This sweet boy is Andre. He is five years old and though you may not be able to tell from this picture, he has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Due to this condition he does not speak very well, is much smaller than the rest of the children, and can have fits of rage without warning- but he has a wonderful gift and affinity for building and engineering anything he can get his hands on. No project is too big for this little man! As soon as he has a project in his mind, nothing gets in the way of accomplishing them! I had the pleasure of being the engineers assistant in a few of these projects and they are memories I will cherish forever. I first discovered his gift when after VBS he took my hand and led me to an outside chair that he wanted me to pick up and move to a different location. Then, he pointed to a bench. I thought to myself "now surely he won't have me rearrange all of this 'furniture', there is just no point!" Little did I know, that is exactly what he had in mind. As he led me to a wood bench that I could not pick up if I tried (not that it's saying much), he not only directed me to move it, but he also tried to help. It was so precious seeing him try to pick up this bench that was at least four times his size and expecting it to move. I then had to explain to him, without words, that this wood bench is way to heavy for the both of us to move it so he will have to just work around it. Frustrated, he kicked the bench with his no bigger than 6 inch foot and proceeded to find other objects to fill in the space of the border of furniture he was attempting to create. After a quick scan of the area, he decided the shoe rack would suffice. Before I discovered that once he had his mind set on something he wouldn't change it, I tried to tell him that he wasn't allowed to take the shoe rack, or rather- hollow wooden box. He wouldn't take no for an answer and began removing all twenty or so pair of shoes. After clearing all of the shoes away he successfully picked up the twice his size shoe rack but being the motherly girl I am, I took it from him and gave in so that he wouldn't hurt himself. Upon completing this project to border the outside area he wiped his hands and went inside.
I wish I would have taken a video of the way this child walks because it is absolutely adorable. I'll do my best to explain it. The best way to describe Andre's walk is to compare it to my grandfather. Silly as it sounds, they both hold their hands behind their backs while walking head first in whatever direction they choose to go while their shoulders lean to the side of the foot that they are shifting their weight on. It was so cute and i'm sure I had the biggest grin on my face every time Andre walked by.
In the same day, I was at the receiving end of one of his fits of rage. I was painting one of the kids nails
when I feel something knock my back. I ignored it at first, but then there was an even harder knock and as I turned around, Andre spit in my face. A rush of emotions overwhelmed me- anger, confusion, and hurt. Before I could spank him, ask him
questions, or cry, one of the caretakers who witnessed this took him by the arm and made him come back to what I assume was apologize. I accepted his apology and quickly found one of my team mates to vent to. As I told what had happened to one of the girls, all of the emotions rushed back yet again. My first reaction was anger because here I was minding my own business and painting a little kids nails when all of a sudden he spat in my face. I have never had someone become mad at me so much so that they would spit in my face so I honestly didn't know how to handle the situation. Then confused as to why he would do such a thing in the first place. Lastly, hurt. Hurt because whether I knew what it was or not I had clearly frustrated this small child. I still do not know what provoked this action, but all was forgiven and we went along as if it never happened.
My second experience of playing engineers assistant was at the beach. Now because Andre has FAS he rejects affection. Being a very affectionate person I had to expand the ways that I connected with him. Not knowing what else t
o do, I began to follow him and maybe pick up a few ideas of how I could be allowed into his little world. Turns out, a personal assistant wasexactly what he wanted! As I followed him around the beach, he quickly put me to work. For this project he needed every rock bigger than a pound within sight moved to a central location on the beach. As I followed him he loaded large rocks he found into my arms and demanded I took them back the the designated area. As he began to run out of these large rocks, he overestimated my abilities and set his sight for a few bo
ulders. After communicating that picking up giant boulders was simply not an option, he directed me back to the pile of large rocks we had collected. His plan for the rest of beach time was to organize them in a border around the blanket. As we began doing this, a few children joined in his project as well and we finished just as it was time to go.
Here are a few pictures of the rocks I was in charge of as well as a picture of Andre asking Clay what was on his face (stubble).
This picture I was able to snap just before he was done. As we walked up to the orphanage I saw Andre with this giant broom attempting to clean some spilled bubble water, showing his great work ethic.
On the last day I had the joy of playing engineer's assistant one last time. While following Andre around to be let into his world again, he discovered some kind of squiggly metal rod thing on the ground. Instead of holding hands, Andre held one end of this metal thing while I held the other end. He led me around to this plastic play set that had been donated to them where he told me to stand still. The play-set is about three feet tall and includes a slide and a small swing. As he climbed up the ladder of the slide he put me in charge of holding the metal rod and every ten seconds he would put his little hand out and I was to give him this treasured tool so he could bang a side knob with it. He alternated banging the knob and twisting the knob for I kid you not, half an hour at least. Then, a child came up and handed him a jump rope. As he held this jump rope in his hand he looked around for another project. He then released me from my duties of holding the metal rod. About ten minutes later I came back to see what this little genius had come up with. To my amazement he had rigged the jump rope to the little swing and created a pulley system with the jump rope around a nearby tree and was swinging himself by pulling on the rope!
Andre has forever touched my heart and I hope these words have touched yours too. Please continue to be in prayer for him as he lives out God's will for his life!
