Smiles and tears

Our orientation trip to Kalutara did a lot more than just making us bond with each other and form new friendships; that was what I naively thought it was for. Among all the activities the one that stood out the most for me was our first hand experience of CAS when we were taken to the home for disabled kids, The Mama Papa Home. It certainly was the most emotional.
We were greeted with the cheery, innocent smiles of the kids all geared up and ready to start drawing with us. Skillfully maneuvering around the obstacle of communication problems, each of us managed to interact with the kids in our own unique way, resorting to sign language and trying to speak Sinhala when necessary.
They seemed perfectly content to me but as I followed one of them out of this bubble of happiness into their living quarters..I was appalled. The stench was unbearable. Flies hovered around each head of these helpless, severely disabled individuals who were too unfit to come and join the drawing. There were no mattresses..they had no control over their excretory system so just urinated when they had to. One of the women in charge, who were paid next to nothing for their services, would drag the shriveled body away to clean inside. As I watched the flies crawling along the lips of a child who glanced up at me with bleary eyes, I promised myself to come back and do something to help every one of them. Taking the hand of the boy I had followed, I walked out into a field to where the others were playing their games..