Most of the jóvenes were never vaccinated like kids in the US. Many suffered from poor nutrition. And they encountered all sorts of afflictions on the journey north. Despite this, most arrive in
remarkably good health and they are given top notch medical care while in the shelter. There were are few that were sick; during my time there we had - a possible TB, chicken pox, ringworm, scabies, shingles and a few gastro-intestinal bugs that were never defined.
These guys were isolated from the group and placed in Clinical Observation. In Clinical they watched movies all day, had meals delivered to them, never had to wait in line for restrooms or showers and all of their school work was self paced.
Clinical Observation was my favorite place to hang out because it was quieter and easier to exchange English for Spanish lessons. It was there that I met two of my best friends of the trip - Luis, 17 year old from Honduras and Erick, 17 year old from El Salvador. I learned more Spanish from these two guys than anyone else and probably more than I learned in Spanish I as a freshman at Stephenville High School years ago. As you probably know, Stephenville is not the epicenter of Spanish language instruction and immersion...
And for the record, I returned home without catching any infectious disease. I attribute this to a freakishly strong immune system. Germ-X, who needs it!!!
Speaking of freakish...Blogger has gone into some strange formatting mode...sorry.
