Chapter 2

[Susan Hoover]

Dear family and friends,

Ready for chapter 2! We've arrived at Hogar Esperanza. The first thing I felt like doing is taking a nap, so I actually had a short little sleep. I don't remember much about the rest of the day. All I could think of was how much I was looking forward to going to bed that night! And the Lord granted solid, restful sleep. So merciful.

Thursday morning Hein and Tina came again, and they spent much of the day showing us around and explaining what exactly we are to be doing. Actually our main responsibility here is oversight -- making sure everything runs along smoothly and things are done properly. The Hildebrands do not live here on the place, but they are still very much involved. Hein has miraculously survived 10 surgeries on his face and nose, for skin cancer. The doctors had given up at one point and sent him home to die -- but the Lord obviously still had work for him here on earth. He lived! In the more recent years, he has had two strokes as well, but has also recovered remarkably from both. He is 73 years old. So, with all that background, we can understand why they are starting to think that maybe it is time someone else comes and lends a hand a bit more! Hein is 73 years old. Tina is 67. She goes, and goes all day long! She seems to have endless energy. They have raised a family of 14. She keeps up with all her housework at home, plus spends about three days a week here at the Home. When she is here, she sorts, marks, mends, and sews. I am amazed at how she can make clothes over to fit the residents here at the home. Much clothing is donated here. Some of it is hardly usable as it is but she always has ideas. She takes a robe size 3X or so, and in an hour or less she has made an attractive skirt out of it for one of the ladies. She adjusts, hems, remakes. Adds cuffs to sweaters whose sleeves are a bit too short. And many other things! She makes single bed sheets, fitted, out of bigger ones. And whatever scraps are left over, she sews together in a patchwork to make food covers for the kitchen. Her ingenuity is astounding! There is very little waste!

So anyway. That's the Hildebrands! I have kind of taken over the laundry, and it has become expected that I will do it. And I enjoy it. There are loads and loads of laundry every day. Fortunately, the Home has two large-capacity, Speed Queen washers. Yes, Speed Queen, no less! (Makes me think of Velina.) And the water is naturally soft spring water. It is truly a pleasure to work with the laundry with all those advantages. Usually, so far anyway, there is sunshine and wind to dry it. And if the weather fails, we have a dryer too. Today we actually used the dryer (May 20). It rained during the night, and today the air is heavy and humid. And we are having scattered showers.

Peter is running nearly all day long. He helps with the morning cleaning, which usually includes spraying, squeegee-ing, and mopping all the floors in the main building -- the dining areas, kitchen, laundry, and the resident's rooms. He also helps the elderly to the table at mealtime, and helps serve their plates of food. He often brings water to them at any time of the day when they need a drink. He also helps me hang out the laundry, and later to bring it in, fold it, and return the items to their proper places.

There are 25 residents here at the home right now. 4 ladies, and 21 men!! Last week one day, a new lady was brought in. She had absolutely nothing except the clothes she was wearing. She badly needed a bath. I dug around in the clothes that are stored here and didn't find much that fit her, as she is a small, petite lady. Hein told Peter and me to go to town and buy some clothes for her at the second hand store, so we did. We managed to find several sets of nice clothes for her. Finding the right size was guesswork, but it actually fit very well! Her name is Nancy and she is so fearful. At first she refused to eat. But by now she eats and is doing better. The poor lady was abused and has lots of reasons to be fearful. She forgets where things are -- sometimes she forgets where the bathroom is and we need to show her  again. She needs lots of love and I think she is getting it here.

Another of the ladies is Carmen. She is in a wheelchair, 79 years old. She often just sits alone, but if you go sit with her, she will talk by the hour! She has told me all about her childhood as an adopted child. It seems she had a good home and has pleasant memories.

The other two ladies are Librada, who has Alzheimers, and Raquel, who is also quite mixed up at times. We have had gorgeous sunsets since we are here, and we like to be out on the porch of the Home to watch them. One evening Raquel said, "But what does it mean? I get so scared at times when the sky is so red." I told her she doesn't need to be afraid, that God puts those lovely colours in the sky for us to enjoy, because He is so good! She looked at me with an expression of awe on her face. "You mean, God makes that for us? To enjoy?" Yes, I assured her, God does. He is so good and kind.

And the men -- I haven't learned all of their names yet but some I have. There is Anibal. He is very fit and able yet, and loves to help wherever he can. He likes to gather the trash in the mornings and dispose of it. He also helps push around the ones who are in wheelchairs, getting them to the table, etc. Felix is another one, and Francisco. There are two Pedro's! And since my husband is also a Pedro in Spanish, everyone has taken to calling my husband Peeta, the Platt Deetsch name. :-) It's kind of cute how they do that.

There are a good many more, but anyway, you get the picture. Now, for the staff. We are the new ones on the block, of course! We are learning the ropes, and we are enjoying it.

There are two trained nurses here -- a male one and a female. Joel Caballero seems to be just the right person for the job. He is so cheerful and upbeat, no matter what! What he has to do is often very unpleasant, but he sings and yahoos and makes other exclamations. He helps the men bathe, who cannot do it themselves. Sometimes they don't want to bathe, and they raise a fuss. In that situation, Joel will laugh and joke and sing, all loudly. He has a good sense of humour and is quite funny at times. He keeps the atmosphere light and joyful! Everyone likes him.

