Post from Michelle:
I brought Tim along on my return trip to the orphanage. The children piled on top of him, clambering for attention. He handled it really well!Cher, a friend from our massage class, was also there. She is from Maryland and we have enjoyed hanging out with someone from so close to home. As a professional massage therapist, she was in Chiang Mai to take several massage classes.
It was Sunday, a day most of the staff at the orphanage takes off, so the volunteers were extra busy with the little ones. We took them outside to play and brought them in for a bowl of rice porridge around lunchtime. Most of the children could feed themselves and we helped the ones that couldn't.
After lunch, we set up a conveyor belt-like system to give the children baths. A volunteer would strip a child of their clothes and then pass him/her to another adult at a large sink. There the children were soaped up and rinsed off and then handed to another adult to be dried. Each child was then passed to a counter to be dressed in clean clothes. It was very efficient and in no time all 18 children were ready for their afternoon nap.
One little girl though stopped the flurry of activity in its tracks. She had been very quiet and still on her mat and no one had really paid much attention to her. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is the loud children who get the attention while the quiet ones are overlooked. But when we undressed her for her bath we were shocked at how skinny she was. Her body was frightfully thin and frail. One volunteer, who had been coming for three months, was outraged the little girl had deteriorated so badly. She informed us the girl had arrived a month ago, healthy and plump. Now she was just a shadow. It was obvious she was suffering from emotional trauma from the sudden separation from her mother/parents. The staff, with so many children to look after, was not able to give her the attention she needed. In her grief, she was withdrawing û not eating or interacting. She needed more than what the staff could give.
Cher asked for some olive oil and then, using her massage therapist background, began to give the baby a massage. For the next 20 minutes I watched her hands slide up and down, stroking and touching. Cher explained how essential touches is to human survival and that at an early age if infants do not receive enough tactile stimulation, they can literally whither and die. It's called the 'failure to thrive' syndrome. Children can have their basic necessities like food and shelter met, but without touch they will not survive. As Cher's hands massaged, her mouth also worked, showering the girl with soft whispers of love. Slowly the baby's whole being transformed. Her body went from a tight angry ball to a relaxed comforted child. Her facial muscles loosened and a smile emerged.
The other children were all lying on their mats falling asleep but the child whimpered and cried when Cher went to lie the little girl down. She was not ready for the touch to stop. So Cher sat and rocked her until sleep arrived. The hand is an amazing conveyer of information. There is power in touch. Power to convey love û to hold, to stroke, to nurture. Watching Cher work was a testament to the power of loving touch.