Early Mornings and late nights

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I seriously don’t understand why here I always wake up so early, maybe it’s because I’m so excited to get out there and see more of Guatemala? Who knows; either way I woke up at a lovely 4:30am. At first when I woke up I could’ve sworn I heard noises so I thought that it had to have been the family which would make it around 5am. I was very mistaken when I looked at my phone and it beamed 4:30am. I decided to peek my head outside to see if the family was up; I knew the dad got up and worked early but I never thought they’d be up this early. Peeking my head outside I saw absolutely nothing and no one, not even the T.V. had been left on. It freaked me out for a moment but then I realized that it could have been the neighbours because the way the houses are built everyone is side-by-side. I contemplated going back to bed but decided against it because I needed to shower anyways and I might as well get it done before everyone gets up and needs to shower too. The shower, once again, was scalding hot but this time I came prepared; I got all of my soaps and such ready before I turned the shower on and hopped in and out as quickly as possible. When I got out of the bathroom I heard party music coming from one of the neighbours. Guys really… it’s almost 5am and you’re blasting party music now?! Alright. At 5:15am the rest of the fam began waking up and getting ready for their day. I was already to go when Mama came out and I guess I surprised her because she was amazed that I already had myself dressed and ready to go… then she noticed that I had already taken a shower and she was taken even more aback by that. She goes on to tell me that her husband and she were talking and saying how responsible I was; it was my feel good moment of the morning! Mama started preparing breakfast while Isabel and Alejandro started getting ready for their day. All of my persistence finally paid off because Mama let me help!!! I got to wash the papaya and cut it up. Mama had to show me how to peel the papaya because admittedly I had never done it before and it was much harder than it looked! Mama showed me and then passed the knife and papaya on to me. Sharp objects and I in the kitchen don’t have the best history so I was a little worried, especially when the papaya was slippery and difficult to cut at the same time. Final count at the end of cutting the papaya was 10 fingers and 10 toes (for everyone!) so I knew all had gone well! Isabel and Alejandro were still getting ready, and now they were the ones blasting the music. Mama prepared the rest of breakfast so I went to grab Megan because Brandy was already up. Megan was dead tired and she told me to tell Mama that she wasn’t going to eat this morning because she wanted sleep more than she wanted food. We all sat down to eat breakfast and when I told Mama what Megan told me she was very worried that maybe Megan was sick; I’m pretty sure she asked me over a dozen times if she was sick and/or not feeling well. In Latin America you either eat or you must be sick! Breakfast was a nice light breakfast of papaya, banana, bread filled with beans, and cinnamon tea. Mama, Diego, and I walk Isabel and Alejandro to the bus; we must have been running a few minutes behind because just as we walked up to the curb the bus was practically there already. As soon as we got back I had to change quickly so that we could walk to the main square to meet up with the rest of the group. Everything was going fine when the garbage truck that had been on the other street turned onto the same street as us and next thing we knew we heard the loudest yelp from a dog. When we turned around to see what had happened we saw that the dog had gotten run over by the truck; the workers weren’t doing anything to help the dog, they noticed what they had done and just carried on with their work. I didn’t take it too harshly, although it wasn’t a great feeling seeing the dog there obviously in pain, things are different here than they are back at home and it’s a part of life. Megan didn’t take things well and she was very affected by seeing this; the rest of the walk was spent in silence. Today we were one of the later ones to arrive, though we were still on time! We waited for everyone else to arrive and once we were all together we loaded up the bus. Today we were in the community of Chimachoy which was apparently higher than Chicazanga. I could feel it because I was cold most of the day! Luckily I had my scarf and jacket to keep me warm. We got to see a few more patients than yesterday –although it still was pretty slow in general as far as having patients. One of the patients we saw was a young girl complaining of headaches, in fact, she had been diagnosed previously with migraines and was 13 at most! She had also complained of toothache so we had to check her teeth out. Interestingly the headaches and toothache showed up at around the same time. Upon physical examination of her tooth it was easy to see what the problem was; one of her back molars was so badly rotted that it was a dark hole… We sent her over to the dental room and when she came back to say that they weren’t accepting any more patients, the doctor went to talk to the dentist and made sure she got in to see them!



