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Begin forwarded message:
From: Jane boyce <janeboyce@live.com>
Date: February 9, 2018 at 4:04:29 PM AST
To: Jane boyce <janeboyce@live.com>
Subject: Update 14
PR has been another time when I planned and God laughed! I thought that I'd be able to give the kids here some fun activities to do as I'd heard they were having shortened school days. I packed an extra suitcase filled with paints, markers, crayons, games, etc. But most of our days have been spent with elderly people. Good thing they enjoy balloon volleyball, playing with slime and listening to PR folk tales! Mariely plays keyboard & they sing with gusto. Feels so good to make them smile. We visited another nursing home and made a couple house calls to shut-ins. In the evening, we took a cake & celebrated an older man's birthday. He was so excited to have company.Next day it was back to house cleaning. This one was a major challenge as two older men lived there...one had Alzheimer, Chao and the other was schizophrenic & stayed in his room most the time shouting at us occasionally. Odors & filth. Most days they don't have water...the toilet...can't describe...dirty dishes everywhere...chicken bones...bedding just disgusting...rat droppings... cockroaches. Mariely, Rog & I put on gloves & did what we could. I worked in Chao's bedroom. He was a musician & spoke some English and was so happy and kept telling me so. First I carried a garbage bag while asking him if I could throw away stuff. He willingly did trash quite a bit but not after smiling & telling me about the item. Only came across two pictures...both faded & water damaged. His mother & siblings by his dying grandmother and the other his aunt & uncle...in case you were wondering. Once I threw a rusty nail away before asking & he had me dig it out of the bag. My bad. After an hour or so of that, I swept down the huge cobwebs, moved furniture to clean behind, wiped down the aluminum shutters, put dirty dishes in a pail of bleach water & cleaned off all surfaces. Finally, I bagged the dirty clothes he'd let me & all the bedding...and put on new bedding that we'd brought with us. I've made many beds but never have felt as satisfied as when I finished making that bed. Chao kept telling me I was doing such a good job & when I asked if I could take his picture, he put on his hat & sat on his bed with a huge grin. The only dark colored bedspread we could find was kinda childish...rockets & airplanes...but he loved it and kept telling me the rockets were going to the moon. While I was with Chao, Rog and Mariely were washing windows, screens & tackling the kitchen & bathroom and a room with a broken down couch & an old mattress. Shower curtain & toilet seat they trashed promising a new one. Johanna had arranged for a fire dept tanker to come...mainly because we didn't know if we'd have water. The fireman brought in the hose and blasted away at the walls & floors in the kitchen, bathroom & living area. Now that's how you clean a real mess!! The other brother did come out of his room once...he headed down the steps and Chao went after him. Chao told him he should let us clean his room...which was filled only with old mattresses...but he told him no. I was kinda relieved. We'd gotten to the house around 9 am and gathered up our cleaning supplies around 1:30 and sprayed the entire place with a disinfectant. Though I'd packed us a lunch...none of us even thought about eating it...just didn't have the stomach to eat. I hadn't even wanted to drink my cold Diet Coke. That tells you something about the conditions! Outside, there were cages of fighting cocks, dogs & guinea hens all serenading us...especially when we dumped out our dirty water...which was often.Mariely again knew the perfect answer...when Chao asked her who was paying us to clean...she pointed up and said, "God." We left not a clean house...just cleaner...after giving Chao two sandwiches & cold water and a promise to bring his clothes back tomorrow clean. So the next day..back we came with his clean clothes, new shower curtain & toilet seat. Since they were without water again, we had to get a pail of rain water to flush the toilet before we could think about replacing the seat. Dishes of food were already sitting around & the bed looked like no one had slept in it...but Chao's grin was still ever so wide and his hug so sincere.
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