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

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~!

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

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 :)

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.