Our trip to Bolivia has been eye opening and humbling. One of our favorite orphanages has been Eben-Ezer. This is a home for about fifteen mentally and physically challenged boys. The care taker is Marco. He is a single man who appears to be in his fifties. He has been taking care of the boys at Eben-Ezer for about twelve years. Marco was showing us the new identification cards recently procured for each boy. Many of the boys needed to have last names made up as well as birth dates and other personal information. Some of the boys were even given first names when they arrived because no one knew who the parents were or what their actual names are. The stories of the boys are unbelievable to our American ears. One boy was found tied up in the back of a taxi cab, another lying on a mattress unable to move. When the rescuers turned back the mattress the under side was covered in worms. (Many of the boys have needed to be de-wormed over the years. Two jars of tape worms are on display in the classroom. It is quite a sight to say the least.)
Another upsetting sight was the mattresses which were standing upright to air out from the previous night. You can see them on the short video below. Cleaning urine and feces from the mattresses is a daily morning chore. At least one boy likes to shred the mattresses with his fingernails. View the video and take a guess at how old the mattresses are. You will likely think they are ten or twenty years old…
So many of our Crossroads practice members donated money to be used on our mission trip. When we arrived in Bolivia we had no special project in mind, but after just a few hours in Santa Cruz we knew that we would be putting it to good use. On our fourth day here we had a mission team meeting and decided that the $455 donated by practice members could be used most by Eben-Ezer for new mattresses. Yesterday we delivered the donation. Marco told us that on Friday he had looked at mattresses and material choices even though he knew they didn’t have the funding to purchase them. He told us that our donation was a “gift from God”.
Thank you to everyone who made this donation possible. And if you were wondering, the mattresses in the video are ONLY three years old.
Hugs and love from Bolivia,
Dr Stephanie