Malnutrition Center May 21, 2009

It was our last day at the Malnutrition Center, and it was so exciting to see the final product of our week's work at the end of today. As usual, the women spent the morning with the newborn children. However, today a six month old baby was brought in to be taken care of. His name is Jose, and he is only about 6 pounds. He is very sick with a bad cough, so he was given shots and medicine. His mother spent the entire day with him, watching over him and holding him. We also brought more diapers today, which the workers were very thankful for. However, it was difficult to say goodbye to all of them, after spending the week growing attached to them. The men continued to paint, work on the soffits, and set up the electric. After lunch, the women helped paint the tiles on the outside of the building as well as hang pictures inside. Throughout the day, all of us spent time with the older children, picking them up and playing with them. They were eager to see us and gave us hugs everytime we passed by. Juanita also helped paint the building again, and drew a row of crosses along the wall. Around four o'clock it started to pour rain, but Joe and Ron worked very quickly to finish painting the courtyard walls. The soffits are also all complete (except for two pieces, which the rain prevented from being finished), and the workers were using the new electricity in the kitchen by the end of the day. In the afternoon, Don went with Juan Louis to buy more chickens and a rooster for the center. There are now a total of one rooster and 18 chickens, which will lay one egg a day each. It was especially difficult to tell the older children goodbye, and we tried to explain to Juanita that we would not be seeing her tomorrow. However, all of the children have touched our hearts and will continue to be in our prayers. As we drove away from the center, it was encouraging to see how different it looked from when we arrived on Monday. We also found out that the town was commenting on how good the center looked after all of our painting and work. When we returned to the hotel, we spent a long time discussing all that the trip has meant to us and how we've been touched by even little events that happened throughout the day and week. Finally, this evening we experienced an earthquake that lasted for about 45 seconds. It was thrilling to feel the building shake beneath our feet.