So as you might be thinking after reading the title to my post, the ukulele has died. It broke yesterday after being played with by one of the kids here. I was not upset because it has served its purpose in the house. It has gotten me closer to the children and they have started to play with it and sing and dance a lot in the house.
So I thought that for todays post, along with the usual events happening in the house, I would write about some of the people here and some of the overall themes after observing the SACH house.
First with the update.
On Tuesday I went to the hospital for the day to visit Esther. When I got there I was told that she might be going home that day. Ester was so happy and was telling all of the nurses. Ester was moved to the childrens' ward and was full of energy that day. She was walking around feeding herself and smiling, which was the most important thing. Esther was placed in a room with two other babies and their mothers. These babies are SACH patients, but they do not live in the house. They are Palestinian patients who needed heart surgery. There were many Palestinian children at the hospital that have received heart surgery. The mothers of the other children were very nice to Ester. They didn't speak any Hebrew or English, but they made her feel at home with the simple smile or hand gesture.
We ended up waiting around the hospital for almost the entire day and then we were told that we could leave. Ester was so happy. She said goodbye to all the Nurses and then we left.
For the past two days, Ester has been feeling better, but is very tired and mostly sits around the house. I think she is upset with how she doesn't have a lot of energy now.
Today was a really simple day. We just hung out around the house and played games, went on a walk and then watched a movie. The kids didn't really want to do anything today. Kassim made me a ring out of beads. It is so beautiful. Nassor made me a bracelet. I love those boys. They are always playing together and smiling. Nassor came back to the house a week ago from the hospital, but he is still weak and cannot be doing a lot of actions. Both yesterday and today Kassim has been my dance partner. He speaks very little English but just by using hand motions, we are very close. Kassim is 13 and he has never gone to school because his heart condition made him too tired. Yesterday he told me that when he is going back to Zanzibar, he is going to go to school. He is so excited to go.
I don't think I have ever spoken about this boy in the house. He came back from the hospital when I was a couple days into my volunteer service at SACH. His name is Adisu. He is from Ethiopia. He is 17 and came to Israel with a nurse named Ababa. He speaks very little English, but we have slowly been getting to know each other. He doesn't really play or hang out with the rest of the kids in the house. Adisu is a kids from the slums in Ethiopia. He doesn't have parents, but he has a younger brother. He was involved in a gang and was into drugs and smoking back home. Hopefully when he goes back, he will not go back to the slums. Adisu is a very nice boy. When he speaks he is very gentle and kind. He had to have an emergency heart operation after his first operation because something went wrong. The other day I was sitting next to him and I heard a ticking sound. I thought that it was his watch. When I checked his wrists I realized that he had a pacemaker installed in once of his surgeries.
Kevin is a child that I haven't really spoken a lot about. He is the baby from Indonesia with a cleft pallet. I just found out that no one from the mother's family has ever seen him. Where Kevin comes from, he would be cast as an outcast if they saw what he looked like. Hopefully he will get an operation soon to fix his cleft pallet.
Migdalia is the one year old from Panama who is always running around the house looking for her mother. She has already had her heart surgery, but in two months she needs to have another one because the problem was worse than expected. Momma Migdalia is very sad about this because she has been here for almost 6 months and she has 5 children back at home who she has not seen in a very long time. Momma Migdalia also has no one else in the house who can speak Spanish.
It is getting late, but I still have more to write about. I will try to write about the nurses tomorrow.
Goodnight everybody,
Shauna
No comments:
Post a Comment