Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Honor Baslim - Week 5

Hey people,

So this week was the week of Fourth of July so I didn't volunteer on Friday, but still had plenty to do before and after the 4th. Things for the most part were pretty low key this week - though I did meet Diane Keaton (she saved a dog and brought it to our adoption center) she pretty much looks exactly like that --->

We also are having some issues with one of our horses, Spurs. The instructors ride each of the horses on lesson days, however they've all been having it be very uncomfortable to ride Spurs. What this tells us is that their is something wrong with the horses gate - much like humans if there is something wrong with the way that the horse walks it often can do more damage or be covering up a more serious issue with the animal. So we're going to arrange for one of the veterinarians that works at Helen Woodward to get on Spurs to feel it for herself since it's so difficult to explain. I'll let you know next week what she finds.

On Saturday, because it was so hot and we were still down one instructor we decided not to have formal lessons with all the hot leather tack that is typically involved. So we threw bareback pads on the horses and got out the giant soccer ball (as pictured below) and let the kids and horses go to town with various tasks and challenges.


Monday, July 28, 2014



Last week I continued my never ending quest of contacting possible volunteers and organizations in the Daytona Beach area for the August 7th IDignity Volusia event.  I also helped to obtain basic supplies necessary for each station that will be at the event, like the DMV and Legal teams.  I was extremely excited Friday morning, as I was able to attend one of the main planning meetings.  I met one of individuals who helped organize the original IDignity event that took place in Orlando in 2008!  The meeting was full of representatives from different non-profits.  It was really cool to see so many people working together to make this event happen.  I am looking forward to seeing the leadership team again Tuesday night for more planning.  

Mike the head of Community Outreach at the VFCCH has been able to secure a number of bus passes to help the clients who live in the areas surrounding Daytona Beach reach the event.  Local non-profits will disperse these bus passes to clients later this week.

I am really excited the event is coming soon, a lot of people have been waiting for it. Many  of people in the Daytona Beach area were not able to come to the last IDignity events in DeLand or Orlando because of transportation.  This will be the first time they will be able to benefit from its services.

Rehoboth Children's Home



Week  7

So this week was my last week at the home. It was pretty heart breaking to have to say bye to the kids. We spent a lot time together this week taking a lot of photos and playing soccer. I spent the last couple nights with the girls because the directors didn't want them to resent them for sending me to the boys' house. We made churros and watched movies. The boys drew me lots of pictures before I left. One of them decided to forgo playing soccer to stay with me while I helped the rest of the kids with their HW. They made me a goodbye cake and some of the kids cried which made me cry....lololol. I'm gonna miss these kids so much, I already know I need to come back.


On my last morning I took the kids to the bus stop for the last time and might have teared up a little bit.....Here's Walter & Oliver waiting for the bus (LOL @ Olly's face)


This week my office work consisted of making short promo videos for the Rehab Center in English and Spanish. I had to take pictures of the center and the men. There is so much work to do here. The only thing I have left to do for them is finish the website. This experience was trying at times but I wouldn't change a single thing.

See you all at Stetty!

Bella

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Week 7: Best Week Ever

This was not yet my last week serving at the IRMC for the summer, and next week certainly will not be my last. Serving at Indian River Medical Center has honestly been one of my most valuable and gratifying experiences of my life and will always will be. It has provided me with countless friendships and connections, directed me to a more specific career path, built my character, and brought me tremendous fulfillment.

Not yet knowing what next week will hold, I have to say that this week was the best week thus far! As I mentioned I would last week, I took advantage of the invitation I received from a surgeons to observe live surgeries. It was absolutely incredible. When I arrived at the hospital in the morning, I went up to the operating room entrance, got changed into scrubs, and immediately began watching an ongoing gastric bypass surgery. There were three probes inserted in the patient's CO2-filled abdomen (COto keep the abdomen inflated for operating within). One site served as the entrance where the camera was inserted to display an enlarged image on the monitors. The other two served as sites where the surgeon entered to operate. All of the incisions were small in these cases. The surgeon sectioned off a portion of the stomach, and connected the other part of the stomach to the small intestine by creating an opening in each and sewing them together. The part of the stomach that was sectioned off will shrivel somewhat, as no food will enter it. As a result, food consumed by the patient will only enter the other part of the stomach and the patient will feel fuller much more easily. I believe that there was also some operation between the small and large intestine that I missed at the beginning, but the main goal of a gastric bypass is to "shrink" the stomach. The surgeon's work there was done. The PA (Physician's Assistant) and several others were left to the tasks of stitching up the exterior incisions, and the anesthesiologist to restore the patient to consciousness.

