Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A Long Night, A Lunch, and An Emergency

What a night! I’m exhausted today and about ready to head to bed. The overnight staff for the youngest boys was not able to come yesterday and I was asked to step in once again. It is simply exhausting for one adult to try to bathe and put to bed 27 boys under 10 years of age. I had to call in reinforcements from Sandra and then later again from one of the oldest boys! Then there is the midnight wake up call for some of the boys who still wet the bed. And they are awake by the time the sun comes up at 5am! Half of them have to get ready for school in the morning (the other half go in the afternoon) and then we take all the dirty clothes to the wash house before breakfast.

I barely had time to change clothes before I had to start the trek into town. A walk to the plaza in Sipe Sipe where I can catch a trufi to Quillacollo, and then crossing the plaza to catch the next trufi into Cochabamba. Pastor Reynaldo and Sandra (who graciously agreed to accompany me) met me at the church and then we took a taxi to Pastor Reynaldo’s church. He is the brother of Lita, who is the wife of David, the pastor that we partner with in Cochabamba. He showed us around his small church and then served us a traditional lunch that I can not remember the name of. Apparently, everything was cooked in the ground…chicken, rice, potatoes, and bananas. It had a very different flavor than what I have eaten before and was pretty good. Just as we were finishing, Sandra got a call that there was an emergency and we had to rush back home. The Pastor was very understanding and helped us to get a taxi to get home faster.

I’ll start by saying that everyone is okay. At the time, that wasn’t what we thought. The call Sandra got said that one of our younger boys had been climbing a tree and fallen, landing on his back, on a brick, and wasn’t moving. We were terrified. By the time we got back to the BLC, he had been moved into the clinic and was moving his arms and legs and talking. He was in pain though, afraid to sit up and unable to walk. We put him into the taxi and were off to Cochabamba again. At first he was still afraid, but with a little joking around he started to relax and giggle. He even played games on my cell phone until the battery died. When we arrived at the doctor’s office he was given a shot for the pain and it wasn’t long after that, that he was playing and joking around like normal. He was able to sit up, but was still afraid to walk. X-rays revealed no breaks or fractures. The doctor decided he will have to stay over night for observation, to make sure the impact did not damage any organs. He was in good spirits when we left, and we all prayed together.

We took the trufies home, and as we neared I got a little nervous thinking of the long dirt road we would have to walk in the dark. As we approached our stop, I spotted our two oldest boys lounging on the wall. They were waiting to walk us home! We really do have good boys…crazy monkeys and all :)

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