Somehow the month of March escaped us! With Sister Janet’s illness everything got a little crazy but we had an opportunity to see how the mothers of Santo Nino responded to the challenge. They are our “desert blooms”!!!
Siba runs circles around us, arriving at our house shortly after 7 a.m. on clinic mornings to get the car filled with the food she has prepared for lunch and whatever other supplies we are taking across that day. Siba also handled all the communications and crises that inevitably arise with the families in the course of the month, sparing us the work and worry. She has proven herself to be our SC Associate in Mission time and again!
Lucy and Sofia have become our premier providers of body work at Santo Nino. Their innate healing abilities have blossomed in the past months since the Reiki training. Sister Carol marvels at the intuitive gifts they demonstrate in their work and the loving kindness that permeates their treatments. They are always eager to learn more, to serve more.
Kika, grandmother to one of our little patients, has taken responsibility for educating our new parents/caregivers. She orients them to the clinic and then demonstrates the use of massage techniques, exercise, and other equipment available. She is always vigilant for the unattended child, taking them into her arms or to an unoccupied mat for therapy.
Rosa is our “cafeteria monitor”. She organizes the noon meal and oversees the multiplication of the loaves which never ceases to amaze us. No matter our caution to “give smaller portions to be sure we have enough”, she smiles and loads the plates full and there is always some left over to send home with the families!
Last but not least, Gloria, our first and most faithful Santo Nino mother has become the listening heart of Santo Nino. Last Saturday, not a clinic day, she arranged a “spa day” for the mothers that included Jacuzzi time, massage, lunch, Easter baskets and child care. Many mothers simply wept at the beautiful experience and Gloria was there. “Jesus just gave me the words that they needed to hear!”
The desert is surely blooming these days at Santo Nino!