I then followed the same surgeon to a gallbladder removal surgery, mastectomy, and a thyroid removal surgery. The surgeon is a general surgeon, which is why he performs these multiple types of surgeries. Each one was extremely contrasting and fascinating. For the thyroid removal, I also watched the lab specialists create a slide from a section of the thyroid to ultimately identify whether the small mass within the thyroid gland was benign or malignant. The slide-creating process itself was incredible due to the various materials, substances, and methods that were used. The slide then was brought to a man in his office (I did not catch his job title) where he and I viewed the prepared thyroid cross-section through a microscope. The mass turned out to be benign and the man pointed out the microscopic characteristics that led him to make this conclusion.

What made this experience so exciting for me was the fact that I saw and felt what it was like to be in these job positions. I have been considering following the track to becoming a PA for some time now, but was bombarded with the innumerable medical career options and opinions of others. However, more than I have in shadowing or considering any other career, I felt very strongly as though I could be a surgical PA. Career searching has been a complicated and unclear process for me, but gaining the insight that I am from my experiences and conversation is leading me closet to finding what I will set the goal of becoming. And as many people do, I will probably hold several medical positions within my lifetime.

Aside from my day of viewing surgeries, I was able to do some more IC work and help in the auxiliary during the week. I am having such a wonderful time in each task that I perform and with all of the staff and volunteers. It has truly been an incredible Summer of Service for so many reasons. 

I hope that everyone else's summers have been as fulfilling as mine. I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon and continuing the education that I love!

B-love

P.S. Here's a real picture of me scrubbing up for surgical viewings!

Monday, July 21, 2014

Flagler Schools Summer Camp Week 6

Happy Friday y'all!

This week afforded us a surprise field trip to Daytona Lagoon, which was an awesome treat for our kids because it's an expensive trip and we definitely weren't expecting to go twice. Monday and Tuesday were regular camp days. I apologize for not posting more photos, but it is a public school and we've had some issues with employees being inappropriate in recent years, so I'd prefer not to show their faces rather than causing trouble :]

Daytona Lagoon was straight up wacky. We arrived and it was already lightning, so there was a chance we were just going to turn around right their. The employees were super helpful and gave us a birthday room rather than the huge tables up on the roof, but it was a lot smaller than we were used to and so cleaning up spills was pretty difficult. We waited for the rain to subside so I read the kids a long story (Zack Files, FTW). When it finally stopped, we headed outside, and the water was freezing! Within five minutes, all of their little lips were bright blue. Even though I offered to sit out with most of them, they insisted on staying in for 45 minutes. The lifeguard on the tallest kiddie water slide was a riot, and the kids loved him. He was splashing and playful, and totally polite, which is a refreshing change from the dozens of aloof lifeguards that work there. Luckily they didn't get soaking wet from the rain on the walk back to the bus like last time, and could thus take a sweet little nap on the ride home.

This week's home ec was a choice between chocolate pudding with whipped cream in an ice cream cone, or an ice pop. Not much assembly necessary but boy were they yummy. The pudding thing was using leftovers from a 4-5 home ec activity in which they created edible teacups a la Alice in Wonderland, which looked like this: it was so adorable.

