The pace has picked up significantly since the rest of the team arrived in Harmons on Sunday evening. Just to back track a bit, Liz and I went to church on Sunday morning at the Baptist church down the road.
I would say there were about 70 people total (adults and kids). Many of the kids we knew from the school, so we were surrounded in the pews, which was really comforting for being in such a new environment. Church here is very formal…everyone was in their Sunday best topped with fancy hats. The first 1 hour 15 minutes, was singing led by two woman in the front of the church singing and others in the pews shaking tambourines. About 45 minutes into that singing, someone joined the musical efforts by getting on the old drum set that was on the ‘stage’. It was some of the loudest acapella singing I’ve ever experienced in church…and some of the most beautiful hand clapping rhythms I’ve ever heard (most of which I wasn’t coordinated enough to clap along to).
Sunday evening, 55 students from Mizzou University, Ryan Licoln (Liz’s husband), Charla and Elaine (2 nurses) joined us at the Harmony House. Each volunteer brought with them 2 – 50lb suitcasese of donations to be sold at the store.
Most of the students are spending the week building houses (13X15’) for families in Harmons. In order for a family to have a house built for them, they go through an application process. Applications are then considered based on need and the family’s contributions to the community. There are currently 600 families on the waiting list and they are able to build about 50 houses per year.
Here are what some of the houses look like in Harmons…
They have outdoor latrines…
Outdoor showers…
And, outdoor kitchens…
The house itself is mainly just enough room for sleeping. Some of these houses sleep anywhere from 3-14 people. One of the teams is currently building this house for a mother and her 2 teenage sons…it will allow them to move out from living in her father’s house of 14 people.
I have been spending everyday of this week with Liz, Ryan, Charla, and Elaine at the Clarenon May Pen Infirmary. The Infirmary is pretty much a ‘last stop’ kind of place. The people there are considered wards of the state and have been placed there because of mental illness, physical handicaps, cognitive delays, or a combination of all three. The age range is from 20-80+. Very few people (if any) get visitors, and the employees don’t seem to have much (again, if any) passion for their job or compassion for the residents of the infirmary. At first glance, it’s just a really sad place to be. At second and third glances, its still really sad, but you begin to see small glimpses of hope.
There are 136 residents at the infirmary, pretty equally split between male and female. Due to many of their physical needs, they go through a lot of laundry everyday. Elaine (one of the nurses on the trip who has been to Harmons twice before), applied and received a grant to buy the infirmary 2 washing machines! This will hopefully make the process of laundry that they currently do much easier. The only thing, is that it will take convincing the orderlies that work there, that putting bleach in the wash will kill off germs. They are currently under the assumption, that it is only by boiling the clothes, that germs will be killed.
Here is their current process for doing laundry….
HUGE laundry pile…
Boil clothes…
Bleach and then rinse clothes…
Hang clothes to dry…
The resources at the infirmary are few. There isn’t enough patient care, depends for patients to wear, medicines to make patients well, money to do anything about these things…etc… During the day, it is common to see multiple people sleeping in the same bed w/o any sheets on it…
Sitting with blank stares and nothing to stimulate their minds or show them love.
Medical needs that could’ve easily been addressed in the U.S., go unaddressed and leave many unable to walk, use their hands, or even speak.
17 years ago, Mary went to have a basic medical procedure done, and her spinal cord ended up getting snipped, leaving her in this position of lying in half. Her mind is completely sound, yet she has no one around her to have stimulating conversations.
Our goals this week were to go around to each of the six wards and spend quality time with each resident at least twice during the week, in addition to any activities that they participate in. For the first one and a half days, I went around and visited with the patients. Many of them wanted me to read to them from the Bible and pray for them. I was amazed by some having scripture memorized and wanting to either recite it or say it with me as I was reading.
Another goal of ours, was to do art projects with the residents. This goal had many sub-goals…stimulate their mind, inspire creativity, increase sense of productivity, create community, improve fine motor skills,… In just a day and a half of doing art (coloring, drawing, painting, and cardmaking) I’ve seen leaps and bounds of hope!
This is CarryAnn. She doesn’t talk, so I don’t know her story. All I know is that she can’t walk, talk, or use her hands. She gets around by dragging her body forward on her elbows; she has a beautiful smile and squeals for joy when she’s happy. I brought her up some paints an set up an area on the patio (where she normally lays) for her to paint. She squealed with joy when she saw her own marks on the paper, and then later on a wooden cross. It was a fun challenge for me that brought me back into Child Life mode—how do I get someone who can’t sit up nor has much use of her hands to paint? I loved it!
Millie, who usually spends the day walking around on the sides of her feet, unable to talk; spent the day painting approximately a page per minute.
We had some guys from Mizzou come with us to the infirmary for the full day today and they brought a guitar and djembe drum…the men were all outside on the benches facing the courtyard singing for most of the day today. It was incredible to see them come alive.
I go back and forth from feeling hopeless, realizing that we are leaving at the end of this week, to having hope that these people could have a very different life if they were given more attention and compassion. I’m still trying to make sense of all the injustice going on at the infirmary in my mind and know what I can do about it, and how something could be permanently put in place. Liz and Ryan having been wrestling with these thoughts and questions for years now. I invite you in on this journey to experience the infirmary, whether on a future trip or in prayer.
