okay,
so i guess i will interrupt my account of our travels to talk about our christmas.
here in the hogar things have been quite hectic, with last-minute christmas preparations. me and steffi kept going to the mall to print out pictures as presents, and made two big collages. one for each casa, of all the girls that live in each house.
on the 18th, there was a big official christmas party with all these people from the church, and everyone had to get all dressed up and formal. the older girls all got their hair done as a present from a hairdresser from the church, so me and steffi also went to the hair salon and got funky styles.
everyone was wearing really fancy gala-type dresses, which me and steffi were not really in to, and also, we don't have any such clothes. we were just going to wear skirts. but the girls were all preoccupied about what we were going to wear....the hairdresser lent them a bunch of dresses so they gave us two of them.
the dress i was forced to wear is very, um......pretty.....but then see for yourself...
here are the rest of the pictures from the christmas party:
there were several choirs that sang songs along the lines of "hey it's christmas, jesus was born". then there were canapes which we had prepared and also cookies and cake baked by our culinary arts student who just graduated.
there was a second christmas party, more informal, without outsiders, on the 22nd. that's when there were some presents for the girls, sent by a church in La Serena, in the north. the other presents from other churches did not arrive in time. that's when we gave our photo presents to everyone.
all the employees of the hogar (i'm 2nd from right)
on the 23rd all the girls left to spend the weekend with their families, or with people from church.on christmas eve we had our third christmas celebration, dinner with the director and her husband and child, with whom we now share an apartment. there was turkey breast and salads, and we watched their really cute kid, javiera, unwrap her presents.
she also gave us presents, as a nice gesture. a coffee mug and a towel set, hahaha. :D
p.s- jessica, the girl who kept flipping out, was kicked out of her school and sent back to the hogar. she kept having breakdowns, getting violent, and refused to eat for 3 days. her school is a boardig school for the deaf, and is supposed to be the center of her life. the hogar is only supposed to be supporting the school, she comes here only on the weekends. apparently, the school sees that differently now. which sucks, they are the ones with pyschologists who speak sign language, but they send her here where no one can understand her properly except tia gaby who signs as well.
anyway, she was assessed by a psychologist, who said her development and understanding is very poor and she should be treated like an autistic child, not like a deaf-mute child with otherwise normal development...
she is now on strong medication, taking three times the dose that josselin was on, who is 18. jessica is 11. on the medication now, she is very pleasant and agreeable.
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