The tale of the Olive Tree

We had an olive tree in our yard that was left to grow way too tall and the leaves were all at the top. Olives trees are supposed to be short and spread wide. The olive tree leaned over our pool and whenever a slight wind came along, it would dump all kinds of leaves, blossoms and dirt into the water. Daily I cleaned the pool (even though it's still too cold to go in!)and daily I had to scoop tons of stuff off the top and vacuum more off the bottom. Today Darrell decided that he'd like to cut off all the branches from the tree. With a very short ladder leaning precariously against the tree, he climbed up and started cutting. I watched occasionally from the window but just about had a heart attack every time his feet would leave the tree and he'd hang off a branch. He is one that never does half a job; it's all or nothing with my husband. He attacks a project and will not stop until it's done. I guess anyone that's ever worked with him will vouch for the truth of that statement:)I did retrieve his blade a few times as it fell to the ground. He cut most of it with a tiny saber saw blade + a manual tree saw. Then the massive job of cutting it all up and bundling it for the garbage men who will come pick it up. One thing is for sure, we will have way less clean-up in our yard from now on. It was such a messy tree! The olive tree has been cut off from the top and hopefully will start sprouting new shoots much lower next time.

Tuesday babies

I know I keep using the word "hopeless" to describe the situation with these babies but that is the word that constantly comes to my mind as I care for them each Tuesday. Today I arrived early and 2 of the babies were crying. 4 were the same as last week and 3 of them were new. The others had gone on to an orphanage to live out their lives there. I thought I'd go up to the other floor and try to get the bottles early but they weren't ready yet. So I wandered around and looked at the huge nurseries full of preemies. I counted 20+ teeny, weeny babies in incubators in the one room and only one nurse caring for them. I actually felt a deep sadness, remembering my tiny little baby who died 28 years ago, knowing that had she been born today, she probably would have lived. These babies were so tiny that it was unimagineable that they could survive and yet they were fighting away for their lives. On the other side of the hall, were slightly larger babies with an equal ratio of baby to nurse. Another "hopeless" situation it seemed to me. The bottles were finally ready for my babies and I went back downstairs to begin feeding them. I was alone at first and had to prop a couple bottles up for the crying babies while I fed one at a time. Soon 2 other Italian nuns came to help and then we were fine. I love bathing and clothing the babies even more than feeding them. I cover their bodies with lotion and massage them and brush their hair. I wish I had nice, pretty clothes to put on them but the grungy sleepers that they provide will have to do. Then I change their crib sheets and tuck them all in, clean and fed. As I was leaving today, there was one baby that wasn't settled and I knew he'd be cryiing in no time so I picked him up and tried to settle him before I left. I thought to myself how silly that was because those babies are probably left to cry much of the day. I just had to lock my emotions in a box and walk out. I must say that it takes a couple of days for their faces to disappear from before my eyes. Until next Tuesday...

Just another Saturday

Saturday is our day to go to church here. We always leave plenty early because it can take up to an hour to get there, depending on what we run into traffic-wise. Today we decided to take the Metro downtown. We can literally step outside our door, walk a couple meters and get on the train. It was packed right to the doors as usual but we managed to squeeze our bodies on also. Last week a friend had his wallet stolen on the Metro so we both held on tight to ours today. We went 2 stops down the line on our way to our destination. Everyone started pouring out of the train and we couldn't figure out what was going on. Then the conductor came and got in the opposite end of the train and started going back where we had just come from! We asked someone and they said we needed to get off and get on another one. They re-opened the doors and we jumped off. We waited forever and were going to be very late for church but finally asked again and someone told us to get on #3 and we'd have to get out and walk the rest of the way. We were totally confused by this point but got on the train and starting talking to a very nice university student. He told us that all the lines were closed below a certain station because there was teargas and police and all kinds of lawlessness. He got out with us and walked a long ways until we came to riot police and teargas and the whole bit. Young kids throwing rocks, fires burning in the streets, all storefronts closed and general chaos. We tried several different ways but kept getting turned back by teargas and mobs running away from it. We finally gave up and headed back to the Metro station to go home. You can see 2 guys riding on the back of the train in one of the photos. These were older guys but every train has someone on the back and some are 5 or 6 years old. It is really dangerous! I must say, it was good to come back to the safety of our beautiful home. Fridays & Saturdays have been crazy here for the last few weeks.

