“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…”

Joni Mitchell was right. This has been a trend this past week and while the absence of something can be uncomfortable and sometimes brings a lot of suffering, it’s there that I think we often experience the most gratitude and growth.

Last Saturday I went back to the orphanage, and this time I only waited a half hour. They have over 500 kids living there and on the weekends they need more help than on weekdays, which is I think why I was asked to come back on Saturday. I was given an apron to put on and told the people here were now my family. I followed the woman through a room past 30 empty cribs lining the walls and center of the room, till we stepped outside to a small fenced-in area where I was greeted by 25 little faces looking up at me. The babies of this room were around a year old or a few months younger. All but 5 of them were in baby walkers and the others were hanging out on a play pad.

“They like it when you sing, play with them, and clap your hands, but don’t pick them up because if you do that, the others will cry,” were the first directions I received. I didn’t see a whole lot of the three women in charge of them for that first hour, because they were preparing the lunch, cleaning, and changing diapers. So, there I was in the midst of all these (surprisingly) very quiet babies, not really knowing what to do at first.

Suddenly, I remembered a story my mom had told me of an orphanage that had a floor of babies much healthier than the other floor and they investigated what the cause could be. The floor with the healthier babies was also much dirtier and they at first suspected that the babies had built up certain immunities living amidst more germs. Eventually they discovered that it was dirtier because the cleaning person for that floor didn’t clean at night but instead held the babies—and THAT was why they were healthier.

While I couldn’t possibly hold every baby, I tried to be touching as many as I could at every moment, whether it was rubbing their heads, backs, bellies or playing with their feet. I learned something else—babies aren’t the only ones who need human touch. I do too, very much so. It wasn’t till the past two weeks that I came to recognize how much I miss that touch, and hugs specifically. I really love hugs and I rarely get them here, so me and these babies, we help each other!

Around 11am it was feeding time and then we put them in their cribs to take a nap. Time for a rest? No way. With over 500 kids, can you imagine the amount of laundry? Right, neither could I until Saturday. We walked outside to a large area with lines and lines very efficiently hung to make the most of the space. There were tons of blankies, cloth diapers, towels, itsy bitsy socks and underwear, onesies etc. They do have washing machines but no dryers so everything is hung to dry, whether on lines outside, lines hung across the individual rooms, or on the banisters or railings throughout the premises. Yikes.

Saturday was also the day of the earthquake in Chile, as you all know. The Andes protect Bolivia very well so no one in this country was affected, but my host-mother has a niece who lives in Concepcion. In the middle of the night, she (niece) woke up because she felt a tremor. Once recognizing that the electricity was out, she got her kids out of the house and they fled. Later, they discovered that their house was completely destroyed. I asked what happened to her neighbors and my host-mother appeared to say that the neighbors didn’t wake up in time to get out. Why she woke up and others didn’t, I don’t know, but I’m grateful to hear stories like this. These natural disasters are a reminder to me that life is not something to take for granted, and neither is people’s presence in my life. So, as a reminder, I’m grateful for you, whether I tell you that often or not. You’re important.

Another part of life that I’ve learned this week not to take for granted is transportation. Being a democracy, the people of Bolivia like to use their voice when something is not right in their eyes. This past Wednesday and Thursday I experienced my first strike by the public transportation workers and private transportation companies. This meant that only private taxis were available for those without the means of their own two feet, a bicycle, or a motorcycle. Not only did the drivers strike, but they blocked lots of key intersections, which made using the roads very difficult and I read in the paper that it affected US $1 million of exports in those two days.

Why strike? Because of the problem of drivers drinking while on the job, a new law has been put into place that takes away the drunk driver’s license and also punishes the whole company. I’m not sure if the drivers are more upset that they can’t freely drink while on the job, or the fact that their jobs are in danger due to a co-worker’s mishap. Needless to say, the strike is over today without any negotiation or amendment to the law. Apparently, these “paros” are common, at least that is what my host-sisters said as they rolled their eyes at it.

5 Things I’m Thankful for: not having been hit by an earthquake or lost anyone I know in one; hugs when I get them; being able to walk; having public transportation back; finding wheat rolls at a near-by tienda (store).