Some new experiences

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I will start off with the not so great news. I have once again (for the fourth time) been in hospital, this time overnight (not just a quick doctor's visit), as I was ill during the night on Tuesday, went to the hospital Wednesday, was diagnosed with a urine and another stomach infection, stayed last night being fed antibiotics through a drip and then was discharged this afternoon. Tthey think it is due to a weak immune system and also that the bacteria from the first infection has never quite cleared up. but it's okay now as I am home and feeling better, and the hospital is very nice, it had an en suite bathroom and cable TV which allowed me to catch up on American shows such as 'Desperate Housewives' but also 'CSI Miami' both of which I have now fully up to date on! It is just a shame that I am missing so much time at Casa Hogar, though with any luck this will be the last time! At least I have put my travel insurance to good use!

Volunteering at the orphanage is still going really well. The other day it was the two American girls’ last day there and so prepared a party for all the toddlers that we work with. They had little tables and chairs which they put table cloths on and had helium balloons everywhere and even brought Mexican children’s music and a stereo which they donated to the orphanage. They also ordered pizza for the children and brought drinks and ice cream for them. They gave each child a party bag and a present which they had wrapped up, so it was like Christmas for the children and I have never seen them so calm since I have been there as they were all so entertained, especially with the balloons (although a couple got lost to the ceiling!). It was so lovely to see, especially because each child had been given a present that they could keep for themselves. Every visitor that comes to the orphanage who has sunglasses always gets their sunglasses ‘borrowed’ for the day and so the volunteers bought them each a child’s pair and I took the opportunity to take some very amusing photos! I was also told that Pancho (my favourite) and his two sisters, Sarahi and Itsy have been allowed by the authorities to go and live with their Grandparents, which is really good news for them because the only reason (as I understand it) for them to be in the orphanage in the first place was because their parents were too poor to look after them which is very sad. Unfortunately Delila has had the chicken pox and so it has not been possible to take her to her physiotherapy sessions, but hopefully she will be better by next week! She was quarantined away from the other children because in a place where everyone lives so closely such as the Refugio, chicken pox would be disastrous!

I love volunteering at the disabled school. There are 4 different age groups that we work with although as of yet I have never worked with the babies as they are never there on a Friday. Not all the children are there every week and so it is hard to lesson plan because of the varying abilities within each age group. The first age group are aged 8-10, the others are teenagers and the final group are adults. The school is only open in the morning for them, and they do different things although I think it is challenging for the teachers because of the varying ability in each class, as they are separated by age not ability. The sad thing is that in the school there are a couple of children who have ADHD yet they have been put in the disabled school which must be frustrating for them because they are much more capable than a lot of the other children there. Our main purpose there is to give physical exercise to the children as they do not have any other activities like this. The school itself is nice, all separate buildings for each classroom with lots of trees centred around a main play area with basketball hoops. Everyone is fed there at around 10.30 from a kitchen, and last week Laura and I were given fresh papaya and watermelon with rice and tortillas with a rice milk that tasted like rice pudding to drink. We have an hour slot with each class and they are generally quite hard to control, but usually we start with a warm up where we play musical statues, but when the music stops to do a position, such as curl up in a ball on the floor, or jump on the spot. Then we will play parachute games, calling people’s names out to run under the parachute, or putting balls on top of it and trying to get them all to stay on. Then we sometimes set up a kind of assault course using the parachute and make up a routine, or sometimes with the older classes play volleyball. The from 11.30 to 12.30 we have individual therapy sessions as Laura is a trained physiotherapist, she shows me what to do and then I can help her. There are such sweet children there, like Adolpho, who like to dance Banda, and Christian who loves music and you literally have to pull him away from the stereo player as he likes putting his head up against it and seeing where the music is coming from. There are a mix of disabilities there, some people have Down’s Syndrome, others have mental handicaps. In the oldest class there is a women there who is about 30, perhaps older, and they get taught how to do useful tasks that give them life skills, like cooking and cleaning. The younger classes do a little bit of maths, art and Spanish. It is really rewarding working there because they are always so happy to see us every Friday!

Last Saturday I went with two of the girls to 'Canopy' which is like 'Go Ape' in the UK. Basically it is a load of zip wires working their way up and down the mountain. We drove up the mountain out of Puerto Vallarta and into the forest a little way where we were given harnesses and helmet. Then we were lead up some steps to the first wire where we were clipped on to handles with the harness and held on, then basically just lifted up your legs so you were sitting with them straight out in front of you mid air and then the instructor pushes you so you slide down the wire to the other end. It's really hard to explain, and I haven't got the pictures yet because you had to buy them as a photographer came with us taking the photos. There were about 10 wires, varying in length and height and it was so amazing to see the jungle stretching out beneath. On one of the wires i was strapped onto the instructor with my back to the way we were going, and then i dropped backwards so i was hanging upside down!!!! And on another one I was again harnessed to an instructor, but this time i was lying on my stomach with nothing beneath me but the jungle!!! It was so much fun, although scary and I am slightly apprehensive to see the photos! There were really pretty birds in the trees there all brightly coloured, and they also had a parrot named Tequila who for some bizarre reason could say ‘Hello’ and not ‘Hola’. I tickled his little neck while he watched me with his beady eye which was funny.

Whale watching was another amazing experience. We got to see a mother; father and baby whale about 50 metres away from us!!!! The baby whale was playing around and jumping, and the only decent photo i managed to take definitely doesn't do it justice as in reality I got to see it jump actually out of the water and it's tail be the last part of it to go back in the water! It was only the 9 of us volunteers and the man who owned the boat in the boat and it wasn't intrusive into what the whales were doing, it wasn't like we were chasing them which I thought was good. We also got the opportunity to go snorkelling by these two islands which were really rocky, but had really brightly coloured birds on them. Snorkelling was a bit of a disaster for me because I couldn't work out how to breathe through the mask because you can't use your nose, so I panicked and accidentally lost the mouth piece, but I am proud to say that I tried and managed to see 2 tropical fish!!! After the others had returned from properly snorkelling, we went around the island in the boat and got to see more birds. When we were back on dry land we went to a lovely Mexican restaurant on the beachfront and had fajitas, everyone had fish except for me, who had chicken which was such a good choice!

Last weekend, I also went to a drag queen show at a gay club called Paco’s Ranch in the gay quarter of town. The show was incredible and the drag queens were all very convincing as women. It consisted of them dancing and miming to songs, and one of them, is the son of the family that Hebe has moved from the apartment to live with.

For the rest of the girls they only have just over a month here, but I’m glad I’ve got another 3, not even half way through yet. Besides, I really need to start working on my tan!!!!!!

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Photos

Fiesta
Most of the children (except the 2 I accidentally cut out) at the party

Casa Hogar
The outside area at Casa Hogar, one of two 'squares' the orphanage is centred around with a central shade structure

Pancho and Ismael
Pancho and Ismael playing

Ismael
Ismael, sister of Denise fascinated by th helium balloon

Siblings
Pancho, Sarahi and Itsy at one of their final days in Casa Hogar

David
David, one of the older toddlers wearing his new sunglasses

Whale watching
A really bad photo of a truly amazing sight! I'm glad i captured something on camera though!!!

Island
The island of birds that i (attempted) snorkelling by!

Comments

[Granny]

Hospital
Oh dear, Kate, you are seeing a part of life which you prefer not to I'm sure. However it sounds as though you are having a great time apart from that. What experiences - snorkelling I couldn't do when we went to Kenya so you did well to manage in the end. I saw pilot whales once but they are not very big. I don't think I could ever have zip wired!