We took a small break and they had tostadas with beans, cheese and salsa and a pineapple drink waiting for us. It was so yummy!! There were tons of kids hanging around the courtyard and we hung around until we had another family of patients. By the time we finished treating the family members it was time for lunch! Lunch was chicken with sauce, tortillas, rice, and a pineapple and Jamaica drink. A bunch of us sat down in the courtyard to eat together and as we were eating they were a few stray dogs (I think they were stray…?) that came around to check it out. One girl had her plate with her chicken bones on it sitting right beside her and this dog was so bold that it went and took her chicken bones off her plate! I have never seen a dog inhale food that fast. After that, the dog made its round throughout the rest of the group to see if it could snag any other scraps of food. Once I was done lunch we still didn’t have any patients so I decided to take my camera and go take some pictures of the surrounding area. I caught some really cool pictures! When we came back I decided to give out some of the pencil crayons and stuffies that I had packed in my bag this morning. Naturally the kids went ape shit but, being me, I whipped them into shape so they formed a line and said their thank you’s… well most of them did. Progress, people, progress. I went back inside the room we were working in to put the garbage in my bag, and see what else I had left to get rid of that day; I still had a toy and a set of crayons left and noticed that there was a family currently being treated. I’m not sure if I was supposed to do but I did it anyways; I snuck beside the mom and son and gave the oldest son the pencil crayons and the youngest son the toy. The kids said thank you and were happy and the mom was so happy she kissed my cheek and blessed me. We did a group change and the first patient my new group took care of was actually a home visit! I had never done a home visit as of yet so I was very excited yet scared at the same time. It turns out the man we were doing the home visit for had had a stroke years ago and was having some problems that were related to his stroke. I took the vitals and I was so scared, but I did good! Once we got back to the school where the clinic was set up we saw one more patient before we took a break because there weren’t any patients. I handed out the rest of the stuffies that I had in my bag (Thank you McDonalds happy meal stuffies!). I admit I had been hoarding my Mexico TY beanie baby, but I knew I had to give it away… eventually. I saw some of the volunteers playing basketball with the kids and since I’m no good at basketball I stood on the sidelines and watched, and took pictures. One little kid came up to me and asked if I had any toys, but I said no because I didn’t want to cause another riot. The little boy and I conversed a little bit back and forth and I don’t know what but he was so adorable that I knew I had to give him my Mexico TY stuffie. I called him over into the room where some of the other patients were and gave him the stuffie; I explained to him how much the stuffie meant to me so he had to take good care of it, and he gave me his word that he would. Once I gave it to him we both went back out into the courtyard and as I watched the guys play basketball I saw the boy surrounded by a few others asking about his stuffie. When asked they boy said that I was the one that had given it to him, and that’s when the other boys came over to see if I had anything and this time I was telling the truth when I said no. The little boy disappeared to his house with his stuffie and came back a few minutes later to play with the other children. Some of the kids were playing basketball and some of the kids were climbing up the beams that held up the basketball hoop. One of the little guys trying to climb up the basketball support pole was so adorable that I had to go help, naturally. This kid was too cute, but as soon as I started to help him all of the other, and significantly older, kids were trying to ask for help too; as if I hadn’t just seen them climb up the pole perfectly fine. I wasn’t about to fall for that. We joked around for a bit and this one kid kept trying to show off, every five seconds it was he was calling me ‘nena’ and telling me to watch him climb to the top. This kid was so suave and had so much swagger I swear. Once I started taking a few pictures that’s when it got real haha. The boys wanted to take a million and one pictures and of course I couldn’t say no! The pictures the boys took are some of my favorites! I tried to take a picture of the boy with so much swagger but he wouldn’t let me. The one picture one of the boys took of us together he just looks too cool for school hahah. Ridiculous. Before I knew it we were loading up the bus and heading back to Parramos! Mama and Isabel were waiting for us as we pulled up in the bus; before we headed home I asked to stop by a bakery that some of the other volunteers had raved about. It took a little while to get our goodies –Mama said I wasn’t being pushy enough in line… Mama was right. We headed home with our goodies and on the way Isabel asked when we could eat them, and if we could eat it when we got home! I told her she was crazy and that we would have to wait until after dinner. I changed once I got home and Alejandro was finishing his homework. Once he was done his math he turned on the T.V. and we watched a little bit of Ice Age 4. I managed to coax Isabel into getting her homework done, she was working on English homework; I helped her a little bit but she had done a pretty great job already! Just as we were finishing up someone came to the door. Alejandro answered the door and turns out it was an American that used to live with the family years ago that came for a short visit. She left one of those ‘year in review’ type cards from her family that people send out around Christmas or New Years, it was in English so Papa and Mama asked me to translate it –definitely way harder than I thought…My brain is still hurting. Afterwards Isabel, Diego and I went to pick up tortillas and then got ready to go to the bid dinner all of the volunteers and homestay families were having together. Mama offered to let me carry Diego in a traditional carrier all the way there and, duh, I said yes! They joked before leaving that Diego was going to go to Canada with me. I am not opposed to the idea; I mean I’ve always a baby brother! When we got to the house where we all were going to have dinner Mama offered to take Diego so that the rest of us could eat but I told it that I could still take him! It was her night off haha. Isabel and I got in line for the food, we were at the end of the line but it was moving fairly quickly. As soon as I picked up a plate to put food on Diego started grabbing at the plate so I had to keep it as far away from him as possible. We made our way through the food maze picking up little bits of this dish and that dish. Mama offered to take Diego again but I insisted that it was her night off and I was okay to take him. The place was crowded and finding a spot to sit down was not the easiest. Isabel and I eventually found a place to sit down and eat. The food was good except this one tamal that was too salty. Isabel tried to warn me but I didn’t take the hint and holy was it ever salty! We were joking about who we could pawn it off on; when Mama came around Isabel pawned it off on her! I was laughing but I felt so bad. All three of us had a good laugh about it though, to this day none of us know who made them. We took some pictures together and got to talk to some of the other families that were sitting by us. Before we know it was time to head home. Walking back I managed to get Diego to fall asleep; Score! Alejandro had brought his basketball with him to dinner–no clue why –but on the way back we stopped to play for a few minutes in the park. Before we left we took one big family photo; after reviewing it it’s a bit blurry but that’s okay! Once at home we said our goodnight’s and headed to bed. I can’t believe we are leaving tomorrow!! I’m going to cry.

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