6.10

San Vincente de Paul

Today should have been arts and crafts day again – AKA coloring for two hours. I arrive at the institution and the women are, again, not in the chapel. I chat with Florencia, again, in her room, for half an hour. She starts to tell me again how much she hates it here. She tells me she's afraid of the night nurses and that she can't sleep, because it's dangerous. She tells me the other women are thieves and bad people. I'm not sure what to say. At 9, we are supposed to go to el comedor to set out the art supplies, but one of the staff, who is usually in charge of the activities for each day, asks me to help her with something else instead. We go downstairs to a different dining room where she's started hanging up balloons and streamers. She says it's one of the boss's birthdays tomorrow, and she wants me to help her decorate. We inflate balloons and hang streamers for two hours. When I go back upstairs, nobody has moved from their rooms. Because the nurse and I were downstairs setting up something else, nobody bothered to take the women out of their rooms to do anything. There is only an hour until lunch, and there will be no activity today. This is discouraging. I feel guilty and angry. I go to find Alicia to paint her nails, as I promised her I would, yesterday. I talk to her while I paint them and she looks out the window. She shows me her toilet paper roll, which is soaked and ruined. She dropped it in the bathroom and it's not time for her to receive a new one. This makes me want to cry. I resolve to smuggle her a roll, from home, in the morning (something very much against the rules). It's already time to leave, and I say my goodbyes. It hasn't been a very good day.

Afternoon

Our plans for after lunch are to visit the National Palace, which is where the President of Guatemala lives. We pile quickly pile into the van; it's pouring down rain. When we arrive, the guard tells our "Spanish Teacher" (Tuesdays and Thursdays are supposed to be "spanish lessons") that the Palace is closed, because of the rain. We ask to go to a textile museum that I read about in my guide book, the Teacher says ok and tells the driver. A few minutes later, disappointingly, we arrive at a different museum, which is inside the mall. The museum is called the Mira Flores and is about Mayan dwellings. Half of it is outdoors, meaning half of it is closed also. We briefly explore the inside, which is interesting. It includes some Mayan pottery and an example of one sort of Mayan burial - in the living room floor. After that brief tour (two rooms and a hallway), we're standing outside the museum, in the mall. The Spanish Teacher suggests we go to one of the markets, but I'm not really interested in shopping today. Hallie and I take a cab home from the mall while the high schooler's go check out the wares. I spend the evening relaxing after dinner and hoping that tomorrow will be much better.