Horror Story

In 1980-81 Susie and I worked at an orphanage in Mexico called Casa de Ninos, which means House of Children. The children’s home housed approximately 120 kids ages three to fifteen, and a small Bible school of thirty or so muchachos y muchachas. The experience put our zealous youthful ideals to the test.

Mexico, being a Socialist country, provides health care to the rural poor by means of clinics staffed by student doctors. There was a clinic on the grounds of the orphanage which by good fortune was staffed by an English speaking, compassionate man from Pennsylvania. Unlike many of his predecessors, he remained faithful to the needs of the community and our orphans for the duration of his term.

To Dr. John, there were clearly health concerns present here at the children’s home. He soon became aware of a full assortment of external signs of dismal hygiene, much of which we had taken for granted being in the midst of it. We were fully aware of the shockingly bad conditions for the kids, many of whom lacked shoes (“They’ll just lose them”) despite the inoperable septic systems with raw sewage spewing on the ground in a stream that ran past a cafeteria with no screens.

One day the good student doctor brought a team of fellow students to evaluate the children. Dressed in white lab coats, they examined 117 children. According to my notes, on June 15, 1981 there were:
87 children with BCG
Pediculosis capitas, 66
Pina de cabeza, 29
Tina de los pies, 27
Pitriosis alba, 26
Onicomicosis, 9
Dermatitis seborreica, 8
Piodermitis, 7
Verrugas vulgares, 7
Tina de cuerpo, 6
and another 20 conditions with various names on individual children or pairs, along with seven instances of a positive reaction to TB tests.

But this was not the dark day. The darkest day was yet to come.