i scream, you scream

Today I was supposed to have a free afternoon off, but 3 girls in the house are sick so I had to sub in at one of the sites. I was ok with it because I got to go to a site I'd never been to before and it was all little kids. You know, so little that they can't talk yet and are just learning to walk so they don't really cause too much trouble or take advantage of you because you're new and aren't fluent in Spanish. When we got there all we had to do was change their diapers, put their shoes on, and take them outside. Then later we fed them dinner and put them in their pjs. Easy. Especially because there were four of us there for nine kids. Piece of pastel (cake).

During the pj-ing part though one of the monjas (nuns) asked me to bring some bottles in to the nursery for the tiny babies and help feed them. There was a girl in there already who is not with OSSO but did come down as a volunteer with OSSO four years ago. She's back living in Ecuador for 3 months and just helping out with the different orphanages while she's here. We chatted at bit (obviously: that's how I obtained all this personal information) and she seems pretty chill. The babies were super cute, too (as most babies are) and they were also really quiet which was a little weird. They fussed a little bit when it was time to go to bed, but other than that they didn't really make a lot of noise. I wonder if that's because they aren't spoken to a lot? There were only 5 of them in the nursery, but they just stay in there all day. During the day they bring them out of their cunas (cribs) and put them on a mattress on the floor to sort of play, but they can't sit up or anything yet so it's pretty much the same as the crib. They seemed pretty content, though (I mean, no crying) and they didn't have sores or flat heads or anything from laying in one spot for too long, so it seems like they are well taken care of.

Funny story about one of the bebes: His name is John (which is necessary to know for the sake of the story and I don't feel will compromise his identity too much, call me crazy). Now, the Spanish version of this name is Juan, but that's not what his name is: it's John. J-o-h-n. Now, in Spanish the letter h is always silent. Always. It never makes a sound: think of words like hola (oh-la) or hamborgesa (ahm-bore-gay-sah). So when we were feeding the babies their bottles, John had one with his name on it in masking tape, but his name was spelled Jhon. It could have just been an accident, but the same mistake was made with one of the girls named Johana; her shoe cubby name reads Jhonna. I guess it doesn't really matter where you put the h because it's silent, right?

Also, Stephanie, today I ate Guanabana ice cream. Try not to hate.