4 Weeks Left! AHHH!

So this past Saturday was my 4 week mark until I come home. I'm both excited to see everyone at home, but sad to leave here because I'll be half way done with my trip and time has flown by! I'm sad to be missing Christmas, New Year's, Noche Especial (a slumber party with the girls), and King's Day down here but know I'll love being home also!

This weekend things were kind of slow and I decided to help the orphanage staff ladies clean rice. The rice that they buy here has little rocks, dirty rice, and other random things it in that aren't edible, so everyday they set up a table and sort thru the rice to clean it. I thought it would be kind of fun, which it was for a while, but after staring at a white table, sifting thru white rice for about 20 minutes, I started getting a little nauseated. It was like getting car sick almost. I had to retire from my rice cleaning days and decided to walk into town to the local grocery store just to get out and move around.

Yesterday was a pretty normal day. I worked in the morning on some Sex Ed stuff and then spent the afternoon in Batey Juliana with Dr. Garcia. On the way to the batey I noticed in one of the cow pastures that the troughs for water were made out of huge tires cut in half. Also, they had big barrels that were cut in half and used for troughs. They are very resourceful here using things we'd typically throw away for different things.

When we arrived there were very few patients but slowly more arrived. There were about 20 men that came to be seen, and about 2-3 women. There are very few women in this batey, although it is slowly growing. The people here are constantly changing also. The men seem to come and go out of this batey. I took some BPs but mainly just hung out because we were vaccinating. There was a girl there about 9 years old that had dirty blonde hair and was lighter than most Dominicans. Her dad also had blondish hair and was lighter skinned. It is weird to see blonde Dominicans!

After I returned back to the orphanage, I hung out with Mineli for a little bit on the patio area. Then I went upstairs to take the test that the Hopkins family had just taken to see how well I knew past tense. It was difficult!

After dinner we had a little bit of free time before movie time with the kids. I went over and was giving Nicol a massage and got one in return. Some of the older kids went to a concert that was being offered by another church. They had to pay 30 pesos so only those with money saved up could go. The kids get a few pesos everyday to buy snacks at school, but sometimes they will save their pesos for events such as this or to buy something bigger.

We watched Toy Story which I hadn't seen for a while. Franchesca sat with me and fell asleep not too long into the movie. Heather and Julie made brownies for the kids and they handed those out right as the movie ended. They love special treats like this! We also got to enjoy some from a second batch after they finished cooking. TASTY!

Today was a day of work here at the orphanage. I worked on the Sex Ed unit this morning and this afternoon, finishing it just before 5pm! This morning I also went to the hospital to talk to the director about an interview. Bryson is going to make a video tour of the hospital to show the groups in the spring and we want to do some personal interviews with Dr. Garcia and Dr. Reinoso the director of the hospital. While we were waiting for his secretary to return to her office, a lady from Jaramillo (one of the bateyes) walked by and as I was saying hello to her and shaking her hand, she said "Hola, Elizabeth". I was shocked she knew my name, but it was pretty awesome at the same time! Another reason this batey is quickly becoming one of my favorites!

We found out from another doctor that we work with in the local clinic, that Dr. Reinoso had gone to the capitol this morning so after waiting 20 minutes for his secretary who never showed up, we headed to pick up the teachers from the Institute.

We came back and had a little break before lunch. I played a dice game with the Hopkins, High/Low. It was fun! I'll have to take that one home with me. They know a lot of great games!

After lunch, we had lots of free time to siesta and hang out. I went over and saw the kids for a bit and ended up sitting with Lisy and tickled her! Surprise, I know! It was fun though because at one point she was lying on the ground pretending to sleep and I then pretended to sleep, then stooped over as I was "sleeping" and then my arms would "fall" onto her belly and start tickling her!

I came back and rested for a little before working for the rest of the afternoon. After finishing the unit, I headed out with the kids again. Ari, Luz Maria, and Yanina were at the mesita and asked for some coloring books. I brought them out and hung out while they colored and also read the Caballos (horses) book. The leader from the team this week brought out some paint and was working with Winston. She would have him draw something on paper with a white crayon pressing hard and then paint on top of it and it would show up. He enjoyed this! We did that up until dinner time!

After dinner, I helped Coco sort donations along with Jennifer and Vivian. We had to pull Vivian out of her bed at 6:45 to help, she goes to bed so early, it cracks me up! They brought tons of clothes, a pile on the table that taller than me! We sorted through these separating them into boys and girls, shirts, shorts, pants, etc.

After sorting for over an hour I headed out to hang out with the kids for about 45 minutes until separation time. There weren't many kids out and William kept asking for books to read so I went and got three books. I called him over and sat with him under the light post and read the 3 books to him. He loves sitting and reading! Often times, he, Bryson and Winston will sit and read together. Both he and Winston are very very shy, so to have him open up to me is rewarding!

Tomorrow we are going to film the video tour of the hospital which should be fun and then I will head out to Batey Maguaca in the afternoon. I haven't been there yet with Dr. Garcia this trip, but went a couple of weeks ago with Bill and Cara who were here on a site visit. We'll see if any of the kids remember me! Should be a good picture taking opportunity. I haven't been taking many recently because I've been working in my room which is very exciting to document with pictures! :)