Doomsday: Friday, April 19: Day 6

Over view:
Today was the last day to see the kids, work with the kids, play with the kids, hug the kids, help the kids, make the kids smile. Today was the last day to make a difference in their life and my life. Today, I cried harder then I ever remember crying before.
The morning started out like any other morning. We got to the school, unloaded the car, then went to a classroom. I chose to work with Preschool, my favorite. They were playing on the basket ball court, along with the 2 deaf  classes, and Darwin's class. The kids from the deaf classes came over to a group of four or five of us, and we decided into teams for kickball. While playing, Ana came. She is the sister of Jesus. She was wearing a really pretty dress, and seemed so happy to see us.
When we moved into the classroom, there were only 2 or 3 minutes before Jose and Victor arrived. When they did, I took them out to walk for a while, until it seemed like I was dragging Jose. In the classroom, Jose was ready to sleep on my arm, and Victor was ready to look at the book of animals with wings. Victor got it from the shelf while Jose laid down on my arm, then came over to lay on my stomach. His favorite picture was that of the flying squirrel, and he took my hand and moved it off of the book when I tried to flip the page.
About an hour later, Victor wanted to go walking again. I took him out, and he was so excited when he heard the piano, he practically dragged me in. When I picked him up to keep walking, he kept crying no mama, no mama. It was that moment that I knew even 4 year old Victor will remember who I am. We walked over to the kitchen, where they were setting up for the party. There were 20 bottles of Fanta, and Victor did not want to stop looking at them. Again, he said no mama, no when I tried to pick him up to go back to the classroom.
Then the fiesta started. There were more people than just those who attended the school. Julissa, the girl from my home visit was there, along with Milagro, the child from the second house were there. There were others that I didn't get to meet, but whom I certainly met that day.
The fiesta started with the food. Every person, no matter who they were, got a very full plate, and we still had extras. After food came the Piñata. The children all knew what it was, and a couple of them got to hit it. Victor had the option to, but just stood there, posing for the picture.
After the piñata, it was time to say good bye. I didn't break down until I was saying good by to Dayana. Then, I couldn't stop crying for the next 1.5 hours. I still am, but have no tears left. None of the children were crying except Dayana. They all understood what was happening  minus the younger kids, yet they mostly just stood there smiling, hugging, and waving good by. Only then did I truly realize the effect that these kids had
on me, the effect that I had on the school, and the effect I had on the world.

Highlights:
The first highlight I had was when Zulema came running up to me first thing this morning. I go out on to the court, and I just see Zulema running as fast as she can, with a smile that spreads all across her face.
The next highlight was the smile on Ana's face as I picked her up this morning. It was so large, it made me just have to smile back.
The third highlight was when Victor saw me, and he ran to attack me. He seemed so happy to see me, and I was so glad that I chose to work in the preschool room.
The fourth highlight of my day was the piñata. Each of the children were so different, and it just made my day seeing the smile on all of their faces.

Lessons: 
Too many to say. The lessons that I learned were more a reflection of the trip. I realized how much they changed me, both mentally and physically, and how much each of them mean to me and vice-versa. Their smiles, Dayana's tears, every little part of the week. Every hug, every smile, ever phrase, every look, every action, had such a big effect on each one, and on each of us. I know that none of us, or any of them, will every fully forget any of us.
Photos:

Dayana, Yohanna, and Morgan
Goodbyes are always hard

 
 
 


Morgan and Zulema



Jesus's turn at the Piñata

Darwin's turn at the Piñata



Zulema's turn at the Piñata




Last chance to see the kids

Tyra and Ana

Extras:
Looking back, I realize that every smile I got from any of the children is one more smile, one more moment, and one more light shining in this world. Every smile that I gave each student, every hug, every laugh, may be their last for over a month. Every action has and equal and opposite reaction. Every action I have them had a reaction, an effect on their life forever.Every memory that they have will stay with each of them forever, and I promise to myself that I will one day, go back and relight those memories, burning in their minds.

