The house fills up and things get crazy!

A brief update!

     For the majority of my internship here at Hogar de la Roca the house had been fairly quiet.  We fluctuated between only two and three students. The two men who remained have already been here for about four months and flow with our routine fairly smoothly.  However after the convention we had three men come in almost at the same time.  We have two rooms, and 9 beds here at the program.  However three of the beds are in my room and students are required to be here for about 6 months before they enter into some of the privileges of their "second phase" in the program.  Add the fact that we are holding the final bed for a young man recently released from prison and you see that we are now just about full.

     Charlie Brown:  The pictures you see of some of the guys reading and sleeping are not indicative of the reality that has encapsulated our house for the three previous nights.  We did the intake on Friday of young man that we will call "Charlie Brown."  One of his names is accurate and the other is not.  I feel it would be unethical to reveal both his name and his history as it would be impossible for me to get his permission.  I hope to do bios in the future with some of the other guys in the house with their consent, but Charlie Brown is a special case.
     Although he claims to be in his early thirties Charlie looks closer to fifty.  He was brought in to us from another missionary group in Antigua.  Charlie is addicted to rubbing alcohol.  It is actually a common problem in a country such as this where alcoholism runs rapid amongst intense poverty.  Whereas the most inexpensive bottle of real liquor would cost around 5 Q., a bottle of rubbing alcohol can easily be obtained  for 1Q.  The only thing more devastating than the effects of the daily intake of rubbing alcohol into your body is the sudden cessation and withdrawal from it.
     Currently here at night four Charlie is lucky to be alive.  He has been continually shaking to the point where he can hardly hold a glass of water at his lips.  He has gone into full seizures onto the floor at random times.  He has thrown up everywhere. He vomited in the middle of a church service on his one and only outing with us,  as well as multiple times in and around the bathrom at the house. And the most severe symptom of charlie's detox is  hallucinations. Although it is most acute in the evenenings Charlie is subject to paranoid delusional episodes. Bashing his head against walls, running from people trying to  "kill him", flossing his teeth violently for seemingly no reason until his mouth is full of blood, and claiming to have sustained severe injuries that don't exist are a just a few examples of what Charlie has been doing all night long for three nights straight, much to this dismay of his exhausted yet supportive roomates and staff.  There are times when he has no idea where he is and tries to break out or just plain insists on leaving.  The last thing we want to do is let him go out in his condition, but as days move forward it is becoming more and more clear that Chris and myself are not equipped to deal with someone in Charlies condition.  As i stated, it is fortunate he didn't die in our house.
     Our hope is that we are reaching the end of an extreme detox and that the hallucinations are merely a temporary symptom soon to be relieved.  There are many "windows" during the day where we get to see the real Charlie.  When Charlie has his wits about him he is a wonderful, gentle, funny, and grateful person who is eager to help and excited to be a part of our house.  It is this Charlie that Chris and I are holding onto. It is this Charlie that we see fairly often that has encouraged us to keep him in the process here. We feed him, give him oral hydration salts, and pray with him continually.  However as time goes on and his symptoms remain we begin to wonder if there is a deeper problem and that maybe his alcohol abuse is actually an attempt to self-medicate his hallucinations and not the other way around.  The bottom line is we are not Doctors and Charlie needs one. However, Charlie has no money and we don't want to commit Charlie to the unknown fate of the city mental hospital when it seems so often like he just may come out of this at any time.  We are in contact with a team of clinicians from the states and are giving Charlie one more chance to sleep through the night and stop hallucinating.  If all the madness continues again through the night, it is for the benefit of the other men in the house and Charlie himself that we will have to commit him to whatever may be in a Guatemalan mental hospital.  As of this moment, charlie is sound asleep, and this blogger is typing as quietly as possible.
     I wanted to give a quick update to anyone who has been kind enough to follow my blog and has yet noticed that the posts have been becoming less frequent.  The simple truth is that with more students i have less time.  However God has put it on my heart to do this whenever i can. Plus i always look forward to sharing my experiences with you with the entirety of my heart.  Please know your feedback is a constant encouragement to me.  Comments are always welcome in addition to any questions or concerns you may have regarding any of the posts. May the grace and peace of the lord be with you all as you interact in your social and family networks making the drink of life just a bit sweeter for those you come across with only simple gestures of patient and genuine love.