Thursday, October 23, 2008

Waiting to see...

I realized that I have not given an update regarding the family with the sick baby (possibly hydrocephalus). For future reference, here are their first names:
Father: Juan
Mother: Maria Refugio
Healthy 3-year-old: Eugenia
Baby: Paula
There are 7 other children in this family, but they obviously did not travel with Juan and Maria. Josh went with the family to the doctor where an MRI was performed. Apparently they are trying to determine whether there is fluid surrounding Paula's brain, or whether she might have some other type of problem. She does not seem like she is in pain at all, but her head is definitely enlarged, and almost too heavy for her to hold up.
Afterward, Maria and the kids returned to Danielle's house, and Juan headed to pick up a food basket for the family. I stopped to see Maria and the kids and tried as best I could to communicate with her.
She mainly speaks Huichol, yet can understand some Spanish (we both have our difficulty in speaking Spanish in common!). I tried to find items in my backpack for the kids to play with, handing over a Spanish/English Dictionary to Paula, and a pad of paper and pen to Eugenia. Eugenia cautiously made marks with the pen, and Maria helped her to draw a little portrait of herself. Paula happily flipped through the dicitonary. Despite a lot of silence, I really enjoyed the time with them.
The family will probably be here until October 31, after their second doctor appointment and prognosis. We are heading out of town that same day for the state of Michoacan, so we will probably not be able to travel back with them. But we plan to head to see them on our own in the coming weeks.

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