First Home Visit

 It was the end of the school day and I was leading the preschoolers out of the classroom. Once we reached the bench this beautiful girl, Sulema, ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and didn't let go for about 2 minutes. As she hugged me, she kept saying mama. It wasn't until she grabbed Dougy and calling us mama and papa, that I realized that she was wishing for a family that cared for her. It broke my heart,  she had to pretend that she had a loving  family to be happy; Her mom doesn't care about her. When Lisa- Marie went to visit Solema's  house the mom was gambling with men that abused Sulema.  She had so much lice it was falling out of her hair.

This afternoon Kevin and I went on home visits with Mrs. Gutmann. We went into the slums and saw a couple of the houses that had children with challenges living inside them. We went there to meet the family and children. I was so happy Kevin was there to talk for be because I was so surprised by how they lived I couldn't even speak. Many of the houses were smaller than my room, and 9-10 people live in them. Many of the houses didn't even have windows they had bars.

The first house we went to was the home of Marisol. She was 2 years old and weighed about 8 pounds. The parents were split apart and the mom lived with her parents. Her dad is an alcoholic and comes home drunk. Marisol is very malnourished, and I am really worried about her. Kevin held up two of his fingers and it was thicker than her leg. This made me feel sad and also I had way more than I needed. I have parents who love me and beautiful sister and enough food to last me the rest of my life and they are lucky to have one of those things.

The second house we went to was the home of 15 month old  Deanna, again the parents no longer live together but this split up was different. Her father had another family. while he was married to his mother he was also with another girl they have kids the same age and all the kids are disabled. Deanna has an enlarged heart, so she cant do physical therapy.  Because her heart is enlarged  her circulation is cut off and so her feet nose and fingers all have a blue tint.

In the third house we met Julissa. She is a 22 year old woman with epilepsy. While we were there she was having a Grand Mal seizure. It was so sad to see that all she ever did was lie on the floor, she did nothing else except for sit. Her mother thought that Juliussa was a curse on the family so she gave her child to her mother (Juissa's grandmother).  The grandmother didn't know what to do so she never took Julissa to therapy. Now she lives with her husband, mother and father in law and her little brother who is 10. They all do the best that they can but even that is not good enough.

Lastly, we went to Clara and Franklin's house they are 13 and 14. Clara has a heart disorder and Franklin has a brain disorder. They were not there because they were at the Doctor's office. I really wish they were there so I could meet them. Overall, today was a sad day!