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I haven't been writing on the blog recently because I have been taking care of my Godmother. She had some heart problems two weeks ago and I have been trying to be there helping her in her store everyday. If I wasn't with her I was with Andi, spending some needed time with him. My Godmother, Ana Maria a.k.a. Aia, as I've been calling her since I could speak, runs a small store with her son. Until Aia had to go to the hospital, it was mostly her running the store from 7 a.m. til 10 p.m. She got really sick because she is of course not in the right age to be working these crazy hours. So I volunteered to help her out as much as I could. The positive things of her sickness: her son learned how to manage the store without her and Aia can take longer brakes now. The positive thing I am learning from this, is how to cook without salt. Anyone who knows my eating habits, knows that I am a salt fanatic. Yes, I have been caught salting my food before even tasting it! Now I am learning that you can take spices to replace salt, but there are some dishes you might as well not even make... (like noodle salad for example). Yesterday I went to the store and spent 150 pesos/ 6 Euros/ 8 Dollars on groceries to make soup. Yesterday I made my first ever salt free soup.

Ingredients: Onion, Carrots, Celery, Baby onion and parsley.
I let it boiling for about two hours and took out the ingredients.

I thought it needed salt of course, but Aia seemed to be pretty impressed. I can't imagine a life without soup! Especially my favorite soups like pumpkin soup and zucchini soup!! Now the winter is coming, so we will get to eat that yummy stuff.

On Tuesday I went to a public psychiatric hospital in Montevideo. I went and spoke to the psychologist about having an internship there. He was totally nice and said he doesn't have a problem with it. In Uruguay the resources for rehabilitating patients are really slim. Think of a shabby room in a shabby hospital with some thrown together furniture and Art Brut paintings on the wall and all over the place, and you will have an idea of what this place looks like. The chairs are plastic chairs and the materials available have been either donated or found on the street.

Most of the patients in the hospital which I am going to spend time with have problems with drugs or alcohol. They all receive electroshocks everyday it seems. I am quite surprised they have any memory at all. :p

Well I am not allowed to say too much, but I will tell you this: in any hospital or in any public center around the world, you have to learn to work with what you have. This is going to be my biggest lesson here in Uruguay... and I don't just mean things, I mean rooms and people and colleagues and everything included.
Good fight and good night.