Several Hard Days

I haven't gotten to write for a few days; so, I'll apologize upfront for the length of this post. It covers the experiences from last Sunday to tonight. These past three days, although requiring a minimal amount of physical output, have exhausted me and pushed me beyond the reaches of anything I had yet experienced in this internship.

On Sunday, Larry and I went to Los Fresnos to meet a volunteer group from Indianapolis, IN. One of their members happens to be a children's physical therapist. This has turned out to be a blessing for this community too great for words. Leanna has done some amazing things with several children with disabilities in the community. We first visited Angelita (translates to Little Angel) who lives down the road from Casa Bugambilla. I remembered Angelita from last year as a girl who was overweight, bed-ridden, and without neck control. I was joyfully surprised to see her this time in a wheel chair (given by Larry and Nancy) and able to not only keep her head up, but move the wheels. Angelita has always had an infectious laugh, and seems to love to talk. Angelita does however suffer from spina bifida, and has an estimated ninety degree curve in her spine. This leaves her without feeling from the mid-torso down, and a shorter than normal trunk which accumulates a lot of her weight. Because of her weight and spine curvature, her lungs are not able to fully inflate, leaving her with a very small lung capacity. Despite her disability, she was very cheerful and provided lots of laughs as she and I played with a basketball (I would roll it to her and she would use her hands to manipulate her feet into kicking it back to me) and as Leanna snuck in a few tickles between checking on her spine. Her prognosis requires years and years of work, but her parents are determined to help her. The main goal is to get her to sit up by herself and possibly get her to transfer herself from wheelchair to bed. This is a long-term goal, and Larry and Nancy have already raised money for some helpful surgery, and her parents seem like the type of people who will work with her and help her achieve her goals. She was the only child we could find for Leanna that day, so we set up a few "appointments" for the next day.

On Monday, It was more time with Leanna. This time, we spent the morning with Jonathan who is a little 2-year old boy from Reynosa Mexico, about an hour and a half away. His parents brought him all that way to meet with Leanna, the father sacrificing a full day's pay from a 4 day factory work-week. His love and dedication to his son was extremely evident from the begining. I watched this man, Jesus, about as much as I watched little Jonathan who has cerebral palsy, a truely diabilitating disease. Jonathan was a real trooper and seemed to respond well to Leanna. On this morning, he got about 3-4 hours, one on one with a physical thearapist. This is a huge difference from his normal routine of 3 1-hr sessions in a class with 12 other kids with disabilities; which translates to at most 5 minutes three times a week. Leanna showed the parents some exercises to do and worked with Jonathan on the floor. They want to see him walk, but in-order to ever have a chance, he needs a special walker. It is almost certain he will get one, even if Larry has to dip further into his own pocket. My heart was crushed for this family as I saw their young son struggle with such a huge obsticle and imagined the parent's daily struggles and sufferings as well.

In the afternoon, we visited Lupita, an 8 year old girl who also has cerebral palsy. Lupita is up to about 30 pounds now thanks to lots of pedia-lite from Larry and Nancy. NOTICE: She is 8 years old and UP to 30 pounds; quite remarkable. Leanna fitted her for a special chair that I was going to construct the next day in order to help her posture and to help her learn how to sit. Again Leanna worked miracles, evaluating the child and bringing them joy through play and laughter. Unfortunately, Lupita's mother Mimi was too busy watching television to notice. She seems to show minimal effort or interest in her daughter's life. It was heartbreaking and added another level to the suffering that I was witnessing. We noticed in the little house / room next door that a woman with 1 month old twins was struggling. We inquired as to how she was doing and discovered that Reisa, one of the twin girls had a horrible case of diaper rash and was extremely uncomfortable. Her mother, who was probably 3 years younger than me, was overwhelmed by the twins and her 2 year old son, and was treating the diaper-rash with corn starch. We went to a pharmacy in the states to buy the proper ointments and to drop Leanna off. Then we returned to alleviate some of the pain of that baby, giving the mom the ointment and telling her how to use it. Then we went to Casa Bugambilla to check on the patients there and wait for Dra. Nancy.

