TELVE FINGERS AND TWELVE TOES

“Where is my padrino?” she asks me when we arrive with a new group of volunteers and I greet her with my usual “Hola Chica”. She is always one of the first kids to show up when we arrive. Looking at me as if she is saying: “Remember me?”

She must be about 13 and is starting to look like quite an attractive teenager. I have taken a liking to her. She stands out from the rest of the kids with her freckles and her cute short haircut.

 “Your padrino? I answer. “I don’t know who your padrino is. This is a different group of volunteers. He must have gone home, he is not here”.

But she insists. “No, he is always here when you are here; He wears glasses.” Is she talking about Ramiro? Why would she think he is her padrino?

As I turn away, I think about her question. It is indeed Ramiro who always talks to her and who took a picture of her hands, when we realized, that she has six fingers on each hand and six toes on her feet. She always hides her hands and at the shoe fitting during the Christmas Fiesta week, she refused to take her shoes of.

“If you want new shoes, you must take your shoes off and try on your new shoes", Ramiro told her, when one of our volunteers asked him to translate what Adriana was saying. I thought he was a bit harsh to her, but then I realized she was ashamed of her disfigured hands and feet.

After Ramiro had taken the pictures of her hands, he told me that he thought there must be a way for this girl to get help and live like a normal teenager.

Considering that she lives in a shack in the migrant camp, I did not see how she could get help. Who would pay for that? How would they get her to the hospital? But Ramiro decides to talk to Jorge, Project Amigo’s director of student services. “Leave it with me; I will look into it” Jorge suggests. 

Time goes by and we have not heard anything. Then Ramiro meets Dr. Connie a former Project Amigo Scholar, who works at the hospital. Connie will also look into any possibilities. But again, time goes by and no news about Adriana and a possible surgery. 

We see her again, several times as a matter of fact, and try not to think of what may or may not happen. We’ll be leaving for Canada soon and may have to forget about it.   

Then one morning Jorge came to me and said: “Elly, I have a secret to tell you, promise me you won’t tell Ramiro”. I promise and Jorge suggests that on Tuesday we go to Queseria migrant camp to see Adriana. “We’ll tell Ramiro that he is needed there to talk with the family”.

I have difficulty not telling Ramiro the secret and make up excuses to keep Tuesday free. Luckily, we have a staff meeting in the morning at which time Jorge asks Ramiro if he is able to come to Queseria.

Ramiro guesses. “Perhaps the parents don’t want her to have surgery and I have to convince them”. Nice guess Ramiro.

I pack a small gift bag with a few girly items and hide it in my bag. “May I come along with you guys”, I ask. “I need to get out of my office for a while”. We hop in Jorge’s car and when we enter the camp, Jorge asks one of the kids where the family lives. “By the trees” the boy tells Jorge, as he points to a small row of shacks across the field from the kindergarten. We walk up to the shack and wait outside, while Jorge calls for attention. 

A young woman in her early twenties appears through the doorless opening that leads to a dark area filled with smoke. The walls are made partially of block, cardboard, wooden planks and pieces of corrugated metal. Jorge asks if we may come in and we follow the young women inside. Once my eyes are adjusted to the darkness, along the wall on the dirt floor, I see a long wooden bench. In the corner is a cooking area, built up with plastic crates and rocks, supporting a metal plate under which a fire is heating a large pot.

The woman does not talk much, she seems to be somewhat retarded. “This is Adriana’s oldest sister” Jorge explains, after he asks for Adriana. 

I look into another doorless room, the actual house, which is a windowless concrete space with a dirt floor. “How many are in your family” Jorge asks. “Five plus my parents” the young woman replies. “Seven people” I think out loud, I wonder where everyone sleeps.

Along the wall in the middle of the room, I see a straw mat on the floor, with some bundled up clothing that must serve as a pillow. No sign of a bed, table or chairs. As I hesitate to step further into room, Adriana appears, dressed in a light blue party dress, I remember seeing at one of our used clothing distributions. Over it she wear an animal print jacket, also from the donated items. She obvious made an effort to look her best for her guests. She sits down on the long wooden bench with her head down.

