The Hardest Morning and the Easiest Afternoon (or, Nicaragua, Day Eight)

Update on the boy who was brought to the hospital in Leon: He stayed overnight there, and by Wednesday morning he was breathing on his own. He came back to the hospital in Betania, and was sent home with pneumonia and pain medication.

Thursday was a hard day. We spent the morning in town at an orphanage for severely handicapped children called Hogar Niños Angeles. The majority of these children spend their days on mats on the floor, being fed, watered and moved by nurses. Most of them can not speak, and the few that can just use single words, no sentences. They like to be touched, and to hold your hand. The ones that can really move will place your hands where they want them, with the pressure they want. It is one of the saddest places I have ever been.

We ate lunch in town: some of us went to Subway, some of us went to Tip-Top, and some of us went to Smudy (a smoothie place). We also made a quick stop at Roseanna's store to visit her puppy.

In the afternoon, we went out to Villa de Catalina again and just spent the afternoon walking around and hanging out with the children. I gave away all my bracelets, took a million pictures and met a few families. The children are so funny: they are so excited to introduce you to their mother and father, their brothers and sisters. One little girl took my hand and literally PULLED me down the street to her house to meet her mother.

And the parents: they want us to take photos of their children. One mother convinced her little boy to let me take his photo, and then afterwards she made him say thank you. So, I knelt down, and instead of just saying “Gracias”, he put his hand on my knee, and kissed me on the cheek. It was the lightest, most fathery, best kiss I’ve ever received.