Earthquake

I was in Costa Rica for 9 months. Always anxious to actually feel an earthquake - just a small one. Never did though. In the hospital we even had a security training, including what to do in case of an earthquake. And now I think: you stupid, STUPID girl!

3 days ago there was an earthquake of 6.2 points near the volcan Poas. In my house in Heredia things were falling from the shelves. And all I can think of is my poor housekeeper who got panic even in a case of small "quakes"...
Thinking how often we took the same road with our family to go to the summer-cottage. To think that my costa rican family could have been on the road at the very moment... it's just something I don't even want to imagine...

By now there has been 34 deaths reported, 64 people still missing.

My experience: Hospital Nacional de Nińos

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 20 kilometres takes more or less 1 hour and a half! (from Heredia to San Jose) As I already mentioned, I hate to be late… (Later I understood the meaning of time and traffic in Costa Rica and… 10 minutes is absolutely nothing. Just don’t get too “tranquila”!)

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 Costa Rica I was already a doctor and in the project description it was said that the work would be helping doctors and nurses. But actually I was forbidden to do anything that has something to do with medicine. So I was sitting there, holding a sleeping baby in my arms, watching the doctors and nurses doing the things I normally do. I felt so embarrassed to go up to the nurses to tell them to disconnect the i/v-s… it’s such a small thing to do, but I couldn’t even do this. At first it was hard to accept. Later I got used to it. And finally I got special permissions up to assisting on the operations. So I got to attend my two passions: the children and the medicine.

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.

So, although I had my hard moments, everything ended up perfect for me – just excluding the fact that I had to go, leaving a piece of my heart in the hospital with the children and their parents, the damas voluntarias, the nurses, the doctors… everyone! I wouldn’t change the experience for anything!!!

It´s rainig men, hallelujah!

The thing about the shoe-paradise has by now revealed another side of it... of course the shoes are cheap, they have to be! Cuz otherwise all the people would be walking bare-footed. Because the shoes just melt in the rain. So this morning I was playing with this kid and I just realized that I have only half of the shoe on my right feet. Fortunately I do have blue eyes – so I got it fixed without a problem.
And I must say, my intellectual is going down rapidly. So, I needed money for getting home from San Jose. As of course, I am in bankrupt again and finally I have some money on my Estonian account – should I really remember those simple 4 digits for not letting my card being eaten by the wall? Just because I tought I will never need it again...
But otherwise I must say, it would be refreshing not to be misunderstood all the time and not to misunderstand them and not to speak this language, which I hardly know. After 2 months I have finally reached this point. Congratulations!

Meanwhile...

So I don't really have a lot of time for writing. That's good, right?
By now I already feel that I don't get lost every single day... maybe just once a week. Like, when I was going from Mall San Pedro to Calle de Amargura which actually is like 200 metres... and I ended up taking a cab – what else could 2 “gringas” do ;)
Otherwise, I still have problems adapting to the rule of “2 o'clock in the night” when I have to be back at home... come on, parties just start at that time!!! Okay... actually I guess I am in Latin America and not in Europe... cuz the bars close at 1am. But there are a lot of nice dancing places open till at least 4am!
With my project... hmmm.... If I leave aside the fact that I am working in the hospital but every day I am missing the medicine more and more. Oh please, just let me do one injection or let me hear what the doctors are talking about – I wouldn't understand a lot anyways, what harm could I probably do? I feel that all the energy I had the first couple of weeks, running around with the kids, thinking of all kind of things to do... has disappeared. Gotta find the inspiration again... but it's sometimes difficult...
But all in all, I would never ever change the experience I'm having now... for anything!

Playa Jacó

Jacó is considered to be the most touristic beach in Costa Rica - a paradise for surfers. Well yes, the beach of Jaco is a nice place... if you like americanised Costa Rica with nice houses, construction, lots of tourists and lots of drugs.
Actually we found a place on the beach which was completely empty and the trees were hiding the ugly constructions. As it was the first time for me being in the ocean, you can imagine the child-like happyness on my face, jumping up and down in the waves. Pura vida thousands of times!!!
For nightlife there are a couple of places with reaggeton beats, of course, and another one which has something like house-music but is full of weed-smoke.

P.S. just next to my cabin, I saw a monkey!!! A real monkey!!! And on my way back from the bus window I actually saw a crocodile!

My first robbery

One fine sunny day I am walking on the street, enjoying my milkshake (which was amazingly good, I must admit!), looking for the bus home. The day was really perfect, as was my milkshake... until in the Parque de la Mercedes (as I later got to know, it's also called Parque de Nicas) a lady came up to me, asking if she can have sip of my fresco. I glazed at her, from head to toes – she was a very tan and very poor woman, probably a drug-addict as well – and let out a very convincing “NOOOO!” and wanted to walk away with my precious milkshake which still had some 4 centimetres in the bottom. But to my surprise, she was already holding my shake very tightly. So, I decided to be friendly and tolerant and not get in fight with an older lady just because of 4 centimetres of my milkshake. Obviously she needed it more than I did...

Volunteer now! Volunteer!

Hey, I'm your new volunteer from Estonia. No-no, not Espanja - Estonia. No-no, not Russia Estonia. Yes, it is a little country in the north of Europe with a population less than in San Jose.
I go to the hospital every day from 8am till 3pm. Every day there are new ladies who have come to make the children happy - I'm the only one being here every day. The hospital stuns you with all the marvelous pictures hanging on the walls - all done by children. "Is that something I could do with them?" is the first question passing my mind. Already eager to do big things - to change the world.
I know the rules, and the biggest rule for me is that I'm a volunteer. My job is playing with the children and not running around with an important look, stethoscope hanging around my neck. I must admit that one day I was quite sad seeing all my colleges doing the things I am used to do. But today I experienced something which is much more pure and makes you feel even better than being important professionally. And that is called happiness. On Friday I was holding a baby for the whole day - a little bit doubting in my function, because the baby was so content and quiet without me as well. Today I got to know that she probably has no parents and that she's crying all the time while left alone. She is probably the most beautiful baby I have ever seen - laying on my lap, looking at me with her big brown eyes shining, smiling. She is lot-lot better today than on friday. and what is most important, she is so happy and content being with me that she even falls asleep. So you just look at her. And look. And look. And you feel happy, really happy for making the day better for this little soul. And actually feeling as if you are the mother of the child. It´s an amazing feeling....