worst vocab ever

this weekend I learned the verb disparar, to shoot.  not something I ever particularly wanted to learn.  but, what are  you going to do?

so friday night/early saturday morning, our head of security Abrahan and one of our guards Maximo got shot.  they went out to a salsa club in guayaquil in a friend´s nice car and coming out of the club four people attacked them, stole the car, shot Maxi once in the leg and Abrahan three times, once in the shoulder and then after he fell twice, one when into his upper leg and one went through his butt into his bladder.  Maxi called the police and gave them the make and number of the car so they caught the people right away and got our guys to the hospital. 

the past few days have been crazy.  Abrahan and Maximo are ok.  Abrahan had surgery on Saturday and is recovering well, he´s walking and talking and eating solid foods, though he´s in a lot of pain.  they don´t really use painkillers here because they´re too expensive.  He´s in a semi-private hospital, in a big open room with 40 beds and a nurse´s station.  it´s crazy, just a huge open room with 40 sick men in green gingham pajamas lying in beds and minimal staff.  they´re trying to send him home today, though we´re trying to keep him in there longer.  four days after getting shot three times we feel is too soon for him to go home. 

Maximo is in the public hospital, and still hasn´t had surgery to get the bullet out.  his leg is broken and the bones are one on top of the other and they couldn´t get the bullet out so they´ve weighted his leg to stretch it out and get the bones in the right place and he´s going to have surgery today or tomorrow.  he´s in a room with five beds, about the size of a two-bed room in a state-side hospital.  neither one of these places are air conditioned, though Abrahan´s at least has ceiling fans.  For Maxi´s first surgery they used a general anesthetic so he was awake watching them dig around in his leg and put a big pin in his bone to which they then attached the big weight.   that would creep me out, I think.  he described the process in graphic detail. 

I spent eight hours yesterday driving their lawyer all over the city.  There´s a lot of paper work that needs to be done for the ladrones to stay in jail and if you don´t hire your own lawyer it often just doesn´t get done and the guys go free so Abrahan´s family hired a lawyer to help them out.  we had to go five different places yesterday to get all the information and forms he needed.  I don´t know what the next step is in this process, but it´s serious and scary. 

I´m exhausted in so many ways right now.  and we´re leaving in less than a month.

vale la pena

we´re in the leaving period.  it sucks.  mostly because I work with children and it´s really hard for them to understand.  and when you put it bluntly, that we´re leaving forever, it´s really hard for me to hear.  por siempre is a long time.  keily invited me to christmas and new years at her house, in an attempt to get me not to go.  stay, we´ll light the muñeca on fire and it´ll be fun.  she almost cried.  everyone is getting really sad.  melissa signed elisabeth, omar´s wife, up for hotmail so we can msn and email her and stay in contact.  however, she´s not exactly the most computer literate so it´s a long process. 

I also know that I will probably be exceedingly unpleasant when I get back.  remember when I came home from wales?  that was the worst summer ever.  of course, it didn´t help that kayla moved to california (though this summer she´s moving to japan, punk).  so I apologize in advance for being mopey and no fun at all.  I am excited about coming home (I´d be more excited if I had a job).  I am excited to see people and meet babies and wear clean clothes and drink clean water.