Wednesday, April 17: Day 4

Over View:

Today I did the social services visits. Some of the sights that met me were both disgusting and insane.

At the school, I was able to work in the deaf classroom.  The kids in there, all 5 of them, were amazing. Their names were Rosa, Rosa Valentina, Johanna, Juanluiz, and Equiel. They had a test, so I spent the morning watching them take the quiz, which was a half “verbal” half written quiz. I noticed that the teacher signed and talked at the same time, so I was able to learn a couple phrases. One of the more important phrases was how old are you. For cuantos, you open your hand like you are holding a very large book by the ends in both hands. For anos, you put your fists in front of you, then make a circle around each other, and end up with one stacked on top of each other. For tiene, you create a hand gun with your pointer and thumb, and then put the barrel on the top of your collarbone.  

At the time that the deaf classroom was eating lunch, I went down to the preschool. If you read my other blogs, you might notice that I went there both of those days. I love two of the little kids in that class almost as much as if they were my family, and wish that I could take both of them home. They are Jose and Victor. I was walking around the school with both of them for the remainder of the time they were there, and when both of them left I headed down to the arts and crafts room. There I was working with Dayana. We were working on things in English, and she surprised me by knowing 1-10 in English. We worked on the alphabet, along with phrases such as sister, brother, grapes, and apples.

After school, I went on the home visits with Harry.  The first house was really the only house. There we visited a 23 year old girl, appearing about the age of 14, who was locked in a closet with no light. The family said that she had been sick, and recently had started to have spasms. They said that she has times where she does not sleep for days at a time, and only gets milk to drink. She does get the milk, but that is only when she is having her spasms.  The second house we went to was disgusting. In the front there were five pigs, and I think that one might already have died of starvation. The dog was soon to die of starvation and lack of air from his collar, and at least two other pigs looked almost dead, again from starvation. The family had left the girl that we were going to visit in the house, with the radio playing. We could hear the child, and the neighboring house said that it was common for the family to leave, with the girl staying at the house.

Highlights:

My highlight today involved Jose. While we were walking around the school, he tripped, and started crying. While still standing, he looks up at me, so I pick him up, and he just laid his head down and starts to cry into my shoulder. Then for the rest of the day, he did not want me to put him down,  only to keep carrying him.

Lessons:

Today my lesson involved  the home visits. No matter how insignificant a question could be, how unimportant an action seem, everything can make a huge difference. When Ms. G asked Aleyda about bringing the first child, Julissa,  to the school, it started a conversation about trying to get the child to the school in order to help her with both a more active day, and also allowing her to have better supplies and treatment. 

Photos:

Today I didn't get any.

Plan for Tomorrow:

Tomorrow I am going to do some more walking around with Jose and Victor, just so that Jose can get some time on his feet and Victor can be somewhere other than the classroom. I am also going to take Ever out on my excursions.