jessica stukken beter.....gelukkig!!!:-)
Hola todos amigos y familia,
Jess got quickly better after 2 pills , lots of special liquid from the doctor and a good nights sleep without having to go outside looking for the toilet!! and came to work with us yesterday morning. Our last morning in the orphanage, again with a big pack of diapers and wet-ones..........a good thing, because as we were playing outside with the kids we heard that that is what they really need: they only get so much every week, no matter how many babies and toddlers needing diapers. I miss the kids allready!!!! I wish we could send the 2 women working with the babies day and night on a well deserved very long hoilday and take over their jobs for a few months! As we waited to get our 'certificate' (with a nice picture of us on it! :-), we saw that they indeed work every other day 24 hours or more, also in the weekends, not one single saterday or sunday free!!!! I will seriously try not to complain about the'gemeente' any longer!!!:-(
We are just back from our trip up the mountain, half way up, it reminded me of all the beautifull hikes I use to do in South Africa. Except, here you find high up the mountain whole families working on their plots of land growing vegetables etc. Mostly all by foot, small kids carrying firewood on their backs, running past us..............:-) this is really very very hard labour!
Half way up, we found a spot to sit and wait for the vulcano being active.......and having our breakfast and enjoying the beautifull vieuws. Jess took lots of nice pictures and made it all the way up and down, still having weak legs from her recovery..... and dancing lessons yesterday. :-) She can definately enroll for compititiondancing now with her perfect posture and hands up in the air very gracefully! Tonight her teacher and the danceschool are giving a show: salsa, bachata en rumba. We will go ad watch it in an kind of old bioscoop turned into a disco! Maybe the pictures follow this afternoon, otherwise later! Anyway, this is just a message to let you know that Jessica is getting better quickly now! :-) (Hard for me too keep it short!:-)) Adios , jess y line
laatste update.......
hola amigos,
Just back from the doctor, Jessica walked around with diarhee far too long and the first course of antibiotics didnt work and now something strong is perscribed and should fix her within 24 hours....................it s really SHIT!!!! Today was the first time she felt too sick to come to work with us and even too sick to go to her dancing class! :-(
Luckily the weather is beautifull since last week friday, nice and sunny during the day and that helps a lot when you feel sick and live in an outside room with the toilet outside as well.........lying in the garden in the sun reading magazines and talking with us about our mornings work with the kids helped to get her mind of this damn stomach cramps!
Since the last story we got an extra job with a dutch organisation: Caras Allegres (happy faces) and indeed, the kids faces here are really happy! But then, in the orphanage the kids also greet us with big smiles and calling :mami mami to us every morning! So happy to see people in their room that gives them some extra attention! And they call everybody that takes care of them 'mami'.
I can t remember if I already told the story of us using too many nappies, because everytime we smell a child, we clean them. Everytime they cry and seem hungry,IMADE A BOTTLE FOR THEM, BECAUSE ONE OF THE LADIES SHOWED ME HOW. The next day all the nappies were hidden and the bottles I was told too stay far away from................poor kids, they have to wear their pooh nappies all morning and the smell is just dreadfull, not to mention their poor bums.............We all feel so sorry for them and so I decided I buy a big pack of nappies and wet-ones so at least when we are there we can change them when needed. Now feeling hungry is the 'only problem'. .....
We still can t figure out how their timetable works with feeding the kids. They leave us alone with the kids most of the time, meetings all the way or wherever they are, we just dont know, but at least the kids have a bed to sleep in, have cloths to wear, do get fed from time to time, there is a doctor available and a psychologist and they are saferhere then with their own parents. One story I heard from the psychologist is quite shocking. Ans so each child will have a horrible story to tell we presume, otherwise they would not be in this orphanage.
I really admire the two women that takes care of all these little ones. They work from 9 in the morning till the next morning aND HARDLY GET TIME TO SLEEP WITH ALL THESE BABIES THAT NEED ATTENTION. Next morning the other one coms at 9 and takes over, but the one that should go home selden goes before 11 o'clock. This is also during the weekends......
With the 3 of us helping out there and taking the bigger onse outside to play, they also find some time to play with the kids and they have some fun with them. No idea how they manage without the extra hands of voluntaires.......... When Jess and I are gone after tomorrow, luckily Roxanne and another amarican girl will still be there for a few more weeks.
In the afternoon Jess plays games with the bigger kids and enjoys that very much. They have lots of fun and mostly HAPPY FACES!!!
I decided I rather help the teacher who is teaching adults to read, write and aritmatics. These women, and one man, are so motivated and learned a hell of a lot in less than one year! Some come with their babys on their back to class. The teachers are really amazing, they also do this all voluntariary. Have their own teaching jobs at school in the morning and come 3x per week to teach the adults. They also started a sewing class recently. Very good project!!!
