack up her stuff. I feel like that is just screwed up. So yeah especially after that news I was feeling even worse for the rest of the day. I woke up the next morning well I shouldn’t really say I woke up because I really didn’t sleep but anyway I still not feeling any better and still not getting any sleep or food in my body. We decided that it would probably be a good idea if I went to the states to see a doctor. We set out that morning for the states and man was that a bad car ride. Not all the roads to the border are paved so the roads that aren’t paved are bumpy and really bad for my stomach haha. I think it’s about a 2 hour trip to the border so with all the bumps and the windey roads I somehow made it without getting sick. We dropped our things off at the condo then headed to the emergency room and wow that was an experience for sure.
Oh the emergency room where do I start lol. So Alison dropped me off at the door since it really hurt to walk so she went to park the car while I registered for what I thought was going to be a long wait. As I was putting my name on the list the guy asked me the main questions like “what’s wrong” “where were you” and so on. I told him my symptoms then told him I was working at an orphanage in Mexico for the summer. He looked up at me with a puzzled look and asked me what I do in the orphanage. I told him that I just work with the kids and just love on them. At first he just stared at me then he told me how awesome that was and how impressed he was and so on then he told me that he was going to see what he could do about getting me in faster. I said thanks not really thinking he was really going to do anything until surprise surprise not even two minutes later they called my name. I headed back to the room and they asked me a few question did a couple of examinations then right away hooked me up to some saline. Evidently my heart rate was really fast meaning I was really dehydrated lol looks like you learn something new every day. So the question that I got the most was not “what are your symptoms” or “how are you feeling now” but “you work in Mexico? How old are you?” I guess everyone thought I was sixteen years old haha. One Doctor asked me if my mom came with me and when I said no I work at an orphanage in Mexico and that my mom is back in Illinois he asked me if I am old enough to work in an orphanage and live by myself. I looked at him and just laughed and said I am a sophomore in college I would hope I can handle myself. A little bit later Alison came in to be my mom for the rest of the night. I was glad that she was there it was nice having company. Six hours later, two bags of saline, a bunch of meds and a bunch of tests later I was finally released. It went by pretty fast for me but I felt bad for Alison, it takes an amazing person to sit in an emergency room for six hours when it’s not even your child. By the time we got home it was about 9:30 and with all the meds in my body I was sooo tired. I was so excited to wake up and see the sun. I pretty much made it through the whole night with no problem and that was the best feeling in the world. I still didn’t feel too great but I did feel better. Phil and Alison have a condo here in San Diego so Alison and I have been relaxing here for the weekend. It’s a really great place to relax because right outside the back door is a beautiful lake so all I have been doing is laying around and waiting to get better. Alison has been so amazing and has taken care of me so well I owe her so much. She told me she was glad that I had another appointment that way we could stay here till Monday and have time to relax haha. So yeah I have had an interesting week but even though it has been awful and painful there has been a couple of blessings that I have gotten while being here. I have gotten to talk to my family and friends since I have phone service, I have gotten to sleep in an amazing comfy bed and get some good needed sleep, I got to watch the final game of the world cup soccer game and I got to hang out with Alison and get to know her even more. So yeah I have my hopefully last doctor appointment tomorrow and then I should be on my way back to Porvenir!
