Sunday, July 01, 2007

dominic

On Tuesday of this past week, I spent the day in Pancho Mateo with Rebecca, Leticia, Alexia, Rose, and her kids. We didn't have class that day, so I was able to walk around and spend some time with the people that lived there. Jennie had mentioned a couple days before that there was an old Haitian man living in his own waste, deteriorating away, unable to do anything on his own. On Monday, Rebecca and Brad went with Jennie to his home and brought some pampers, protein powder to make drinks, and a foam cushion and bed frame because he had been sleeping on an old mattress on the floor. His name is Dominic, and he has a younger brother that lives near him but does nothing to help him.

I wanted to take advantage of the free day I had to go and meet him. Rebecca and I walked through a very narrow area in Pancho Mateo where he lives, walking between small houses made of pieces of tin that seemed to give off heat like nothing else. Rebbecca brought sheets for his bed and a set of clothes. We had to ask a child to show us where his house was because there was so much winding in and out of narrow pathways that it was hard to remember the way.

We arrived at his house, a tiny shack made of tin that made up one part of a long row of small tin houses. The door was open and I walked in. His house was split in half, you walk in to a small area and then immediately have to turn to go into the second room which was just big enough for a bed. The only light was coming from the front door, so the back room hardly gets light at all.

I walked in, and turned to look into the back room. It was so dark that I couldn't see anything, I thought that no one was there. Then I slowly started to see the outline of a small, dark figure hunched over at the foot of the bed. I was startled that there was in fact someone there. I walked in and saw an old man seated basically in fetal position, his body all contorted. He was just skin and bones and he had no clothes on.

The small room smelled awful and then I noticed that the newly delivered bed as well as the newly cleaned floor had large amounts of poop sitting in areas near Dominic. What the interns had cleaned only the day before was already back to how it was. Jennie had warned the interns what to expect before going on Monday, but when I went in that day I did not think that it could affect me in the way that it did.

We went and looked for his brother who Jennie had given the diapers and protein powder to. I then found a neighbor who helped translate because he spoke Creole much better than he did Spanish so it was hard to communicate. After much struggle, the brother and neighbor, along with myself and Rebecca, were able to put his diaper on. I gave him his protein drink that Rebecca had made and he drank it all down so quickly.

After we had done everything I stood there looking at him, wondering if he felt humiliated and hopeless because he was completely exposed as we all tried to put his diaper on, the whole time his brother yelling at him for not cooperating. My eyes filled with tears and I could not stop. His family and friends and neighbors were not doing anything for him, and he just sits day after day in his own filth.

I have been back twice since that day, and both times Dominic has been without a diaper, sitting on the floor in his own waste, and each time I have sought out a neighbor to help get him back onto the bed with a clean pamper on.

My heart breaks every time I see him and in his unchanging condition.

1 comment:

Jewel said...

How sad. I know the emptiness of feeling as if I could never do enough. I will be praying for Dominic and your ministry among his family and neighbors. Pancho Mateo, ChiChiGua and the surrounding villages are so blessed to have the Makarios staff and volunteers.