WELCOMED LIKE ROYALTY

Today went better. I was asked to go to the Busega Bethlehem clinic. This was the one for abandoned boys. Only the brothers work here besides the resident Dorm Moms.  I went in being open to what was set before me, determined to have the courage to face and experience everything. I will work on the trust that I used to have with God….the trust that all is working out as it should and as working out as planned. I had forgotten this over the last few days. I am a vessel not my work but for God's. I am here for a reason. I only have to approach my days with Love and allow the plan to unfold. 

We arrived and the children and Brothers gave me a warm welcome.  We even have our own PT room! It was filled with old hand build steel walkers, old tricycles and broken standing frames. I was able to do more PT, having kids weight bearing on spastic arms, pulling little thumbs out of little palms, having them reach for toys while weight bearing on spastic limbs. I had kids standing at a table and playing with a toy and another pulling himself up at the window grate. I had 2 kids in standing frames face each other and tried (unsuccessfully) to get them to engage.  I helped them pass a toy back and forth to get them to stand more upright instead of leaning on the belts. Talks about multi processing! 

We had chaos in this little room because as I was doing this, I had one able bodied and attention starved ADD child of 2 yr. old jumping all over me as I was trying to work with the other kids. His behaviors made it difficult to get much done especially when he would bite me in the 'keester'. The kids did well considering they were ages 2 to 10 and there were 10 of them in a 10x10 space. The Brother and I had to manage normal kid stuff, fighting and escaping the room. Lots of running around….I know why people do not have more than 1 child at a time.

The kids and I were all exhausted by 11:00 AM (we had started at 8:45AM). They were hungry and cranky and were getting upset with most anything. All one needs to do is put a bunch of children in a room with "stuff" and they will do their own PT by pushing walkers, trikes, toys, each other across the floor. I swore I prayed over and over that none of them would fall and hit their heads on the cement floor. None did…. not today at least.

The Brothers who were done cleaning came in to help…HOW AMAZING…they brought snacks for the kids who just ripped into them. The Brothers did a fabulous job at managing the cries and screams until the kids ate and calmed down. I was duly impressed. They engaged the children with joking, smiles and play. It was a beautiful thing to watch. 

One boy reminded me of my nephew Nikko, they have the same eyes! I was drawn to him because he was alone, non-verbal and wasn’t moving. It appeared he was a severe spastic quad. Both hands were wrapped tightly under the chin and both legs straight out in front of him. I saw his eyebrow wrinkle whenever there was a loud scream or a kid bumped him. I thought he might be touch and sound sensitive. I moved him to a soft chair until I was able to work with him.

Later I went back to him and started moving his legs into Abduction and External Rotation, which relaxed his tone and allowed his knees to flex. Then I tried to rock and twist him slowly and pull one arm down to his lap then the other and then open his hands and place them together. He did not engage his own hands but I had him hold a toy, which he tossed out of his hand right away. I did notice however that as he remained relaxed and I softly talked to him, he began to smile a bit and engage with me.  This made my day.

I went to assist in feeding the kids (feeling a bit apprehensive considering the last few days) It went much better today. The little boy I had was full of smiles. I was told he couldn’t feed himself.  The food was much too hot to serve right away so I was trying to cool it off by fanning it and mixing it. The little boy helped fan. Then I took a spoon full and blew on it. There was a look of great concern on his face because I believe he thought I was about to eat his lunch. He decided he’d rather eat it hot than risk having it go in my mouth so his little hand pulled the spoon to his mouth. I decided that he could help feed himself so I let him hold the spoon and I held his hand. He thought this was great fun! One of the Brothers came up to me saying, “He cannot feed himself. He will throw the food” I just smiled and showed the Brother how well the child was actually doing. Who cares if a little rice flies? We both had fun and it was a good functional sensory exercise for him.

I assisted the women in sweeping the floors after lunch and then went to the dorms to help “brush teeth” It was only myself and one of the Brothers in a room full of 15 kids at least. Our job was to brush everyone’s teeth. It took awhile before we found toothbrushes, paste and water. It was kind of crazy though some of the kids were looking forward to this. They were mimicking teeth brushing then pointing to me. I had the brushes but was waiting on the paste. I started goofing with them and pretending to brush my hair asking is this what they meant? Then I pretended to brush their legs asking is this what they meant? I don’t know if they understood me BUT they were laughing and giggling. Now…I have never had the blessing of trying to brush the teeth of kids with their mouths clamped shut or their heads turning wildly. I swear I was covered in paste, spit and water. One child (ADD etc. etc.) kept running up and grabbing my cup and running away. I feel like we were lucky to get ¼ of the teeth of each kid brushed adequately.

We ended our day with hard pouring rain. I was alone with the kids most of the time. We were waiting for the van but this would take some time to allow the rivers to clear. I started going around meeting some of the boys I hadn’t seen in PT that day but who were just as disabled. One was sitting high on a bunk rocking lightly back and forth…he had heard me sing to another one of the boys. I went up to the bunk and started tapping out a drumbeat on the railing and on his mattress. He started giggling and bouncing to the beat and was so excited he started to stand up. I promptly stopped, as I did not want him bouncing out of bed.

One little boy crumpled up in a ball and biting his arm was rocking. I saw this out of the corner of my eye and started tapping out a beat on his back lightly. He started swaying and lifted his head to turn and look at me. This boy was blind and mute but I could tell he could hear. I started tapping the bed along with that. He started clapping to the beat though he struggled with this.

About this time, the able bodied boys were returning from school. Two of them came to the dorm intrigued by what I was doing. I told them to help me so we went from bed to bed and drummed a beat on the beds of the boys sitting there. There was laughter and giggling and the boys sitting on the beds tried as best they could to hit the mattress to make a beat with us. I told the boy helping, “You are a good man, Thank you for helping your Brother”

There is an amazing spirit of camaraderie amongst the children at this facility. The young boys are very respectful and helpful. All of the children come to the door to welcome the Brothers. There is a happy celebratory greeting EVERY morning. There is handshaking and smiles from all the children every time you pass them. You have never seen a place such as this! A visitor, though I am, I am welcomed warmly every day and all day...no King or Queen could every have a more welcoming greeting!