Bad News

A lot of bad, sad and unfortunate things have happened in the past three days. It started off okay with an adventure at the tile store and baking cookies. However, yesterday I found out one of my friends from high school is now quadriplegic from snapping his neck diving into the surf in Atlantic City.

When I thought things couldn’t get worse, I went to el comedor today and found a sign. “Cerrado por Duelo” (Closed for Mourning). Someone had died and el comedor was closed. I went home and called Valeria. She called back quickly and I found out a child had died. Amalia wouldn’t say who, so I don’t know if I knew the child or not. They think the child died from the swine flu (gripe A), but no one knows. Thus, el comedor will be closed until further notice. The mothers will still cook, but everyone will eat and leave. I am not to keep any kids there afterward for activities, as that would increase chances of spreading the swine flu or any other sort of sickness.

As of now, I can go in earlier in the morning and help the mothers cook, but that’s about it. Hopefully I’ll find out tomorrow which child it was and what exactly happened. It may not have been someone I knew because if they’ve been sick for a while, they would have stayed at home—but you never know. It’s been a tough few days, and I’m anxious because I don’t exactly know what sort of affect this death and spread of illnesses will have on the success or even existence of my project or even my participation in volunteering at el comedor at all.