When work is pleasure, life is joy!

Hi everybody!

I wanted to give a quick update on how work has been. This week Natalie and I have our own personal transportation to work due to the crazy amounts of people in the house. Our house has 13 people living in it right now and it's a little ridiculous. I will update on another post about the new roomies.... I haven't even really got to know them that well yet. Natalie and I both work further away than everyone else's placements so here we are in our personal taxi to work, haha! We miss you already, Lili!

On our way to work

I really love getting up and going to work in the mornings because I know the children are going to be happy to see me. It's a great feeling! They all usually yell "jugar?!" at me once I walk in the door which means "to play" and as soon as I nod my head they are super excited. Yay! I have been trying to bring different activities depending on the day so that they will be excited/anticipating a specific day and not getting bored too easily. This way it also makes some of the children play together which is always a good thing. 

  

Outside of our Unit

'Pediatric Burn Unit'

Last week when I got to work they were waiting on me to play Bancopoly. It's the Guatemala version of Monopoly....... okay first of all if you don't already know - I hate monopoly. The game sucks and it's too complicated and it's not fun. It's probably has a little something to do with the fact that I have never won, and usually don't make wise business choices but WHATEVER! It still sucks. So anyways of course I didn't act as if I was not excited at all and we began to set it all up, which is also a pain. AND THEN I had to try and explain the game, with the language barrier, and I ended up just making up a less-complicated version of it. So throughout the game they were laughing and making fun of me because I kept either a) landing on their property or b) getting one of those cards that tells you bad news and makes you pay. The funny thing was I had no clue what happened or why I was having to pay and they did. So they thought it was hilarious and they had a good time with that. So yay, we played monopoly and it ended early because everyone got bored with it..... double yay.

Some of their other favorite games that I have taught them are Memory (there's a finding Nemo one for the younger kids and an English animal game for the older ones). They love it and they have a better memory than me and it's a little embarrassing.... like I'm not letting them win on purpose every single time like their mothers probably think. Haha! Also, they really enjoy 'Go Fish!'. It's so much fun watching them overreact to either when they get a card or lose a card. I was joining in with their dramatic-ness and it was so funny. The mom's were dying laughing. And some of the mom's even joined in for a game or two and really enjoyed it. I tried teaching them Uno today... but they were like bored after 5 mins. Smart kids. So I need some more card game ideas because they really love them!

Anthony

Anthony

Okay so I'm really excited to finally introduce you to some of my children!! This is Anthony. He is about 2 years old and is so full of life! He really brings a positive atmosphere to the unit. He is not as badly burned as most the kids (as you can tell). He just had some burns on his lower back and his biggest issue was not being able to itch it, so I helped him with that a lot. He does a little dance whenever I'm scratching his back and it's super cute. It is sad some days though because I think sometimes it can be unbearable. I am also proud to announce that I have been teaching him Futbol (soccer)! He loves it. I brought him a ball and we have been playing around on the side of the unit where there is some free space. He loves to shoot and I taught him how to yell GGOOOALLLL! when he scores. And he thinks its the funniest thing ever. He also is pretty good at dribbling and was so excited to show his dad when he came in last week. I fully intend on taking some credit for that when he's a superstar one day. SaD DaY/GrEaT dAy .... Anthony left me today. He is well enough to leave the hospital and his mother was so relieved to take him home. She was probably my favorite of all the mom's and I am really going to miss seeing them every day, but obviously I am so happy for the family and that they were able to take him home today. Thanks for making me smile, Anthony!! I wish him the best of luck in life.

Jose

Jose 'Grande' giving the "Gig 'Em" :)

I am most excited to introduce you to my hopeless romantic, Jose. He is 11 years old and absolutely amazing! He knows more English than I know Spanish and he is so smart. He makes fun of me regularly and I love it. He keeps me on my toes lol. He usually wears a mask on his face to help with the way the skin grows back but he wasn't wearing it for a while today. He is cute, isn't he? He has severe burns on his face, arms, hands, legs and a little on his feet. He moves around great and has so much energy. I spend most of my day hanging out with him and he is seriously so wonderful. He likes music and he will sing to me. He also usually draws me something and/or makes me something once a day. He is the same one I was telling ya'll about from the first day that drew the exact same picture I did and made me hang them both up next to each other. He usually let's me try and teach him English but he knows a lot already. The picture he drew me today (posted above) he did by himself. He makes me laugh at least 5 times a day and I am so thankful to get the chance to get to know him. I think he my be leaving within the next two weeks and I will be sad to see him go, but excited that he can leave the hospital. Until then I will continue enjoying his company!

Happiness is the best make-up.

I have plenty more to tell you about all of the wonderful children I see everyday. I am sad because one of my other favorites, Isaias, is having to be isolated in a different room for a while because he has an infection. He cannot be allowed around the other kids because their immune systems are very weak. The mothers/doctors/children didn't seem to care too much that I brought my camera today so I am excited that I may be able to take more pictures of our days together. I can't wait to introduce you to the rest of them so I'll see what I can do.

By the way- Shout out to Brena (my friend from work) because I just told her about my blog and hopefully she will check it out. She is so cool and we are so much alike its pretty funny. She is great with the kids and she teaches me a lot about not only life, but also how to do well around the children. Maybe I can get a picture with her soon, too!

It's time to have a "history of Guatemala" lesson with the new roommates and Virginia. This sounds kinda boring because I'm really tired but I bet I will end up loving it. I hope everyone is having a good Monday. 

♥