Lunchtime: Organized Chaos and Family Visits

The lunchroom before madness descends

Lunchtime!

Organizing 30 kids to sit down and calmly eat lunch for an hour seems like an easy task, right? Lunchtime is generally more just chaos than organized chaos, but the nurses do it everyday without complaint (kids gotta eat). We pull the kids away from whatever they’re doing, which is usually playing with toys and they have no interest in being disturbed. The nurses come into the playroom shouting “Guardalos! Guardalos!”, meaning to pick up all the toys. Brayan is the only one who consistently will help, and occasionally Flor if she’s in a good mood. After somehow wrangling up most of the toys we arrange the kids into a somewhat manageable seating arrangement. 

well hey Flor! 

The kids that can eat without help like to sit in the same area, and the kids that need help bunch together too. I usually sit at a table with Flor, Jhon, Evelin, and Adalid. I love to feed Adalid because she always eats all of her food without complaint or difficulty, Evelin is not always so easy. She likes to fold herself over in her chair when she’s over it. Lunches with Adelid and Evelin are easy. Once I helped Catiluz eat. Never again. It resulted in a bowl of soup all over both of us and her nearly yanking out my ponytail. Could be that she was just in a bad mood that day, but I’m a little afraid now. Another lunch I helped Angelito eat, but all he wants to do is drink water (which is actually juice, they just all call it water which is so strange, and Flor does the same thing—mas agua!). He wouldn’t eat, but then another volunteer, Gonzalo, showed up. He pretended to be like an air traffic controller and Angelito, Diomedes, and Catiluz were the planes. I swear it was like magic. He would say “open your mouth to accept another cargo of soup! Of segundo! More soup!” and suddenly all their trays were empty. Kids are so simple sometimes.

A nurse expertly feeding baby Jhon, a task reserved only for the veterans

Uber's father posing proudly for a photo

Its easy to forget that these kids have families, which is a weird thing to say. Most of their families live far away in the highlands, so they can’t come see them very often. I’ve only seen fathers visit, and only of 2 kids. Uber’s father (still need to confirm spelling of that name) comes the most often. He’s super sweet and was there for a few weeks. It’s so clear how happy the kids are when their parents come. Their eyes light up and they constantly smile. Evelin’s dad also visited and he looks like a serious macho man and wears a leather Indiana Jones hat. I can’t imagine how these parents handle not being able to see their young children everyday. I guess it’s the sacrifice they make so their children can get the attention and rehabilitation they need. It’s actually kind of depressing to think about, but the kids are clearly happy and getting help that they need which is good in the long run.

nom nom nom

Hands in the water cup--typical Flor

Sweet Amy basking in the glow of a full tummy