Working With Nuns

For a couple weeks now I've been volunteering my Sunday afternoons to a local missionary. The Missionaries of Charity, home of nuns and malnourished children. The first time I went there I didn't know where I was going and what was going to be going on when I got there. I brought my bag full of papers to study if things became boring. I didn't need to though as I was put to work immediately when I walked into the secure compound.

Seated at a blue painted table were four women, three of which were nuns, one the head (?) nun. They were busy packing medication for the Aetas, a small group of native Filipinos. The specific medication at the time was for TB, a number of different sized pills were being counted and poured into small plastic bags for distribution. My host family that brought me got me a chair and I turned into a pharmacist.

After two hours, several different medication bulk containers emptied, and thousands of small med packs crammed in containers, I was relieved of my duty. It wasn't for lack of enthusiasm, rather the nuns had run out of meds for me to count, I'd helped restore their stocks. I was then told to follow a nun-in-training to see the kids. At this point I'd forgotten all about kids being in their facility, the child I'd seen for the preceding hours was AJ, who was covered in cracker dust at this point.

Children are awfully cute usually. This time was no exception, I walked into a room of mostly empty cribs and was mobbed by all the little ones who could walk. I couldn't walk, I had two kids grabbing each hand, one standing on my feet, hugging my waist, and others vying for position to be anywhere in between. This is where I felt pretty strong, I was able to lift two kids up on each hand, them just pulling a couple of fingers. They're pretty small, so don't get too impressed, it was just fun.

The kids adjusted to me being there and gave me some breathing room and I was finally able to walk around and see who all else was in the room. Aside from the ones I'd just been swinging around, there were the infants on the cool tile and or in cribs. One child had a double cleft-lip, I asked and it turns out kiddo is only a couple weeks out from an operation for correction. Some kids were visibly malnourished, one infant seemed deflated, where baby fat should have been was skin hanging loose. That was the hardest sight to see. The children have plenty of food now, they're recovering.

The nun-in-training was my main source of information. She's from Pakistan(!), relatively young, intelligent, friendly, and even funny. She told me that some of the kids in the facility are repeat visitors, as their parents have let their children fall into a malnourished state time/s before. The children usually stay for a few weeks or months, regain their strength and happy glow, before going back home. It's most obviously an imperfect system but I love that it exists.

I went back the next week, packed meds, brought a friend, and revisited the children. A reception like the first was had and I was more brave this time, playing more with the kids. Kaiti was the one to tag along and she seemed to really like it, both the packing and playing with the kids.

I didn't know much about nuns before volunteering at Missionaries of Charity but now, I think I know a few nice ladies who place orders for important medications and watch over abused children. They may not talk much, especially to me, but I still look forward to counting next to them next week.