May 17th...MAH BURFDAY

I honestly kept forgetting today was my birthday. Thank goodness for facebook, or I may not have remembered at all. haha :)

But today was our first real working day at our new project! And boy, did we work! It was pretty challenging both physically and emotionally, but I'm SO happy to be working there. I really am. The place is run by a few nuns and they have about 25 kids, and they desperately need help. The children range from years 3 to 18, and they are all very disabled both mentally and physically. They are all in wheelchairs, and none of them talk. There were only 2 or 3 nuns there who take care of all of them, and I have no idea how they do it without volunteers.

There are four volunteers there including Kass and I, the other two are named Jessica and John. The kids were all already up when we got there and in their wheelchairs, so we had to line them up outside the bathroom and change all of their diapers, which is a big ordeal, considering about half of them wear cloth diapers since they don't have enough of the disposable kind. We had to lift them out of their wheelchairs (some of them are pretty darn heavy), and take them to the changing table, where we changed them, changed their clothes, washed their faces, and brushed their hair. Then as soon as one child is done we stick them back into their wheelchair and take them into the therapy room, and then head back to start on the next one. After they were all done, we split up to do some different chores: Kassie mopped inside, Jessica went to go help with therapy, and John and I swept all the sidewalks and stairs outside.
We all then went into the therapy room to help out. There is only one physical therapist there, so they need our help with that as well. You have to get them all out of their chairs and onto the mats where they can be stretched and worked and played with. Then they have snack/breakfast, which means you have to feed them since only a couple can feed themselves, and then we get them all back into their chairs and wheel them back into the main building where they have lunch. We have to mash up their food and then feed them, and then when they're done we take them to the bathroom where we wipe off their faces and brush their teeth. We then took them into a different room, where we are done for the day. All of that takes place in four hours, and it's pretty crazy. It's a little out of my comfort zone, but I'm SO glad we're working there! They need us so badly.

It was also hard to watch some of the kids, since a few are very obviously in pain. One little girl named Sonia is autistic and has a spine condition, but she was also just diagnosed with a brain tumor and so she is constantly crying and banging her head against the floor or her fist because it hurts so bad. Jessica and I each spent a good half an hour just rubbing her back while she laid on the floor trying to comfort her and make her feel better. :( It's really sad because most of these kids were abandoned by their families or found on the streets, and their conditions are made worse by the fact that they don't get individual attention and care.