The best way to describe time here is, days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. Days seem to take sooo long to go by. Especially during that last hour of shift when you have just had it with the crying and fights and the kids are long over due for their nap and you are starving. But then when I look back I can't believe I'm into my third week already. I have been asked a couple times so I am gonna write out exactly how my days Saturday-Thursday go.
6:15AM: Alarm goes off. Get up so I can have a turn in the bathroom. Get dressed, brush my teeth, pull my hair back in a pony tail. I love not having to get ready here.
Go downstairs try to find something for breakfast. Usually a hard boiled egg and fruit or something quick and easy. No cold cereal here. Definitely miss that.
6:40AM: Fransisco picks us up and we drive to the orphanage.
7:00AM: Arrive at the orphanage. Chang our shoes, put up water bottles, put on aprons.
7:05AM: Walk into (we'll say I am in Sala dos for the morning) the sala dos room that smells completely like poop. This has got to be the worst part of the whole day. The smell is almost unbearable sometimes. They don't get changed during the night so at least 90% of the kids have poop and pee through all of their clothes and up their backs. But they just have the hugest smiles on their faces and they are so happy to see us it makes it worth it. Usually there is only one person in dos. So I start by taking off all the pajamas of each kid. (Which is a diaper, onsie, long pants, fleece zipper suite, and a sweater. for some reason they think its freezing at night even though its not.) Then I take a child and hand it to a worker to bathe it. Then she hands it back to me. I dry him or her off, put lotion on their whole body, put on diaper, onsie, long sleeve shirt, pants, sweater, and socks. (Mind you I am wearing a short sleeve shirt only and sweating its so hot. Its just cultural here that they affiliate getting sick by being cold. So they never want the kids to be even close to cold) I then take the dressed child and place them in the playroom. I go back and we continue that until each child is done. It usually takes about an hour to go through all of them.
8:00AM: I have all the kids settled in the playroom so now its time to play, do therapies, wipe noses, change diaper only if they are wet all the way through their clothes or poopy, break up fights, sing songs, do whatever I can to entertain the kids and myself. Sitting in a room about the size of an average bedroom for hours on end can make you pretty creative when it comes to entertaining the kids.
10:00AM: Soupa time. You take a child, bring them into the kitchen, put on a bib, grab a bowl and scoop soupa into it. Soupa is hard to describe, it pretty much looks like mashed potatoes in soup form. But I have no idea whats in it. Its just soupa. haha. Its gross, I could never eat it. Thats all I know. I then will sit in a plastic kid chair and lay the child in my lap. I then pretty much have to spoon force feed it to them. It usually gets everywhere and its a mess. But its a nice break from sitting in the room.
10:45AM: All kids are done eating. Back to the playroom we go. More playing, therapies, entertaining, wiping noses, stopping fights, etc..
11:30AM: Finally go down for a nap. Put each child in their crib with a bottle. Free at last!! Then I pick out clothes for the next day for dos and tres kids. Then go and clean up playroom and help in Tres until its time to go.
12:00PM: End of morning shift. Fransisco picks us up.
12:20PM: Arrive home, wash hands and see whats for lunch. We have a cook that comes everyday but Sunday. Its soo nice to come home to a meal all ready. I am usually starving by this time. Usually its some type of chicken, rice, and vegetables.
1:00PM: Relax, go on computer, just chill. Sometimes fit in a quick nap.
2:00PM: Leave for afternoon shift.
2:20PM: Arrive back at orphanage. (We'll say I'm in sala tres for the afternoon) Go wake up kids from naps. Again so cute and smiley excited for us to get them out. We put the shoes on them then put them in the playroom.
2:30PM: Playtime, Therapies, break up fights, stop kids from crying, wipe noses, change diapers, entertain. Luckily in tres they are allowed to go outside and play not just have to be in the playroom. So we play in the backyard a lot. Their favorite things are blowing bubbles and reading books so we do a lot of that.
4:00PM: Soupa time again. For most of the tres kids they can sit by themselves in a chair so it makes it easier.
4:30PM: Done with soupa. Back to playing and trying to not count down the minutes to bedtime. ha.
5:15PM: Put kids in pajamas. Take a child one at a time and take off all clothes except onsie. Feel so bad as you pile the layers on them. Long pants, pajama suit, sweater. Then you clean their face and put lotion on. Then brush their teeth.
5:30-6:00PM: Second worst time of day. Seriously counting down the minutes. The kids are so tired and grumpy. Getting into everything and crying. As us volunteers try and keep our sanity.
6:00PM: Finally bedtime! Lay each kid down in their crib with a bottle. Say goodnight and FREEDOM!! done for the day.
6:30PM: Arrive back home. Try and find something to make for dinner. Hang out, watch movies, relax.
9:00PM: This is about our average bedtime. Its amazing how exhausted I am by the end of the night.
Go to sleep to wake up and do it all again!
My days sure can be hard and long but when I get home and think over the day I feel so rewarded. I think about how I am the one that *Billy took his first steps to. I think about how *Jonny is finally learning how to sit up by himself. I think about their cute faces getting so excited running to greet us and saying hola over and over again as they run into our arms. I think about how smart *Sally is and how she mimics anything you do. Today she was fake sneezing. I sometimes even look at pictures of the kids and miss them and can't wait to go get them from their crib in the morning. haha. They sure are adorable. I am so grateful for my opportunity to be here. I am so glad I am able to love them and try to give them the best life given their circumstances for these two months.
*Names changed for Ecuadorian privacy law reasons.
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