My work at CRN continues to be satisfying and frustrating at the same time. Recently I was working with a 14-year-old mother whose 9-month-old baby weighed just 6 pounds. At birth the child had weighed only two pounds after a full 9 months of gestation. This is a case of intra-uterine growth retardation, according to Rich, and there is not a lot of hope that this little girl can ever catch up to normal standards of weight and height. However, the young mom still can learn a lot about caring for her child if she continues coming to the Center.
One of the frustrations is that some of the mothers don't seem to understand the seriousness of the situation, and they aren't faithful in their attendance at the Center. The first meal is served at 8:00 a.m. and the fourth at 3:00 p.m., after which everyone joins the communal effort of cleaning up (sweeping, mopping, emptying garbage, etc.) and the moms and kids who are not staying the night are then free to go back home for the evening. I think some of the mothers, especially those with additional children at home, may doubt that this is the right way to spend their time, and they drop out, either periodically or permanently (often it is impossible for CRN staff to re-contact the mothers if they have moved.)
I wish we could offer a fuller and perhaps more interesting program of education and activities for the mothers and children. Working with them currently, besides myself, are two young women, 19-year-old Anya from Belgium, and 20-year-old Anna from Germany. We try various things....Our games are usually for the mothers, since most of the children are too young for group games; the same has been true of our singing efforts....We teach them songs in English or German, since we don't know Spanish songs and the moms seem amazingly bereft of repertoire themselves!....The crafts projects, like clay molding, knitting, crocheting, weaving bracelets - for all of which we buy the materials ourselves - have varied in their level of value, in my opinion. Usually they have little to do with childrearing, and often we're engaging the mothers to the detriment of the children, who wander around the room with little to occupy them, since there's such a dearth of toys.
I have this dream of a perky little early-childhood graduate student descending from above to help us out!!! Anybody out there know someone?
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Christ the King Habitat team visitors
When the Habitat For Humanity team from Christ the King was in Santo Domingo doing a build across town, the medical professionals in the group took a couple of hours off to visit the Hombro clinic and meet the staff there.
Julio Jaramillo School
This elementary school is a couple of blocks from the Hombro clinic; its students are among the many who came for pre-school physical exams, required by the state.
At Santo Domingo's Botanical Garden
About the only place of natural beauty in Santo Domingo (other than the Catholic University campus and a few private homes) is the botanical garden. This little guy had just helped himself to a piece of carrot from somebody's hand.
Agnus Dei
This is the chapel in the Agnus Dei religious community, where we attended a 3:00 a.m.(!) Easter vigil/sunrise service. There were about 40 people in attendance. The music was exquisite.
In-kind payment for Leonardo Oviedo's cardiology services
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