Friday, September 21, 2007
Piojos
I decided that piojos (lice) here in the ranch merited it's own post, so here it goes. I heard and observed when I got here that all of the girls, or a lot of them, have lice. Most of the volunteers who work with girls end up getting lice while they're here, but most of them only work with the girls a few hours a day. I knew I was bound to get lice because a lot of the girls in Casa Suyapa have it and I comb their hair twice a day. We also de-lice them once a week. I have learned a lot about lice and how to kill them (you have to smash them between your finger nails). A lot of the girls just have liendras (the eggs) which are tiny, but I have learned how to spot those and pick them out of the hair. What fun! Anyway, after only 3 weeks in Casa Suyapa (this was last week) I got lice. I kept itching my head and I asked people to look, but nobody saw anything. Finall I took matters into my own hands and borrowed a lice comb from Casa Suyapa. Sure enough, I had lice. I got the shampoo from the clinic and I think I am all better now, but I feel like I could get them again any day. But I guess there's no solution and I am not getting my hair. By the way, yesterday I was using my second dose of the lice shampoo and while it was sitting in my hair I used the phone. My phone got wet and now it is not working. I am going to try to get it fixed this weekend, but if anyone calls me and it doesn't work that is why. OK, that's all for now. I'm going to take a nap.
Friday, September 14, 2007
A real post
Since my posts have mostly just been pictures I'm going to give a few more words. I know I am being lazy, but I am going to copy from an email I sent to Ruth where I describe part of my daily routine:
On a normal weekday I wake up at 5am. It is completely pitch black, which makes it really difficult to get up. I get ready in the dark and then me and Brittany, who is the other volunteer that is a tia, walk to our different homes where we work. Then when I get to Casa Suyapa we get the girls up, shower them, do their hair, etc. But this is all a really big production and there are always naked girls running everywhere and lots of craziness. Once they're all ready, at like 6:30, we go to the dining room for breakfast. Finally, by 7:45ish, we walk to school. Then I usually have a break from around 8:30 to 12 and at 12 we pick them up from school. Then we do different things on different days and I'm with them till around 7:30pm. It is such a long day! Some days are different, like on the weekends I don't get a break, but I work from 7am to 7 pm. Then the Monday after a working weekend I get off from around 3pm till the next day at noon. It's all really complicated, but because I am so busy the time is going really quickly.
The only reason it's so hard being so busy is because I want to spend more time with the other volunteers, they're all really cool. I'll go through all of them and where they're from and what their job is:
Brittany is the other volunteer who is a tia. She is a tia in Hijas de Pilar, which is the oldest girls home. Most of her girls are like 16, 17 and 18. She's from Minnesota.
Natalie is Brittany's roomate. She is the project manager for the new surgery clinic that is being built. She is from Virginia.
Jennifer is doing an after school program to empower girls, called Chicas Poderosas. She is from Oklahoma.
Kristin is Jen's roomate. She is working in Talleres, which are the workshops in things like metal work, wood, etc. She is teaching English and doing tutoring with the kids. She is from Chicago.
Cate is teaching English at the school. She teaches a lot of my Casa Suyapa kids, they are always singing English songs she taught them. She is from North Carolina.
Loes is Cate's roomate. She is an art therapist. She is from Belgium.
Those are all of the new volunteers besides me and Soraya and the German family, they live in their own house. Here are the old volunteers:
Anne Marie is the volunteer coordinator. She is from Minnesota.
Rob teaches English at the school. He is from Ohio.
Florian is Rob's roomate, he works at the clinic. His hogar, for dinner and stuff, is Casa Suyapa, so I see him there a bunch. He is from Germany.
Mathias is an occupational therapist. He is from Austria.
Julia does reinforcement tutoring at the school. She is from Germany.
Tess is Julia's roomate, she works in the office, working with all of the international NPH offices. She is from Mass.
Annie works at the clinic and lives in a room near the clinic.
Eva is a physical therapist.
Max and Miguel live together in the hortaliza, which is a seperate little house, but it is basically just a room. Max is from Germany and Miguel is from Austria.
