UK Medical Brigade

Matt and I are so blessed to be a part of the University of Kentucky's medical brigade next week.  I am excited to get to work side by side with Matt and to be a part of this awesome organization that has helped so many people over the years.  The medical field is such an awesome avenue to help others in under served areas.  I am also beyond excited to visit with my friend Audrey whom I met because of last year's brigade.  She is arriving tonight and we will be exploring the city.  It will be her first time seeing it in the day time.  The kids are excited to be tour guides too.  I am looking forward to heading to Santo Domingo also for a a few days.  We will be going to a few different villages too which will be exciting.  There will be doctors, dentistry, pharmacy, PTs, OTs, and Speech therapists.  There will also be students from the different professions.  It such a learning experience for everyone no matter your age, profession or whether or not you have done it before.  So yet again feeling blessed.  I will try to post from where are staying to keep you up to date on our activities.  It is sure to be another adventure.

Going out to Dinner

This post is going to be short because we are going out to eat with the people from the special needs school.  I guess they could not bear to see me go (or really they saw that I was sad to go and felt bad for me). They called and asked us to meet them in Quito for dinner.  I am excited to see them one more time outside of work to say goodbye.  Last night we also went out to eat with our friends Eduardo and Alexandra.  It was so good to see them again and talk Spanish the whole time.  I guess we have come further than we knew, but we still have a lot of learning to do.  Looking forward to another good dinner.

Saying Goodbye

Today was my last day at the special needs school.  Three new volunteers started today, a young girl just starting speech therapy in Pennsylvania, her dad and her grandfather.  They were so overwhelmed by the center and the day and it reminded me of my first few days there.  It is hard to believe I have been there for almost five months.  It was nice though to be able to teach them what I learned during my time there and everyone looked to me to translate for the new volunteers.  It was a little sad to say goodbye to all the kids and the other therapists and workers.  It is amazing how quickly you get attached to people.  I received hug after hug and even some kisses from a few kids.  I will miss those people a lot and hope to keep in touch.  This is just the first of all the goodbyes.

Nice People

Have you ever met someone that you only see for a short time, but instantly they are etched in your heart?  Well that is how I feel about two men that I met on my route to work.  The first is an old man named Juan whom is a carpenter.  He stopped me about a week ago and wanted to talk.  We talked about WWII and about meeting friends and he had me read a book from a friend in Cananda.  Ever since I met him, I have looked for him everyday as I pass his shop.  If he is there he comes out and gives me a hug or a hand shake and asks how I am and how my family is and wants to talk about anything going on in his life.  He is such a sweet man and I find myself disappointed if he is not there when I walk by.  The other man is a store owner in Conocoto whom I met walking in the morning. His name is Jose  If we see each other we stop and talk too.  He speaks really good English, but we talk in Spanish most of the time for my benefit.  I also find myself looking into his store everyday when I walk by hoping he will be in there.  It is amazing how only a few conversations can make you feel so welcome and then that person becomes a part of your memory for life.  It is truly touching.

I noticed another different thing today.  Often people here make the sign of the cross on a loved one before they part ways, which I think is very sweet.  I will miss seeing things like this everyday.

Mother's Day

Well when I woke up Matt and the kids told me to go back to bed so they could make me breakfast in bed.  It was really sweet and I got to catch up on some reading.  They brought me eggs, cereal, apples and bread.  It was really nice.  After eating I got ready to give the kids a shower and take one myself and realized we had no water.  So we had to go to church stinky as Lucas would tell you, but we looked snazzy.  At church they gave all the mothers a rose and a sticker.  It was really sweet.  After church they had a little reception for everyone which was nice too.  Lucas took one Cheeto, one chip a cracker and a sucker and on the way home said he was not hungry because he ate so much food at church. He is so funny.   Another thing that I forgot to mention in the different things is that people touch my children all the time and pick them up especially Melayna and talk about how pretty she is which happened twice again today.  After the reception we decided to get some card games, coloring books and books to read and go up to La Moya park.  It was such a beautiful day and we had fun just enjoying time together.  We left when a storm started blowing in and had lunch which was truly delicious. The rest of the day we have been readying the house to leave and catching up on some work.  I am so ready to have a yard to work in and a house to fix up and dinner to make.  I love free time, but you can have too much some days.  I am not complaining just ready to get back to real life.  I miss all the wonderful mothers I know, but especially my own mom.  Feliz Dia de la Madre a todos las madres.

On the way to church

Looking good

La Moya

Science Museum

So today we decided to try the Interactive Science Museum.  It was wonderful!  It had an area for kids with slides into ball pits, a volcano erupting, a farm with some real animals and some fake ones that you could milk, a farmer's market with baskets to collect goods and a scale to weigh the , a bean collecting area with mini-wheelbarrows, a kitchen, a bug and bird display and a really awesome Condor zipline.  The kids could have stayed all day long and did the zipline at least ten times each.  They had other areas for brain games, machines and all kinds of science projects, but we did not get to explore them very much because the kids were hungry and tired.  It was a great find in the city and not hard to get to either.  Another successful adventure.

As a side note I thought of a few more things for the crazy and different list.
-A motorcycle with four people on it.  A toddler, a man and an infant tied to the front of a woman with the toddler under the dad's rain poncho
-A woman breast feeding while walking up a hill
-Our come here wave is their hello

One of the slides

Melayna was a little scared

Too sweet not to post

Condor Zipline

Victory!

Hard at work

Our Bumble bee

Bee butt

Stinging daddy

Add caption

Adorable bee and skunk

Organized graffiti

Sweet face Lucas

Feliz Dia de la Madre

Today they had a party at the special needs school to celebrate mothers.  It was very sweet.  They invited me and the kids too.  We left the daycare a little early and headed up there.  When we got there everyone was outside dancing and having a good time.  I was greeted at the gate by a great hug from Juan Carlos and then each kid came up to me one by one and hugged me and sometimes the kids.  It really made me feel so welcome and so loved.  We ate a great lunch with all the moms and hung out for a little bit with the kids.  There was a band singing and playing music during our lunch too.  They had a little presentation to thank me for being there, and then they gave me some beautiful flowers.  It was really nice.  It is always nice to be appreciated.  Lucas helped me carry the flowers home and did a great job and Melayna fell asleep on my back.  At the daycare we also helped with Mother's Day projects, painting hands and drawing hearts on the back of pictures I had taken of the kids.  Lucas gave me a sweet pen flower that he had made.  We also made a little present from Pinterest for Veronica our host mother when we got home.  All in all it was a good day of making things and being thanked. (Sorry about missing last night's blog.  I downloaded pictures to make a memory book and lost track of time.)

The band at lunch

Sebastian does not like the band

The whole crew

Lucas and Dario

My flowers

Flower pen from Lucas

Flower craft

Craft for Veronica