Diving In: Jackie’s House & Ketty’s Place

Oh boy, it was a great day today and exhausting! It is almost eleven at night, so I am going to keep this one brief so that I can get some sleep. With the warm weather and all the extra work it takes to translate, sleep is a much needed thing.

Today we went to two orphanages and did our first medical assessments. Phil and I did height, weight, vision and charting for each of the children as their first stop. From there, they saw a doctor or nurse to do a health assessment on each child. For the most part all the children were underweight, but fairly healthy. However there were a few fairly concerning health conditions that we discovered like significant heart murmurs, possible HPV infections, one child has a very odd shaped head that could be a problem and a few other things. It is cool to know that because of what was found today, the children that need follow up will get it!

At the first house, there were a few babies (12-24 months) that just ended up around me. At one point I had three on my lap. There was one little girl, Rose, whose mother died suddenly as well as her twin brother when she was twenty days old. She was rescued from the dump and brought to this house. She is now a little over a year old and a beautiful girl. She sat and snuggled with me for at least an hour and completely fell asleep in my arms, it was so sweet.

The stories are heart breaking; these children have come from nightmare situations. Many were prostituted by their parents to tourists on the beaches at extremely young ages, most of them were not older that ten. Others were rescued from garbage dumps, abandoned by parents on the street, and others their parents could not afford to keep them, so they are given to the homes. While their stories are heartbreaking, it is SO cool to see how their lives are changing because they are in a Christian home with the nutrition, schooling, and health care that they need. These people who run these homes are amazing and are literally investing their lives into the children to better their country.

Our team is getting along so well. Everyone brings very different things to the team, and it has been fun getting to know each other. I feel like by the end of the week we will be like family. I am also greatly enjoying watching Phil interact with the kids and speak Spanish! I know I said this yesterday, but wow, he can speak so well, and he remembers everything. Tonight, he helped me write down a few things so I can better direct the children as I am doing their heights and weights.

OK, that’s all for tonight… sleep is precious! I hope I will be able to write more tomorrow! Thanks for your prayers and emails back, it is great to have support from home! We would greatly appreciate continued prayers as the sites we will be going to are only going to be harder. Tomorrow we will be in a HIV home with seventy-five children, it will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to another day.

Arriving at the first house, all the children wanted to hug us

These two siblings in wheel chairs were born to a brother and sister who were married without knowing they were siblings creating major deformities in the children. When they found out, they abandoned the children. They are 15 & 17

The little boys and Jackie's House waiting in line for their assesment

The little children LOVE the guitars! One of our great friends donated this guitar that we are going to leave with the mission here so they have a musical instrument. Very cool!