mes ami "Carlos"

There is a medical clinic housed in the same facility as the amputee clinic that offers general medical care, dental care, and physical therapy. One day while I was wandering around the clinic I was told Sister Genevieve, one of the Hispanic Sisters who works in the medical clinic, wanted me to meet someone. I didn’t know what to expect. She introduced me to “Carlos”.  Carlos is a little boy who had been abandoned at the clinic the previous week. We don’t know his name, but the Sisters call him Carlos. They tell me he is 7 or 8, but I could easily carry him. When they found him he was dehydrated and malnourished. He doesn’t speak, they think Carlos is autistic.

That morning Sister Genevieve wasn’t having any luck feeding Carlos and she needed some assistance.  Eventually  we opted to put food in the tube that they had previously threaded into his nose and down to his stomach. After he was fed, we gave Carlos a bath in the courtyard from a 5 gallon bucket. Then we dressed him in clean clothes. From there Carlos and I went and hung out in the physical therapy room for a while. I don’t know if he understood a word I said in English and Creole, but he would periodically take my hand. Once Sister Genevieve figured out that Carlos wasn’t going to take a nap she asked me to try and feed him again. Carlos calmly ate for me, eventually he took about 4 oz of yogurt. Before the morning was over Carlos smiled for me.

One of the other mothers at the clinic asked me if Carlos was the child who had been abandoned. I said yes. She questioned how any mother could leave her child never to see him again, as she held her own daughter with special needs. I didn’t have the language skills to tell her that I don’t know how a mother could leave her child. At the same time I believe Carlos’ mother thought she was doing what was best for her son.

When I returned to the clinic two days later I learned the Sisters had placed Carlos with the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s community.

This day please join me as I pray …for consolation for Carlo’s mother, that she will somehow come to know that her son is being cared for… in gratitude for the Missionaries of Charity who care for those who have nowhere else to go … and for Carlos, mes ami.