18 - My Work in Hospital Del Niño

Over the past two and a half months I've been going about 4 or 5 days a week to Hospital Del Niño to volunteer. I worked in the same department as Dra Greta Miño, the lovely woman that I was living with in Guayaquil. We worked in infectologa pediatrica, which has patients with diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
I'm obviously no doctor, so I wasn't doing any medicine, but everyday I would go to the different rooms and talk to the kids and their families. I left crayons and paper with the kids that weren't healthy enough to leave their rooms, and I brought the kids that were healthy enough to the "playroom". By playroom I really mean an empty room with some tables and chairs and a few toys. At least that's how it was when I first got there.



I started out everyday doing art projects with the kids. We painted and drew pictures, we made Christmas decorations, we played with clay, and we made flowers out of tissue paper. Once the kids got bored with the art projects we played games. I brought some fun toys from the states, and I also bought some games while I was there. The older kids loved playing Connect Four. One boy, Jorge, liked it so much and played so often that by the end he was beating me!




I can't put most of my pictures of the kids on the internet, but I do have lots of great photos and a video that I'm excited to show you when I get home. In the meantime these pictures of the kids' artwork will have to be enough to demonstrate all the fun we had together.









I also painted a mural.

If you go back up you can see what this wall looked like before.

My work in the hospital was a really great experience. I loved playing, talking, and laughing with the kids. It was an inspiration to see such big smiles from kids that are living such hard lives.

To Irene, Nicole, Anahi, Victor, Oliver, Jorge, Debra, Carlos, Gabriel, Kevin, Daveana, Sebastian, David, Sara, Marlon, Erica, Melanie, and all the other children who brightened my days, thank you.

Thank you also to Greta and Hospital Del Nino for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I know I gained more than I could ever repay.