Dear Reader,
Yesterday's
post was a little heavy so today I hope to go a little lighter and I promise I
won't complain as much as I did yesterday. I was just a little frustrated, but
now I'm of a clearer mind. Today was also a much better day.I woke up this
morning at 7:00 as usual. I got showered, got dressed and ate breakfast. Kit
and I left our host family at 8:15 and headed out for the orphanage.
Uncharacteristically,
I don’t really have many complaints today. The kids mostly slept and the ones
that didn’t sleep didn’t cry all that much so it was pretty nice, but Kit and I
got some pretty devastating news today. Our first day at the orphanage there
was this very sick baby. He had a horrible fever, he’d been gradually losing weight
for the last few weeks (as I was told by Seely) and his mother had stopped
being able to produce milk for him (she was 11 years old so her body couldn’t
support milk production very long). Kit, Seely and I told the nurses our
concerns and then the next day the baby just disappeared. At first we feared
the worse. What if the baby had died? We tried to ask around for information
with no such luck. The only thing we learned was that the baby had gone to the
hospital for a check-up and there was no further information.
Today,
however, we were finally able to get some information. Apparently the baby got
pneumonia (hence the fever, throwup and weightloss) and was now hooked up to a
ventilator. He’d been experiencing heart failure and heart palptations and
needed a really expensive heart test in order for the doctors to determine the
next step in treatment. Kit and I had been planning on donating to the
orphanage and Petra, our coordinator, told us that the test would be the
perfect donation. Kit and I are more than happy to give the money for the
surgery and have started making preparations for expenses. We were told the
price of the surgery was 550Q or approximately $73.33.
This
was one of the moments I was reminded the difference between the standard of
living in America and other countries. In the face of a major heart test, as an
American, to only have to drop $73 to save a life is not much. I know there are
poor and homeless people in America who could not afford this, but I’m talking about
the grand scheme of things. Americans don’t always value all the opportunities
we are afforded by the country we live in. Our higher standard of living gives
us easier lives. I’m finding more and more reasons to be grateful for the life
I’ve been given and that’s one large take-away that I have from this
experience.
Today after the orphanage Kit and I went home for lunch as always. I
then proceeded to our room to do my homework. Today Jaime gave me ‘relatively
light homework,’ his definition not mine. I had to memorize 16 new verbs, which
in hindsight isn’t awful. Thankfully, all I had to know was their meanings, not
their conjugations and luckily a lot of them were English sounding. For
instance I had verbs like Confesar, which means to confess, and recomendar,
which means to recommend. I guess I did
have it relatively easy this time around and I definitely took advantage of
that by reading my book instead of studying (oops). Okay, I didn’t totally blow
it off, it was more half and half, so 30 minutes studying and 30 minutes
reading. To be honest one of the greatest benefits of going to Guatemala is
that I have more time to do pleasure reading. If you know me, then you know
that I am a huge bookworm; however, going to Lovett (and having lots of school
work) doesn’t always afford you a lot time to read for fun. Really, my life in
general doesn’t afford me the time to do a lot of things that I enjoy doing.
It’s funny how going to a foreign country has somehow given me that opportunity
to be more of myself then I usually can be at home. Is that weird?
At
2:15 Kit and I headed out for what possibly might have been the best day of
Spanish lessons ever, because today ladies and gentleman we… played games with
Kit and Salvador!!! I’m talking Go Fish, Charades, Memory, basically all the
games I loved playing with a kid. It was actually an extremely nostalgic
experience. I felt like I was 6 again, except when I was 6 we played in
English, but this was Spanish class. The odds were pretty much stacked against
me. Not only were there 2 men who’ve been speaking Spanish their whole lives,
but there was also Kit who’s only been speaking for 4 years, but is practically
fluent (in my opinion). I, on the other hand, am on day 6 of learning Spanish
and speak on the level of maybe a 3 year old (actually the 3 year olds in the
orphanage speak better than me so even that’s a stretch). From an achievement
stand point, this set up pretty much had me destined for failure or at least I
thought.
It’s
amazing what language and cultural immersion will do for you. I’d spent the
last week not only studying and learning Spanish, but being surrounded by it
everyday. When we played games like Memory and Go fish with vocabulary words, I
was astounded by how much I actually did know, even the words that Jaime and I
hadn’t gone over, but I’d learned just by listening to people talking. My
capacity to connect with and learn another language was shocking. Furthermore,
these games helped me improve myself even more and learn more new words, so
much so that I suggested to Jaime that we do this everyday. Unfortunately he
didn’t take the bait, but I’ll always remember this as the day that Spanish
really clicked for me. Immersion was doing much more for me than I ever knew
and it doesn’t end there.
After
Spanish Kit and I went home for dinner. Over dinner we got into a conversation
with Senora about our respective heritages. We talked about ancestry, religion,
the foods we liked, school and how our days went. Most conversations with
senora have limited input from me with either Kit translating for me or with me
saying a hopefully coherent 3 to 4 word sentence to convey my opinion on the
topic. Today, however, was the first time I really talked to senora myself. Kit
did still have to help me with some words, but it was the first time I had a
real conversation with her and I left the dinner table feeling really proud of
myself. That connection that I feared not having because of the language
barrier was actually coming to fruition.
Today
was actually a really great day for me; I made strides with both language and
culture, proving to myself that if I put my effort in, I can achieve my goals
(which originally was to be able to have a conversation with someone before I
leave). I’m loving how this experience continues to change and shape me. In
this last week, I’m determined to make the best of the experience, to really
soak in the culture as much as I can before I leave. I’m really excited for
tomorrow and hope that I continue to have days as amazing as this one.
Sincerely,
Journey
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