Baby Home Caregiver Presentation, Part 3

For Part 1, click here.
For Part 2, click here.

The final part of the presentation included some dancing!


LOVE this picture of C! (Check out the tiny high heel sandals, borrowed from Tia Consuelo's granddaughter)

The charming couple!!! (Brother B & Sister C)

...and more snacks, of course!

(Didn't get a picture of the saltenas and breads... Oh, and the fresh juices!)

A special Bolivian number by the tias.

Taking a peek: it's a real baby!! (Baby G., who was very happy to be a part of the dancing.)

There was another very unique part of the program this day.

First, I can't resist just showing this picture of dear Tia Maria and asking WHAT you think is going on here...!

The tias who are in charge of J's special education thought it would be good for us as office staff (and apparently Tia Eli as our visitor) to do the same "exercise" as they once did at her special school for blind children. We were blindfolded - very elegantly, I might say! - outside the house and then were told to head to the dining room for breakfast.

Um, sure, yeah... I've lived in this house for over 6 years, so it wasn't too big of a deal to find the dining room. But once there, the furniture was rearranged due to the special presentation coming up (pictures above) and it was HORRIBLE to try to find anything or do anything...and forget about proper manners! I did the same as Tia Eli here at one point, licking fingers that I'd accidentally stuck in something (what??) as I searched the table for the breakfast items.

It was so simple: pour a cup of juice, slice the bread, choose butter, jam, or dulce de leche, put it on your plate, and sit down. I poured myself something but tasted it, and it was not the juice I had wanted. I realized I should have poured very little and tasted first. But at least I didn't fill it to overflowing and make a mess! I finally found the bread feeling around (which for some reason, made me feel dumb), but gave up on finding anything to put on it.

The best moment came when Tia Consuelo verbally guided me to the bench where we were supposed to sit. I didn't step on too many feet on the way! After the disconcerting experience at the breakfast table, I understood what a blessing (and necessity) a constant guide must be to the blind.

If the atmosphere hadn't been one of fun comaraderie, it would have been the most singularly frustrating and challenging task of my day. And inside my heart was breaking, imagining the round-the-clock difficulties of our little J. The tias asked afterwards how we felt, and I wanted to say that quite honestly, I felt like crying. It made me think of the times that Jesus healed blind people when He walked the earth, and what a hugely wonderful, glorious thing that was! And I wished for the 100th time that there was some hope for J to be able to see, this side of heaven.

(By the way, both of the above pictures were taken while I was still blindfolded, just to be able to see what we looked like afterwards!)

A couple more pictures of some adorable kiddos before closing...

Siblings B & C chatting (so proud of the sandals earlier, they started to hurt C's feet :))

Listening to the instructions of a tia

And which group of tias won the presentation? There was simply no way to choose. Tia Eli from CDA II agreed with us office staff: EVERYONE was a winner!! The prize is lunch out together.

And the house IS now decorated for Christmas... Our beautiful, beautiful Baby Home!