The majority of the kids are in wheelchairs or have walkers, and hardly any can walk on their own. The ages range from one year to 16, but I mostly work with the kids under age five. Medical students come in from time to time and do diagnoses, and most of the handicaps or distortions are due to the mothers not taking pre-natal vitamins and neglecting to take care of themselves while they were pregnant. The med students also say that most of them won't live past age 30 because they are not getting the optimal medical treatment at the clinica. They all go to therapy to try to help them with their walking and muscle development, but there are other therapies/medicines in the US that would be more beneficial for them.
Most of them don't talk, either...which makes it hard to know what they want and can be frustrating for both of us. There are plenty of clothes for everyone, but most of them don't fit correctly...especially shoes. There are always random shoes on the ground from them falling off kids who need a smaller size. Despite all their problems, however, these kids are all so warm and interested in me, always wanting hugs and to be held. The nurses in the facility are all very capable and it's kept clean, but there are probably about 75 kids in the clinica and never enough volunteers to hold all the babies, feed them all at lunch or play with them. The rooms are divided by age, and most of the time when I walk into the babies' room there are no nurses or volunteers and they are all just in their cribs...it makes me feel so bad for them to not have someone there to comfort them all the time or have any stimulation to help them develop.
Some of the more highly functional kids go to school in the morning, so I help in there until 11, then play with the kids until lunch time at 12. Lunch cracks me up, more food ends up on their shirts than in their mouths. I've also had to change many dirty diapers, something I haven't done in a good six years or so. I could do without that :-)
In the afternoons, I go to an after-school program for kids who either don't have electricity in their houses or don't have parents that care about them getting their school work done or even if they have eaten, or all of the above. There can be as many as 40 kids there, but since it's an optional program that number changes a lot. A lot of volunteers help out there, but it's needed as we're supposed to make sure everyone gets their homework done. Some of the math homework makes me think pretty hard...but I guess that goes without being said :-) Many groups come to do special activities with them...for example a group from a photography class came and gave out cameras and then let them go out in the plaza and use all the film. I've never seen kids more fascinated with cameras! When I take mine out, they are all begging to have their pictures taken. Another group came and gave drawing lessons, and I was one of the judges deciding the winner. At the end of the day around 6:30, they get a hot chocolate and piece of bread...and for most of the kids that is all they eat all day. The most notable thing I think I've noticed with kids from both facilities is that their teeth are, for the most part, brown. One of the girls from the afternoon had a toothache and the director had to buy medicine for her because her parents wouldn't be able to afford any at home. That has to be painful too...a whole mouth of rotten teeth. We usually make a trip to the park after homework is done...it's their AND my favorite part of the day. Got on a seesaw for the first time in years...forgot how great those things are.
So far this trip has been a life-changing experience...seeing how other people live really broadens your perspective in life, and not to be cliché, but truly makes you thankful for everything that is taken for-granted every day in the US...like clean drinking water, accessible and reliable healthcare, clothes and shoes that fit and three meals a day...oh, and summer weather, 'cause it's freezing here at night!
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