Halloween Anticipation (10/24-30)

Monday the Danza group returned from their month long trip in the States.  Each year, a select group of students are chosen to travel in the US performing traditional Mexican dances to raise money and awareness for NPH.  The whole house was very excited to have them back.  I had fun during my library shift that night after dinner when, as I was leaving, I slipped and fell in a puddle of pig grease which had accumulated at the door.  I later found out that the grease was from an activity the kids had done over the weekend.  They had greased the terrace outside for a slip ‘n slide type activity.  My butt didn’t appreciate it too much.  I Skyped with Mom and Dad right after and then headed to a volunteer meeting about the impending Halloween celebration.  Halloween being a strictly American holiday, any celebration there of fell to our shoulders.  Tradition dictated a haunted house so we had to decide where, what, and when it would be held.  Personally, my favorite part of the planning process was watching Moni’s transformation.  She went from being an advocate hater of the entire Halloween idea to becoming our most enthusiastic creative director in her efforts to terrify the kids.

Tuesday I was surprised to find the general of our section gone.  My girls had long been frustrated with her methods of running the section and apparently finally did something about it, banding together and requesting a meeting with the directors to formally request her removal.  While I was slightly caught off guard by it all, I was pretty proud of my girls and the initiative they took together to guard their own well-being.  Things the next few weeks were a little more difficult for Luz (the remaining Year of Service) and I as we were the only two in the section and I helped out where I could.  That Tuesday night, a bunch of the volunteers sat down together and watched 28 Days Later to help us get in the Halloween mood.

Wednesday marked a serious change in the house’s schedule.  Due to a new law in the state of Morelos, the school was forced to start thirty minutes later for an indeterminate length of time which therefore set the rest of the house’s schedule off by thirty minutes.  The ordinance was inspired by a new rise in violence within the state.  Apparently too many kids had been kidnapped and held for ransom on their way to school in the early hours, forcing the state to delay school in order for the kids to travel at safer times.  While no such kidnappings had been occurring in our little pueblo, we too were affected by the schedule change.

Thursday night, the volunteers met with the Year of Service kids to enlist their help with our haunted house.  The scale of the thing required more than just the ten of us to pull it off.  The meeting went relatively well with promise of lots of help in various roles.

Friday, Luz left with the other first Year of Service kids for the annual concert trip hosted by a past volunteer and so another girl was placed in our section for the day to help out.  I also spent a good portion of the afternoon with one of my girls looking up modern waltz songs for the impending quinceanera celebration to be held in early November.

Saturday continued the song search and was otherwise a very lazy day full of hanging out in the section with my girls.  Sunday I spent most of the day setting up the bones of the haunted house and helping my girls’ make their skeletons for the Day of the Dead.  A lot of scary, creative projects to keep me busy!

Paper mache in the section.

Being silly and cute.

The heads of the skeletons a work in progress.  Lovely mess!  It was everywhere.

Even I chipped in to help!

One of our rib cages looking pretty good.  To be completed!

Kidney Stones and Coughing (10/3-23)

This three week time period is most notable for the amount of health problems it contained.  The week started out normally enough with its meetings, chores, food and English classes.  We had our monthly party with the directors on Wednesday full of its usual good food and then things started to go south.  Alli woke me up at 5am on Thursday complaining of serious stomach pains.  I got her to the clinic and waited with her as we tried to find some medical staff.  The diagnosis was kidney stones, a problem Alli had experienced in the past, and the doctor recommended we head to the hospital to get her checked out further.  Because it was so early, we headed back to volunteers where we both tried to sleep for about an hour before going back to the clinic to wait for our ride to the hospital.  Our volunteer coordinator recommeneded we just stay in Cuernavaca for the night since our descanso started the next day anyway which meant I ran back to volunteers to pack for us both.  I made it to the clinic just in time for our car and we trundled off.

The hospital was an interesting experience.  I didn't do much.  My job was supposed to be moral support and translation if necessary, but I wasn't permitted in the examining room with them (too many people) so instead I waited in the ER for about hour getting lots of funny looks from people.  All in all the trip was extremely quick and over almost too quickly.  Not much happened.  They examined her, gave her some meds, and sent her on her way.  We grabbed a taxi to head to our apartment in Cuernavaca and the nurse with us returned to Miacatlan.  The rest of the day was spent sleeping, grocery shopping, and talking with Mom and Dad on Skype.

Beyond Thursday, the weekend was pretty calm.  The rest of our descanso crew arrived the next day and most of us went to the movies on Saturday.  Sunday I spent too much time dragging my feet and so I didn't get back to Miacatlan until pretty late.

Bailey and Alli as Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.  There was a special Frida Kahlo exhibit up in the middle of the mall that we explored while waiting for our movie.

Wes and I taking our turn.

One of my favorite Wesleigh photos. ;-D

Monday marked the arrival of a new girl in my section.  She was completely new to the house, but was quickly absorbed into the group.  Tuesday was our usual director meeting.  Most of my afternoon was spent in the clinic helping Sean update the weight and height of all my girls.  (A large part of the clinic assitant's job is keeping track of BMI for the kids in the house.)  Wednesday my health started going south.  I began to feel the first signs of a cold coming on with a little cough on the side.  Thursday I made it through the day and Friday as well only to have the cough come on full force that night.  The cough and cold wiped me out for the next five days.  I spent all my time in volunteers sleeping, watching various shows on my computer, and working out some grad school application details.  It was the first time I had let a sickness take me out of work for so long and the residual effects lasted for a while.  I managed to work Thursday before gratefully falling in to my next descanso. 

It was a very uneventful weekend.  I was still recovering and so didn't feel up for much.  Attempting to sleep through my cough was my biggest accomplishment!  Sunday I did venture out to the pool of a nearby hotel we had recently discovered.  The sun felt great after being cooped up for so long and a group of us enjoyed reading some trashy magazines before heading back to Miacatlan.