To Work in another country, is not easy!! 

Greetings dear community!    

Today I will tell you about my activities as a Therapeutic Assistant, I know that previously I had told you something about this job, but today I will go deeper into the subject.  

When I arrived in Buenos Aires, I could not get a job as a teacher, because I did not have the documents legalized, it took 9 months to give me the DNI, National Identity Card, I only had a provisional authorization to work and move around the national territory, called Precaria, with that document I could work.   

We walked several kilometers handing out resumes in all the stores in the commercial area, but they never called us.  We began to search through facebook and there I got a job as a maid, cleaning an apartment 5 hours a day, Monday through Friday, I was paid 5,000 pesos per month, which was not enough to cover the expenses we had.  

 My friend Ana Consuelo, whom I met on the trip from Venezuela to Buenos Aires, to whom I am very grateful for everything she did for me, called me one day asking me if I wanted to work as a Therapeutic Assistant, taking care of disabled adults.  She told me that they paid weekly and very well.  The thing is that I didn't know anything about that kind of activity. 

But, I have always been a brave woman, and more if I am in the midst of adversity, God has given me that strength, fortitude, courage, whatever you want to call it.  My friend told me what I should do and how to do it, that I should look for something on Youtube about this topic so I could learn, and so I did.  

When the coordinator of the company that recruited this type of personnel called me to interview me, I was ready to say what I needed to say to get in... and I got in!  Of course, they urgently needed a person to cover that guard, and I went, I will always remember that first patient I took care of, it was a night guard for 3 days, it was a Spanish man, an architect well known in the construction industry.   

He had a stroke and was unable to move his left arm and leg.  He was very tall, about 6'2" tall and weighed about 130 kg.  When I saw him, I paled, I got nervous, imagining how to lift that man so tall and strong .... and not only that, I had to take him to the bathroom, undress him, lay him on the bed, dress him, give him water every 20 minutes during the night, sanitize his private parts, use the parrot (container where urine is poured) when he was in bed, I could not let even a little urine leak into the bed, ... it was a challenge that guard ... it was quite a challenge.  

As best I could I got him up, thank God he helped a lot, he was very good, polite, loving.... But the wife was the opposite... her bad temper didn't help much, so I went for 3 days and didn't come back.  After a few months I found out that the patient had died.  

And so I began to visit several homes in the Capital of Buenos Aires, people with a lot of money, with chronic, incurable diseases, that not even all the money they had, could save them from certain death.  Some were good and others not so good patients.    

It has been 5 years, and my last patient's name is Maria, she is 65 years old, she is a very intelligent, beautiful, kind-hearted woman, she has a degree in Accounting, they own a sawmill, they also have a lot of money, but, they are a little less snobbish than the previous patients.  

She had a seizure when she was 60 years old, they took her to the doctor, and she was diagnosed with a strange disease called Acute Amyloid Disorder, according to the medical report, he said it is a disease similar to stroke, she has all the left side immobile, and the right side is getting stiff too, the doctors say that instead of improving, the stiffness in the muscles will increase as time goes by, and the time will come when her heart will stop working.  

When I met Maria, she was able to do some things by herself, brush her teeth, wash her face, comb her hair, eat by herself, now she doesn't have the strength to do any of that.  Practically everything has to be done, from bathing her, to feeding her, to giving her to drink, she wears diapers because she suffers from incontinence on both sides.  So, it has not been easy for me this kind of work, there are moments when I feel like leaving everything and not going anymore, but then I think of Maria and Jose, they can't fend for themselves, they need help from other people. 

 Maria says she is going to die at 69, just like her mother, or maybe before.  Unfortunately she has no children, she never married.  Her parents died, she only has 2 brothers, of which only 1 is the one who carries the heaviest burden, he carries the whole administration of the sawmill, plus the illness of his sister Maria, and, in addition to that, he is diabetic, and also had 3 strokes, just like Maria, only he can walk, he can fend for himself 70%, with many restrictions.  

The truth is that when I see cases like these, I think that money is not everything in life, it can help to solve many problems, but others, like these cases that I have seen, unfortunately not.... unfortunately.  They are hard working people, I think they abuse their body, they work night and day, for what, to end up like that, sick? Having to depend on other people to do their personal activities? Is that fair?  

I don't think it is fair, but when we don't take care of ourselves while we are young, when we are old, the body will take its toll on us for not taking care of it as it should be.  For having abused it, subjecting it to many hours of being awake, sometimes without eating well, without drinking enough water, without taking a well-deserved vacation, a well-deserved rest. 

That is why, today, I try to live life to the fullest, I don't have 2 jobs, I try to sleep the full 8 hours, drink a lot of water, eat at the right time, have fun, go out with my friends to have a coffee, a beer or wine, eat something tasty.  Life is only one, let's enjoy with conscience, let's make happy the people who are next to us, let's show that we love them, tell your mom, dad, brothers, sisters, friends how much you love them, and how important they are for you, today we are here, tomorrow we don't know if we will be...  and most important of all, I thank God every day for giving me health, peace and abundance.

Here I finish my reflection about life and my work in Buenos Aires ....  

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post.  

God bless you !!

See you soon...

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