pain and hunger

Pain

I used to think I had felt physical pain. I mean, I have broken my arm and had stitches 3 different times, not to mention the countless times I have fallen, tripped, or burned myself. However I, as most Americans, had plenty of medicine to help with the pain and a doctor to go see if any complications arose.

In this country, though, and for our specific student it's just not that easy. Let me introduce you to just one of the many cases that we have seen at our school this year. Sili, 11 years old, lives in Pancho Mateo with his parents, 3 sisters and niece...they are poor.

A couple of weeks ago, Sili came to us and told us he had a toothache. We ask him to show us his tooth and discovered that he not only had a toothache but that his molar was actually decaying away. Over the next week his cheek began to swell and the pain became even more intense. We gave him some ibuprofen hoping it was relieve at least a little bit of what he was feeling. He family cannot afford pain medication or to take him to the dentist to have the tooth pulled.

Last week, it became obvious that we needed to step in and help him out. Cara Jane took the initiative and began investigating how we would go about removing the tooth. We knew that it would take a while to figure this out, since all things Dominican take longer than they should, and so Cara bought him some pain medicine and an antibiotic for his swollen cheek. After a few days of asking around and waiting for the dentist to get back, we finally had his tooth removed.

His cheek has now almost returned to its normal size and he said that he hasn't been feeling any pain. But, like I said, that's just one of the many stories we seen.


Sili's swollen cheek and rotting tooth. You can see that the front part is almost completely gone.


after having his tooth removed

Hunger

I'm not even going to say that I've ever thought I was truly hungry. I have felt times when my stomach wanted food and I have felt "hungry" compared to what I normally feel but I am learning to say that I have never in my life been truly hungry.

That's not the stories for some of our students. We have some kids who are hungry. Here are 2 of them: Emilio and Bernito. They are brothers who live in Chichigua with 2 other brothers, a sister and their parents. Each day that they come to school they are ready to eat. Bernito, who is in preschool, will generally ask for more food. We serve rice, beans, and chicken on Tuesday, Mangú (boiled mashed-up plantains) on Thursday, and Spaghetti with Salami on Monday and Wednesday and we will normally have enough food for all the kids to have seconds, if they want. Bernito would eat thirds and fourths, if we allowed him to. If we were to feed him the amount that he wanted it would make him sick or it would expand his stomach to think it needs more food and we are trying to be conscientious of this. His brother Emilio comes to the afternoon program and is continually searching for more food to eat. He has begun taking food from the other students before they have finished eating, much to their dismay, and will jump at any chance to eat food they don't want and is continually searching any food sitting in the kitchen. We have started giving him some of the extra eggs at the end of the day to take home, but he normally eats them before he leaves.


Emilio with 2 eggs, a tall glass of milk and a banana, after having eaten 2 other eggs, 3 pieces of bread and 2 other bananas.


Bernito with his food in preschool. He will generally ask for at least 3 bowls of whatever we are having.

I write this knowing that our students do not necessarily experience the most pain nor are they the most hungry in the world. But I do write this knowing that there are varying degrees of pain and hunger and that I'm experiencing what they look like to a new degree.