Thursday, April 18: Day 5

Over View:
Today is going to be the day I have the hardest time figuring out the highlight, as there were so many. I started out the day working in one of the classrooms I hadn't worked in yet, and that would be Anna-Maria, 1st grade. There were two kids that I worked with more then the others, Machel and Tatiana. All morning I was up and moving, trying to keep up with ADHD Machel, and runaway Tatiana. We played in the basket ball court and Reyner and Machel got into a chalk war, and to try to break it up, I sat in the middle, and got chalked up myself. In the classroom, when asked to actually sit down and do something, Machel didn't want to sit, and Tatiana only wanted to sit in the chair. Ava was working with Jose Daniel, so I put Tatiana in my lap. Anna-Maria sat with Machel, who then cried for a little, until the she was brought out side. Tatiana had lost focus and was so crazy that I took her outside, and when I got back into the classroom, Machel was in timeout with the teacher. When I asked why, I was told that she slapped the teacher, so now was being forced to sit with her.
After the classroom situation was cleaned up a little, I went out the basketball court where the preschoolers were. Victor was just sitting there, and when I walked over, the smile on his face was so big that I knew I will never forget his face. I played with him for awhile  We played on the court, played in the room, played on the swings, and at the end of the day we did something real special. Last year, the students brought down a electric piano, so we sat there at the end of the day, playing on the piano. Jesus was also there, trying to figure out what is was, as he is blind, but loves music and dancing.
At the end of the day I went to work with Darwin. Darwin is one of the older student that cant walk or clearly talk. Sammie was also there with me, so we worked on simple addition, subtraction, and writing numbers. At the begging of the week, the teachers said the he couldn't do addition or subtraction, but today he was able to do it with only the slightest help. While in the same classroom, I went over to work with Dayana. She was doing a search in a book, so I sat and worked through it with her. The end of the day approached way to soon, and I barley got to work with her.
After school, Ava, Ashly, Nathaniel, Ms. Gutmann, Axle and I went to the store to get food for our fiesta tomorrow  We were hoping to get 20lbs of chicken legs, and 20lbs of chicken thyes, but had to settle for 10lbs and 30lbs because the didn't have enough. After everything was wrung through, our total was close to 14,500 Cordoba. The exchange rate of dollars to Cordoba is 1 to 24, so that was a lot of food.

Highlights:
My highlight today. Ahh, where to begin. My first highlight was chasing Tatiana around the fence of the school. She kept trying to run away, so when I caught up to her, she would look over her head backwards, and start laughing, then she would let me carry her back to the rest of the kids. A couple minutes later, she would repeat herself.
Another highlight of my day was when I was with Victor. I was holding him, so decided to see if he would enjoy it if I fliped him upside down. Not only did he enjoy it, he adored it. He would keep putting his head back, asking to be flipped again.
The thrid highlight of my day was with the piano. Victor didn't want to leave, and when I tryed to pick him up, he layed down on the piano.
The last highlight of my day was when it was time for Victor to leave. He saw his dad, and then just clung to me tighter until we were about a yard away. Then he ran to his dad, then back to me, trying to drag me back to the piano.

Lessons:
Today I learned one real lesson. I didn't notice I had learned it before, unitl I started to type the lesson section. Today I learned to find a situation that work well in, then ventrue out, but never to far that you cant return. I always managed to wander my way back to the preschool, no matter where I previosly was.

Photos:

Darwin practicing his writing

Machel

Tatiana

Playing with the Piano

Dayana

Plan for Tomarrow:
Tomarrow. Doomsday. It is the last day I get to work with any of these children again. I truly will make the most of every minute. We have the fiesta, and also the goodbyes. The smiles then the tears.

　

　

　

Looking back, I relize that every smile I got from any of the children is one more smile, one more moment, and one more light shining in this world. Every memory that they have will stay with each of them forever, and I promise to myself that I will one day, go back and relight those memores, burning in their minds.

Wednesday, April 17: Day 4

Over View:

Today I did the social services visits. Some of the sights that met me were both disgusting and insane.

At the school, I was able to work in the deaf classroom.  The kids in there, all 5 of them, were amazing. Their names were Rosa, Rosa Valentina, Johanna, Juanluiz, and Equiel. They had a test, so I spent the morning watching them take the quiz, which was a half “verbal” half written quiz. I noticed that the teacher signed and talked at the same time, so I was able to learn a couple phrases. One of the more important phrases was how old are you. For cuantos, you open your hand like you are holding a very large book by the ends in both hands. For anos, you put your fists in front of you, then make a circle around each other, and end up with one stacked on top of each other. For tiene, you create a hand gun with your pointer and thumb, and then put the barrel on the top of your collarbone.  

At the time that the deaf classroom was eating lunch, I went down to the preschool. If you read my other blogs, you might notice that I went there both of those days. I love two of the little kids in that class almost as much as if they were my family, and wish that I could take both of them home. They are Jose and Victor. I was walking around the school with both of them for the remainder of the time they were there, and when both of them left I headed down to the arts and crafts room. There I was working with Dayana. We were working on things in English, and she surprised me by knowing 1-10 in English. We worked on the alphabet, along with phrases such as sister, brother, grapes, and apples.

