I am in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar faces.
I am surrounded by an unknown language
Physically, I am tired.
Emotionally, I am just trying to catch up with how I feel in the next moment.
I am uncomfortable.
I miss what is easy and all I want to do is run home.
Welcome to the island of Ometepe.
I could not let my emotions rule me for long or I would get tangled in them. The moment I released these feelings to the Lord He changed my attitude and my perspective. He started to introduce this place and His people to me through his eyes.
“This world was so completely different than the one I had known previously. Where I had known excess. I now saw only need. In my heart I sensed attitudes of entitlement being replaced by thankfulness. My understanding of the world was being transformed and so was I.”- Under the Overpass
I wasn’t long before I was humbled by the children and staff at Cicrin orphanage. I began to realize how different my childhood was from these children. The second morning I stood back and watched as 2-3 year olds climbed up on the toilet requesting no assistance or praise for there feat. They continued on, dressing themselves and fastening there shoes to head off to breakfast at 6:30 a.m. At breakfast they prayed together over their meals and silently fed themselves, at the table where their heads hardly reached the table top. It is hard for me to see these children grow up so fast and take responsibility for themselves. My parents walked us through everything. I took for granted the countless hours that they devoted to teaching potty training, eating, tying our shoes, telling time, spelling our names, discipline and so much more.
I love and miss you mom and dad.
As I hear the stories of kids here the more I appreciate my mom and dad and mourn for the kids loss of a childhood.
Ellsa (20) was raised by her mother and abusive father. Her father hit her mother. She showed me a scar on her arm where he nicked her with his machete. Ellsa and her sister Maria Loiussa (16) came to Cicrin when their mother could no longer take them to work. Ellsa was ten.
Jesus (4)
Warning…this one is hard.
Bitana (2-1/2) arrived at Cicrin 3 months ago from
another orphanage. Helen (director) told me that her
parents were both drug users. Her mother left her with her father when she was very young. Her father
would brutally beat her until she would vomit. He would then make her eat her vomit. This might explain why she puts everything in her mouth and eats each meal as if it were her last.
Bitana
Four Tias/Aunts care for 30 adolescents, ten of which are over the age
of 16. The eldest, Oswaldo (24) has been at Cicrin since he was 4.
The Tias
patients and dedication to the children is
inspiring.
It is truly a gift to be here.
Andy (3)