So Wednesday morning the other two interns and I decided to go to Ensenada for the some shopping and touristy things. We ventured out to the bus stop around 8:15 the only problem was we weren’t really sure what the bus looked like or even if we were at the right bus stop lol. The video I posted is of us waiting for the bus wondering where are bus was because we were there on time and the bus wasn’t but of course its Mexico and nothing is on time. We made it on the bus and in my head I was thinking is this bus ride going to be as bad as the one I took when I was in Africa last year. Good news it wasn’t. we were the first to be picked up on the route so we got some good seats and were all ready to set out on this awesome adventure. The drive to Ensenada is only about 40 minutes but since we were riding the bus it took about an hour and thirty minutes. After numerous stops through the different towns we made it to the final stop. We got off at the bus stop -which was a little different than what I expected haha- and headed towards the giant Mexico flag. A piece of advice that we were told was that if you are ever lost just look for the giant flag in the sky and walk towards it. on our way to the flag we were also looking for starbucks because you have to take advantage of a starbucks if its there. After living in Porvenir for 7 weeks whenever something like that is offered one thing I learned is always take advantage. We couldn’t find it so we decided to ask someone if they knew where it was. We went into a grocery and asked one of the ladies that worked there but it was definitely a bad idea because she had no clue what a starbucks was and when we said coffee she started taking us back to the coffee section in their store. After trying to explain that it was a coffee restaurant we decided to just leave and find it on our own. We made it to the touristy section of Ensenada and no joke we turned the corner and everyone spoke English, probably the funniest thing of the day by far. At that moment we were ambushed by Mexicans trying to sell us things and all we wanted was some starbucks haha. After walking a little more through the different touristy streets we finally found it and we were so happy. We got ourselves some awesome coffee and then headed out to do some shopping and get ambushed by more Mexicans trying to sell us things. It was really funny because a cruise ship had stopped there for the day so there were a bunch of Americans there and they all thought we were a part of the cruise and kept offering us cruise bracelets and stuff. We then started speaking in Spanish to some of the workers and they went crazy, they were so excited to hear us speak Spanish. Now yes we don’t speak it very well but compared to all the people on the cruise we did pretty well. After too much money was spent on jewelry, blankets, and other stuff we decided to get some lunch. We walked a little bit out of the way of the touristy area and found a little taco place and best part about the restaurant was that it had a world cup game playing so I was all for eating there. The tacos were awesome of course but I knew I needed to be careful on what I ate because my stomach was still hurting and I wasn’t feeling 100% better yet so I couldn’t try anything new like the two other girls could. After we ate Melissa and Elizabeth really wanted to go see the movie eclipse so having no other choice I went to haha but it wasn’t that bad, a little weird but it was only $3 so I can’t really complain and who know I may even watch the two first movies when I get back to the states in August. After the movie we needed to get some groceries so once again we ventured out to find a grocery store. We knew there wouldn’t be one by the tourist section because what person on a cruise needs to buy groceries lol. Elizabeth and I decided that if we came here without Melissa we probably would not have made it off the bus so we gotta give a lot of the credit to Melissa for getting us around everywhere. The sad part was I had been to Ensenada twice and Melissa had never been there before. We got our groceries stopped off at a local bakery and then were headed home. We got a lot of stares on the ride home. There were a bunch of young guys behind us talking about us lol we could only make out a couple of words so weren’t really sure what they were saying but they couldn’t stop staring lol. About thirty minutes into the bus ride I started to feel really sick again yikes and then to top it off the bus got so full all three of us had to squeeze into one seat. Gosh by the time we got home I was feeling so nauseous and dizzy it was awful. The walk back to the house was awful and it wasn’t even that long but every step I took my stomach ached more and more. I had VBS that night to and I had taken work off to be able to go to Ensenada with the girls so I didn’t want to miss that too so I decided to toughen up and go to it. Probably not the brightest idea I have ever had because it seemed to have only made things worse. By the time I got home all I wanted to do was go to sleep but my stomach had other ideas.
