Adopt a Family with Guias y Scouts

This is a post from 12-20-2010, I'm a little behind...

Shortly after the teleton success the leaders of the scouts group decided that they wanted to participate in the Scout Navedeno, which is basically adopt a family. Anna one of the newest leaders (dirigentes) was yet again the driving force. I think I'm so wrapped up in all of the other organizing stuff that I just don't have it to be thinking of extra things to do. Anna was very insistent that we do it and I said sure, I'd participate and do whatever, but they had to tell me what to do, I did not want to be the lead. Which, I'm happy to say Anna did a great job. I'm beginning to see her as a real leader and someone with a lot of confidence, something that wasn't there before. So, we all said that we would buy a gift and go around to the stores in town to see what they would donate.

Real quick let me tell you about the family. They are a family of 5 kids and a dad. The mom left them a few years ago so it's 4 girls and 1 boy and the dad. The dad has only one functioning hand. The other is kind of there, kind of not, but it doesn't really work. The boy Simone is 9 years old, but cannot talk or walk and has really serious needs. He will never be able to be left alone. He can walk a little, but as we saw, he has no balance and if someone is not there and paying attention, he could seriously hurt himself. There is a 16, 13, 12 and 7 year old girl. They are all just so tiny, but you can tell that their dad had done a really good job of taking care of them because they were all very clean and were wearing cloths that didn't have holes in them. The house that this family lives in is falling apart. The dad was careful to tell us not to lean on the one wall they had inside the house because it was about to fall apart. Their kitchen floor is made of dirt, but it got wet and is now fairly muddy. The dad can't work because he cannot leave the little boy for very long, he does work on occasion, but it's not steady. When we arrived and explained that we were there to bring gifts and things for the house the dad saw the food and said “may God pay you for this, please, go into the kitchen, you'll see that there is no food in there”. So this takes me back to the end of the first paragraph. We had gone to the supermarkets and asked shoppers if they would be willing to donate any food, soap, toilet paper, etc to this family and it was incredible! Two separate people donated $40 dollars worth of food! There was something like 5 big bags of rice, a bunch of beans, oil, sugar, coffee, everything. We had people donate sanitary pad for the older girls, lots of nice smelling soap, people donated body sprays (everyone here wears perfume of some sort), it was just amazing to see how much people were willing to give! The kids, the dad, everyone was excited. We had cloths for everyone, toys for the younger kids, a pair of shoes for the dad. They all loved their gifts, but soon the interest turned to the food and they all wanted to see what food they were going to be eating that night.

Even with all the food that we brought and the cloths and the toys, it just wasn't enough, it's just not. We found out that they don't have enough money to pay the registration fees for the two girls in high school, they missed the first dead line because they just don't have the money. Thankfully, at that moment one of the dirigentes present took their names and said that the next day she would pay for both girls. It's something like $12 for both, but they just don't have that. I saw their bedrooms and for 5 people there were only 3 twin size beds. These beds didn't have sheets. We plan to get them sheets! I have seen people in the US that are poor by US standards, but this is different. This is a whole different level. As a scouts group we plan to continue helping this family with their needs, uniforms for all of the kids for school, continue to buy them soap, food, sheets, etc. Once you see how bad it is and how unfair it is, you have to try to do something.

Someone actually said to us “Gracias a Dios que hay los Scouts en la palma” or “Thank God that there are Scouts in La Palma”. I'm just happy that there is a way for those who want to help other to do it. If you are thinking about giving, helping, something this holiday season, do it. People aren't poor because they are lazy, sometimes life throws you something like a very handicapped son and there is nothing you can do but love and take care of him the best that you can.