Day with the Chicas

This is from Sunday January 29th

Thursday was the end of vacation courses so when Margarita woke up Friday morning the first thing she asked was if she could play with the chicas. I explained that the chicas had their chores to do and that she couldn’t just run off and play on the jungle gyms, that she had to participate as well. An hour later, I walked past her and about 10 chicas raking the grass and brush that was cut by the older girls with machetes. She was also stuffing the clippings into a large flour sac which they then drug 200 yards to the incinerator.

After we had lunch she asked to go back again. It works out for me too because I can work without being interrupted and I had just gotten word that we had to take on a new project that we thought the international office was completing. I walked out of my office at 530 pm to go pick her up on the way to the kitchen and 5 chicas came running up to me telling me that Margarita had a headache and a fever. When I walked into their “hogar” home, Margarita was sobbing and I picked her up asking her where it hurt. She said my head, my head hurts. Pelin, the coordinator of the girls’ home then told me that they walked down to the front gate and back, probably 2 miles, plus she had worked in the morning and had done a bit of walking with me even before she went to meet the chicas.

I brought Margarita back to the room and checked her temperature which was 101 and gave her some Tylenol and a banana. Shannon brought over the dinner from the kitchen, whole red beans, avocado, white soft cheese and a whole wheat roll. Margarita had about 3 bites and then fell asleep with her head on the table.

Then arrived 5 chicas to see if Margarita was “okay”. It was so cute of them checking up on her. Margarita’s fever continued the next day and she was miserable. She wouldn’t eat, except jello, and her fever got worse. By 9pm it was 103.7. I called Chris, my nurse friend that lives in the city to get her opinion. She was concerned that in children, high fevers can result in seizures and told me to put her in the cold shower and get some ibuprofen from the clinic to give her along with the Tylenol.

Margarita was not happy about being placed in the shower and starting screaming and sobbing as I tried to cool her off with a washcloth and cold water. I told her that Chris, the nurse, whom she knows very well, said I had to do it to help keep her fever down. She still screamed bloody murder. After I cooled her off and dressed her I ran up to the clinic to get someone to give me so ibuprofen. Merlin was working in the clinic. He grew up at NPH with his brothers and was one of the first children to arrive here at the Ranch, 20 years ago. He is a medical student now and has 2 years left to get his degree.

He came with me to examine Margarita and said her lungs and heart were fine and recommended that I give her the ibuprofen and some antihistamine for her runny nose and check with the doctor in the am if she still has a fever.

She woke up without a fever and slept through the entire night. She still has a cold and doesn’t feel 100% so I took her to our volunteer doctor from the U.S., just in case. Liz, from Maine, thought that it is just a virus and should pass. I hope so too because she will not stop asking about the chicas!