Cock-a-doodle-doo

How Guatemala is similar to college:

1) I live on a campus, in a dorm, with a shared bathroom and roomie
2) The food is limited in selection and repetitive
3) I go to school
4) It is an excellently, worthwhile, justifiable way of not being a financially independent individual
5) Apparently I pull all-nighters (which I only did twice in college- and I’m not even sure if they count because I cheated and napped.)

Yes, that’s right; I did my first night shift in the baby house and literally saw the sun rise. Although I did catch a few ZZZZZZZZ’s around 5:30am. The night went really well. I definitely could have slept more, but I was a little paranoid, it being my first time and all, that a child would stop breathing or something on MY watch. Also, it is incredible how much a rooster sounds like a baby at the top note of their most perfect wail. Basically, whenever the rooster would sound (which is fairly regularly, it is a myth that they only “cock-a-doodle “in the morning) I sat to attention thinking it was a baby down the hall. Finally, I hunted the noise down to outside the walls, still it drove me crazy. After tracking it to the window closest to the farm, which is above the shower in the bathroom, not an easy place to get, I was certain that I wanted rooster for lunch.

The older ones (which are the majority) sleep through the night with no problems. Most of the babies wake around 4am an need a bottle and a change, otherwise they are usually good. Its little 2 month old Miguel that will give me my first grays. He sleeps 4-5 hours without needing a bottle which is great. But once he woke up at 12:30 for his first bottle, he could not get back to sleep. This is because he is so congested he can’t breathe through his nose, but uses a pacifier or his thumb to lull himself to sleep. Basically he could not get comfortable.

The thing about an orphanage is the mortal fear of more than two babies needing you. One is enough, two manageable, three and you just have no arms left. And when a cry goes off, you begin to plead, “pleaseeeeee, don’t wake anyone else!” The other thing about an orphanage, babies are really good at sleeping through noise and tuning out crying.

During the night I watched both Amelia, which was EHH and New York, I Love You, which I HIGHLY recommend. Some of the stories were good, some really weird and some had me in tears both laughing and crying. Pretty much sounds like NY, plus the cast is amazing.

I’m really proud that I made it through the day without napping, but now I am crashing fast. Especially, since I had the pleasure of eating dinner with Claudia and her family at their home. It was wonderful. But it has led to a long day. Damn I hate roosters!