Im pretty sure I was in the bathroom more than I was in my bed. After a long night of fevers, trips to the bathroom and no sleep I was absolutely exhausted. I knew something was really wrong with me so I went to talk to Alison. She took me to the local Doctor to see what she could do. We got there, she asked a few questions about my symptoms told me she was going to give me a shot to stop the vomiting the prescribed me some prescriptions and then I was off. The interesting thing to me was that she didn’t touch me once other than to give me the shot, she didn’t examine me or anything so pretty much I could have made up all those symptoms and it wouldn’t have mattered if I was really sick because she would have given it to me anyway. So we went back to the house and I tried to sleep, tried is the key word. I could not sleep worth my life so I ended up just laying in bed and watching One Tree Hill all day. For those of you who don’t know what One Tree Hill is, it is my favorite TV show so I was definitely glad to have that with me. Four disks later I finally fell asleep but only to be woken up 30 minutes later to Melissa and Elizabeth telling me that Danna and Joshua were being adopted and leaving in 45 minutes. I immediately started to freak out because I didn’t know how to handle what they just told me. Danna was my favorite little girl there. The week before I had to say goodbye to Isabel and that hurt a lot but I never thought I would have to say bye to Danna this soon and to top it off I was too sick to leave my house to say goodbye. I was an emotional wreck and I couldn’t even cry because it hurt my stomach too much. I was very thankful that Danna got a home but also so sad to know that she won’t be there when I return to work. I don’t understand DIF at all. It takes months maybe even years to be able to adopt a child but they only give the orphanage maybe a days notice that the kid is leaving and in this case only 45 minutes. How can you give a child 45 minutes to say goodbye to all her friends and pack up her stuff. I feel like that is just screwed up. So yeah especially after that news I was feeling even worse for the rest of the day. I woke up the next morning well I shouldn’t really say I woke up because I really didn’t sleep but anyway I still not feeling any better and still not getting any sleep or food in my body. We decided that it would probably be a good idea if I went to the states to see a doctor. We set out that morning for the states and man was that a bad car ride. Not all the roads to the border are paved so the roads that aren’t paved are bumpy and really bad for my stomach haha. I think it’s about a 2 hour trip to the border so with all the bumps and the windey roads I somehow made it without getting sick. We dropped our things off at the condo then headed to the emergency room and wow that was an experience for sure.
Oh the emergency room where do I start lol. So Alison dropped me off at the door since it really hurt to walk so she went to park the car while I registered for what I thought was going to be a long wait. As I was putting my name on the list the guy asked me the main questions like “what’s wrong” “where were you” and so on. I told him my symptoms then told him I was working at an orphanage in Mexico for the summer. He looked up at me with a puzzled look and asked me what I do in the orphanage. I told him that I just work with the kids and just love on them. At first he just stared at me then he told me how awesome that was and how impressed he was and so on then he told me that he was going to see what he could do about getting me in faster. I said thanks not really thinking he was really going to do anything until surprise surprise not even two minutes later they called my name. I headed back to the room and they asked me a few question did a couple of examinations then right away hooked me up to some saline. Evidently my heart rate was really fast meaning I was really dehydrated lol looks like you learn something new every day. So the question that I got the most was not “what are your symptoms” or “how are you feeling now” but “you work in Mexico? How old are you?” I guess everyone thought I was sixteen years old haha. One Doctor asked me if my mom came with me and when I said no I work at an orphanage in Mexico and that my mom is back in Illinois he asked me if I am old enough to work in an orphanage and live by myself. I looked at him and just laughed and said I am a sophomore in college I would hope I can handle myself. A little bit later Alison came in to be my mom for the rest of the night. I was glad that she was there it was nice having company. Six hours later, two bags of saline, a bunch of meds and a bunch of tests later I was finally released. It went by pretty fast for me but I felt bad for Alison, it takes an amazing person to sit in an emergency room for six hours when it’s not even your child. By the time we got home it was about 9:30 and with all the meds in my body I was sooo tired. I was so excited to wake up and see the sun. I pretty much made it through the whole night with no problem and that was the best feeling in the world. I still didn’t feel too great but I did feel better. Phil and Alison have a condo here in San Diego so Alison and I have been relaxing here for the weekend. It’s a really great place to relax because right outside the back door is a beautiful lake so all I have been doing is laying around and waiting to get better. Alison has been so amazing and has taken care of me so well I owe her so much. She told me she was glad that I had another appointment that way we could stay here till Monday and have time to relax haha. So yeah I have had an interesting week but even though it has been awful and painful there has been a couple of blessings that I have gotten while being here. I have gotten to talk to my family and friends since I have phone service, I have gotten to sleep in an amazing comfy bed and get some good needed sleep, I got to watch the final game of the world cup soccer game and I got to hang out with Alison and get to know her even more. So yeah I have my hopefully last doctor appointment tomorrow and then I should be on my way back to Porvenir!