The other nurse is Angelica. She is a quiet, no-nonsense type of person, (maybe because her husband is a police officer!) yet she is also warm and friendly. She also does a lot of the cooking here.  She takes care of the ladies, of course.

Then there are Roberto and Norma, and their 17-year-old daughter Florencia, who also work here. Roberto takes over caring for the men when Joel has time off. Right now Joel is away for a week, caring for his father who is ill. Roberto does a phenomenal job of taking over that work. Norma helps with the cooking, and so does Florencia. Kitchen cleaning, dishes, etc. There is no dishwasher here!

Roberto and Norma also have a baby boy, 8 months old, whose name is Jesus. :-)

Then there is Patricio. He is a brick-layer that is working on laying brick here for more bedrooms for the residents. (The inside walls here are all of brick too.) But he does dozens of other things too. He helps care for the men. He helps clean the floors in the morning, etc. He also repairs things. Over the weekend we had a terrible water leak in our bathroom -- water sprayed out where it shouldn't whenever we would flush the toilet. Not very nice! He bought the needed parts and fixed that problem nicely.

At mealtime, the residents are fed first in the bigger dining/parking area. After their meal is cleared away, we staff members eat at the smaller dining area next to the kitchen.

So, that covers all of the staff here at the moment. This Home is supported and run by a group of various Mennonite churches here. People come quite often to visit, it seems. Visitors are appreciated! The midday meal for the residents is brought in every day by a group of people working together with a hospital in the area.

Right after we got here, Peter came down with a bad cold. On one of our flights we had cold air blowing down on us for several hours, and he started with a sore throat then already. It got worse here, and on the first Saturday we were here he spent almost the entire day in bed. The next day we didn't go to church anywhere, as he still wasn't feeling well, although he was much better. We spent a quiet, restful day here at home.

Now this past Sunday we attended the morning meeting at the Misionsgemeinde in Sommerfeld colony. We came back here for lunch. In the afternoon we had a terrific windstorm, and the power went off, and stayed off till about midnight! We also got a lot of heavy rain. Later on in the afternoon Erdmann and Gertrude Giesbrecht and their daughter came to visit us.

On Saturday we went along with Rudi and Helen Toews, to the Co-op store in Sommerfeld, Campo 2. We learned to know the Toews last year when we were here, in fact the apartment we rented that time belonged to them. They became good friends, and we had a good bit of back and forth with them! So we enjoyed going with them to Campo 2. They are building a new house and were buying some things for that. Peter and I bought a mattress, as the one we had here was just a sponge and absolutely had no support! Hills and valleys, is what I called it. Anyway, we got a new one, and we also got two bedside tables and some lamps. There is not much furniture in this room, so we kind of have stuff on the floor and on the chairs, for lack of better places! We also ordered a table, which is going to be delivered this week sometime. The mattress and bedside tables were delivered yesterday. In some ways, this takes us back to when we were newly-weds, getting started in Mexico! Very basic, and bit by bit we made improvements as we could. It's exciting! And we appreciate each improvement very much more than if we would have had everything right away!

Last evening, a group of 5 or 6 families from one of the Mennonite congregations around here, brought supper over for everyone here, both residents and staff. They brought hamburgers, and grilled them here, and made sandwiches for everyone on buns that they also brought along, with tomato and lettuce, mayonnaise, etc. The residents loved it! Well, everyone else did too. There were a lot of children here, running around, and the residents liked that too. After everyone had eaten, we sang a few songs with the guests. A wonderful evening of fellowship!

And that pretty well brings us to today. The Hildebrands were here again. A local pastor comes every Tuesday to counsel with the residents, and in the afternoon we all gather together and he has a short devotional meditation and a few songs. Also every Tuesday, two German chiropractors come and give  treatments to the residents. So it seems there is always something going on here! Today Librada got some visitors -- her daughter, as well as a son and some more family members. We really like when the family of the residents cares enough to come and visit! Librada really appreciated it too, of course. As I mentioned before, she has Alzheimers at at times she wants to escape, saying she must go see her daughter. At such times we must make sure the gate across the driveway is closed and locked!

On Saturday our son Julian and his lady friend, Emily, came for a nice long visit. That was so-o special! Her brother was here too.

May God bless one and all, and let us let our lights shine for Jesus!

Serving our Master,

Susan (and Peter)

May 21. Well, yesterday I was just about to push Send, when the power blinked off, and the connection was lost! So now it is Wednesday already. And it is our wedding anniversary -- 44 years! Unbelievable. All we can do is stand back in awe and say, "What God hath wrought!" He made something beautiful out of the shambles, that's for sure.

I was very sick and feverish all night long. I had some kind of bite on my foot that got infected and pussy. Patricio had given me some stuff last night -- an antiseptic wash, some mercurochrome, etc. It did make it feel some better but my whole foot still felt stiff and swollen. I did not get much sleep last night, between being hot and cold and trying to relieve my body aches! In the morning Julian took us to the Luz y Vida clinic, which we much appreciated! It was a spider bite, and it was infected. I got an antibiotic intravenously and was sent home with oral antibiotics and pain meds. I should soon be feeling better!

Today our bigger bed arrived, as well as the table we had ordered at the furniture shop in Sommerfeld!

And now I will make another attempt to send this!

-Susan