Second visit to Hermano Pedro

Laine, Eden and I accompanied Dick Rutgers and a couple of his boys, Fernendo and Esmond, to visit the kids at Hermano Pedro this past Saturday. Hermano Pedro is a Hospital and home for disabled children and adults that is run by the Catholic Church in Antigua. We visited there last week for the first time with Mom, Rebekah and Diane while they were here. In Hermano Pedro, children suffering from malnutrition or other diseases and disabilities recieve life saving treatment, and depending on their family situation, they may return home or stay at the hospital permenantly. It is a very clean facility and the children all recieve good care; they are clean and feed. However, because of the high population of children with health problems, the hospital is so full and under staffed that the children do not recieve even close to enough attention, nor do they get enough physical touch or love and affection.
As a volunteer at Hemano Pedro, there is no shortage of children needing cuddles. The first thing that we saw when we arrived was that the children were all in their cage-like beds. When we began talking to them, they responded imediatly, some of them begging to come out of their beds. We were more than happy to comply! We started bringing them out to the courtyard to play on the mats and the tile floor. Their faces lit up with joy as we talked to them. Some of the kids had some language skills and were able to talk back. Others just made happy noises as we loved all over them!
A lot of the kids had severe handicaps and had stiff limbs and odd facial expressions. At first Eden felt a little hesitant talking to kids that can't respond. I encouraged her to "just be Jesus to them" and she soon got very involved with 11 year old Lionel who had microcephalia and couldn't walk or talk. She held him on the mat and talked to him as he beamed with love. We stayed all afternoon and soon found ourselves helping with the mealtime, feeding the children their bottles. Eden told me later that Lionel had such a sense of humor! He had been laughing away at her jokes.
Laine and I went upstairs to the malnutrition ward where we met 3 year old Jose who was only 11 pounds at 3 years of age. He will go home to his single mother and siblings once he has gained some more weight. There were many other children in there, most of whom Dick had brought in from the rural areas, nearly starving because of their poor family economics. They would all be treated then sent home.
In the malnutrition nursery, we also met two little babies that I will never forget. Little Sindy looked like a newborn but was probably 4 or more months old, judging by her developement. She had a distinct cleft palet (probably caused by her mother's poor nutrition durring pregnancy) and was in hospital recieving care until she was big enough to have surgery to correct the cleft palet. She would need to be 10-16lbs before they would do the surgery. The bassinet next to Sindy contained another little baby that made me cringe to look at. Baby Jose was a few months old already,but he had a severe cleft palet that made him look like a monster. In the middle of his face where his nose and mouth should have been, there was a contorted hole with bits of lip, gum and nose shapes mixed together with one tooth in the middle. His eyes had Downe's Syndrome characteristics and there were lumps on his forehead from cysts under his scalp. I walked past Jose at first, not ready to deal with his pain. After a few minutes, he began to cough. A nurse came over to help him and my heart softened towards him. I asked the nurse if I could hold him and though she seemed surprised, she let me. I took him to the rocking chair beside Laine and Sindy. I held him close and began to talk to him. He looked at me as I began to touch his face and sing to him. I told hime that Jesus loves him and at one point he smiled at me. That is to say that I think it was a smile. There really is no way to say for sure because it was hard to identify which part of the hole in his face was his mouth, but I'm pretty sure that he smiled at me. While I was holding him, a medical team from the US came in to see the babies that would be getting surgery this week. It will take a few surgeries to make Jose's mouth and nose functional for eating properly. They will actually be able to make him more attractive as well. I don't know if Jose has a family to go home to, but if not, he will stay at Hermano Pedro. I hope to see him again so I can tell you how he is doing. Everytime I see him, I will tell him that Jesus loves him.