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
7-6-10
So my Spanish has gotten so much better but it is still pretty bad at the same time haha. you hear those stories about people getting their words mixed up and end up either offending someone or making a total fool out of themselves well I can now say that that has happened to me… a lot. I always thought to myself how can someone really do that well now I know how. I’m sure I have made a fool out of myself many times but there are two times in particular that I remember and they both happened on Friday. The first one I meant to say “when I talk does it sound funny” but instead I said “when you talk you sound funny” at first I didn’t know why Zelena was staring at me and then I thought back to what I said and we both started cracking up laughing. Haha those verbs get so confusing and I forgot to change the ending which totally screwed the whole sentence up lol. The second one was when me and Zelena were outside watching the kids and we were going over Spanish and English together and she asked me what the weather was like and instead of saying “it’s sunny without a cloud in the sky” I said “it’s sunny with no sky” and all the kids started laughing at me and I couldn’t help but realize how funny I sound when I talk.
Another funny thing that happened was when we were giving all the babies a bath and as we give them baths the older boys come in and shower too. Well Brandon, one of the older boys left his shoes out and Tavita, who is two and not potty-trained was by his shoes and no joke I saw it all happen, she stood up over his shoes squatted and peed right in them then got up and waddled away. I couldn’t help but die laughing and no one else saw it so they all just stared at me wondering what I was laughing at. I told Jose (one of the older boys that wasn’t in the shower yet) and he started laughing too and then told Brandon all about it. it is now the joke that when its bath time Brandon needs to watch where he puts his shoes haha.
So now that I shared two funny moments with you now it’s time for an awkward moment. You all may just laugh but to me it was creepy and awkward haha. So there is this guy here that goes to the church and he likes me or something. Well the Ventana kids warned me about him before they left haha they said that he had liked one of the interns that came before me and that I may be the next candidate. He had come up and tried to talk to me when I first got here but lucky for me I didn’t speak Spanish very well so there really wasn’t much to be said. Well I had told Melissa and Elizabeth about him and that I think he likes me because he always tries to talk to me, haha I don’t know if they didn’t believe me how awkward it was or what but I saw him at the park and I said “hey guys can we go he is over there” and they just took their sweet ole time haha and so he saw me and came over. It was sooo awkward I don’t even know how to describe it. when he first walked over to us he asked me and then the other girls how we were doing and so he said “como estas” well then a couple minutes later after he asked me why he didn’t see me at church anymore (even though I am there every Sunday) he said “como estado?” Well I knew that it came from the same verb as estas so it had to mean the same thing but why would he ask me the same question in a different way? to me that just seemed weird because I had already told him I was fine so I said “no se” which means “I don’t know”. Haha so finally after an awkward couple of minutes he left and we all just started cracking up because it was so awkward. After he left we asked Zelena (one of the tia’s I work with who was also at the park) if como estas and como estado meant the same thing and she said yes. So pretty much he asked me how I was doing twice the first time I said good and the second time I said I don’t know haha. well to make this situation even more awkward we were at church on Sunday and it was the end of service and me and Elizabeth were walking out and then he came out of nowhere grabbed my hand and pulled me in for a kiss then ran away haha. It took me like 10 seconds to realize what just happened and then I looked at Elizabeth and we just started cracking up. So yeah that story right there wins by far as the most awkward moment ever haha.
The fourth of July was really awesome. I woke up thinking nothing special would really happen considering I am in Mexico but on Sunday we were invited to go to a fourth of July party put on by the directors of the ventana ministry. It started at 7 and we all brought deserts. They had a bunch of couches outside and then set up a projector so we could watch a movie under the stars. It was really cool. And then lucky for us it was Election Day for Mexico so we got fireworks too. It was a pretty awesome Fourth of July if I do say so myself.
So either mexico hates me or I just have the worst immune system ever because I am pretty sure I have been sick here more than I have been well. Monday started my day off and I woke up with a terrible stomach ache. I then went through the rest of the day with an icky feeling and my skin feeling sensitive to everything. I thought maybe I needed to get out and do something active so after Melissa got off work we went on a bike ride and when I got back I felt worse than before. It turns out I think I got the flu because I was absolutely freezing and I had like 3 blankets on me and Melissa was in shorts and a t shirt. I ended up not going to VBS because I felt too weak and sick to go. Thank goodness for Elizabeth and Melissa they are so awesome and did all of it by themselves. So I went to bed at like 8 but did not sleep a full two hours and I was constantly getting sick. So yeah not the funnest two days off ever but as long as I am ok by tomorrow I will be happy because Melissa, Elizabeth and I are going to Ensenada tomorrow woot woot … I will be better for that!
