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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Meet Dandy!

This is Dandy!

My favorite decapitated dog!  We have a regular pupusaria (restaurant for the national food) we go to every weekend.  I love it, not only because they have tasty pupusas, but because of these signs they have up.  I've interpreted them to mean that you are not allowed to bring decapitated dogs to their restaurant.  I try to hold back on making a joke about it every week.  . .but i don't always succeed.
Recently, I decided my friend needed a name.  Clearly.  And after a couple minutes of deep pondering, I remembered a someone had asked me for the translation of 'dandelion' a few days prior.  I liked the alliteration, and then it hit me - dandelions lose their 'heads'.  Oh, it gives me such joy!

So i thought i'd share a bit of that joy with you - Dandy, the decapitated dog :)

Monday, January 13, 2014

Sad entry

So, I've actually had a lot of positive experiences in my counseling here the last couple of weeks.  But today, you're receiving a bit more of the heartbreak.

Today is the 2nd time in two weeks that I've advised a director for the organizations i'm volunteering at that it would be best if one of their young adults left.  Today it meant that a young woman and her 2 yr old son will be leaving to live in an unsafe home.  Life would be so much easier if we could force people to be logical and make wise choices!

Besides these issues, i've been saddened by the challenges within the society.  There is a new law (within the last 2 or 3 years) which theoretically sounds awesome, but in practicality is horrifying.  The law is designed to protect the rights of children and prioritize the family.  Every child should have the right to be with their family and the family is the best place for a child.  Sounds great - who wants to force kids to live in an institution when they've got a family?

Unfortunately, this means that those kids that were removed from abusive homes, are being put back in them.  In some instances there have been mom's who have literally thrown their infants in the garbage and receive those babies back 3 months later - for them only to die.  In the orphanage, it means some of the kids are court ordered to go home every other weekend.  They spend their weeks in fear of the abuse they will receive that weekend.  How do you treat trauma when you have to send a child back into it all the time?

The amount of trauma makes the successes much more rewarding - but for today, today I will be sad.