One of the questions posed most frequently upon return has been, "what was your favorite moment?" 
It's a tough one to answer, because even the bad moments were so memorable that they become favorites as I retell them.
Still, one of the most rewarding experiences of the trip, and probably of my life so far, was volunteering at Psychopedagico Children's hospital in Sucre, Bolivia.
Most of these kids were non-verbal, had numerous physical and mental problems, and pretty much got what professionals here would consider no attention. At one point right when we started volunteering, the place was so short-staffed that Liz and I were minding kids at a ratio of 16:1 each, and that was for 4 solid hours with no previous training.
Still, there is something to be said for being a natural at that sort of thing, and Liz and I had a pretty good measure of success. In our stint there, we saw real progress with the children, especially the ones we spent most of our time with. Magdalena, pictured here, learned a few new miming games with me, was almost vocalizing by the end with Liz, actually ate some of her food without throwing it at me, and even taught me some new dances by the time we took off.
It was just amazing to see how quickly these kids can learn and grow if they have someone to be their 'mom,' that is, to spend a little time with them and shoot them a smile once in a while. The mix of understaffing and underfunding makes it nearly impossible to provide this service for the children without volunteers, the people that are actually employed in the hospital are worked non-stop to the point where this kind of work gets quite tedious. I should know, after 5 hours a day or so, I was exhausted!
The hard work was worth it, because in the end, the kids pay you back with their own little bit of simple happiness. We couldn't bring ourselves to even tell most of the little guys we were leaving, because it would break our hearts even more than theirs. On the day we took off, we tried to slip out quietly, but got showered with hugs from the kids and staff on our way to the door. The whole thing still brings a tear to my eye, it was that amazing.
See you soon, Magdalena!
thank you
Posted by: where is it? | July 24, 2006 at 10:48 PM