So yeah I just got the saddest news ever … Phil and Alison are stepping down from being the Mexican directors of Niño’s de Baja. They will be leaving in December eeekkkk that is way too soon :( and sooo sad so just pray for this mission that they can get 2 more amazing directors just like Phil and Alison … they for sure have some big
shoes to fill.
Another funny thing that happened was when we were giving all the babies a bath and as we give them baths the older boys come in and shower too. Well Brandon, one of the older boys left his shoes out and Tavita, who is two and not potty-trained was by his shoes and no joke I saw it all happen, she stood up over his shoes squatted and peed right in them then got up and waddled away. I couldn’t help but die laughing and no one else saw it so they all just stared at me wondering what I was laughing at. I told Jose (one of the older boys that wasn’t in the shower yet) and he started laughing too and then told Brandon all about it. it is now the joke that when its bath time Brandon needs to watch where he puts his shoes haha.
So now that I shared two funny moments with you now it’s time for an awkward moment. You all may just laugh but to me it was creepy and awkward haha. So there is this guy here that goes to the church and he likes me or something. Well the Ventana kids warned me about him before they left haha they said that he had liked one of the interns that came before me and that I may be the next candidate. He had come up and tried to talk to me when I first got here but lucky for me I didn’t speak Spanish very well so there really wasn’t much to be said. Well I had told Melissa and Elizabeth about him and that I think he likes me because he always tries to talk to me, haha I don’t know if they didn’t believe me how awkward it was or what but I saw him at the park and I said “hey guys can we go he is over there” and they just took their sweet ole time haha and so he saw me and came over. It was sooo awkward I don’t even know how to describe it. when he first walked over to us he asked me and then the other girls how we were doing and so he said “como estas” well then a couple minutes later after he asked me why he didn’t see me at church anymore (even though I am there every Sunday) he said “como estado?” Well I knew that it came from the same verb as estas so it had to mean the same thing but why would he ask me the same question in a different way? to me that just seemed weird because I had already told him I was fine so I said “no se” which means “I don’t know”. Haha so finally after an awkward couple of minutes he left and we all just started cracking up because it was so awkward. After he left we asked Zelena (one of the tia’s I work with who was also at the park) if como estas and como estado meant the same thing and she said yes. So pretty much he asked me how I was doing twice the first time I said good and the second time I said I don’t know haha. well to make this situation even more awkward we were at church on Sunday and it was the end of service and me and Elizabeth were walking out and then he came out of nowhere grabbed my hand and pulled me in for a kiss then ran away haha. It took me like 10 seconds to realize what just happened and then I looked at Elizabeth and we just started cracking up. So yeah that story right there wins by far as the most awkward moment ever haha.
The fourth of July was really awesome. I woke up thinking nothing special would really happen considering I am in Mexico but on Sunday we were invited to go to a fourth of July party put on by the directors of the ventana ministry. It started at 7 and we all brought deserts. They had a bunch of couches outside and then set up a projector so we could watch a movie under the stars. It was really cool. And then lucky for us it was Election Day for Mexico so we got fireworks too. It was a pretty awesome Fourth of July if I do say so myself.
So either mexico hates me or I just have the worst immune system ever because I am pretty sure I have been sick here more than I have been well. Monday started my day off and I woke up with a terrible stomach ache. I then went through the rest of the day with an icky feeling and my skin feeling sensitive to everything. I thought maybe I needed to get out and do something active so after Melissa got off work we went on a bike ride and when I got back I felt worse than before. It turns out I think I got the flu because I was absolutely freezing and I had like 3 blankets on me and Melissa was in shorts and a t shirt. I ended up not going to VBS because I felt too weak and sick to go. Thank goodness for Elizabeth and Melissa they are so awesome and did all of it by themselves. So I went to bed at like 8 but did not sleep a full two hours and I was constantly getting sick. So yeah not the funnest two days off ever but as long as I am ok by tomorrow I will be happy because Melissa, Elizabeth and I are going to Ensenada tomorrow woot woot … I will be better for that!