After school, I went on the home visits with Harry.  The first house was really the only house. There we visited a 23 year old girl, appearing about the age of 14, who was locked in a closet with no light. The family said that she had been sick, and recently had started to have spasms. They said that she has times where she does not sleep for days at a time, and only gets milk to drink. She does get the milk, but that is only when she is having her spasms.  The second house we went to was disgusting. In the front there were five pigs, and I think that one might already have died of starvation. The dog was soon to die of starvation and lack of air from his collar, and at least two other pigs looked almost dead, again from starvation. The family had left the girl that we were going to visit in the house, with the radio playing. We could hear the child, and the neighboring house said that it was common for the family to leave, with the girl staying at the house.

Highlights:

My highlight today involved Jose. While we were walking around the school, he tripped, and started crying. While still standing, he looks up at me, so I pick him up, and he just laid his head down and starts to cry into my shoulder. Then for the rest of the day, he did not want me to put him down,  only to keep carrying him.

Lessons:

Today my lesson involved  the home visits. No matter how insignificant a question could be, how unimportant an action seem, everything can make a huge difference. When Ms. G asked Aleyda about bringing the first child, Julissa,  to the school, it started a conversation about trying to get the child to the school in order to help her with both a more active day, and also allowing her to have better supplies and treatment. 

Photos:

Today I didn't get any.

Plan for Tomorrow:

Tomorrow I am going to do some more walking around with Jose and Victor, just so that Jose can get some time on his feet and Victor can be somewhere other than the classroom. I am also going to take Ever out on my excursions.

Tuesday, April 16th: Day 3

Over View:
Today was the day I was able to do my therapy visits. I went with Nathaniel, Carmen Margarita, and Eleda.  While on those visits, I learned a lot, and was really able to start to understand some of the situations that the kids at the school were living in. We visited 4 children, but only worked with three of them. The first was Stefania. She was and 8 month old, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The second child was Roger and had a disease where he was born without part of his skull, so his brains could be seen. They  have no idea how to cure it. The third child we visited was Steven, who had cerebral paralysis. The fourth child we went to see, both the mother and the child had HIV positive, so all we really did was a quick visit to allow Carmen Margarita drop off some food.
When we got back to the school, I worked in the arts and crafts room, but almost immediately after arriving, it was lunch time. After lunch, each student had the task of focusing on one student for the rest of the day. I was assigned to Christopher and we worked on opening and closing the hand. I felt amazing when we stopped playing with the play-doh, and he was looking at his hands saying abran y cerda, while opening and closing his hands at the appropriate time.
After he left, I went over to kindergarten, where I worked again with Victor. I found  out that Victor just loves anything that makes sound or has sound to go with it. We spent the first part playing with the wheel chair. He would release the brake and I would spin the wheel saying core, core, core, or va, va, va, and then he  would stop it, and I would say alto. I can just remember him sitting there, laughing every time I said alto. He then got board and pushed me over, then was moving my head to once side, with the accompaniment of me saying moo for the duration my head was on my side.
When Victor left the school, I went down to the arts and crafts classroom, again  where I made paper mache balloons. I worked with Dayana in order to make sure that she got hers as covered as she needed it.

Highlights:
Today, my highlights were from across the board. The small face of little Stefania was so cute, and made a grate start to my day. When she was just sitting there, her face was so small with the largest eyes, and when she smiled, it made you feel like you were making the entire world brighter. The second highlight was when we went to visit Steven, and he was just one large grin from ear to ear when we left. Another highlight was working with Victor, and just seeing him laugh and laugh and laugh again, every time I said alto.

Lessons:
Today I learned a very large lesson. Or more, I just opened my eyes larger then they already were. When I went to the last home, and saw the conditions, it made me about ready to cry, and it also made me feel so strong to know that just by being there, I was making and immense difference for all the kids.

Photos:

Stefania

Roger

Rapping Stevens hands to keep them straight 

One of the Villages

The well

Plan for Tomorrow:
Tomorrow I will be doing my home visits with the Nicaraguan equivalent of Social Services, and will be working in the def classroom, and being able to experience the abilities that all the children have, along with being able to see the signing, which has always fascinated me.

