Sunday, October 14, 2007

So I only slept until 5 when I was woken up to a man that almost passed out on his way back from the bathroom. I was up for the rest of the day then, which is ok because I got too much rest anyway, but it did keep me from going to PDP to do junior church. That is ok, because I had a good time at the church in St. Louis; I spent most of it outside listening in, with the children that did not have “appropriate” clothes to go to church. We were having fun messing with each other because I am learning more Creole and they knew a little bit of English. After communion, I went over to the recovery room because we were going to try and put Sonel in his chair for children’s church. Our original plan was to get him to church for the whole thing but because of the babies needed to be watched all the time we did not have the opportunity to get his dressings changed. This also prevented him from going to children’s church, so I just observed Erin teaching. She did the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abendago, and the cool thing about the way she does her lessons is that she reads the story and lets the children act it out as she goes. It is fun because it gets the kids involved and they can learn more if they see it and hear it. By the time church was over the babies were back in the baby orphanage with the belief that they were doing better. After church it was time for lunch, which on Sundays is just snacks that people have brought and leftovers from the week. After lunch I went down to recovery and demanded that they change Sonel’s dressings so that we can go outside. Erin had an extra music lesson today, so when Sonel and I went outside we got to leave the gate because we went to her class to watch her teach. While we were there a group of the medical team decided to take a long walk up the mountain because they had the day off and they needed to get off campus. While I was at Erin’s class I had to go back to campus because Wisley showed up with something that I needed from the Orphanage so I went to put it away. While I was gone Sonel had someone move him to the window and he could see the boys across the street playing basketball and Erin said she thought he looked sad because he knows he will never be able to do that. It was good timing that the crew that was walking arrived as Erin was coming in with him because there is quite a step down from her class room location and she needed help. After class Erin and I spent some time with Sonel playing catch in the courtyard and talking with him about things and just trying to get his mind off of the fact that he had to go back in his bed later. After 2 hours outside he was ready to go inside but not into bed so his dad took him back to the recovery room courtyard where they said he hung out for about another hour. I went upstairs to chat with the group that went on the hike. They had a wonderful time and got some really nice pictures, and Sarah (a 19 year old from the group) lost something while they were hiking so her and Candice (another teen) were debating whether or not go retrace their steps to see if they could find it. I suggested that we do that because of what was in it, so the three of us went on the hike again, looking for a camera case with tent keys, 50 American dollars, and a woven patch in it. We did not succeed, however we had a great time and met some very fun little children on the way. We got back just in time for dinner and found out that one of the babies was back in the recovery on monitors and oxygen with respiratory problems and was going to require her own caretaker all night. A lot of people volunteered for Sunday night so I waited to see if I could help another night. After dinner and devotions we watched a documentary on the mission shot by Tina, a woman who is from Canada. The item that I had Wisley bring me from the Orphanage was the popcorn machine because Carmen requested popcorn on her day off. Since I had the most experience in that area I made everyone movie theatre quality popcorn and they loved it, of course, I did not eat any. After that we just hung out and ate popcorn and fellowship. I went down to the recovery room to see the baby and wound up falling asleep in Sonel’s bed with him because he was awake and we hung out for a little bit. Peace.