Every week, I say ´oh, I´m not gonna blog this week,´and then I somehow end up with something to say. So. Here goes.
On Thursday mornings, we do a program at special needs school called Corazon Contento. I think it gets harder for me - for all of us - every week. The difference in the quality of care for people with special needs here and in the U.S. is intense. The resources and education just aren´t here.
There´s this little boy at Corazon named Ceasar who has the most beautiful smile. He also has Cerebral Palsy. He´s probably around 8, maybe younger. His disease is pretty severe - he can´t talk, and his body is stiff and twisted. The wheelchair he uses is a generic one made for an adult: is swallows him, and as his body twists and slides, he slips further and further out of the chair, so he´s tied to it with a strip of fabric. His arms are scratched and bleeding where they rub against the arm of the chair as he slips and is pulled back up. He suffers so much needless pain because he needs therapy, he needs a fitted wheelchair, and there aren´t resources to provide him with either. And I start thinking about all the kids in Granada who are like Ceasar. There are an estimated 10,000 people in this city who have a disability; Corazon Contento isthe only special needs school, and it has 32 students. What´s happening to all those people? Ceasar´s wheelchair sucks, but what about the kids who don´t even have that? Are they just rotting away in back bedrooms?
There is so, so much that needs doing - here, everywhere. I´ve been asking God to break my heart for what breaks his, only now that I feel it happening, I´m realized that it suuuucks. There are things EVERYWHERE that break his heart, and I can´t fix them.
We´re going to get a wheelchair for Ceasar. Jessalyn is figuring out who to contact and all that, and it´s going to happen. It´s something concrete and tangible that can be done, and I think God brought us to Ceasar so we can do this. So I´m going to trust that God will bring us more opportunities to do tangible, concrete actions to fix things. And in the situations that I run into everyday where there is nothing I can do, I´m just gonna love, so that God lives in me and his love is made complete (1 John 4:12).
paz y gozo.
-Ruth
