Some more pictures!

Little Caty

William and Rosa

Nadesha

Feeding William, Holding sleeping Ofelia

Marta

And a giggle!

Ofelia and I

Sleeping Sucena

Feeding baby Ofelia

Antigua in the morning

"All I want is to see you smile... Even if it takes just a little while."

It is my last weekend in Guatemala.. Oh how it will be hard to say goodbye. I can't believe this month has flown by so fast... I seems like yesterday when I was writing my first blog about how excited I was.

Today I had A LOT of fun! This morning Alejandra and Olivia came and picked us up after breakfast to take us around. We all loaded into the back of her pickup truck (It was crazy for the Guatemalans to see 5 crazy gringos loaded in a truck!) and went to the ruins of a convent that Alejandras' mom works at. It was really cool to get to see the convent and just imagine when it was running and everything that happened there.

After they took us somewhere to surprise us, We went about 25 minutes out of Antigua through some little towns and we ended up in a lovely golf course/country club place. It was settled between  mountains and a volcano and the view from it was breath taking! We got to have a great meal there and a tour around the place. After we played Squash, Tennis and some Soccer.

When we got back to Antigua we had planned to meet some friends and have a going away dinner at the pizza place we love called Christophe's Pizza. Again it was fantastic and we had an amazing time with all of our friends!! I am going to miss them all so much.

L to R: Alejandra, Me, Gabby,Olivia, Christophe, Anda, Parker, Pancho, Rodrigo, Laura and Amber

Today I decided I am bringing home two little girls. That is just what needs to happen. The first is just a tiny 10lbs 7oz 4 month old named Ofelia who is just so precious and stole my heart this week. The second is a little 4 year old named Sandra. Sandra has been at the center for the most of her life, she came before she turned one and has been there since, she was one of the first babies I played with in the Canary room when I went to the center the first time in March of '08. Sandra has been at the center the longest out of all her siblings, from my knowledge two of her brothers have been there as well in the past, one still is there. Her situation at home is less then ideal for sure. Her father is not in the home, her mother continues to have children with countless different men and cannot afford to feed her children because she spends the little money she seems to get on alcohol. This little princess really does not have a home to go back to.

For all of you who know me well know that my age of preference is not pre-schoolers! I am usually the first to volunteer to go to a different group if I am helping out at church or a camp with 4-5 year olds. But, these last weeks I have been really drawn to the group of little girls at the center. All this week i have been in charge of being in the girls room after lunch and making them go to sleep. At 4 and 5 these girls are at the stage where refusing to nap is a great game... Which makes my job very difficult but I sit with them and keep telling them in Spanish to lay down and go to sleep. I have gotten really good at singing my few Spanish songs that they want to hear over and over again though! Despite everything though, it is a really sweet time with them.
I am so excited to get to go back to see them tomorrow.

Tonight was our "eat out" night. We all went to "La Pina de Sol" which is a lovely restaurant with a courtyard type thing you eat in and a live latino band playing. It is really a great experience. I know we all had a good time!

At the end of last week we went to visit "The Cross on the hill" it is just really a tourist attraction but it is a huge cross that stands on a hill overlooking Antigua, The view is breathtaking!

The Princes Sandra and Sonia

My precious Ofelia

Marta

Some of the kids saying goodbye

The Cross

Antigua

My girl got moved up! Yay! I am so happy that she is with the older girls now. I went into the older girls room to  put them down for nap and Maria was peaking out from around the corner so I went around the corner and said "Boo!" She giggled and smiled like no other... That is when I knew that I had made the right decision in pushing for her to move up.

The rest of the kids are doing well and I was really attached to a little baby girl today, Her name is Ofelia and is the littlest one in the group. She is 3 months. I held and played with her all day. She is the sweetest little thing.

Our translators are staying home next week to study for something, I will really miss them out at the center. They are really amazing people. I love them so much. Two different girls are coming to translate next week. I have met one of them before but never the other, so I hope that she is amazing also. Despite that though, I cannot wait to get back to the center on Monday.

Madeline

Juanita and Lidia

Sonia

This week with the team was so amazing, the kids were so sweet and there were so many new little ones dropped off. 4 in total I believe. The little one I really bonded with was little Miss Maria Elena. She is turning 2 on June 23 and was attached to me all week. She really broke my heart because every day when I came in and picked her up she would cry "mama, mama" looking for her mama, she was still so broken that her mama left her even by Thursday when we left the center. I am so set on moving her up to the "Pollos" (The toddlers). She is with the "Canarios" (babies) right now since she just came in but does not like it in there at all. She is so smart and is not getting stimulated enough with the little ones. I talked to the director Lukey about it and she told me she would talk to the doctor. I am crossing my fingers she is with the "big kids" when I get back to the center on Monday.

This weekend all the interns and our awesome translators Olivia and Alejandra got to go to the Guatemala City Zoo! It was so so cool.. but there definitely is not the safety precautions we have in our Zoos, The animals are really close!

Maria Elena

Today was the first day at the center with the new team. I right away ran to find my babies and say good morning... Funny story, My little Suzana I love so much... She is not really my Suzana, today we found out that on Monday of last week the names of the identical twins (Marta and Suzana) got switched around and we had been calling each one the others name! So now instead of having a little miss Suzana I have a little miss Marta! I still love her just as much though.

We had 13 people in the canary room today helping out with the little babies, It is lovely for the kids to have so many people holding and playing with them but since the room is so small and the children are all over the floor it get very overwhelming in there! We had a great day none the less and I am very excited to see them tomorrow. 

Lukey, the centers director, was talking to Amber about wanting us interns to stay the night at the center next Tuesday. I think that would be so much fun! I hope it happens. I would really like to meet the night shift ladies and see what goes on at the center after 4 30pm when we have to leave. I'm sure it would be super interesting!

This is my Marta

The First weekend

On Friday we sent the team home. All the interns all got up super early at 4 30 am to drive with them to the airport about an hour away. When we came back we had breakfast and then a siesta! We toured around Antigua and saw many cool shops and things. We also found an amazing pizza place called Christophe Pizza where we will definitely return!


Today we all got to sleep in and woke up to some gorgeous weather! We spent the day lounging around and sucessfully playing some volley ball...Well if you count loosing 2 balls over the HUGE wall successful. Oh well we all had some good fun. We are leaving to pick up the team in 40 minutes. We are all looking forward to meeting them!

The girls in front of some ruins

Me, Amber and Parker holding our "Watta" Bottles

The Interns with Christophe, The owner of the pizza place

Some more pictures