So yeah I just got the saddest news ever … Phil and Alison are stepping down from being the Mexican directors of Niño’s de Baja. They will be leaving in December eeekkkk that is way too soon :( and sooo sad so just pray for this mission that they can get 2 more amazing directors just like Phil and Alison … they for sure have some big
shoes to fill.
Friday, July 2, 2010
7-1-10
So things here have been getting pretty busy since last week, I haven’t had time to write much. I don’t remember what day I left off with so I will just start with the beginning of my week. Let me introduce you to the new interns first because I will probably be talking a lot about them. Their names are Melissa and Elizabeth. They are from Camarillo California and go to Calpoly University. They are a year older than me and are sooo awesome. It is so nice having them here at the house and it is so great that I already feel like I know them so well. Melissa works the morning shift, 7am-2pm and Elizabeth works my shift 12pm-7pm. Sunday was their first time at church here and Melissa got to go to the Sunday school class since they take the kids to the early morning service and that’s before mine and Elizabeth’s shift starts. Me and Elizabeth made some amazing pancakes to start out our day then walked to church. The church service cracks me up because the minister there is American but if you didn’t know that then you would totally think he was Mexican. While service is going you will randomly hear him speak English and at first when he did it I didn’t really know that he was speaking English haha I just thought I was understanding Spanish a lot better. Anyway after church I went to work but I only worked for about 2 hours and then I had my last soccer game. Of course we got beat but we played really well and I scored the last goal so that was really cool. Since Melissa wasn’t working she came and watched haha I felt bad for her because we lost but it was still a good game. After my game and Elizabeth got off work we went to Hamberguesas Eslmerelda’s which is the hamburger place by our house and got some burgers. Once again it was amazing and totally worth it because for a huge meal its only like $3.
Monday was my day off of course and so I needed to start getting my lesson plans ready since the 6 week VBS was going to be starting in the park. I stayed up late the night before thinking that you know hey it’s my day off tomorrow I will get to sleep in but nooo I was woken up at 8 to pounding on my walls haha. The groups project for the week was to work on the outside of our house so for the whole day there was pounding and scraping. Since Melissa gets off work at 2 it’s like I have a day off with her too. While I was working on my lesson plans she decided to experiment and make some refried beans. Not knowing how much beans expand we ended making like 3 pots full of beans. So pretty much the whole day we made crafts and beans haha. The tortillas here are absolutely amazing! You by them at the store and they are fresh and hot so me and Melissa went to the store to pick up a few things and of course some tortillas. We ended up making an awesome dinner. We made taquitos, tortilla chips, rice and beans. I’m pretty proud I now know how to make Mexican food woot woot. After dinner we went to the park for the start of the VBS. I read from the Bible of the story of creation of day 1. My lesson plans for this week and next is all about creation. The kids loved the craft so that was exciting. Kids here in Mexico don’t get to do a lot of stuff like that so anything that has to do with crafts is very much loved. With my lesson plans I tried to be as creative as possible so that way they could have a big variety of new things. Day 1 of VBS was a success.
Tuesday was both mine and Melissa’s day off. We decided that maybe we should clean the house haha it was looking pretty bad. We cleaned and mopped the floors then did all the dishes. That took up a lot of our day and then we worked on our lesson plans for VBS that night. At VBS that night this little boy and girl were there and they were of course so adorable. They were a little different looking than the others and then Alison told us that they are Mohawkins. They don’t speak Spanish and of course they don’t speak English so we couldn’t really explain to them what to do. They are from an Indian tribe but moved to Porvenir and they live in a little shack behind a little taco stand. Niño’s de Baja has been supporting them a little here and there by giving them extra food and clothes. We had a couple more kids than the night before but Alison said by the 3rd week we should be getting more and more people. After the VBS we went home and decided to learn the Waka Waka dance haha. For those of you who don’t know what the waka waka dance is I will explain it to you. It is a song by Shakira and it was made for the world cup so being here in Mexico where soccer is such a big sport this song is played a lot. The older kids at the orphanage even learned it for a school program haha. so since I have the coolest roommates ever we decided to learn it and make a music video … it’s probably the funniest/most embarrassing movie ever but oh well it was a total blast.