Saterday we move back to Antigua, just to sleep in a nice place with our own bathroom and relaxe 2 days before taking the plane back home! This citywe really dont like, it is big , dirty and very noisy! But the surroundiings are really beautifull and saterday and sunday we made some lovely trips to the mountains and villages and soaked a few ours in the hotsprings!
Friday we will clim a volcana and leave 6 in the morning! And now I will check on Jessica how she is feeling and will have to find something to eat! The rest of our stories you will here when we re back home!!!!!!:-) Muchas gracias for all your reactions and interest in our trip and adventures! Buenos noches, hasta semana, jess y line
Quetzaltenango...in de volksmond Xela, spreek uit: she-lla
Het was een hele toer om hier te komen........we zouden netjes met een priveshuttle opgehaald worden zaterdag 4 februari tussen 14.15 en 15uur. Ready far before 14, I sat down in the sun with my book waiting for that shuttle.......when finally the phone wrung and the dutch lady who is our host here, called to tell that the driver could not find our homes (3 of us, and which was absolutely a big SMOES) and was gone without trying really to find us and refused to go back to pick us up! So she offered us to be picked up the next day either half past 5 in the morning or half past 2 in the afternoon. So, we all choose the earlymorning pickup and that our extra night with the guestfamily should be paid for by the company. One hour later we were called again: the only possibility is half past 2 the next day. So, we told her we will organise our own shuttle for early in the morning and so we did and got to Quetzaltenango sunday round 9.30 in the morning after a three hour trip through the mountains. Luckily the weather was as beautifull and sunny as in Antigua. Everybody warned us that it is really very, very cold down here and that we should buy ,handschoenen'! Nothing compared to the temperature in Holland and the rest of Europe!:-)
During the day, apart from today :-(, the sun is shining nice and bright, and temparature drops quite a bit late afternoon/early mornings.
The hostel here is also a bit of a shock to us, after staying in really nice and comfortable houses with the guestfamilies. A pity we were nog warned about this, it is not a real hostel, just 4 rooms, one occupied by personel from the school that is attached to our rooms. And the only other people we 'meet' are the students who sit one by one with their teachers in the courtyard, working very hard to learn spanish, so no time to interact really. And that is why we choose a hostel for the last few weeks........Anyway, the garden at least is beautifull, so that kind of makes up for the rest: not too clean outdoor room, not to clean outdoor bathroom to share with all the others, very gloomy kitchen with no clean pots and pans to cook in (luckily Jess and I both dont like cooking, so we eat out, which is a nice surprise everytime sofar!)
The town is very hectic with lots of travic and the centre not as beautifull as Antigua, but with beautifull mountains all around the city.
Jess discovered quite a few nice dancing schools, salsa offcourse and the possibility to go out dancing is everynight! The discotheek is around the croner and will be open as from tomorrow! It seems that the weekend starts here on wednesdaynights.........:-).
This morning we started our jobs in the orphanage. Jess with the schoolkids making thir homework, the boys go to school in the afternoon, have to make homework under supervision in the morning. The girls the other way round. So we did only meet the boys to day.... and the baby's and todlers. I worked with the baby's , about 8 of them and 4 to 5 todlers between 2 and 4. All the work done by one person during the night, and one person during the day.....
I was totally exhausted after 4 hours changing nappies, giving bottles, soothing crying babies and todlers and one little autistic girl , 4 years old, who needs a lot of attention. I really admired the staff working here with the small ones! Everything is very orderly and clean and well structured with a doctor in the house, 2 psychologists and 2 social workers. Nice big kitchen, big room with loads of washingmachines :-) and nice playcourts for the kids. Also 2 little calssrooms for the kids that need special attenttion. It s a orphanage from the government. Compared to everything so well organised for the schoolgoing kids, it is a pity that the babies and todlers cannot get enough attention with only this one staffmemember. There is one little girl underfed, very very tiny . Not getting any special attention or special food. Anyway, we will be working there for the next 2 weeks and hopefully be of some use to the kids ans staff there.
So, now back to doing some homework and learn some spanish! Hasta la proxima semana! jess y line
afscheid ninos......
Hola todos amigos
Hola todos amigos,
Entonces, aqui nosotros estamos para proxima nuestra historia otra vez...........
(so, here we are again for our next story......)
After the first hectic week of working andattending spanish lessons for 4 hours each afternoon, we hadn't seen much of Antigua, as it gets dark just after 18 and so we should rather stay home, unless we go out with lots of other people. Last weekend we made a list and first we went to the really big supermarket. I just love supermarkets in other countries, to see the difference and simalarities.....This one is really big en 'heerlijk chaotisch ingericht' and got whatever you need, and don't need, in life! ;-) We found some 'first books for kids' with numbers and letters, for practiing.......
Secons on the list was a really good cappuciono and pasteleria! Like in portugal, maputo y madrid you find a pasteleria on each and every corner. Very tempting!! Luckily during the week no time for that!!!:-) We found a beautifull courtyard 'muy tranquilo con muchos beuno flores' (pictures follow soon!) in a very busy street. Everytime we are surprised to discover these beautifull courtyards with amazingly beautifull gardens full with colourfull flowers: bougainvilla, hibiscus, streliza'a , aquapentus......all the south african flowers I know. Even jakaranda trees in full bloom on a few spots in town.