The rest of the week was nice and smooth. I'm really proud of how some of my kids are improving, and I feel like the kids and I have grown together. I learn how to lead them more and more as we go along, and they are learning how to follow directions and are really improving on how they play together. I have a few new students and it makes me proud to hear them asking other kids their names and playing with a variety of kids. One of my kids, who used to be the worst member of his old group whom I mentioned became an angel upon staying with me, is regressing somewhat into his old ways. When I ask him to play in another area or not do a certain thing (like tossing toys) he's beginning to shut down and retreat, which is a behavior which used to occur when he was a member of the purple group. I'm not at all sure what has caused this, but I think I'm going to have a chat with him to find out. I take pride in seeing my kids sitting the nicest in the cafeteria, and I have to have group time-outs less and less as we go along because there's hardly ever anything I need to discipline them for. I think they have really grown and are going to make great kindergarten and first graders this year, and that alone let's me know this has been a successful summer.



Flagler Schools Summer Camp Week 5

This week was awesome!

I unfortunately was sent home Monday morning because we came back from the Fourth and only had 50 kids in K-1. State ratio is one counselor to 25 kids, and while we try to keep at most a 1:18 ratio, one of us had to go home. I was one of the only ones who has never been sent home, I volunteered to save the others some hours. I used it as time to clean our house, so it was not wasted!

Tuesday was a regular old day at camp, but Wednesday was extra fun! We told our kids we were going to practice for the movie theater field trip (pending PG movies that enter the theaters) by having a movie day at camp! Because so many of them were jazzed about the current How to Train Your Dragon II, we decided to show them the original, complete with two rounds of fresh popcorn. I think it went successfully, and all of the kids had a really fun time and were pretty well-behaved for their first "practice run" (;]).

Wednesday was officially the best field trip we've ever done, and it sent us right down to beautiful DeLand. For the first time in my past two years at Stetson, I visited the Reptile Discovery Center on International Speedway. Oh my gosh ya'll, it was awesome. It began with a half mile walking tour outside along their "Discovery Trail" and the first animal on the tour was a mother alligator, who was snapping her hungry jaws at some grub right as we walked by. It was only mildly terrifying, and the kids were really excited to see such a rarely seen animal so close up. After that we saw an iguana, some skinks, some tortoises, a water monitor (heir to the Komodo Dragon, which is my favorite animal.), various other reptiles. The indoor portion of the tour included a huge room filled with venomous snakes (and a Komodo Dragon skull!) of all different regions, which the kids had an entire five minutes to explore. Trust me, it was plenty. They had a massive blast. The final portion was the cherry on top: a live demonstration of how the center extracts venom from the most deadly snakes in Florida and then creates anti venom for Pfizer right here in DeLand Florida. My mind blew. It was so awesome!

Then after a nice lunch under a covered area and bathrooming all of the kids, we were only caught in the rain for a minute before boarding the bus and heading home. Thursday and Friday were also pretty uneventful, but Friday afternoon's home ec project were nachos. Camp doesn't really have a weekly theme this year, but the kids had a great time mixing and mating toppings for their chips. All in all, a wonderful week of camp :]

VFCCH

I am currently working with the Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless.  

For the last week I have been doing outreach, recruiting churches and helping to organize the IDignity Volusia event that will be taking place in Daytona Beach on August 7.  For those who do not know what IDignity is, it is an event that helps homeless and disadvantaged individuals get their social security number, birth certificate, state ID, and driver license, all things that would be needed for applying for jobs, or getting bank accounts. After having some complications we have a group of churches who have agreed to help with outreach, and a church to host the event.  Unfortunately we have not gotten as many volunteers as we predict will be needed, but both Mike, the outreach coordinator, and I will continue to work on recruiting volunteers. Our goal is to have most volunteers from the Daytona Beach area, so the community feels more connected and are more aware of the impact they can make in their own city.
 
 I have really enjoyed working with the staff at VFCCH and focusing on the outreach.  As most of us know, I am usually a very quiet individual, but this work has put me out of my comfort zone.  I am almost constantly working with individuals in a professional environment.  Mike has been working with me one on one, helping me build my confidence and helping me learn the administrative roles of planning a large event.  I am looking forward to continue working with VFCCH throughout my Summer and the school year.

B-LOVE

Larry Swartz

Rehoboth Children's Home

Week 6

Wazzup everybody! (Yes I really said that but it's too late to turn back now.)

