Privilege & Pain

I walked into the eight-story high hospital and the smell almost knocked me over. What kind of medicine do they practice here? I feel like that make more people sick then they help. I was quickly quieted as we began out ascent up the stairs. The babies were on the eighth floor. As we continued to climb I realized the smell must have something to do with the lack of air conditioning in the summer heat. By the fifth flight of stairs everyone was panting; the heat was unbearable. The smell was beginning to permeate through my open pores; I began to dry heave. There was no ventilation and all of the windows were bolted shut and covered in bars. We climbed and climbed. I hoped with every bone in my body that at the top of the stairs there would be pink and blue painted walls, smiling babies, and fans at the least.

When I reached the top of the stairs; I was wrong. The babies were screaming and many of them were deformed. My face fell into my hands as my hands began to overflow. I wanted to scream! Where are the nurses? I frantically looked around; I spotted two on the entire floor. Neither of them spoke English. They were walking from crib to crib, uninterested, taking bottles and placing the same ones in the next babies’ mouth. I couldn’t believe my eyes; my heart stopped. I turned to look at the other volunteers; their eyes were abounding as well.

-Can I hold them? Someone asked.

It was translated into Romanian so the nurse could understand.

-No! She shook her head several times at us and walked away.

-We’ve come to visit the babies every day we have been here. Some days they let us hold them, and some days they say no. No one else holds them. The only human contact they receive is from volunteers and the nurses when they are changing them.

-Can I at least change their diapers? A woman with tears in her eyes anxiously looked around.

-No all of the babies are on a strict schedule. They are changed twice a day the same time of day. The hospital does not have enough diapers to change them more than…

-So they just sit in their dirty diapers?! She screamed.
She nodded.

-But that is why we come. If we can’t do anything else we can hold them, and help them hold their bottles.

I looked around all the babies seemed so young. They had to have been less than six months, and their bodies were twisted and mangled. It looked like their bones couldn’t figure out how to grow the right way. I walked towards a crib. It was a girl. I was scared if I touched her that he bones would fall apart.

I softly grazed her hand.

-How old is she?

-She is actually a year old. But her hands are so frail she can’t hold her bottle to feed herself and the nurses will not feed the babies.
My knees tightened. I looked around and saw a bottle lying in her crib. Her head was lying beside the nipple of the bottle. It looked as though she had scooted her body to the bottle to let the milk drip into her mouth…

I turned around and saw my father quickly turn the corner into the hallway.

¬¬- Mom, where is he going?

¬-There was a very sick baby over there. The baby is dying from a disease. Your father went over to look at the baby. I think he just needed some air.

I ran down the hallway to find my father weeping in the corner. I slowly approached him.

-That baby is green, Alonna. A green baby…

I quickly walked around the corner, but as I turned to see the baby… my feet stopped.

I turned to go back into the other room.

As we descended the eight floors of stairs I realized how privileged I really am. Each of those babies is an orphan. It was cheaper for their parents to sell them to the government then to take care of them. The country of Romania has very few health regulations; therefore this “hospital” will never incur a penalty for its harsh treatment of human beings.

There are millions of people on Earth. Some are privileged and some are not and many have no control over which country and to what family they are born into or discarded from.
That experience changed my life. I could have never imagined that human beings, infants could actually suffer that much and it be legal. Children’s bodies were actually deformed from lack of being held and nurtured. Going to Romania helped me to realize how privileged I am to live in America. More importantly it helped me to center my life. From that moment on I knew that I wanted to help people. It didn’t matter how or what are or country. What matter is that I didn’t take the privileges I had for granted.

I was 16 then and now at 20 I still believe in the spirit of service. Throughout my life I will continue to service others in my career and life. I plan to be an attorney and later a judge. I have chosen this because having the knowledge that service is needed is important but also understanding that power and education can sway the amount of influence I have on the world is also significant. In every government there are laws and institutions in place to harm and prevent its citizens from a prosperous life. The only way to change those laws is by being a law maker.

I also hope that as class such as this one will help me gain a greater understanding of human beings of all cultures and how they relate and communicate with one another. Communication is pertinent in service and in law; I hope to take the skills learned in this class and apply them to my future aspirations.