motherhood boot camp: a couple weeks ago, i talked about how would soon have to start sleeping in the special needs home, san pascual, a few nights a week. but, in true dominican fashion, that had yet to happen, as we have been waiting for a bed for me. but, finally late last weekend they brought in the bed and it ended up being just in time because this tuesday we got some more really intense rain and one of the tias wasn't able to make it in. so this left two tias in the house, one of which is new and in training. so, we figured it would be a good first night for me to stay there and help. well... wow... is about all i can really say. it was quite an experience. first we did dinner and showers, which wasn't that bad... i mean none of these kids listen or really understand anything, so everything is a little bit of a challenge, but it was a relief once they were all finally in bed. but then... all the kids sleep in the same room, so at any point during the night, there was screaming, yelling, or just random talking (actually just noise making) and walking around the house. i have no idea how anyone in this house sleeps. by the time 6 am rolled around i felt like i hadn't slept at all. but, it didn't matter, because it was time to get up and do showers, get dressed, eat breakfast and get ready for the day. and i'm not trying to be gross, but when you get up in the morning and walk into the kids room it smells completely disgusting because the diapers are wet and dirty and usually one of the kids that doesn't wear diapers has wet the bed too, and it's all been sitting in this hot, humid room, so ya... anyway, we basically through all their clothes and sheets into a pile and shower them, put on new clothes and mop up the room. then it's time for breakfast and the rest of the day. so during breakfast i discovered the thing that is going to keep me alive for the next 8 months, and that is coffee. now i have never, ever liked coffee in my life (i much prefer the green goodness of mountain dew), but as i sat exhausted at the breakfast table, i graciously accepted the cup the tia offered me. and let me tell you dominican coffee will wake you up. it is very strong, and they just drink these little tiny cups, more like shots of expresso... whatever it was, i forgot that i was tired! anyway, i got through the day and got to go back to my normal bed, but then on friday, we had another problem with the tias and we only had 1 tia for the whole weekend. so, i packed up my stuff again and stayed in the house from friday til monday morning. it was very, very exhausting. but, i gained so much respect for these tias. they do a ton of work. it's just a never ending cycle of sweeping, mopping, diaper changing, feeding, cleaning, etc... i think i got bit six times by kaki (who has been acting up more than normal lately, and really it requires just one tia to be with him all the time), peed on a couple times and pooped on once (again, sorry, not trying to be gross). i don't really know what it's like to be a mother, but i'm thinking if there was some weird bootcamp that they had to prepare you for it, this would be it. overall though, when it was all said and done, it was kinda fun in all the stress of it. and i feel like i really bonded with the tia in my house and a couple from the houses next door. i felt like a tia myself as we sat outside and drank our 4 pm coffee (which btw is a great way to get through the rest of the day). so, we'll see what my next nights in casa san pascual bring...
movie night: one of the things that helped get me through the weekend was a movie night i had with my boys in casa santa rosa. it is the house i normally eat in and i had told them that one night every month we could have a movie night to make up for the fact that i would be spending more time in casa san pascual and not eating with them so much. so, i gave them 3 choices for this month, "the lion king" (el rey leon), "curious george" (jorge curioso), and "teenange mutant ninja turtles" (tortuga ninjas). we debated for about 3 three weeks, and kylie you would be proud, i had a surprising number of votes for the lion king, 2 from the toughest boys in the house... but in the end, we decided on ninja turtles. we set up a projector in their room so we could play the movie on the wall. we also invited another house of boys to come over and join us. so after i had gotten all the kids to sleep in san pascual, i ran over to my house, made a big pot of popcorn and then went to watch the movie. so we had thirty, 11-14 year old boys in one small room, in their pajamas, eating popcorn and watching the ninja turtles in spanish. it was really fun and they were so cute. it really made my night :)
solving a mystery: so i've always wanted, like in my next life, to have some sort of mystery solving career... you know like fbi agent or homicide detective... so this week, i got a chance to act a little bit like a detective. on wednesday, kelly and i did the girls sports program and this week i brought my camera... because this is kinda a momentus moment here... girls playing sports... anyway, a bunch of the kids were using it while the girls were playing, but when practice was over i took my camera back, took the soccer ball in one hand and took one of the boys from house (who was hanging out around our practice and acting up a little) in my other hand to take him home. i got to his house, dropped him off, and gave the boys back their soccer ball and went home to change before dinner. as, i was walking out to dinner, i realized i didn't have my camera. so i looked a little, but couldn't find it. i thought maybe i dropped it off accidentally with the ball, so i asked at dinner, but no one had seen it. i went back home and searched again. i was starting to get stressed. but i just decided to get up early and look again. at the first sign of daylight i started searching outside for anywhere i could have dropped it. i talked to the kids in my house again, and they said they hadn't seen it. it was my weeekend off, so i told the boys in my house to please look out for it or ask around and see if other kids had found it and to let me know when i got back. i said a quick prayer to st. anthony (who, btw, had never failed me) and headed off for the weekend. i hoped to come back to one of my boys who would be so excited that they had found it, but i did not. so, i spent the next couple days going around to every house, asking kids if they had found it, or had heard that any of the kids had it. it was funny cuz i was getting all these different stories from everyone... like i gave it to this kid or that kid or i dropped it or this or that (many of the details were getting lost in translation). so a few days passed and still no camera. i got desperate, so i put out a $200 peso ($6) reward. so every morning kids were coming up to me asking me if i'd found it... i'd get a few more clues from kids here and there, but still no camera. so i finally, just kinda gave up and just accepted the fact that i had probably lost my camera. i was so bummed. however, as i suspected, st. anthony did not let me down! one day while i was at casa san pascual, kelly came running over with a plastic bag and my camera. i asked her what happened and which kid i owed $200 pesos... but she told me that she had found it in the bag of practice jerseys we use for the girls sports program. i felt so stupid and kinda had to apologize to the kids, but now they are all trying to convince me that they helped kelly find it, trying to get a piece of that $200 pesos. all embarrassment aside, i am so happy to have it back... but sadly there will be no pictures to accompany this week's blog!!
"when i say, 'my foot is slipping,' your love, Lord, hold me up. when care increases within me, your comfort gives me joy." - psalm 94:18-19
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