Coco - not the plant, but sweeter in every way
Apr 5th, 2007 by Steve Posted in Bluefields 2007, What's Going On | 3 Comments
I followed her down the alleyway. My eyes kept shifting from one side to the other expecting someone to jump out. Daylight streamed between the buildings. I was glad it was daytime, I wouldn’t want to be caught out here at night.
She stopped and pulled on the caged door resembling a jail cell door and opened it. She paused for a little, peering at me through the bars and smiled. Her name was Coco and she was taking me into the fruits of her labour, an orphange - the only in Nicaragua’s impoverished east coast.
Taking a deep breath, I followed her into the building and stopped. I tried to take in as much as I could all at once. My heart sank immediately.
The room was lit with a couple of lights hanging from the ceiling. The walls were painted a faded yellow with chalk drawings on the walls of different Disney characters. It would have been quite a happy room, were it not for the two of the children pulling the ratty mattress off the table.
Do these kids sleep here? How can that be?
I knew the answer to that question already. Sleeping here was better than sleeping on the street where physical and sexual violence was prevalent.
Coco was waiting for me expectantly to go to the next room. She is so gentle yet she deals with this day in and day out. Wasn’t she angry at the injustice of the world? I guessed she was probably never angry at all, in fact quite the opposite, just determined to pour out her love to these children.
I steeled myself for what I was going to see and followed her in. There was a pool of water in the back of the room probably from last night’s rain. It seemed like the roof was falling apart there. I could see daylight streaming in from the multiple holes in the roof. The corners of the room were cluttered with debris. The only activity was the person behind the counter patiently tending to a boiling pot on a burner. Coco explained to me in Spanish that this was the cook making food for the children.
I knew that it was a simple meal. As in many developing countries, corruption was rampant. Just a few weeks earlier, the administrator for the orphange left with all the money.
I walked back out and looked around the yellow room again. Scanning the walls closely, there was no trace of graffiti, no signs of pride or disrespect - just words of love and kindness.
The absence of movement caught my eye, these children were staring at me. I looked down at the two smiling faces looking back up at me. I smiled back. I sighed because I knew what I wrote or told could never do these children or Coco justice. Reaching around for my camera, I took off the lens cap…
Technorati Tags: Coco, orphange, Nicaragua, Disney, injustice, love and kindness
April 5th, 2007 at 9:27 am
You told this very well, I feel your shock and pain.
April 5th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hi Marg. Welcome to the site.
I thought Steve’s story was well written too! I wasn’t there for this, so reading about it really put the photos into context.
September 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am
[...] looks like Coco and Verbo are going in different directions. We discovered in March, it’s possible that Coco [...]