When working with children in developing countries there are an infinite number of positive reinforcements that keep you charging down the right path although you are constantly being challenged. These highs enable you not to crumble when faced with the lows that can accompany meeting a child that you are told you cannot help. Today while accompanying the physical therapist from the school, I asked her if she knew Clara and Franklin and if she would mind taking a trip to their home to help me keep the promise I had made to their mother. You may remember that I wrote about them a couple of weeks ago when I first went to their home. They are 12 and 13 and don't talk, walk or possess any motor skills at all. They lay side by side in a crib all day, wear diapers and drink formula. When I asked their single mother, while we were standing in her one room home with a dirt floor, what she needs for her children she only had one request. She asked for a therapist to come to her home to teach her some exercises to help her children become stronger. The therapist told me that she had previously gone to see the children when they were around three years old. She stopped coming when she found out their mother had been working as a prostitute and often left the children alone at night. After some resistance, she reluctantly agreed to go.

When we walked in their home both children were laying on their backs in bed and were even smaller than I had remembered. I had high hopes of getting these children some help, and haven't stopped thinking about them since the first time we had met. The anticipation and excitement was building, I couldn't wait to see what the therapist would recommend to help these kids. The blow was then swiftly delivered when she took one look at their stiff limbs. The therapist said that their bones had grown permanently twisted and there muscles had shortened and contracted. Doing therapy on them now would risk braking their bones and tearing their muscles...it was simply too late. Had their therapy continued when they were three their quality of life would have been drastically different. This was tough to hear and even harder to completely accept. I was sitting on the bed and looked over at Clara as the therapist talked and felt my eyes filling up and my throat getting tight. That familiar helpless, weighted, sorrow took over while I struggled to keep it together. To accept that this was it for them killed me, for their mother it was a life sentence.

Upon returning to the school, where the rest of the team had been giving the teachers some much needed relief, things turned a corner. With the bus still broken down, we were able to get about 30 kids to school by hiring a van to get them there. Hovering over me all day was how we were going to pull off getting this bus fixed and then the relief came in the form of a very generous friend. We received enough money to get the bus fixed!!! This is the greatest gift of all time for the teachers who work at this school for no other reward than to see these kids succeed. It would have taken them all year to raise money for that van, as it is the equivalent to a year's salary in Nicaragua. The kids would have suffered because of it. THANK YOU!

A lot of other progress was made at the school as Sarah and Anna spent time in each classroom sharing their love and skill of teaching to assist the students and their instructors. They both can't  believe how creatively and patiently these teachers handle up to ten students that are constantly running out of the classroom, hiding under tables or getting aggressive. The ratio of these very active students with special needs and their teacher is completely overwhelming. If you add to the fact that the teachers have little to no supplies to teach with and even bring their own toilet paper from home, you will begin to understand what they are up against. Every second we are there the picture becomes clearer.... the heart and dedication of the teachers is absolutely the only reason these kids get a chance.

Last night, we were able to get a few school supplies and and put together some tools for each teacher to use in their classrooms today. It's going to be a good day! Thank you for your support, I am humbled every minute I am at this school and in the homes of these precious children. This would not be possible without your help. Thank you from the very bottom of my heart.

Off to school,

LM