In the morning, we had a tour of Hermano Pedro Hospital, a facility that operates completely on donations in downtown Antigua. Portions of the hospital are home to many disabled children and elderly individuals whose families are unable to care for them. Another wing of the hospital was a designated center for malnourished babies. Many of us were quite anxious to see this area and the babies because we had plans to volunteer here the following week. It was hard to see the condition many of these children were in and know there was not much I could physically do for them. We left feeling anxious to return and get our hands dirty.
Later in the day we traveled to a nearby village, Rajon, to teach about 300 children about hand washing, first aid, and germs. One word to describe the experience was overwhelming. While it was an amazing opportunity to reach so many children at one time, at times it was difficult to spend an adequate amount of time helping each individual child. Their sheer enthusiasm was contagious. One little boy ran up to me (Elise) and gave me a bouquet of flowers while another group of girls ran up and held hands with Melissa. Despite their poverty and poor living conditions, these children continually showed us the meaning of joy. They absolutely LOVED getting their photos taken and seeing themselves on the digital cameras. This quickly turned into one of their favorite games and I am sure there will be many pictures later posted on the blog from this day.
No comments:
Post a Comment