Dia de Visitas

Sunday was an interesting day at work, especially with one of the boys, "Pedro" (the boy with fetal alcohol syndrome who is also hyperactive). I went into the bathroom and couldn't even get away for two minutes because he proceeded to STICK HIS HEAD UNDERNEATH THE DOOR OF THE STALL. This is pretty funny looking back, but obviously at the time I was extremely irritated. Talk about lack of privacy. He repeatedly kept sticking his head under the door again, despite me yelling at him.

Sunday was also Dia de Visitas (visit day when families can come see their children). This is always a difficult, emotionally-charged day. Some kids are sad because they don't have families. Some kids wait all day long and their families don't come. Some are really happy when their families do come. And some have dysfunctional families whom they don't really want to see. I think there are 3-4 visit days per year.

A lot of kids are actually at home with their families for the month. So not that many families came the other day. I loved watching one of the boys run, full-speed, to his family when he first saw them. And some of the families of kids from my section came to visit them. My job was to get one of the boys, "Pablo", and take him back to our house when his mom was ready to leave. He has only been here for a little over a month and is still adjusting to being separated from his mom. So, he burst into tears when she started getting ready to leave. It was really sad to watch. One of the ladies from the social work department had to come help me walk him back to the house because he was so upset. Pablo has mental retardation and can't fully understand the situation, either. After we got back to the house, he couldn't stop crying or saying "Mama". I tried everything to get him to stop crying - I hugged him, sang to him, rocked him, and read to him. Nothing worked. Eventually, I took him and one of the other boys for what ended up being a two-hour walk. And he cried the entire time.

Pedro (the same boy who stuck his head underneath the bathroom stall) also had a confusing moment. A family came to visit a different boy in the section. But Pedro ran up to a woman who is not his mother and embraced her while shrieking “Mommy! Mommy!”. His tía went up and pulled him away. I felt really bad for him, and no one really knew what to do. Sometimes he gets confused and calls the tías “Mommy” as well. He also spent some of the day crying and saying, “Mommy”.

Even though Pablo cried for two hours, I actually did enjoy our walk. He and the other boy are just adorable. And they wanted to go see the pigs (yes, we have pigs) so we walked down the hill to look at them. I hadn’t seen them since my orientation week in July, so that was fun. The day was difficult for some of the kids, but I was glad I could be there to support them.