It is here between the hours of 9:30-10:30 that the highlights of my past couple of days have occured. Keep in mind that this has been a very long and trying day, as at times it was almost too much to see these kids struggle and to think about living as they do or as their parents do. I was tired and ready to relax in some air conditioning when one of the patients at Casa Bugambilla asked for my help. Chilito is an elderly woman recovering from a leg wound which doctors at first wanted to amputate until Dra. Nancy talked them out of it. Her leg is healing but it is extremely hard for her to walk, even with crutches. She told me that there were things in between her toes and that it was hurting her. I went to the kitchen, got some gause and sanitizer solution, and got down on my knees and began cleaning gunk out from in-between this woman's toes, and cleaning her feet. I was stuck by the moment as I realized what I was doing. To me the symbolism was amazing as the motive for my internship, to love people in a Christ-like way, was realized. I tell this not to brag or paint myself a better person than I am, but because it was an amazing moment for me as I felt acomplished in my desire to truly and instinctively love others. The other highlight is when Jabez, a two year old who lives at Bugambilla, came up to me and grabbed my finger. The whole week I had been interacting with him but felt a little resistance and hesitance from the little guy as he explored who this big gringo is. But, last night he ran up to me, grabbed my finger and led me outside. He pointed at the moon and said, "Mira!" (look). I picked him up and held him as I told him the word for moon, and pointed also at the stars, telling him the word for them as well. He was looking into the heavens with excitment and understanding of just how big and amazing it was, something I think we too often forget or don't care to take the time to look. We spent a few minutes just looking at the moon and stars, pointing, gazing, and smiling. I'm still not sure why that moment was so special, but it was.

This morning, I built the chair for lupita with help from handy-man Chuey. This took most of the morning as we made one little attachment after another until it rivaled the best thereputic chairs and standers that money can buy. It is an amazing chair that will hopefully aid in teaching Lupita how to sit and stand. Even more amazing though, is how everything fit together so well. For example, not only did the chair fit Lupita perfectly, but we found a tray that would fasten onto it without having to make any special cuts, and a number of small decisions turned out to allow for things we would only think of much later on. We would have an idea for an attachment and find that the way we built the chair was already able to accomodate what we wanted perfectly. Unfortunately, while Leanna fitted Lupita in the chair, Mimi (Lupita's mother) was more interested in a children's toy than any of the children present.

The extremely sad part of my day was this afternoon, when I discovered little Jabez alone in a hot upstairs room, tears still streaming down his face. His mom had left without telling anyone where or for how long. This little 2 1/2 year old was left to fend for himself, with no water, food, or anything. I played with him for several hours, waiting for his mother to return. When she didn't, Larry and I decided to take Jabez with us as we checked out a woman's house that needs a new roof (HPUMC readers --you'll probably see this roof, wink*). Then we went back to Casa Bugambilla to await for Jabez's mother to return. Hours passed, as Jabez and I played and played. Larry and I once again decided to take Jabez with us, but this time to Larry's house. I took Jabez upstairs and told him to get his shoes and a t-shirt. I grabbed a spare diaper, and looked down at him as he began to say, "y Mama? y Mama?" My heart dropped as I didn't know what to say to him. I just said we were going home with Larry. I saw the tears begining to form so I picked him up and started bouncing him, all the while thinking that I could just as easily start crying. Diana, Jabez's mother still had not called anyone and had been AWOL for about 6-7 hours; I should also mention she is 9 months pregnant. It was not until 11:00 tonight that she finally called us at the house and came to get him. I don't know what her excuse was and frankly, I don't care. There is no excuse, and as to how a mother could leave her 2 year old presumably alone for 10-11 hours is beyond me.

So, as you can see, its been an emotional couple of days. But I take comfort in the fact that I am truely alleviating the suffering of others, and that my being disturbed and upset is in itself a loving response. I take joy in that I have been given many opportunities to love others and live a life beyond myself, which is extremely fufilling.


Song of the week:
"Picture of Jesus" by Ben Harper

Paz,
Mateo