Redefining Love through Deformity

You never know what to expect when you walk into situations that are extremely uncomfortable and not ordinary. Such as walking into a special need orphanage containing mental and physical disabilities you have never encountered before in your life. Of course you always first walk in and act like nothing is wrong with them and that you can talk to them like they are normal, but the fact of the matter is, you can't, and that isn't to discriminate but is just a fact. You walk in and you are totally shocked that actual disabilities like this exist. You wonder how they can live like that, for that is all they have ever known.

Luz y Vida is enormous. They have like 5 levels of bedrooms and rooms with various rooms equipped to handle the various needs of the children. They have the biggest kitchen with vegetables that they grow from a farm that they own. They have all these tunnel ways that weave to and fro throughout the place taking you around like a maze. They have a courtyard and also a huge playroom with every toy imaginable and many therapy type things like bikes, and weights and such things.

You walk in and you see all these kids running everywhere. Or perhaps not running because they do not have legs, or do not have legs that work. Everywhere you look you are taking aback because you cannot go anywhere without seeing something you've never seen before. Like the girl wrapped in saran wrap because she has a disease that her skin is pealing off slowly. Or like the little girl with a clef palette who is 3 years old. Almost everything is not normal and often hard to look at. A lot of the kids are quite normal but have very devastating diseases like HIV, it is very tragic because many of them are the cutest kids and will steal your heart.

But the fact of the matter is, is after you get past deformities and past the stupid fear that you might break them, you begin to see something in them that was born of a human spirit. That is personality. Each one of them has an amazing personality and shows it off to the world as a beautiful person would show off their beauty. Joan-Anna, the little girl pictured with a clef palette is very hard to look at if you have never seen that circumstance before. But she is the bravest of the bunch, and though she cannot speak she has a voice and a personality that could start a revolution. But she is the sweetest girl and will come up to you and loves to be held. Or Claudia, who has a severe retardation and is in a wheelchair, loves hot guys. And when a hot guy enters the room she has the biggest smile on her face and becomes quite shy when approached. But see that's what makes them human, despite that they happen to be often grotesque on the outside, inside they are beaming with spirit and personality and smiles. They are deformed but they still need touch and love. They aren't like everyone but they are everything like everyone else. Deformed, often broken, hurting, often crushed, but still needing love, attention, laughter, food, or maybe just a good conversation.

I think the thing that struck me the most was was something Joan-ann did, the one with the cleft-plate who is 3 years old. After she was done with lunch, she saw all of us feeding the kids and decided that she needed to help and started feeding one of the kids near her. I was hit by that moment that this little three year old who is hard to look at...got it. She understood what the life was about. She saw someone who was hungry. She fed them. She saw someone in need and did something about it. She didn't care who they were. She didn't care who she was. She didn't care what problems she had. She understood what many of us go through life and never understand. She fed the hungry. I was humbled by this act and dreamed of what the world would look like if everyone understood what Joan-Anna understood. The world wouldn't be hungry. I wonder if what we all actually need is to be deformed, then perhaps we might begin to understand the basics of humanity. I have posted more pictures of the first and second day that can be viewed here. Thank you for stopping by. More will be coming tomorrow.