Good news! Ana had her surgery yesterday. I called last night but the girl in the bed next to her said Ana was not allowed to talk. She said Ana is fine and the surgery went smoothly.
Today I called again. Ana sounds great! She's really happy. She said she has no pain at all and she can walk slowly. She is eager to get back home. She has to stay on a liquid diet for 7 days because feces could infect the incisions. I loved hearing her so positive and carefree. Maybe it's the pain meds, or maybe she is really relieved. It was not an easy surgery.
Everyone went back to work today. It was good to be see my coworkers! Estela said she really missed me and was glad to be back at work.
For my new role this week I am going to interview and write about a woman who has seen positive changes in her family with the skills she used in the Familia Fuerte (Strong Families) program. I'm also going to interview kids who are about to step out into the world after completing vocational school with our scholarship program. I'll write about that next week. My coworkers are excited for donors to know more about what we do. They are full of ideas about stories I can cover.
I also talked with the psychologist who is working with Carlos and his family. He said he has not seen a need to send Carlos to a boys' home. He asked for Carlos (and Lorenzo, and Erika's) mother's phone number so he could contact her. In the end, it was already programmed into his phone, but I liked that he was concerned and wanting to get in contact with the family.
The psychologist arranged a school visit with the director, teacher, and Carlos' mother. They talked about how they can best support Carlos. He's seen progress in her parenting skills, so he feels hopeful Carlos can remain in the home with some extra support.
Summer may be drawing to an end here. Summer is my least favorite season. The sun is so strong and it gets really dry. The water, which is usually released by the city every 3 nights, comes once/week or less. We had 24 hours of bad fires in the mountains this year, but not weeks and weeks of fires, like usual.
Last night we got a nice, heavy rain! It seems too early to be rainy season. I thought we wouldn't see any more rain for two or three more weeks. But tonight it's thundering and the forecast calls for rain every day. The forecast is more often wrong than right. However, it is possible that the rainy season may be here already!