Wednesday was by far the hardest day for me since I have been here. I found out the night before that two of the kids were leaving the orphanage. Isabel who is 5and Humberto who is 3 are brother and sister and were brought to Niño’s because their mother was a drug addict and continually left them home alone so their neighbor called DIF for neglect and they placed them at the orphanage. They have been at Niño’s for about 7 months so it was really hard for everyone to say goodbye. When I got to the orphanage I went straight to go and see Isabel. She looked at me with her beautiful eyes and said “Tia Diana Adios” and then came over and gave me the biggest hug ever. She looked especially cute that morning. She was in a beautiful white dress with her hair done. A couple minutes later I was sitting on her bed and she came up and sat on my lap and started crying. Out of all the people she came to me to cry too … not a good idea lol because I didn’t want to cry in front of her and with her crying in my arms it was so hard to contain myself. I just held her in my arms and let her cry while an occasional tear would roll down my cheek as well. By the time DIF came to get them everyone was really sad to see them go. We all gathered around and held hands while we prayed for them and their new home, we said our goodbyes and they were off. All the adults were crying and a couple of the older kids as well. Isabel was such a sweet heart and it was really hard saying bye to her but we were also so happy for her. After that all the kids just stayed outside to play but I noticed that Danna wasn’t so I went inside to look for her. She was on the couch with her face in the cushion. All the older kids were having a really hard time with them leaving because A. she was one of the older kids and she was friends with them and B. they also want a home too so seeing her go is just a reminder that they don’t have one. I went over to Danna and she crawled on to my lap. I asked her how she was and if she was really really sad that Isabel had left. She looked up with tears in her eyes and said “Si Mucho” which means “yes a lot.” She lay in my arms for about 30 minutes just crying. I couldn’t help but cry as well with her. After a while I finally got her to get up and go outside and try and have a little fun and as we were leaving little Brandon walked in (Brandon is 7 and is a total sweetheart) and gave me a hug and a kiss. Gosh how could you not feel better after that? The rest of the day was hard for everyone but we got through it. I have been here for 7 weeks and I have seen 5 kids go but this one was by far the hardest for me, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like leaving to go home. These kids have become my family; I know everything about them I can even tell which baby is crying if I am in a different room haha sad I know. Melissa, Elizabeth and I joke around that when were not with the kids were talking about them so pretty much they are our life haha. I feel like if someone were to ask me if I had any kids I could be one of those parents that pulls out there wallet and out drop 19 pictures of 19 beautiful children and I could go on and on about them all day. So yeah that’s my life here I don’t really know what else to say other than this has been the best summer of my life. I feel like I have grown so much and had so many wonderful opportunities woot woot what an awesome summer.
Monday was my day off of course and so I needed to start getting my lesson plans ready since the 6 week VBS was going to be starting in the park. I stayed up late the night before thinking that you know hey it’s my day off tomorrow I will get to sleep in but nooo I was woken up at 8 to pounding on my walls haha. The groups project for the week was to work on the outside of our house so for the whole day there was pounding and scraping. Since Melissa gets off work at 2 it’s like I have a day off with her too. While I was working on my lesson plans she decided to experiment and make some refried beans. Not knowing how much beans expand we ended making like 3 pots full of beans. So pretty much the whole day we made crafts and beans haha. The tortillas here are absolutely amazing! You by them at the store and they are fresh and hot so me and Melissa went to the store to pick up a few things and of course some tortillas. We ended up making an awesome dinner. We made taquitos, tortilla chips, rice and beans. I’m pretty proud I now know how to make Mexican food woot woot. After dinner we went to the park for the start of the VBS. I read from the Bible of the story of creation of day 1. My lesson plans for this week and next is all about creation. The kids loved the craft so that was exciting. Kids here in Mexico don’t get to do a lot of stuff like that so anything that has to do with crafts is very much loved. With my lesson plans I tried to be as creative as possible so that way they could have a big variety of new things. Day 1 of VBS was a success.