Brace yourselves. More unfunny jokes are coming.

So as this week wraps up it's really starting to sink in that I'll be leaving these kids pretty soon. While I'm excited to get back to school and see everyone, I'm definitely gonna feel the void of not seeing the kids. These kids have brought so much happiness to me during my time here. It's truly inspiring considering that these kids have all experienced some kind of tragedy or abuse in their lives. That being said, this week I worked on a number of things, chief among them being writing updates to each kid's history. Having read through each case, I have a deeper understanding to everything that they have overcome and why they might act up sometimes. However, I've decided to highlight some of the funnier moments in the week.

As I mentioned in my last post, Chici left for the U.S this week, leaving Victor to fend for himself in the kitchen. As an act of kindness, the house father, Adrian, offered Victor some breakfast. Which went something like this...

Tio Adrian: Don Victor! I made some duck eggs, do you want some?
Don Victor: EW.

Which was immediately followed by uproarious laughter of all those present.

I´ve really been enjoying the kids this week and trying to take everything in. And these kids are hilarious. We´ve gotten into the habit of telling jokes and funny stories during cleaning time to make things more fun. The little ones say the funniest things without even realizing it. For example...

Noe: Tia Bella do you know the Dora the explorer theme song?
Me: Dora dora dora exploradoraaaaa!
Noe: *unintelligible screech of excitement*

Lastly, I´ve gotten to know the staff around here pretty well too and we´ve begun to understand one another´s humor.

Tio Pedro: (Rather casually) Bella did you clean this window?
Me: Don't raise your voice at me!
Tio Adrian: Stop yelling at the poor girl.

I´ll definitely miss them too.

I spent the weekend with the girls who were only slighlty less behaved..... teenagers.....
But we had some good times playing charades and scattegories.

All in all it was a good week.

B love,
Bella

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Week 6: IC & Microbio

Subsequently to recovering from my jet lag (mostly), I returned to IRMC to, primarily, jump back into my infectious control work. The auxiliary (where regular tasks are sourced) was, and continues to be, extremely "slow" as the off-season continues. Also, the cancer patient navigator held two meetings while I was out of town. So, I only helped in the auxiliary here and there and with the patient navigator for a few hours this week. 

Nevertheless, I have been getting more involved with the infectious control project and was also eager for some more career insight. I spent the majority of the first day collecting and compiling data for IC. However, the second day, one of the IC staff members told me that I had permission to visit the microbiology lab! I spent the day almost entirely in the lab where I observed, discussed, and assisted with analyzing patients' lab samples. It was fascinating!

I was very excited to be familiar with many of their tools from my experience in labs at Stetson. The “media,” which I call “petri dishes” in labs at Stetson, are isolated growing surfaces for the samples. The gelatinous growing base contains 5% sheep’s blood because it’s characteristics enable an easier growing environment. Human blood has characteristics, such as more antibodies, that change organisms’ growth, making observation and identification more difficult. There are sheep that are raised for the sole purpose of extracting their blood for these “media" dishes. It is interesting to me, but maybe not to all. Anyhow, I learned details like this throughout the entire day from shadowing a woman who had worked as a microbiologist at IRMC for 35 years! She had even performed phlebotomies on sheep before her lab career. All in all, it was an exciting day for me as I experienced a working lab environment. Many labs are different, of course, depending on what is being observed or researched. Yet, in considering research as a career, it was great to spend time in a real lab environment for a day.

The rest of the week consisted of more IC data collection, making posters reminding faculty to use proper precautionary and sanitation practices, and spending time with the IC staff. I met some new staff members during this time and offered my help with anything they may need. Ideally, within my last week at IRMC, I will have some more exciting opportunities as I help serve the hospital. For one, I will be helping the cancer patient navigator with more cancer patient meetings and I expect to see a large jump in the hand hygiene compliance based on the behaviors I have seen this week. And a doctor this past week invited me to come watch surgeries any time, so I will definitely be taking advantage of that! 

Until then… B-love!