Her hands are wrapped in dirty rags, which are to protect her hands from getting her incisions dirty. She wears thongs on her feet, with socks to keep her feet from getting dirty.

“Do you know who this is?” Jorge asks as he points to Ramiro.

“My padrino” she replies without looking up. We look at each other and smile. Ramiro does not know what to say, and even if he did, he would not be able to utter a word. He is speechless and his eyes are filled with tears as he sees Adriana’s hands and feet.

“Adriana” Jorge starts. “This is the man who has made it possible for you to get your operation, so your hands and feet will be just like any other young girl of your age, with each hand five  fingers and each foot five toes”. 

 

Adriana smiles. We talk a bit about the surgery, which she had one week ago. Does she have pain? How much longer does she need to wear her protection? How soon will she be able to go back to school? We have lots of questions.

Adriana gets up and goes back into the other room. When she returns she holds a large sheet of paper, fold as an envelope. She gives it to Ramiro. On the back flap it reads: To: Ramiro. A red heart seals the flap.

Inside the card, is a drawing of a one-room house, with sun, moon, stars and flowers: and on the side is written. “Hola Ramiro,Thank you very much for helping me getting my operation. I will never forget.  With love Adriana”.

She has difficulty reading the text. Jorge explains that she has not been in school all that long. After all, the Primary school was only built a year ago here in the camp. She is just starting to learn to read and write.

Ramiro makes her promise that next year when he returns, she will be able to read better. 

As we say goodbye, we know that one young girl's life may be better because she now has ten fingers and ten toes, instead of twelve.

Ramiro, whether you want to or not, you are her Padrino.

COMPUTERS FOR ORPHANS

One group has barely left and another group arrives. Two back to back workweeks give us little time to rest, but we can do it.

The housekeepers work hard all morning changing the beds and preparing the rooms. Meanwhile we deliver the welcome packages, shirts and keys and put the final touches on the  schedule for this new work week.

22 new arrivals, 22 new names to remember. We have almost forgotten what a busy week it was, and now we will meet more new friends. 

After an afternoon of sorting donations, a tour walking tour through the village and the standard Project Amigo site visits everyone is anxious to get to work on the project.

When Ted and Susan visited their club who indicated they were looking for an international  project the wheels started to turn. There is never a shortage of projects and one of the members of the Colima club, who is a member of the board of a boarding school, was looking for a way to have a computer installed.


Both clubs formed a partnership and after a lot of paperwork a grant form the Rotary Foundation was approved and everything fell into place.

The computers, desks and chairs were purchased locally and delivered during the last week. Meanwhile, Joe and Ramiro did a site inspection together with Beto, to determine what needed to be done to prepare the rooms for the computer labs. 

During the course of the week, communication went back and forth as to how the wiring would be done and what sort of tools needed to be brought here by the Reno group.

On day one of the actual project, we load the entire group on the bus and many get to see the orphanage for the first time. They came here to work and that's what they will do. Perhaps some more than they anticipated.

Once everyone is on site, we can start discussion of the plans. Joel, President of the Reno South Club is an excellent leader. He briefs everyone on the job and assigns various tasks.

The facility is more or less a private boarding school for disfunctional families run by nuns. It consist of two buildings, one for girls and one for boys. They are side by side, but separated by a large garden and huge fence in between them. One must walk outside of the gate along the main road to access the other compound. 

The boys compounds is named Niño Colimense and houses about 19 boys and the one for the girls is Maria Angela and house 14 girls.

We split our group in two and once everyone has been assigned a job they all get to work. Holes need to be drilled for the wiring. The roof of the boys computer lab needs to be sweeped and scrubbed and sealed to keep the rain from coming in.


On a hot late winter day in Colima the temperature can go up to 36 degrees C. I do not envy these people, but hear no complains. My job is to bring cold drinks and snack up the ladder and make sure they have everything they need. Not nearly as labor intensive as what some of their tasks are, but boy, the heat is killing me.


