Hospital De Niños: Baca Ortiz

This week I began my immersion program at Yanapuma. I volunteer three mornings a week at a nearby children´s hospital and attend spanish classes in the afternoon. This has been tiring but rewarding. The hospital mainly serves poorer families, who sometimes travel from all over Ecuador to receive care. A family member usually accompanies the child and I have heard mothers sometimes sleep on the floor in or outside the hospital. Most of the children I see seem to be recovering from accidents, broken bones, etc. In Ecuador it is much more common to spend a prolonged time in hospital to recover, for example a month for a broken arm. When I go I am able to check out toys, usually a few puzzles, legos, coloring sheets and crayons or markers, from a play area they have. Then I visit various rooms to play and talk my best spanish. I have spent the majority of my time in one room and have become attached to these four children, plus the 18 year old aunt of the boy on the left. Here we laugh, play games, and I have even brought my Ipod with speakers and we sing and dance. Some of the other rooms are slightly more depressing and some children are in quite a bit of pain and unable to easily move.