Wednesday: We arrived at Maternidad and we were placed in a new area. We were in the post-surgical area for women who had cesarean sections. Some of them had babies with them while others did not. Some of the babies had already gone home with their family while the mom had to stay and others were in the neonatal ICU. We met the staff and once again watched them bathe the babies. Then they let us each wash a baby! It was fun but difficult because they were all crying and moving around. The baby boy that I washed did not poop that day so I was excited! They do not put diapers on the babies so when you unwrap them there is poop everywhere. It is not so chivo (cool).

We met a patient in our area named Selena. She was so sweet and beautiful. Her baby was up in the neonatal ICU. Selena gave birth at only seven months so her baby was “mucha chiqueta pero bonita” (very tiny but pretty). She began telling us about the father of her baby. She said he is a very bad man and that the police arrested him so he is in jail right now. Selena explained that she was better off without him because he always hit her. She said he would punch her stomach, trying to kill the baby. He also made her take some kind of pills to induce labor early. I am not sure if he caused her to go into labor or not but her baby was very premature. Selena was on bed rest because of her surgery so she could not go see her baby. We discussed her family and her older sister actually lives in New York. In addition, she was excited because her mom was coming to visit at noon that day. Selena also told us that she was studying accounting at a nearby university and that she loved math. Her story really touched me and I have been thinking about her since then. I am sure that baby will have a large amount of health and psychological problems. Selena is only 18 years old!

Near the end of our work day, Anita came to check in on us. She walked around with us and talked to patients. I like Anita a lot. She graduated from Marquette and has been living in El Salvador for 3 years working as a social worker.

We ate lunch back at the Casas and then walked to our Spanish class at the UCA. Stacey, Danielle and I went early to go to a nearby coffee shop that had free Wi-Fi. Turns out, you had to buy $3.50 worth of their food and drinks in order to get the password for the internet. That is a total ripe off because everything is so cheap here so I had to buy like three things. Also, I pay only 75 cents an hour at the internet café by our house so I lost money by going to this “free Wi-Fi café.” AND when I got to the UCA I figured out there is free Wi-Fi in the building that our Spanish class is in!

The Spanish class went well. I could understand everything the teacher was saying. We studied syllables, accents and proper naming of where the stress goes in certain words. It was fairly difficult because you had to know how to properly pronounce the word before doing anything else. Our teacher assigned us a ton of homework too!

Later that night we had a reflection at Trena’s house. She made “Trena Treats” again and they were awesome. It was some cookie bar called “sin”. We did a guided meditation and then reflected on how we felt since being here a week. After the reflection a group of us worked together on our homework and reading for our Spanish class. The reading wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be so that’s good.
I took my ice cold shower, typed some of my journal/blog and went to bed.


Thursday: At Maternidad we were at the same post surgical area. We talked with Selena again and asked how her baby was doing. The nursing students were in our area today so we followed along with them. First, they washed the mothers’ wounds and private areas. They used iodine…they use iodine for everything, even washing their hands. They asked us if we wanted to try doing it but we explained that our program has rules and we are not supposed to do things like that. I think we could have done it because it is just caretaking, which we are able to do, but I would not have felt comfortable without some training beforehand.

Afterwards they all went to breakfast so we sat and chatted for some time. We made a trip to the cafeteria to check it out. It was SO different from the States. It was more like a creepy corner store booth.

When we returned they had started to bathe the babies. The nursing professor insisted that we help again so Claire cleaned a baby first. Then I went and finally Marcia. They applauded us all after we were finished haha. There was one male nursing student, which was weird because pretty much all of the nursing students are women and the medical students are men.

The one medical student that we met on Tuesday came by to talk with us. He asked us if we had ever seen a live birth. We said no but that we really wanted to see one! He told us that he was in the birthing room that evening from 4pm to 6am. He invited us to come back and come in with him. He assured us that no one would care at all. The one girl really wanted to call a taxi and come back that night. I was hesitate because who knows if this guy will be able to get us into the room or even the hospital. Plus, I didn’t want to be in that area of town when it was dark outside, it is creepy enough during the day. Later on, we spoke with two female medical students who, once again, spoke perfect English, but said they could not speak English. They said they would be in the birthing room next week in the mornings when we would be there. We talked to one of the head nurses, who is in charge of us, and she said that would be totally fine. She is going to arrange for us to go into the birthing room on Monday or Tuesday! I am so excited!

After lunch, I went a little early to Spanish class so I could use the Wi-Fi in the building. Class went well except for the end. We each had to answer one of the four questions that he wrote on the board. They were questions about your childhood so you had to use the past tense and imperfect tense. It is difficult to distinguish when to use one or the other, especially when you are talking about your childhood. I didn’t realize that we had to write enough to talk about it for five minutes each afterwards. Mine was terrible; I felt so dumb.

During our class, the professor gives us a 25 minute break since it is a 3 hour class. My roommate Hannah and I went on the computer for a few minutes and then to the outdoor café on the ground level of the building (all of the building here are pretty much wide open, there really are not too many doors or windows, all of the walls just have huge openings or there are no walls at all). I bought a Coke Zero and Cheetos. The Cheetos tasted different than in the US! The World Cup was on the television and Holland was playing!


After class, we returned to the Casa and then left shortly after for Pupusa night. We walked to the pupusaria together and it was literally in the front area of someone’s house. It was like five houses down from Casa Silvia and I would never have guessed that it was a restaurant. A lot of the stores and restaurants are like that here…just built into the front of a house or window.
A group of us played a board game afterwards.


I will type more about today, Friday, later on and post it. We have to go eat dinner. We are having pizza from the town we visited today, San Roman.

adios!