September 17: I am standing in front of the hospital, waiting for Mariel to pick me up and take me to my project. As I hate being late, I arrived already 1 hour earlier. At first I just felt weird – everybody staring at me saying things which I not always understood (but I got the meaning alright). After a while I started feeling as a tourism attraction but finally Mariel came and saved me.
We went upstairs to meet the president of the „Damas Voluntarias.“ As a rule of „la hora tica“ we had to wait another hour. Well, it’s nothing, right?
On the meeting Dońa Yamilette was talking-talking-talking… and as I could rarely speak Spanish, nor did I understand everything, I just nodded and smiled… I understood that I have to keep my T-shirt clean and ironed, that I have to wear long trousers, that sandals are forbidden and it is absolutely must-be that you wear socks. I have to bring my own lunch – there is a microwave oven, but no fridge. My working day is from 8 to 3 with a lunch-break of 30 minutes. But what I didn’t understand – what is the WORK I have to do?
The first day I was 10 minutes late – because the traffic over here is impressive! Driving
The first 1-2 weeks we always work together with someone. On my first day I was accompanied by a lady who was talking even more than dońa Yamilette. I actually thought my ability to understand was good enough – in reality I understood like 25% or a little more, but bravely said „sisisi“ to everything.
The hospital seemed to be so big and complicated! She just took me through the hallways to the unit of surgery where we were supposed to sit with a child whose mother wanted to go to take a shower. I was explained how to wash the hands properly. And we just sat there. The room was quite big and bleak. Poor children! When the mother returned, we moved on. As I understood – no one is going to do anything unless you ask. So I asked her to show me around in the whole hospital. There are 2 buildings over there – the old and the new part. The new part is for offices and outpatient service. The old part is for the hospitalized children. The latter has 5 floors. The first is more for the administration and last is for the school and pathology. The rest is for the units. There are 3 units on each floor. The units are a little sad… There are up to 10 children in one room. There are absolutely no facilities for the mothers – they have to stay in a chair all days and nights long. The number of personnel is limited. So if the mother wants to go to take a nap or eat or have a shower, she has to leave her child all alone. That is where we come along! There is also a play-room for the hospitalized children. As I found out later, there are a lot of other places where we can go. There is a play-room for the outpatient service of oncology. There is the laundry room, the archive, the blood centre, various offices of secretaries (for example in the emergencies), the laboratory etc.
“Las Damas Voluntarias” is quite an old organisation. There are around 130 ladies working there – everyone works 1 or 2 days per week. At first everyone will look the same and you might have the impression that everyone is named Maria. Later you will make the difference and you will fall in love with each and every one of them (although remembering all the names would be a miracle!). There are always some younger volunteers called “juveniles” – either other foreigners or the local students making their social service. There might be up to 10 volunteers at a time – so you will always have someone around!
My work would be the following: in the mornings I ask in the office if there is some particular work for me (sometimes the nurses or other services call in for help). If not, I just go and look for the kind of work I want to do. Mostly it involves going to the playroom for the outpatient service. It fills up in a minute when you open the door! The children just love you for painting with them, playing, making puzzles or whatever activity you think for them (just let your imagination fly!) – they just love you for being there for them. Every last Tuesday of the month they have a party for celebrating the birthdays of the children – with a band, singing, playing, cake and candies!
The other thing I mostly do is just going around in the units looking for children who are alone in the bed (babies crying, waiting for someone to hold them) or ask the nurses if there are children who can go to the playroom. Who would like to lie in a bed all day long!
If you’re sick or just don’t feel like working with the children (the Tuesday mornings after “El Cuartel,” for example), you can always go to the laundry-room to fold the clean clothes or help preparing the folders in the archive or give the breakfast and coffee to the donors in the blood centre. But you just have to ask the office if you want to do something – no one is going to tell you about the other opportunities. And it is advisory to try working with everything! Then you’ll see what is the thing you like the most.
The more time you stay volunteering, the more interesting tasks you will get. You just have to gain the confidence and respect of the ladies. Soon enough you will find yourself in charge of all the other “juveniles”!
Everything comes step by step – you can’t hope to have everything as you want from the very first day. You will find some things which are not exactly as you hoped. But with patience you will reach more and more goals. It is always better to come without expectations, but sometimes it is not possible. I came with wrong expectations. Suffered a lot. But ended up being more than pleased. The thing is that coming to
The children are all so wonderful! Sometimes they become so close to you that you feel like they are a part of you. You would like to adopt them all and take them to your home! And how miraculous it feels when you get back the love you give! Once I was in a playroom and felt someone running up to me and hugging me firmly. It was a child whom I had taken care of a month earlier. She held tight to me and when someone asked her what she wants to do, she said: “I just want to be with her.”
The parents appreciate your work a lot. And they remember you even if you haven’t directly taken care of their children. For example one day in a bar a lady came up to me asking if I work in the children’s hospital. Doubtfully I said yes – because I thought it is a joke of a friend of mine who works in the hospital as a nurse. But no – the lady was a mother of a child and she had just seen me working in the hospital and she wanted to say thank you. It is so nice to know that people know you and are thankful for what you do.