Tuesday was both mine and Melissa’s day off. We decided that maybe we should clean the house haha it was looking pretty bad. We cleaned and mopped the floors then did all the dishes. That took up a lot of our day and then we worked on our lesson plans for VBS that night. At VBS that night this little boy and girl were there and they were of course so adorable. They were a little different looking than the others and then Alison told us that they are Mohawkins. They don’t speak Spanish and of course they don’t speak English so we couldn’t really explain to them what to do. They are from an Indian tribe but moved to Porvenir and they live in a little shack behind a little taco stand. Niño’s de Baja has been supporting them a little here and there by giving them extra food and clothes. We had a couple more kids than the night before but Alison said by the 3rd week we should be getting more and more people. After the VBS we went home and decided to learn the Waka Waka dance haha. For those of you who don’t know what the waka waka dance is I will explain it to you. It is a song by Shakira and it was made for the world cup so being here in Mexico where soccer is such a big sport this song is played a lot. The older kids at the orphanage even learned it for a school program haha. so since I have the coolest roommates ever we decided to learn it and make a music video … it’s probably the funniest/most embarrassing movie ever but oh well it was a total blast.
Wednesday was by far the hardest day for me since I have been here. I found out the night before that two of the kids were leaving the orphanage. Isabel who is 5and Humberto who is 3 are brother and sister and were brought to Niño’s because their mother was a drug addict and continually left them home alone so their neighbor called DIF for neglect and they placed them at the orphanage. They have been at Niño’s for about 7 months so it was really hard for everyone to say goodbye. When I got to the orphanage I went straight to go and see Isabel. She looked at me with her beautiful eyes and said “Tia Diana Adios” and then came over and gave me the biggest hug ever. She looked especially cute that morning. She was in a beautiful white dress with her hair done. A couple minutes later I was sitting on her bed and she came up and sat on my lap and started crying. Out of all the people she came to me to cry too … not a good idea lol because I didn’t want to cry in front of her and with her crying in my arms it was so hard to contain myself. I just held her in my arms and let her cry while an occasional tear would roll down my cheek as well. By the time DIF came to get them everyone was really sad to see them go. We all gathered around and held hands while we prayed for them and their new home, we said our goodbyes and they were off. All the adults were crying and a couple of the older kids as well. Isabel was such a sweet heart and it was really hard saying bye to her but we were also so happy for her. After that all the kids just stayed outside to play but I noticed that Danna wasn’t so I went inside to look for her. She was on the couch with her face in the cushion. All the older kids were having a really hard time with them leaving because A. she was one of the older kids and she was friends with them and B. they also want a home too so seeing her go is just a reminder that they don’t have one. I went over to Danna and she crawled on to my lap. I asked her how she was and if she was really really sad that Isabel had left. She looked up with tears in her eyes and said “Si Mucho” which means “yes a lot.” She lay in my arms for about 30 minutes just crying. I couldn’t help but cry as well with her. After a while I finally got her to get up and go outside and try and have a little fun and as we were leaving little Brandon walked in (Brandon is 7 and is a total sweetheart) and gave me a hug and a kiss. Gosh how could you not feel better after that? The rest of the day was hard for everyone but we got through it. I have been here for 7 weeks and I have seen 5 kids go but this one was by far the hardest for me, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like leaving to go home. These kids have become my family; I know everything about them I can even tell which baby is crying if I am in a different room haha sad I know. Melissa, Elizabeth and I joke around that when were not with the kids were talking about them so pretty much they are our life haha. I feel like if someone were to ask me if I had any kids I could be one of those parents that pulls out there wallet and out drop 19 pictures of 19 beautiful children and I could go on and on about them all day. So yeah that’s my life here I don’t really know what else to say other than this has been the best summer of my life. I feel like I have grown so much and had so many wonderful opportunities woot woot what an awesome summer.
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