Sooo I am exhausted and didn´t make a list of things to write about so maybe this will be a short one?? :)
Well, it´s been really busy these past 10 days with my dad and my brother here, and we were sad to say good bye to them today. We spent the first weekend running around Juan Dolio trying to hang out, but mostly losing each other in the process, and then last Wednesday they came to the orphanage to stay and hang out with us for a few days. Wednesday night they took us out to an amazing dinner of Mexican food, and then went out shopping and seeing San Pedro. There were a couple of little shoeless boys begging outside an empenada shop we stopped by, they said their dad had his leg cut off and couldn´t work and their mom died. So I asked the guy working in the shop, and he said their story was ligit. So I decided to buy them dinner, and said good-bye to them, but no matter where I went around town they followed me like little puppy dogs, hanging on and jumping on me curiously. I tried talking about the school and orphanage, and like every other street kid I talk to about it, they said take us there, take us there. The ones in the orphanage have horribly awful stories, but these are the ones that truly break my heart... they ones who are still on the streets, living out the hardship. I ended up hanging out with them for quite a while and finally told them, okay I really have to go in my guagua and you can´t come with me, and they hung on me and didn´t want to say goodbye. I hope maybe I can send our social worker to investigate.. maybe they´ll be in NPH someday. We did get in 5 new kids this week. They are absolutely precious and oh so excited to be in NPH. Even past the excitement though, you can see the pain in their eyes as they explain how their parents died and their grandma couldn´t care for them.
Sooo, Thursday night Dave and my dad and Bradley were playing basketball and I went out to get them to watch a dance show my girls and the Micheal Jackson team planned.... and what I found was my poor husband in the clinic again... this time with a huge swollen eye and t-shirt soaked in blood. Turns out he and another boy somehow collided head on running full force in opposite directions playing basketball. This time we skipped the MUSA hospital we went to before, and went to a private clinic so he could get stitched up. It was way more expensive, but great to see the nurse actually wearing gloves this time. (speaking of MUSA, Maria´s sister had her baby there on Thursday, via C-section, and they actually cut her open wide awake with no anasthetic or pain killers! no wonder you hear screaming there... i can´t even imagine) So we thought he would get better, but somehow the hit seemed to hit his whole system so now he thinks he has a sinus or respiratory infection, and maybe a punctured lung... my poor poor husband. We had booked a 5 hour trip from the capital city for the weekend to go to Playa Rincon, said to be the prettiest beach on the island, but then after that event made a decision to stick around the orphanage so Dave could heal.
So Friday we all headed out on our field trip to the national aquarium in the capital, to top off our unit on sea animals, and the kids were oh SOOOO excited. I had never seen them so excited before, and they were actually so well behaved (except my little Nairobi who is deaf and mute who I had a volunteer chasing her around all day). But I was very very proud of them and we had sooooo much fun. We had snacks and played in the park afterward. Dave was paired with Moises, my student who is blind with cerebral palsy, and lost him for a while but didn´t tell me cause he knew I would freak, and found him 20 minutes later, with a different class from a different school, hanging with both arms around one boy and having a conversation with him thinking he was another student from our class. Dave thought it was the funniest thing ever. So, I will put lots of aquarium pics on facebook soon, along with the ones of our number matching jellyfish, our vowel superstar starfish, our handprint crabs, our rainbow fish puppets, our sponge paint oceans, and much more. It has been a fun theme to learn about. Oh and we topped it off by drinking blue "ocean juice" and swedish fish my dad brought down from the states. The kids were lovin it.
So we got back to the orphanage Friday after the field trip, and Bradley decided he couldn´t stand another night in the orphanage - his "dislike" of spiders (not fear) kept him awake 2 nights and he needed to go to a hotel. So we changed plans again and all hopped a bus out to Bayahibe on the fly Friday night and stayed there at a German bed and breakfast the rest of the weekend. We hung at the beach and ate lots of pizza, and there was even hot water, which made Dave and I both feel better (I have the "gripe" too).
Well, that´s it for now, but keep Dave in your prayers, he is in really rough shape right now ... and also some of our kids who are in the hospital and struggling with some terminal illnesses. I hope all is well back in Michigan, and seriously cannot wait to see everyone in January. Love and miss everyone tons and tons,
Kristin
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| 5 days after Dave's accident, still looking a little rough |
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| With Erika, Carmencita, Mayelin, and Ana Maria, getting ready to dance! |
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| Bradley and Jhon Luis at the National Aquarium |
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| Dance party on the cancha, dancing with Mayelin |
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| Field trip to the National Aquarium |
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| Classroom bulletin board for our ocean unit! |
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| Catching rays at the beach with Dad and B-rad |
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