 
Project Amigo employee Alejandro, has done a lot of the preprep work, such as laying tiles in the boys lab, and today he gives us a hand, cutting the long branches from the mango tree which touched the roof.



Shane, who has Down Syndrome keeps his Mom and her husband Michael busy to ensure he is able to take part in all activities. We really enjoy having them here and learn a lot from all of them. We admire their patience.







Although a lot of the supplies, such as scrapers and paint had already been bought, we need more. Ramiro and I are the "runners" and make a walking trip to the hardware store. 

With no large box stores in sight we settle for the Mexican version of Home Depot where we buy painting gloves and other requested items. It reminds me of how things used to be back home in Holland, when I was little.

When we return, the wiring in the boys lab has been done and the ladies have started painting the walls.

The Amigo bus takes us to Casa Amiga for a taco lunch and when we return, the children have come out of school. Now, opthomologist, Bud can make good use of his expertese and checks the children's eyes.


While we went for lunch, Ajejandro has given the scraped and sweeped roof a base coat and our workers are now ready to apply the first coat of sealer acrylic.


With all the debris that has come from the roof, the floor below has become very dirty and that is a job the little kids have been assigned to look after.






Up untill know I have not had a chance to check out the girls compounds. There are see some of the volunteers hard at work painting the outside walls under the hot burning sun.  



The young girls, who have just returned from school are told to stay out of the way and decided to start a pillow fight to keep themselves entertained.


 
After a lot of hard work, we determine that we are on schedule and are ready to clean up the tools and the paint brushes, before we head back to the Hacienda for the evening; Ready to take a shower and put our feet up.



 
We have planned some different activities for the next day, delivering books to some of the schools in the area and having lots of fun with the kids.

The nice thing about having a large group, is that we can all be involved in different activities. Some read, others play word games and Joe shows the boys how to Kick a good ball.

The bonus is a seafood lunch at the beach and some time to get our feet wet in the ocean.







But there is still lots of work to be done at the orphanage. The guys still need to wire the girls lab, pound some pipe in the ground and paint the -hard to get to - spots.
Everyone has a job, including Max, the youngest one in the group, who came with his Mom Jonnie.




It's all starting to look really good and everyone works hard to meet the deadline. 
They do need a refreshment break every now which is the perfect time to get to know everyone.


Today is St. Patrick's day and everyone has tried to find something green to wear. 
We set up a computer for the team members who have arranged to take part in their Rotary meeting back home via Skype and give the club a report on the project. 
What a great way, to get their club and the members who were not able to join us, involved.




When we are ready to quit for the day, Diego is ready to take us back to the Hacienda. Ramiro is pooped and is glad to be able to shut his eyes for a moment.




Happy Hour is a the Johnson's house tonight. A different scenery and different hosts; Very relaxing.
Those who wish to go the Rotary meeting, leave right after supper and the rest stays home to rest.


Friday morning we put the final touches on the two rooms. We need to get rid of all the tools and the paint, sweep the floors, set up the tables and get the computers out of their boxes. 
At 12:00 pm dignitaries arrive for an official opening of the computer labs, which will take place at the boys dorm.


Several of the stakeholders get a chance to say a few words; The president of the organization, the local Rotary club President; Joel, as President of Reno South, Ted Rose as founder of Project Amigo and a Government official.


After all the speeches, the kids are full of anticipation when they get to sit down at the computers and have uncle Ted show them how to find their favorite websites. The screen saver is the Rotary wheel, reminding them how this project became possible.

Every group that has come here to Project Amigo, has had an opportunity to meet and interact with our scholars. It is one of the highlight of the workweek. They see how these young teens, who come from very poor families grow under this program of life skills, peer support and of course support from an excellent team of Project Amigo employees. But the support that is most important, is that of the sponsors, whether individuals, families or Rotary clubs. It's what makes it all possible.





Our week ends with the usual farewell dinner, during which we get a chance to thank the team for their hard work and their support. We also thank Ted and Susan, without them, we, Ramiro, Joe and I would not have been able to do this wonderful work.