Yesterday two more Casa babies went home. Very sad. But very good. Right now we are back to only seven kids at Casa Jackson because they haven´t gone out on a malnutrition field visit to get some more. (This was planned for Monday, then today, but they still haven´t gone and I don´t know when they will. It´s hard for me to come by good information when my Spanish is so weak and when schedules, etc. aren´t taken as seriously here as in the U.S.) The director of Casa has a goal of filling the place to its capacity (20) within the next few months. If she succeeds, I hope that increase in numbers is accompanied by an increase in volunteers and funding. She also wants to get the word out locally about Casa Jackson. Right now the majority of volunteers are American or European, and it just makes sense to have more local volunteers so they babies can be around people from their own culture, hearing more of their own language. It´ll also be better for the families of the kids. I imagine it could be upsetting to leave one´s kid with a bunch of white people and later bring home that same kid, healthy and smiling more than it ever did at home. Last weekend I talked to a family from Guatemala City who come down every weekend to volunteer at Casa, and they were great. Hopefully once word spreads (Casa only opened last October or so), more Guatemalans will be helping at Casa.
This morning I assembled a portion of a 13,246 piece mailing. This afternoon I am going back for more. This isn´t as miserable as it may sound. I enjoy a bit of tedium from time to time. Especially when that tedium is accompanied by the dulcet tones of Sheena Easton´s ¨Morning Train¨ in Spanish. Fantastic.
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