Monday, April 15: Day 2

Over view: 
Today we got our first change to work with the kids. Each of there faces will remain in my mind for ever. I started out working with the preschooler, working with Francisco, Victor, Jose, and Ever. In that classroom were two other kids but I didn't work with them, or learn their names. Francisco cried for the first 45 minutes of they day, which made me sad because he was just so cute that I wanted to hug him, even though he pushed me away. Eventually he became more comfortable, and stopped crying. Almost immediately after he arrived, I grew attached to little Jose.
Nathaniel and I worked with the preschoolers for the first 4 hours of school. We played with the play-doh, small tambourines  colors and color books, and other things to keep them busy and happy. Around lunch time the kids doing the home  visits arrived, and Nathaniel and I, along with some other kids, switched which class room we were in. I moved along to the arts and crafts classroom. I wasn't certain what they were doing at the time, but I know that from the time I arrived to the time I left, all we did was talk.
At the beginning  I was talking with Dayana.  I couldn't figure out which disability she had, and forgot to ask. We sat and talked, and I was able to put my Spanish to the test through a conversation with someone who knew very little English.
In the center of the room, where Gena was siting, she was working with some of the kids who signed. I went over to get a better idea of what they are doing, and found out that once the kids meet you a little, they gave you a sign. Gena's was the "G" letter, followed by moving your finger over your lips. Mine became the "M" sign, followed by tapping your head, because of my bandanna.

Lessons:
Throughout the day, I learned two lessons. One I learned from the working with the students of the preschool class, and the other from Diana. The students showed me that sometimes all you need is a little freedom  Jose could have walked, had he not been told that he needed the hand to help him, and some of the other kids seemed like they were full function, but had never been allowed to do anything. The other lesson I learned was that sometimes you had to look close in order to find the problem. I couldn't tell the real problem with Diana, but due to the fact he was at the school, I know she had one.

Soup

Photos:

Pizza

Jose

Victor

Nathaniel and Victor

Tomorrow: 
Tomorrow will be another day filled with fun and smiles, such as today was.

Sunday, April 14: Day 1

Overview:

Today I got my first view of Escuela Especial. There were no children to be seen, only a lot of work. There were a couple of the translators, and the principal there, so we started off with a brief introduction, followed by a brief tour of the school, although there really wasn't a lot to view. 

After the tour, we got right to work. Some of us were assigned to the classrooms, while others were assigned to trash clean up. I started with trash clean up. After the initial cleaning was done, the jobs spread. I managed to work my way from trash cleaner to dish washer, and due to my affection for cleaning dishes, there I stayed. 

Highlights:

I had two main highlight moments. The first was while cleaning the dishes, and the other was cleaning one dish. The first highlight was looking down at my self at lunch, then later as we were about to leave, and noticing that my white shirt had turned a dark gray color, and parts of my shorts had turned a black color. While cleaning I had managed to get the dirty water all over the rim of  my shirt, and the black "stuff" from the pots on my shirt. 

The second highlight of my day, and my favorite highlight of my day, was cleaning one of the dishes. The dish was a large black pot that looked fairly clean, but felt like it had never been cleaned.  I was scrubbing hard in order to try to get the layer of black "stuff" off of the outside of the pot and noticed that the pot seemed to change colors. I rinsed it of and realized that the "black" pot was actually a steel color. The entire outside was coated in black, so I spent the next hour working at getting the black "stuff." 

Lesson:

From cleaning the pot, I learned a valuable lesson. Actually, I believe that I learned a couple valuable lessons. The most important one is that the cover might hide what is inside, so don't judge based on the looks. I also learned, or more re-learned, not to judge a book by its cover. 

Photos:

Plan For Tomorrow:

Tomorrow there will be children at the school. Each of us were assigned a classroom to work in, some of us with another person, some of us without. I get to help out with pre-school, along with Nathaniel. We were told that sometimes the students will just sit in there, doing nothing until it is time to go home. Nathaniel and I are going to do our best to make the children actually do something, and get them out moving around, not sitting there, doing little to nothing. 

Hasta Luego,

Morgan Kromer

24 Hours

Less then 24 hours until I'm down in Nicaragua, starting my journey of changing both my life and the lives of all the kids we are going down to help. The stress of traveling without my parents, and going down to do something I've never done before are building and building, but with each passing minute, I'm getting more excited about the trip. Only now do I truly feel the enormity of the task, along with the prospect of what I'm about to do. Only now do I realize all that I will gain, and all that what I will be able to achieve by my trip. I'm looking forward to being able to talk to the children, practice my Spanish  and put a smile on each one of their shining faces. I look forward to posing again with an update of my trip.
Hasta Luego,
Morgan Kromer,
Excited volunteer