PG-13 (Kind of)

Yesterday I spent the morning at the Rehab Center making another video tour. We arrived around 10am and starting taping. Joanni, the administrator of the center was excited to have us and would open the little rooms to let us tape the patients as they were receiving therapy or heat or electrical stim. Not sure the patients were super excited to be filmed but they weren't complaining. We got some good shots and there were several patients so it worked out well. The guy that is always in the kitchen made some homemade lemonade and it was great! He uses fresh squeezed oranges and lemons mixed with sugar and it is awesome!

We interviewed Joanni, and a couple of the therapists and then Dr. Garcia. He is the president of the Rehab Center and is always a wealth of information.

After lunch I spent time working in the afternoon. I didn't go out with Dr. Garcia because I had a lot to get done on my units. I hung out with the kids after working for several hours. For dinner, we had Thanksgiving again! I guess we had so much left over that we had a repeat of last week, PLUS PUMPKIN PIE! I like pumpkin pie, but never have been super crazy about it but it tasted wonderful.

I went and hung out again with the kids. Nena sat in my lap and we chatted for a while. She was telling me about the pig that got slaughtered here on the grounds yesterday. They were saying it is for Christmas dinner but seems a little early. She is so goofy and crazy most of the time but was pretty chill and just being cuddly last night which was fun. The kids had culto which was a little different than normal. Three of the girls got up and led singing and just had random people come up and sing. Julie and Bebo sang a song in Spanish, Heather sang Feliz Navidad with the teenage girls, and other kids came up and sang. Nena was in my lap singing, and Luis Alberto was to my side singing. His speech isn't the best so it was funny listening to him sing and he would start singing the line about 3 seconds before everyone else. But I love that he has learned so many songs in just a few months!

*PG-13 portion* :)
Pastor talked about his Christmases as a child. He was saying that when he was little he was told that baby Jesus delivered gifts to each house on a horse. They would leave water and grass under the bed for the horse to eat so he could keep going from house to house. However, he was poorer than others on his street with 8 brothers and sisters so he never understood why Jesus would leave him a small toy and his neighbors a bicycle. He couldn't understand why Jesus was unfair! So, he then proceeded to say, kids Jesus doesn't bring gifts at Christmas, Moms and Dads do! No chance for them to believe in something like Santa! :( He had Bryson come up and tell the American tradition of Santa Claus and was surprised to hear that we leave cookies and milk for Santa to eat. Julie always chimed in about the good/naughty lists! Maybe it will help their behavior! :) Culto was fun with a little Christmas spirit and some fun songs!

Today was a typical day. I worked this morning finishing up my Adult Medicine Unit. This afternoon, I headed into Batey La Cruz with Dr. Garcia and gang. I gave vaccines out in the batey today. It was the first time I had been to this one since I've been here. I brought my camera today but the battery died after the first picture! Sorry! A dog randomly came up today and sat next to Dr. Garcia while he was doing clinic. Nothing like random animals in your "clinic". As I was vaccinating one of the older women today, she was lifting her sleeve up and had huge arm muscles for a 70ish year old woman. I was impressed!

This afternoon I took a nap after returning because I think I haven't been drinking enough water the past few days. I chugged 64 ounces of water between 3pm-6:30pm so I felt better after dinner. We had Mexican night tonight! Yummy guacamole!

Afterwards I went over and hung out with the kids. At first they were going crazy, jumping everywhere, crying, etc but eventually they calmed down and I sat with Luis Alberto cuddled in my lap. Jenny who is older came over and we were talking along with Jazmin. Pastor went to dinner with Cameron who is here visiting and he returned late for church. They usually leave about 7:45 but he wasn't back until 8:15 tonight. So, we had extra time to hang out with the other kids. Jazmin was screaming/singing Feliz Navidad at the top of her lungs, Jenny was putting "makeup" on Luis Alberto using pink chalk, and Nena would come around every once and a while to tug on my hair.

At one point while we were sitting on the bench, from a distance there was a bright orange color in the horizon. I wasn't sure if it was a brush fire or not, but found out quickly it was the moon rising. I got up to go look at it and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was a full moon that was bright orange with complete darkness around it! Wish I could capture it for you but pictures wouldn't do it justice! I hung out with Jennifer sleeping on my lap and just talking to Jenny.

Then someone came over and told me that one of the twins had cut her head while jumping in one of the cribs. I saw a bunch of kids crowded around on the patio and Nicol was holding Arianni. She had blood on her dress and a pretty deep gash on her forehead. Sure enough, she needs more stitches! This is Round 2 for her, her last ones were in the back of her head! Pastor wasn't back from dinner at this point, so the front gate guy and one of the older caretaker women went to the hospital for stitches. No practicing for me! :)

Coco decided to eat her left over pumpkin pie so I joined her in the kitchen and she shared some of her pie which was tasty. It had been in the freezer and was super cold so was even better!

Tomorrow is a work day here for me and we are going to dinner out at one of the hotels in town. Should be a good treat!