Nexton the list was to find the very nice bookstore: the rainbow reading room. They have a big collection of second hand english boooks and a handfull of new books too. I found the life story of Rigoberta Mechu, who won the nobelprize for peace in 1992 for her efforts to end the oppression of indigenous peoples in Guatemala. Really fascinating and moving. I was very tempted to buy the spanish version as well,(being very positive that one day I can read it like my own language!) when my eyes caught the sniah version especially for kids, with beautifull drawings. Just the right book for me to practice with! :-) Jess discovered a beautifull book for chldren, one side english, the other side spanish. Seems like it is written by a dutch women who lived for 8 years here. Very pleased with our pursoses, we settled down in the courtyard again with the newspaper, to try to find out what is going on in the rest of the world....and offcourse the weatherforecast! Muy importante!!!!
All day we walked the roads we didnt take yet and along the way discovered all sorts of interesting shops, musea etc. The town was ful of tourist and live msic.Very nice atmosfere, allthough for me too many people...........:-(
The whole day discovering Antigua by foot, left us with no energy to go out dancing saterday night! :-(
Early to bed, sleeping late and again a 'to do list' for sunday..... that will be for next time, have to rush to get in time for class!!! Adios, jess y line
here we are again....
helaas, our spanish is not good enough to write a nice story in spanish!
De eerste week werken zit er op, straks weer 4 uur spaanse les. The first week of working behind us, and yes, we survived! This afternoon 4 hours of spanish lessons, and that means also one week spanish behind us. Well, I can count now in spanish! And know the days of the week, and the months of the year.....and some verbs....and can get along with the few words I do remember! Jessica is much better and knows far more words, but than, I comfort myself, she has a young brain! And mine is just 'blanco' after the whole morning with the small kids brabbling all along............
Yesterday one little girl had her 3rd birthday. It was such a big party for her at the school, which her parents organised, looked more like a wedding!! The big game was hitting the pinata's with sweets inside. Each child got his/her turn to hit it untill the sweets fell out. This is the only child in this school that I have not seen smiling........Her parents seem to spoil her a lot as she is their only child. Jessica will add some pictures of this whole happening! All the teachers were tyred too, luckily. I thought it is just me who cannot handle small kids birthdayparty anymore!
3x a week an elderly canadian couple come to school and dish out food to the kids. Their daugther is running an orphanage (casa Angelina) for sexually abused children, their son building houses in Equador. Jessica talked a long time to them this morning during playtime outside, so the full story I do not know. Except that they do really good work. The school is sponsored by the Rotary, and every kid is welcome. Mostly kids from single moms. Some come to school really hungry and ask for food straigth away, others seems to carry on sleeping......but mostly they have fun and fight and scream like healthy, naughty kids!!!
This weekend we will stay in Antigue, hardly seen anything of this lovely town It is dangerous to go out after dark (6) and anyway we are totally exhausted and can just manage to walk home! Luckily our food is cooked for us, dishes washed, that really helps a lot!
Our trip to the lake last weekend was quite an experience starting with driving for a few hours in a minivan on bed roads. The mountains along the road are really beautifull with little houses scattered all along and little businesses along the road. It reminds me a lot of time in Maputo 2 years ago.
The lake was really beautifull (pictures follows) the little towns very picqtures. The markets really, really colourfull as you couls see on the pictures.
To catch a ,chickenbus, to work is also quite an experience and only cost 2 quetzal, 2 eorocents per trip! This morning the bus stopped a kilometer from our school and we had to walk the rest. Luckily a teacher saw us walking and gave us a lift.
Next week jessica will go to the small kids, because she is so bored with the big ones, and I will start with the big ones to teach to write their own names. They still cannot do this. Have a nice weekend, the school is closed, we have deserved a good rest, and the foto's are on the way! lineke en jessica
jess nog in shok!!!!
vervolg.........
Hola Amigos,
This time in english, for the frieñds on th other side of the world..........
2 mornings of work behind us, it is lots of fun, but a classroom full of small kids, mine 2 and 3, Jessicas 4 and 5, is not a job for sissies! I really admire these teacher that do this everyday!
It starts in my class with at least 3 kids crying for their mummies.........
I have snot and tears in my neck of all these todlers soothing.........
After a few hours school, not much structure her, we are totally warnout, Jessica also, it is not just my age!
>Then to get the bus back is quite another experience, like a chickenbus, just a place to stand and try not to fal out the door.
Now it s time forour 2nd spanish lesson, it is quite fun, but my brain is really slow in the afternoon, and gues, here age this definately counts!!!
We keep on trying, and have fun all along, and thats what counts! hasta manaya or another day.....adios, jessica y lineke
