On the way here, we stopped at Cartago to visit the "Basilica de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles". As my mom and I stepped into the cathedral, I thought I recognized a young couple. My first thoughts were, "I can't be recognizing someone here in Costa rica, I don't know anyone here!" but I soon realized it was E.'s parents holding her. They recognized us too. We talked, and her parents told us that 2 weeks before, E. had been interned at the hospital, but she was better now!
When we arrived in Pérez Zeledón, we went straight to the Albergue. It is much smaller than the one in San Jose, but happily, they're constructing a new one.
Don Santana Esquivel, said that "a child's life has no price" and so he decided to donate a 600m2 plot of land to the foundation. Since then, the constructions have been running on donations.
Each material has been given from different Companies or people, and that is the only help they receive, since they are a non-governmental organization.
We, then proceeded to visit some patients at home. Pérez Zeledón is a rural area, and because people are more unprivileged here, the program visits takes place mostly at the patient's homes. We visited 3 girls today.
The first one, the twenty-year old J., was in bed since her birth and clearly receive a lot of support from the family. When the mom arrived home, J. opened a big smile just from hearing her mom's voice. She has been receiving help from the Palliative Care for a while, and has memories of all the doctors who accompanied us to the house.
Next, we went to A.'s house to find out she was not home. She had been interned with her dad at the local hospital for dialysis. Her dad is a former inmate, and her mom was taking care of three other children they had. While the doctors talked to the A.'s mom, I painted with her sister.
Last, but not least, we visited Y., a 13 year old girl who was being helped by the Palliative Professionals for the first time today. She had a tumor when younger, that was treated with chemo. However, the malignant tumor came back much worse now. A friend of hers was at their house and as doctors talked to her parents, I played with the two girls. We made colorful bracelets. Y. is a very delicate girl, who certainly has talent with arts and crafts. Her mom showed us other ornaments she had made to decorate the house. What a sweet girl she is. Tomorrow, we will drive towards the boarder with Panama to see how the program reaches Indian reservations here in Costa Rica.
Kisses,
Mariana
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