P.S. Here's a picture of me collecting data.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Rehoboth Children's Home

Week 4

Hey all:

This week I mostly helped with the girls. The house mother had time off so I stayed at the girls' house to take care of them and make sure they were doing their homework and chores. This time was a bit different than last time because I've gotten to know the girls better and we feel more comfortable around each other. When the girls finished their work, we were able to have some free time and ended up having a disney movie marathon :) .

This week I also spent some time creating a video for Chici to use when she visits the U.S next week. The video has pictures of every kid as well as their age. Chici will be meeting with current sponsors & donors as well as raising funds for the home.

On a more somber note, there is another children's home in Parramos that is specifically for kids with special needs. On Sunday one of their little ones passed away because her lungs filled up with water :'( The directors and kids at Rehoboth were very sad and we shared a moment of silence for the little girl.

Rehoboth Children's Home

Week 5


Walter
This week was much of the same... my morning office work was mostly working on a video Victor wants me to make that will explain the history of the directors and how the home was founded. They already have an existing video, which Victor wants me to adapt so that it is up-to-date with how things are run at the home currently. I've been working all week on getting footage and have already started editing. When the kids get home things liven up and the afternoon is spent keeping the kids on schedule.
This week I had an additional task of cleaning and organizing some of the back rooms in the home. This turned out to be a wonderful thing because I discovered some guitars in one of the storage rooms and was able to borrow one for the rest of my time here :::::)

Antoni

Luis
As my time here is coming to an end I am already starting to miss the kids and wish that I could continue to be a part of their lives. As a result, I've been considering sponsoring one of them and have gotten my roommates on board so that we could split the cost and it would be much more manageable. However, choosing who to sponsor hasn't been an easy task because I know & love them all. Nevertheless, these kids have become a part of who I am and I really want to be able to give something back so I guess I'll have to decide eventually xD. But I have narrowed it down to three so far.....


Later goonies.
Bella

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Flagler Schools Summer Camp Week 4

Hey y'all!

This week was obviously a short one (go fourth!) so this post will be a little shorter than my next one.  We tried to make this week as smooth as possible because we had the dreaded beach field trip on Tuesday with the other three Flagler Schools camp.

The kids and their counselors from 2-3, 4-5 and 6-8 are all fine people, but it's really difficult all being in the same place at once. I made the mistake of having my kids bring their backpacks along with us, which upset my site-managers and coworkers a little. The way I saw it, if we were making them bring towels, lunch boxes and sunscreen along with us, at least give them something to bring it in rather than trusting them to keep it in their hands on the bus and then once we arrived. I prefer to give my orange group their Big Kid challenges at camp where there's less detrimental consequences than permanently left-behind belongings. We went to the beach first, and after assembling a huge canopy tent (like a pro!) we went in the water for about 30 minutes. It was really rough that day, and although I helped them all up and sent concern for their safety, I couldn't help but giggle a little when the big waves would roll through and they'd all go down like little bowling pins. None of them were hurt or had trouble swimming though, and without fail they all came running back to the deepest possible section after tumbling. We make a box out of our bodies with the fourth wall being the shore, and only went in as far as my thigh-level (which is obviously not very deep at all). After pulling them all back out we headed up on the beach for some sand play and then walked about a quarter mile up the sidewalk back to a small, air-conditioned community center for lunch and hotdogs, and then a nice afternoon on the playground and in this gorgeous field. The breezes felt so nice and it really was a much better day than we're used to for beach day.

The rest of the week had no real major events, aside from a case with a little girl from another group who continues to swear one of my boys put his hand down her bikini bottoms at Daytona Lagoon. While he has admitted to it and has since been punished, her mother barrages us every morning with claims that her daughter is practically being raped at summer camp, many of the allegations we have proof never occurred. Now instead of having our afternoon movie in our own room safely within the interior of the school, we now have it on the bright, hard stage floor in the cafeteria. This little girl is also made practically miserable each day of camp because her mother insists she play with any boys and as a result must be kept next to a counselor at all times. We're struggling as a camp to decide how to help her have the best summer possible, but right now she has put us in a difficult position by lying to our faces and then running and telling her mother different stories. I'm learning quickly and in a much more serious context than ever before that parents WILL go to any lengths to protect their child, even if the results they wish are irrational and practically impossible at the expense of their child's happiness. I'll add more as it develops.

