|
Today Antonio took 3-year-old Tayanta to Quito for an eye appointment at the pediatric hospital. Tayanta was born practically blind due to congential cataract. She had three separate surgeries to repair her vision. Since the first surgery at 6 months of age, she has been able to see. At first, she needed strong glasses, which she seldom wanted to wear as an infant or toddler.
Last month she was hospitalized for several days and had artificial lenses implanted in her eyes. The pediatric hospital in Quito is apparently very modern. We have seen her test results and the documentation for her artificial lenses, manufactured by Alcon, and containing the serial numbers, etc. Now she isn't even wearing glasses. She is truly a little miracle, and she has the sweetest disposition. She is always happy and smiling, and brightens all of our lives. She is a blessing. We missed her today, as they were already gone by the time we got up this morning. For breakfast, we had potato pancakes, coffee, and juice. I had an early meeting this morning, so I muted my headset and ate breakfast while on a conference call. Since Antonio was not home today, Marcelo and Aida worked together on the construction. More cement blocks were delivered around lunchtime. The truck driver helped Marcelo to unload the blocks and pile them neatly next to the house. Around here, folks always feed those who help them. It's such a nice tradition. The truck driver was given a nice big bowl of hot soup to enjoy before heading off to his next job. For lunch, we had soup, tempura battered eggplant, salad, and rice. We explained to Rosa that at home we eat eggplant parmesan often. I described it, and she was intrigued. She asked if I could teach her how to make it. I would love to, but not being much of a cook myself, I don't know how to make sauce from scratch, etc. That may need to wait until another visit, or at least a trip to a grocery store. Antonio called at lunchtime to say that when they got to the hospital, her appointment wasn't in the computer. He had Aida find the paperwork that said that she did indeed have an appointment today. He didn't know if they would be able to see her, because of this clerical error. They took it in stride, it was standard operating procedure for the overburdened public hgealth care system. But to us, it was difficult to believe. Here was Antonio, taking a day off from the house construction, taking a 3-year-old on a multi-hour bus ride to Quito, waiting for hours, only to be told that he may have to do it all over again another day? We hoped against all odds that the doctor would somehow be able to see her today. After I finished up work for the day, we went up to the third floor to observe the day's progress. Marcelo was working on fitting concrete blocks to create gable ends on the house for the roof. Craig used a tool to chip drips of dry concrete from the walls and floor. I swept the bedris into piles. Then Craig and Rosa sifted out the large chunks so that they could save the finer grade concrete dust for re-use. Everything is saved here and re-used when at all possible. Living a more or less subsistence lifestyle requires that the family repurpose and recycle items as much as they can, and they never throw away anything that has potential for future use. We really missed Tayanta's presence. Her gentle manner and cheerful demeanor are a calming influence on the household. Just before dinner, I thought that I heard her little voice. Sure enough, she and Antonio arrived at the house with good news. The doctor had been able to see her, and he said that everything was looking good. She has a follow-up appointment at the end of December, at which point they will decide whether to do an additional surgery to correct her strabismus (crossed eyes). We are so happy that it all worked out! Antonio indulges the kids when they go to the city, and he bought his dear granddaughter a new pair of earrings as well as some snacks. Tayanta had brought home some of the snacks to share. The kids are always surprisingly good about sharing food. Sisa and Yupanqui were asking us a lot of English words, and we continued to teach them. The kids watched the El Dorado movie on Youtube. Then they watched El Cholo Juanito y Richard Douglas, a series of slapstick Peruvian sitcoms. It was nice to all be home together for a nice family dinner consisting of habas soup (I think this is the tastiest way to eat the beans), quinoa mixed with vegetables and chunks of chicken and beef, fresh pineapple juice, and small baked potatoes topped with fresh homemade mayonnaise. (We had seen Rosa cracking eggs into the blender and then adding oil...I don't think we've ever had homemade mayo before, and it was delicious!) And to top it all off, we all admired the gorgeous full moon! Antonio's cousin Juan Pedro, who can not speak, came into the dining room, verbaliizing and motioning enthusiastically that we should all go outside to take a look, and it was breathtaking. Craig was very tired by the time dinner was over. He felt like he may have pushed it a bit doing some physical work on the third floor. He always feels guilty and wants to help the family with work and chores. Especially when he sees someone like Rosa carrying three concrete blocks at a time in a sling of cloth on her back. But the nature of his illness means that even if he feels up tp doing work at the time, it exhausts him and sometimes he pays the price for it afterwards. |
 Steph & Sisa  Aida  Tayanta is home from the doctor  Family dinner 
|
|
 |
|
 |