update

I know some of you are waiting to hear what the next day brought forth for me at the hospital. It ended up that my friend was able to get back from her trip and go with me so I wasn't alone after all. The second day we had 9 babies. I can't believe how I began to get attached to certain ones after just two days. The situation with the clothes is so desperate. When we first get there, we scavenger around and try to get together a few clean pieces of clothing. The snaps are all rusted and don't close so they wrap gauze around the baby's waist to keep the sleepers on them! Rarely is there a pair of socks that match. Several of the babies end up with just an undershirt and diaper because there are no more clothes. They're all stained with the red dye from the medicine they put on the babies' bottoms. It doesn't help to take clothes in because they all get stolen and the babies never see them. People have tried before. We do have our own little bag of Desitin, eye ointment, lotion and other items that we might need and we hide that. When we give the babies a bath, we hold them in one hand under a running faucet and have to constantly keep our hand under the water and adjust it because the water becomes scalding in a second. So dangerous! It's just really a hopeless situation and we do the best we can but it's so sad to think of what happens to those little guys when we're not there. They drink their bottles as if there's no tomorrow, so ravenously hungry. It seems that even at their young age, they know that if they don't eat when it's offered to them, they may not get anything for a looooong time. We pick each baby up, usually in a deep sleep, and they immediately start sucking like crazy when the bottle hits their lips. You know how hard it is to get a sleeping baby to eat normally! Not with these little cherubs. I'll be back in the hospital next Tuesday and hopefully update you again then. No luck getting pictures.

unwanted treasures

This morning I accompanied a friend of mine to the government hospital where she goes regularly to feed babies who are abandoned and unwanted by their families. Since I adore newborn babies & just the whole hospital environment, I was excited to get involved in this ministry. Upon arrival, she began to give me the tour and show me how things ran. On one side of the small room, there were probably 10 babies in small cribs and these are ones that have mothers and will be going home. On the other side, there were 7 babies and these were ones that were abandoned by their mothers for a variety of reasons: some mothers were unwed, some babies had birth defects, some were simply abandoned because the mother had too many kids & could not afford to raise another. The job at hand was to feed, bathe & clothe these 7 babies. I asked what would happen if there was no one to do this and they said these babies would wait until all other work was done & then they'd be tended to. My friend said that sometimes they go hours without being fed because there simply aren't enough hands. We began to feed the babies that were crying. One scary thing was getting the right baby back into the right crib. I guess they've had mix ups before! If we weren't finished feeding the baby in our arms, we'd have to go prop a bottle up for the other crying babies. After they were all fed, we began giving them all baths and changing the sheets in their cribs. There was an extreme shortage of baby clothes and by the end, we were simply putting on an undershirt & socks (2 different colors). The babies that were being born (seemed like every few minutes they were bringing in a newborn)had absolutely no clothes and were simply wrapped in a blanket with a diaper. We had to go to another floor to get the bottles for the babies and it was interesting watching them wash them! Very unsterile technique! They used tap water to make the bottles. We later would pass the bottles around to different crying babies with no thought of who they belonged to. One thing that was glaring was the horrible diaper rash that every baby had. They pour red Mercurochrome all over their raw little bottoms. It's so awful to see. We have a large tube of Desitin that we plaster their bottoms with. It's really a hopeless situation but somehow fulfilling to just hold these little guys and love them a bit and meet some of their basic needs. After giving a bath, we even brushed their hair and put cologne on them. At the end of the time, they asked what I was doing tomorrow? I found out that neither volunteer could come tomorrow and they asked if I'd come do the whole thing?? How could I say NO? I'll let you know how it goes. I wish I could post a picture but my friend told me it's forbidden to take photos. I might still try and sneak one tomorrow if I'm there alone.