I think that is all. There is also another German family who have been here half a year, the parents both work in the clinic. The kids are little, so they go to school with the Casa Suyapa kids and they come and hang out at Casa Suyapa a lot.
That was a really long post for me, so I'm going to say goodbye now. It's time for me to begin my free weekend!!!!!!
On a normal weekday I wake up at 5am. It is completely pitch black, which makes it really difficult to get up. I get ready in the dark and then me and Brittany, who is the other volunteer that is a tia, walk to our different homes where we work. Then when I get to Casa Suyapa we get the girls up, shower them, do their hair, etc. But this is all a really big production and there are always naked girls running everywhere and lots of craziness. Once they're all ready, at like 6:30, we go to the dining room for breakfast. Finally, by 7:45ish, we walk to school. Then I usually have a break from around 8:30 to 12 and at 12 we pick them up from school. Then we do different things on different days and I'm with them till around 7:30pm. It is such a long day! Some days are different, like on the weekends I don't get a break, but I work from 7am to 7 pm. Then the Monday after a working weekend I get off from around 3pm till the next day at noon. It's all really complicated, but because I am so busy the time is going really quickly.
The only reason it's so hard being so busy is because I want to spend more time with the other volunteers, they're all really cool. I'll go through all of them and where they're from and what their job is:
Brittany is the other volunteer who is a tia. She is a tia in Hijas de Pilar, which is the oldest girls home. Most of her girls are like 16, 17 and 18. She's from Minnesota.
Natalie is Brittany's roomate. She is the project manager for the new surgery clinic that is being built. She is from Virginia.
Jennifer is doing an after school program to empower girls, called Chicas Poderosas. She is from Oklahoma.
Kristin is Jen's roomate. She is working in Talleres, which are the workshops in things like metal work, wood, etc. She is teaching English and doing tutoring with the kids. She is from Chicago.
Cate is teaching English at the school. She teaches a lot of my Casa Suyapa kids, they are always singing English songs she taught them. She is from North Carolina.
Loes is Cate's roomate. She is an art therapist. She is from Belgium.
Those are all of the new volunteers besides me and Soraya and the German family, they live in their own house. Here are the old volunteers:
Anne Marie is the volunteer coordinator. She is from Minnesota.
Rob teaches English at the school. He is from Ohio.
Florian is Rob's roomate, he works at the clinic. His hogar, for dinner and stuff, is Casa Suyapa, so I see him there a bunch. He is from Germany.
Mathias is an occupational therapist. He is from Austria.
Julia does reinforcement tutoring at the school. She is from Germany.
Tess is Julia's roomate, she works in the office, working with all of the international NPH offices. She is from Mass.
Annie works at the clinic and lives in a room near the clinic.
Eva is a physical therapist.
Max and Miguel live together in the hortaliza, which is a seperate little house, but it is basically just a room. Max is from Germany and Miguel is from Austria.
I think that is all. There is also another German family who have been here half a year, the parents both work in the clinic. The kids are little, so they go to school with the Casa Suyapa kids and they come and hang out at Casa Suyapa a lot.
That was a really long post for me, so I'm going to say goodbye now. It's time for me to begin my free weekend!!!!!!
Feliz Día de la Independencia
Here are pictures from the Independence Day parade, which was on Thursday. They are mostly of kids from Casa Suyapa, who were at the back of a really long procession. But I tried to get a few of the older kids too. It was really fun and I felt like a mom watching the kids and taking pictures.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Hurricane Felix
This is just to let everyone know that I am safe and sound in Honduras. The hurricane did pass through here, but here it was just rain. School was canceled, but school is always canceled here.
Monday, September 3, 2007
I have 1 1/2 hours left of my first real descanso (rest). As a tía I get every other weekend off, so I've had this weekend off from Friday at 8 am (after I dropped the kids off at school), until today, Monday, at 12, when I go to pick them up. I spent Friday and Saturday in Tegucigalpa and then I spent Saturday night and Sunday relaxing in Casa Personal. Here are some pictures of my room and of a bunch of us cooking dinner Sunday night.
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