job changes: so i've talked a lot about how this country requires a lot of patience and flexibility and my job in the special needs home is no exception. they asked me to come here to help in the special needs home, but i wasn’t sure exactly what i was supposed to do. i have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, but am no where near qualified to know what to do with special needs kids, but i said that i'd be open to helping where they needed me. they have a physical therapist here, so when i first came i thought the best approach to working with the kids, would be just to take them one on one and work with them individually. it has been working well… we’ve been painting, going for walks, playing at the park, etc. and with paola i can do more stuff, like read and work on her reading and writing skills. it's nice here because there is a lot of freedom to just take initiative and do what you think needs to be done. it's hard sometimes though when i don’t know what to do and just wish someone would say “do this!” … but i know that nph-dr is one of the newer of all the nph homes and a lot of stuff everyone is still figuring out… it’s kinda cool to be part of that building process. anyway, sister fanny (the director of the house here) told me a couple weeks ago that she would like me to expand what i am doing in casa san pascual and to start sleeping there with the kids and tias a couple nights a week. i guess she wants me to be able to help the tias out and see if i can make any suggestions for how the special needs house is running. the tias here are good people, but there is an attitude that i've found common among many dominicans and that is one of complacency. they are happy people, they are loving people, but they are often times satisfied with just getting by… which makes it hard for us volunteers who come here and try to make things “better”. i mean i have no idea how it is to grow up and live in a culture like this, so i don’t necessarily think it’s their fault, but a lot of the volunteers and i have found it challenging. it’s just hard to know that there is so much potential (especially for all these special needs kids) to do something more. but we’ll see how it goes... sleeping in that house should be interesting to say the least! i also had another job change that started last week. one of the volunteers who was in charge of coordination of visitors/volunteers, just finished up his year of service and headed back home. so, they asked me to help the other visitor/volunteer coordinator with answering emails, giving tours, basically helping all people that are coming to nph-dr before they arrive and during their stay. and also looking at future applicants who want to come volunteer. i think it’s going to be a lot of work, but i'm looking forward to it. san pascual can be very draining, especially if i’m going to be spending a couple nights there, so i think it’ll be good to have something else to do that is totally different…. and if you wanna come visit, let me know!!
mira: if you came here with no spanish knowledge… one of the first words you would learn is “mira”, which means “look” or “watch”. it is probably the most used word at this orphange. whatever the kids are doing they want you to watch. i probably here it a thousand times a day… “megan, mira! mira! mira! mira!” it’s really cute.
salomon: salomon is my god-child that i've been sponsoring for almost two years. (the way nph/friends of the orphans works is that people can sponsor and become a “madrina/padrino” to one of the kids at the orphanages they have. you can sponsor by sending in money every month… it doesn’t go directly to the kid you are sponsoring, but to the organization in general, but if you are a sponsor you will get pictures and updates on your child and a letter twice a year. you can also choose to stay in touch with your god-child and every time you send them a letter, they send one back to you. ) i have to admit i was a pretty horrible god-parent… i sent in my check every month, but that was about it. i tried to write him a letter once i knew i was coming, but i never got around to finishing it (mostly cuz ami and eric were making fun of me the whole time… thanks guys!)… but any way, no excuses, i was just being lazy. so when i got here i was a little nervous to meet him. i thought he would either (1) have no idea that i was his god-mother because i never made any attempt to get into contact with him or (2) think i'm really mean because he knew i was his god-mother and i'd never make any attempt to get into contact with him. however, the volunteer coordinator assured me that it didn’t matter, that he was really excited that i was coming. when i got there, the volunteer coordinator was giving me a tour and we saw salomon, so he introduced us. he was really, really quiet… and so was i because i was afraid to speak spanish… but he walked around with us and i ended up eating dinner at his house. since then, i've eaten as his house for pretty much all my meals so i've gotten a chance to know him a lot better… and he is just a really, really sweet kid. all the kids here are really great, but salomon (or “sol” as we have started calling him), just has a really sweet heart. i'm really glad that he’s my god-child because the other kids can so talkative and outgoing and he’s so quiet that i feel like i probably wouldn’t have ever gotten to know him that well. he likes sports, especially basketball (even though he’s not the most athletic of the kids here), however he is an amazing dancer! i am totally in awe of his skills (cuz i have none). he has two older sisters and an older brother that live here too, so i hope i can get to know them this year as well. it’s been cool coming here to meet him because it was cool to realize that this random kid that i picked up off a table after mass, is actually a real kid, just like anyone back home and he’s here living his life every day… i don’t really know what i'm trying to say, it’s just cool. (if you want info on sponsoring a child, check out the nph and foto websites on the right side of the page)"walk in beauty my friends... and peace."
-fr. ken
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