El Salvador, Day 2 – CIPI

I’d say the real “work” began yesterday (Tues), but honestly most of what I did was play.  Still tired though.  I did get dropped off for the day at CIPI, the government-run orphanage closest to where we’re staying.  And I was given the option of working with the babies (most of whom were abandoned at birth or dropped off at a hospital or police station) or working with the special needs kids.  The question was answered in my mind when I saw the special needs room (full of kids when I arrived) and only one “Tia” working in there.  Kurt, the missionary who set up my work schedule, said that’s pretty typical.

I’m trying to be careful with the kids’ right to privacy so here’s the room minus the children.  Yes, there are 14 cribs, and some of them sleep more than one child.  Plus there are a couple beds in another corner that sleep a few of the older kids.  It’s a lot to keep up with.  Some of the older girls from other wings of the orphanage come over and help a little bit after their school is done.

The caregivers work a 24 hour shift, then get 48 hours off.  Having spent just one day there, I can tell you, they need that 48 hours!  The first thing that hits you is the smell.  Only three of the kids were toilet-trained, so all the rest were in (cloth) diapers.  Most of them drink out of bottles, simply because that’s the easiest way to feed that many kids and avoid the waste that spilling would create.  But there’s still a fair amount of spitting up, so that smell is in there, too.  The workers were very diligent with mopping and running laundry, but I guess the stench is just kind of trapped in the air over time.  Fortunately, about mid-morning we went outside to an open pavilion in the yard and stayed there for the rest of the day.

The second thing you notice is just how many kids there are – and all with different needs.  As the day progressed, a physical therapist and three other staff members came in and joined the original woman, but even with 5 adults, the kids just don’t get individual attention for more than a few minutes a day while they’re getting their food or a bath.

So that was where I came in.  I did hold a couple of bottles and did “airplanes” at lunchtime with three of the kids’ spoons to get them to eat all their food.  But the rest of the time, I played ball.  Lots of catch.  More than one really needs in a day, honestly, but this crowd was really tickled with repetitive play, so that’s what we did.

I also let 6 or 7 of them take turns playing with my camera, so by day’s end I had 329 pictures to wade through!  Here are a few shots they took of their home:

 I left at the end of the day with mixed emotions.  It’s a hard place to see because of all the need.  And a few of the little guys that latched on to me (my tiny photographers) were actually really bright, just “trapped” in bodies that don’t work.  But they’re lumped in with the kids who can only utter moans.  Amidst all the small kids there was one older girl who told me she’s 13.  There’s no same-aged friend for her there, so she’s adopted one of the little severely autistic girls as her personal ward.  And in fact the  staff asks her to handle all little one’s feedings.  And I could tell she was bored, but trying to be sweet and agreeable at the same time.

There were two babies and a toddler with Downs syndrome there who would almost certainly get adopted if they were in the U.S., but their prospects there aren’t good for that here in El Salvador.  The agency responsible for issuing them certificates of adoptibility is really slow in doing that, and Salvadoran families (like most American ones adopting) want healthy little girls under two.

Most of the kids there would have much broader potential if they got individualized care.  But they’re living in the picture of under-funding and bureaucracy.  That part just hurts to see.

On the other hand, though, the staff and the few officials I met while I was there were very compassionate toward the kids.  There’s one little guy with autism there who loves to see birds, so the ladies would stop on their way to and from the laundry building to point them out to him, and he’d stand and stare up at the sky and point and wave his hand like it was a bird.  So I could tell they cared for the kids under their care.  And that they did try to talk to them, kiss them, keep them clean and fed, and engage them in what they liked.  It’s just hard to do that well and also cover the vast amount of cleaning and feeding and changing and medicating.

So those are my thoughts after the first day there.  I’ll be back there on Thursday and Friday.  One of the little guys told me he wanted me to come back every day.

Pretty sure he mostly wants me for my camera!