To end on a happy note, our kids created really beautiful firework paintings Thursday evening out of pipe cleaners, so I thought I'd share one here:


Happy 4th~!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Honor Baslim - Week 4

Hola amigos!

Well this last week I got to work with a kid from a local Boy Scout troop - he's working to get his Eagle Scout membership or whatever it's called so he chose our program to do a project for. He approached the director of our program with the purpose of building something for us so he will be building a shade structure next to our arena for parents to sit under when it's hot out. It was cool to meet someone so young (ok he was like 15ish) that has such a passion for his organization - it reminded me of some of our Bonners.

Lessons this week were good - though we were down a staff member so we all had to pick up the slack. One of our horses Mark is like 35 years old - which is like 90-something in human years, and
Mark
he has spent his entire life as a lesson horse. Teaching children of varying age, skill, abilities forever - and he loves it and the kids. It's funny cause he's not really mean per say but he's definitely grumpy - he just wants to be left alone as much as possible, unless of course if it's time to teach. In his lessons Mark perks right up and gets right to work; though he isn't anymore Mark used to do horse shows almost always placing. The point in me writing about Mark is to make a point - I know some people involved with Bonner have not always seen the benefits to volunteering in animal related organizations, but it's not as simple as that. Yes there are times with these types of organizations that we are doing "non beneficial" work unrelated to people, but we do that work for the animals so that then they can preform some sort of task. We clean the horse stalls so that the horses can have a nice habitat when they're not working. We groom the horses to get them ready for their lesson. Then we get to work with the horse to help someone, but we couldn't have gotten to helping this person without helping this animal. It's important to always try and see the bigger picture in most things in life, don't get bogged down in the details - but don't forget them either.

Well, that was a bit of a tangent - but still relative!

Will write again soon, B<3

Monday, July 7, 2014

Honor Baslim - Week 3

Hello friends!

Sorry I'm late with these last few posts - things have been going well at the center.

I've been working in more and more lessons lately, I had a wonderful experience with this little girl Samantha (name changed) who has both physical and mental disabilities but the best attitude I've seen in a long time. She's been coming to the center for therapeutic riding since she was 5 (she's 11 now) and although it takes a lot out of her to expend the energy to hold not only herself up, but also to hold her reins and also to communicate with her instructor she still does it all with the biggest smile.

Mikey
We've had some issues with a couple of our horses this last week unfortunately - Mikey who is already oddly spooked (he's never been abused or anything like that, just quirky) is having some issues with the ramp which has to be used for all horse mountings, so that will need to be fixed.

We're also in the process of adding a new horse - Poné to the program. There's a 90 day vetting process where he goes through trainings and eventually he's assessed on his compatibility with the program and therapeutic riding and a decision is made. Unfortunately Poné was abused before and he has some issues with meeting new people. He's getting a lot better though - he's no longer afraid of the ramp, has no issues with any of the toys the instructors use in lessons, is ok being tacked up. We're still working on his introductions to strangers (he is most comfortable with myself and the full time staff at the center) and with side walkers - he's really good at reading body language so when there's 4 or 5 different people around him he tries to read everyone's body language and obviously can't and then gets pretty agitated.

That's all for now! Will write again soon!

Week 5: To The Future!

