long time no chat
Hello and Happy New Year everyone!!! Let me tell you, I have a good feeling about 2023.
I have been back in Puerto Rico for over two weeks but have not had the chance to update you all on what is going on! Winter break was amazing and went by way too fast. I got to spend a lot of family time at home in Kentucky and in Chicago where I got to see my cousins and where my Aunt Jodi from California surprised my mom for her 60th birthday. Mom, don't worry, you don't look a day over 29! It's always hard leaving home to go back to work, but on the hard days I remind myself of the memories I made while I was home and I look forward to when I will see my family next!
I am sure we can all agree that when we are feeling under the weather, we just want our mom. Whenever I get sick I feel a sense of comfort just having my parents nearby because I know that nothing too bad or scary can happen with them checking in on me. Mom makes me soup and hot tea. Dad picks my prescription up from the pharmacy and then more soup on the way home (chinese chicken noodle soup in particular). Of course I did not always have my parents to take care of me once I started college and was not living at home but they weren't too far away and we were always in the same time zone. I am proud to announce that I have OVERCOME (well, still on the mend but getting there) being sick without my parents anywhere near me to take care of me and it was hectic to say the least. There are no urgent cares here in Puerto Rico, the only options are a primary care doctor which of course I do not have here, or the emergency room. THANKFULLY one of my members, Nat, came with me, because if I was alone, I absolutely would have passed out. I thought that the hospital employees would speak a little bit of English because of the amount of tourists that come through here, but I was very wrong. The first emergency room I went to was the scariest experience of my life. First, not a single soul spoke english. After 15 minutes, we finally found a door that let us into the actual hospital. After walking up and down each hall to find the emergency room intake area, we saw blood on the floor, two PRISONERS in their jail outfits that were handcuffed and chained to the cot with no officers with them, and a person on a stretcher wrapped in what looked like foil and plastic wrap. That is when I looked at Nat and said “We need to leave right now. If I stand here for another minute I will pass out or throw up”. We quickly walked down the hall back towards the exit, passing out prisoner friends again, and finally got outside and ran to the car. I tried to reason with my mom on the phone and tell her I was fine and already feeling better but that did not work. We found another emergency room that was looking more promising but was fairly crowded. After filling out the intake papers and communicating with the staff via google translate, our 4 hour wait began. When I finally got called, my first question was, does the doctor speak english? And thank gosh he did. We then got to talking and realized that he went to med school with my dad and was a year below him! What a small world. So that was my sick day experience.
On a more positive note, I got the chance to explore Old San Juan this past weekend and it could not have been a more beautiful day. We explored both the El Morro and the San Cristobal castles and they were nothing like I have ever seen! I think I walked down into a total of 4 dungeons, which is something I never thought I would do. Then we walked the streets of Old San Juan taking in all the beautiful vibrant colorful houses and views. I look forward to exploring more this upcoming weekend and partaking in the San Sebastian festival!
To wrap up this long post, I want to tell you about what the team and I did on Monday for our MLK day of service. We had the chance to go to the Instituto Piscopedagogico de Puerto Rico which is the care center for adults with intellectual disabilities. When we first got there, we had a brief introduction to what we were going to be helping out with which was followed by a brief group stretch that was led by some of the residents. It was truly a great start to the day. We were assigned to take apart some garden beds that were overgrown. Some of the tasks included picking the weeds, breaking up the concrete block walls and carrying those blocks to where they would be stored. We started and finished a task and I feel we all left satisfied and feeling like we had made a difference. I will say, at the beginning of the day, I was struggling to have a good attitude. As I have mentioned before, the hardest thing for me here is the language barrier. Being who I am and what I am passionate about, I would have liked to interact and get to know some of the residents. With such a strong language barrier, that was not an option and I was feeling discouraged. I was fine once we got to work but looking back on the experience, I wish we had more time there and more resources to help us interact with the residents of the care center.
Long time no rose bud thorn so here it goes:
Rose: I have been reading some great books lately
Bud: going back to Sacramento in a few weeks for transition and spending the weekend with family
Thorn: Unfortunately, there are many thorns but the short and long of it is, I am ready to go home.
xo, L