Photo of me with the Profesora. Photo was taken last year.

UPDATE 26/03/09: Wow, over NZD$500 has been donated for the teacher now.  I think this will be enough to cover her costs, and if anyone else wants to donate money, there are many things the kids in the orphanage need at the moment, so please feel free to donate to the same bank account and all the money will go towards the kids.

UPDATE 25/03/09: Thank you everyone who donated money, and so quickly!  Over NZD$200 was donated which will be an enormous help for her.  I will be withdrawing the money today and passing it along to her.  I will also be talking to the lady who runs the orphanage to see if the teacher can have some time off very soon to go to the hospital.

One of the ladies who works at the orphanage has the role of teacher (profesora).  To be honest, I only know her as Profesora as thats the word everyone uses when talking to her.  She does mini-classes with the younger kids while the older ones are at school.  She does arts and crafts with the kids.  As part of her role, she has to spend the night with the kids a couple times per week.  She lives about 20mins away by moto-taxi.  Every day she has to spend L30 (about NZD$3) for the taxi rides to and from her house.  She has a family to feed and look after.  She only earns about L1,800 per month, which she has to spend about half on taxi rides.  After buying food for her family she doesnt have much left for anything else.

She told me today that she has a problem where for the last 10 years she hasnt been able to taste anything.  She only eats what she’s familiar with as she has no idea what the other foods should taste like.  Along with not being able to taste her food, she gets infections around her stomach.  At the moment alot of people in town have a cold because the weather is changing.  She also has a cold which has made everything alot worse and she is suffering.  I dont know many details and didnt want to ask too much about it.  She asked me if there was anything I could do to help her get to the hospital.  She needs to go to Chiquimula, which is about an hour away by bus (over the border in Guatemala).  She cant afford to bring herself there, and she cant afford to take the time away from work.  I dont know exactly how much it will cost to get there, or how much the hospital fees will be.

If you are willing and able to help even with a small amount, please deposit the money into the account using the details on this page.  Please use the reference: Teacher.  So I know what the money is for.

Yesterday afternoon I had just walked back from the orphanage with Massimo when a teacher from the bilingual school came up to me and told me about a medical brigade who were here in town until the next day.  They had visited the kids about 4 years ago, and were interested in visiting them again.

We went back to the kids home and they went over all the kids to check for their general health condition and prescribed medicine to those who needed it.  Some of the younger kids were afraid they were going to get injections.  One of the younger girls clung to me like a leech crying her eyes out whenever a doctor came near.

The kids were generally in pretty good health, but i had noticed a small bald patch on the back of Brayans head that same day, and thought it might have been ringworm, and i was going to bring him to the doctor today (turned out it wasn’t ringworm and wasn’t worth worrying about).

It was amazing to have the medical team come and see the kids.  I am very grateful.

Its been overcast and drizzly the last few days and quite cool (low to mid twenties).  The road up to the orphanage is just dirt so at the moment is all mud – its very steep and slippery!  So we have been stuck playing inside rather than up on the hill.

American Airlines says my bag arrived in the country yesterday afternoon so should be here today.  I ran out of fresh undies yesterday (the rest are in my other bag)…