It's everyone's party!

Nothing terribly exciting has happened in the last two days but like always, I have a few little tales to tell.

Monday I almost came close to crying from sadness at my placement a number of times. I taught this lady how to play the card game war, brushed her hair and played the english spanish game. I knew that hanging out with her all day wouldn't be fair to the others, but in the middle of playing she told me how much she liked me and then in English she said she loved me. I said I needed to go, but she held on to my hand and begged me to stay. Once I was finally able to part ways with her I was on my way to find my favorite patient Chonita ("Carebear") and we played cards. A lady came up to me and I asked how she was and she replied, "mal, me duelen los ojos." -- translated, means bad my eyes hurt. They were horribly infected and she wasn't getting the right medication. She was almost in tears but there was nothing I could do to help with the physical pain.

After I played cards with Chonita, I found the lady that walks me to therapy everyday and takes care of me like a patient. She was in terrible condition laying in bed which I have never seen her do. She gave me these fake flowers and told me she wanted me to have them as something to remember her by. I put them on my backpack and she said now everyone at the University will see them. I asked if there was anything I could do, and it turns out she was too sick to even get up and get water but no one had done it for her so I filled up as much water as I could. Once I tried to tell her I was going to leave so she could rest, she protested and told me she wanted to play all the games that I had been playing with the others. She wanted me to be able to teach her English by the time I left and that she promised to teach me Spanish. I wish that was possible!

Finally, I sat down by another favorite and had a little crowd around the pictures I brought even though they had already seen them before. I'm not sure if she was acting like they were so interesting again because she didn't remember seeing them or if she was just insanely bored and just wanted to chat. Whatever the case, I was glad to end on a happier note at the hospital.

That afternoon, Erin, Eric and I decided to skip the activity for the afternoon. We just got some things done, I went to the gym and then it was pretty much a day.

Yesterday was an interesting day at the hospital. I was so tired because I hadn't slept well the night before and speaking spanish is especially difficult with a lack of sleep. I opted to fold gauze to avoid failing at communicating but then I heard something loud coming from the dining room. I walked in and everyone had on the cliche shiny birthday hats and a woman stood in the center holding a pinata about half the size of me. Those elderly people sitting in wheel chairs with those precious little birthday hats on with smiling faces was a great sight to see. The woman in the middle was yelling a chant and walking around with the pinata having everyone take turns at hitting it. One woman had some hidden strength and nearly busted the whole thing with two hits. I was impressed! When the candy came out the woman dispersed the candy to everyone by running around throwing it into their laps including me. Those that weren't confined to wheelchairs hobbled over to retrieve the candy. (Don't worry, I will put the pictures up soon!) A cake made of pieces of these fried bean things had trick candles in them and everyone got a chance to blow them out. At that point I realized the party was not just for one person, but a birthday party for everyone. They ate a meal of tostadas, or basically were two giant nachos with salsa and bean paste, and their fried bean cake.

I found out that the woman in the middle was a social worker in training and that was her last day at the hospital to finish her training. All of the people got very upset when they found that out. The daughter of the social worker was there with two other people around my age and spoke perfect English. A while back I mentioned that lady who just kept crying and so I showed her the picture of Scarlet. The girl told me that that lady was left at the hospital when she was four years old and has been crying for her mother ever since then. I finally let myself shed a tear after I heard that one. My tears quickly ceased with the lively atmosphere of the party and it was soon time for me to go.

After getting over being sad, it came right back again with our afternoon activity. It was all about the genocide in Guatemala. It was the biggest genocide in all of Central America but it has gone without publicity because they army was so good about keeping it a secret. The genocide happened in 1974 and officially in ended in 1996 with a treaty. It started because the people in the country wanted to change the government to begin to diminish the amount of extreme poverty and protested against the leaders. The leaders of the protests were murdered and their murders went without trials. Then people in the villages were starting to be killed off because they were believed to be an alliance of the guerillas that were trying to overthrow the government. The women were raped and killed with machetes and even their babies on the backs would be cut in half. I hate to disclose the gruesome details but I think it's important we are all aware of what has been going on in the world that the media doesn't share. But even now things aren't all that much better, because the agricultural institutes only benefit a small percentage and it is destroying a lot of their land. All of this knowledge and working in the hospital makes me so appreciative for the life I have and help as many people as possible..

But today is a holiday and I wanted to take the day off. Even though the big group left, Erin and Eric are here so I am now catching up on my blog today and reflecting on the time that has been going by so quickly. I was planning on going to Semuc for the weekend but with all of the tropical storms it may not be possible but I really hope so! I want to eat some more sea food here. Last night Eric and I went to a sushi place and blindly ordered our food only being able to translate a few items haha. We got lucky because all of our food tasted great! Now I am going to make a plan for today and some plans for the weekend. Until later, XO Carolyn