The Slit in the Gate

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." -- Robert Brault

For my entire life, the majority of my Sundays have been fairly predictable. Routine consists of waking up, getting ready, going to church, and then coming home to relax and have Sunday dinner as a family. As I sit in my bed thousands of miles from home tonight, I've realized that nothing about today was predictable. In fact, until about 4 this afternoon I had completely forgotten what day of the week it was. Sleep is an incredible luxury that we all choose over wasting time getting ready. Regardless of how tired we are, any time you spend trying to look nice is quickly counteracted by the first hour of work with the babies or special needs kids. Luckily these kids love us no matter how pathetic we may look throughout the day!

I'll go through a little bit of my schedule today, moreso for myself so that I can remember as much as I can about this experience when I look back. I woke up at about 6 am this morning and got everyhing ready to go by about 6:30 so that I had a few minutes for breakfast. Here in the volunteer house we have huge baskets full of fruit and tupperwares full of speacialty bread. Every Tuesday and Friday these are replenished at the food market and panaderia by girls who have been put on the food committee. The fruit is so amazing here and you wouldn't believe how much we go through here! After breakfast, all of the girls who have a morning shift get on the bus at 7am and we are dropped of at a central point equadistant to the majority of the orphanages where we serve. To explain shifts, each girl has a 5 hour morning shift and a 5 hour afternoon shift. So from 7am-6pm we are working except for the break for lunch in between the two shifts. Three times a week, each volunteer is given an "off" where we will only work one of the two shifts for the day. None of the girls ever recieve a complete day off, but we enjoy the occasional shifts we are given to rest throughout the week :)

On Sundays the girls rotate on the schedule in order to determine who will be able to attend church each week. Two girls are usually given the morning shift as an "off" and then half of the girls have a star by their shift dictating either 8 am or 10 am church and that is the time they will be able to leave their shift for an hour to attend that specific Sacrament meeting. This Sunday, I had a scheduled shift this morning without a star so it wasn't my turn for church. But I have been told we rotate about every three weeks so I will have the opportunity to go at least once while I'm here. My morning shift was in the OSSO Milagros orphanage (meaning Miracles). I was so excited because it is a special needs orphanage and they need a lot of help there. When I got there, I was told that one of the girls working in the other orphanage was sick and so they took my trainer and placed her over there to take her place. Since I am one of the few girls who speaks Spanish, they felt I would stand a better chance on my own than someone else. I was nervous to work at one of the more dependent places for the first time alone, but the Ecuadorian OSSO workers were very patient with me and I understood the majority of what they asked of me.

Milagros houses 8 kids who all suffer from cerebral palsy. They need help with every task including eating, bathing, brushing their teeth, and moving in and out of their wheelchairs. Two of the boys understand all english and will answer in spanish and one little girl can speak spanish but the rest of the kids rely on their facial expressions to express their feelings. I'll describe more of them individually as I spend more time with them, but for now I'll introduce two of them.

The first, is Luiz (aka Guapo). I say Guapo (meaning handsome) because this is the only name Luiz will answer to :P. Luiz has autism and is high functioning in terms of basic tasks like eating and walking, however, he fears all social situations and for the most part we have to leave him on his own and interact with him from a far because he has a tendency to be more violent. He always has something in his hands and is always observing things going on around him. After he gets to know you more he will run up to you and kiss your shoulder and run away as fast as he can. He is so fun to talk to even though he doesn't answer other than with his special little kisses :)

Laurita was the little girl who gave me my daily dose of perspective today. Laurita is fifteen years old. She loves coloring, french braids, bracelets, and smiling. She is absolutely adorable and loves it when the volunteers cuddle with her. She made a point to learn my name immediately even though "annon" is all she could get out :) During activity time where we wheeled them all outside in the sun, I took Laurita on a walk. As we passed by the front gate, Laurita insisted that we stop for a while. I helped her out of her chair and we played with the weeds and rocks on the warm concrete. I was quizing her on her colors and numbers when all of a sudden she threw herself onto the gate and squeezed her face into the thin slit in the gate. I asked her what she was staring at but she batted her hand in my direction and remained concentrated. After a few minutes of silence she whispered, "mama". Thinking I must have heard her wrong, I asked her to repeat it. A little louder now she said, "mama". She pulled her little face away from the gate and I noticed an imprint left from the slit as well as tears welling up in her eyes. She pointed saying "mira" and I looked. At the bus stop across the street there was a woman in a bright red skirt. I asked her who she was and Laurita covered her eyes and said it was her mom. Both of us knew full well that the woman she saw was not her mom. Laurita's mom had left her when she was a baby because she felt incapable of handling her disabilities. Still thinking I must have misunderstood what she was getting at I asked the worker if Laurita might have been referring to something else. As if it were nothing, the worker told me that Laurita goes to that slit every day and hopes to see a woman at the bus stop. And every day she hopes that the woman she sees is her mother. The entire way home I thought about how much these children's parents are missing out on and it hurts me to know that these children actually realize their circumstances.

When I got home I had an "off" for the afternoon and was able to take a much needed nap. I woke up to the most intense rainstorm! Needless to say, I was in HEAVEN! I ran up to the balcony and just sat in it for a while before the other girls and I started Sunday dinner. Even though it wasn't what I was used to, I'm grateful for my Ecuadorian Sunday :)