This was a shorter week than normally for me, but that's because of the trip I'm taking the following week (right now, actually, by the time I'm posting this). Nevertheless, it was another very involved few days at IRMC. I worked predominantly with the patient navigator of the cancer department one day compiling the past year's data. This was a big help to her, as her arm is still in the process of healing from the break.
The second day, I was the "minion" of the IC (Infectious Control) department. I'm having more and more fun doing work with the IC team as the summer goes on. I'm still collecting loads of data, and the hand hygiene practices were going up steadily. Yet, this week they seemed to drop despite the multiple re-education sessions that IC has been holding for the nurses and other faculty. These re-education sessions are mandatory and are done with small groups of employees. Some of the staff sincerely believe in and practice proper hand hygiene, yet those few are not enough to stop the spread of harmful germs and, worse, illnesses. It's a work in progress. I'll be sorting the data when I get back from my trip and will update you on our progress. We now have extra "eyes" observing and collecting data, so we are hoping for the data be more representative of the multiple shifts of employees.
Just a little something extra about why my week was shorter than usual: I served a half day at IRMC one day because I had a lunch meeting with a woman who has held many positions in the medical field. She was a ARNP (nurse practitioner), midwife at IRMC, OB/GYN, now works in cosmetic surgery, recently took a year-long course on integrative health at Duke, and still wants to move into a different career based more on the principles of functional medicine. This was a rare and highly valuable opportunity for me to speak with someone who has such vast experience in the medical field and has many of the same values as myself. What's more is that she has generously offered me her continued assistance and to be a guest speaker at Stetson's Annual Spring Health Fair. There is much to be done on my part now with researching and planning both events at Stetson for my community organizer position and for my continuing education and career!

Talk to you all in 2 weeks! B-love & support :)

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Rehoboth Children's Home

Week 3

The work schedule at Rehoboth works so that you are working about 15 days and then have 3 days off. This week I had some time off which I spent with my family in the capital. Most of my volunteer hours this week came from working on the website (taking advantage of faster internet connection in the city). I've made a lot of progress with the site layout so far. For this site I chose to use Wordpress in the hopes that it would be easier for the Rehoboth staff to use than the one they previously made (which I made in high school). They are used to keeping the world updated on happenings at the home through their blogspot blog. While there's nothing wrong with this, I think if they were to utilize the website more it would appear more professional and "legit" to potential sponsors and donors that read about the home.



As for my time off, I was able to see a lot more of Guatemala and gain some insight as to what daily life here is like. Here are some of the things I've noticed: First off, Guatemala is a beautiful country. The only way I can describe it is like going to a day spa for your eyes....which sounds incredibly dumb. But really. Volcanoes. Volcanoes everywhere. It's a drastic change from the flatness that is Florida. Second, the roads are insanity. I've yet to see a traffic light and I've been here for a month :O There are pretty much no traffic laws of enforcement and yet Guatemala has a lower rate of deaths by road traffic accidents than the U.S. However by selecting violence as a cause of death Guatemala is ranked #1. Which leads me to my next point.....Guatemala is also pretty unsafe in some places (lololol). During my time here one thing I can truthfully say I have not enjoyed is how careful I have to be with how I dress, who I'm with, etc. The men here don't respect women and don't bother to hide it. During my first week here I actually witnessed the police chase down two stolen trucks and chase the drivers down the street into the restaurant where we were eating. And they had their guns pulled. But this is normal for Guatemala.

Last week we took the kids out for a hike in the area surrounding the home and we visited a woman who was making a tapestry for the house father. They were some of the happiest people I have ever met...and also some of the poorest. I very sneakily took some photos:


While I stayed with my family I had a different experience. My aunt is a very hard working educated business woman and has become quite successful. Below are some photos of her house, also taken very sneakily:

 The disparity of the living conditions in Guatemala are extremely evident, and the distribution of income is also highly inconsistent. The richest 20% of Guatemalans account for more than 51% of the country's overall consumption. More than half of the population lives below the national poverty line and nearly one half of Guatemalan children under 5 are chronically malnourished (source).

One last observation I've made that I'd like to share is that Guatemalan people are very hardworking. The indigenous people slave away making beautiful intricate tapestries that they sell for about 80-250 Quetzales (about 10-30 USD) with simpler patterns going for even less. What Guatemala lacks in the way of systems (roads, store inventories, etc.) it makes up for in customer service. Guatemalans are helpful, intelligent, and kind-hearted. Though Guatemala is very different from the States, I've definitely fallen in love with it, and will be very sad when I leave next month.