Week 2 in Cuenca

Today is my birthday, and I have the morning off, so thought I would write an e-mail. Mike has it off too, so we are planning on going to one of the museums here in Cuenca.

Last week I said Cuenca was founded in the 1600's. Not so--it was founded in 1557, of course using stones from an Incan city that had been conquered. Cuenca means "basin", as four rivers come together here. The cab driver told me the water goes to the Amazon. I also found out (by converting meters to feet) that Cuenca is 8200 feet above sea level. This explains while the mornings are cool here, despite the fact we are not far south of the equator.

We are feeling more comfortable here, in our roles as volunteers. The babies at the Catholic orphanage are my favorites, because there are so many to feed and take care of, and I love babies. There are less older kids there, as hopefully they have been adopted by then. This week a couple came from Italy to adopt one of the four year old girls. She has been less than cooperative, thought, having tantrums and bad behavior. I am sure it would be hard to think about leaving a place your had lived all the days of your life, even if it is an orphanage. I hope they do not go away empty handed, as all of these kids need a home.

International adoptions are supposedly closed, but I think that just means adoptions from the US. A social worker from an adoption agency in Minnesota came through this past week, and says her agency's papers have been approved, but not yet signed. Once they get signed, then adoptions will be "open" again.

This week on Thursday we had a field trip, to Jambeli beach, four hours away on the coast. The drive was long, but beautiful. We ended up at Puerto Bolivar (the largest banana shipping port in the world), where we took a boat out to Jambeli Island through the mangroves. The beach was nice, however, we heard sting rays were out, so decided to wait. A woman from another group was swimming, and got hit with by a sting ray, leaving a painful two inch cut in her foot. After that none of us wanted to go swimming, and we all played on the beach and had just a short "get wet" in the water at the end.

On the way home we stopped at a really nice mall in Manchala, near Puerto Bolivar, to use the bathrooms. I found flan, my favorite dessert ever, and bought a whole one to eat today at lunch with the volunteers for my birthday.

It was really nice to have a break, very rejuvinating, because yesterday the older kids were running everywhere (a little hard for someone my age sometimes), and in the afternoon I ended up at the younger special kids orphanage. 7 out of 8 of the kids are sick with high fevers. Most had already been put on antibiotics, so I am sure this is a virus. I took temperatures, helped determine dosage and gave ibruprofen, and helped give cooling baths to get their fevers down. One little boy had a fever of 40 degrees celcius. (Pretty high). Since most of them are neurologically compromised, it would be easy for them to have a seizure with those high temperatures. Last night a couple of OSSO volunteers stayed the night to help the worker. Although I am assigned to a different orphanage this afternoon, I imagine I might end up there again to help take care of the kids.

Happy birthday, Vaughn. I am sure you are celebrating too just like I am--with work!

Con Amor,

Familia Reed