Life at ZLO Piszkowice

 I thought I would tell you about Olivia's former home.

Where to start?  How about here?

 

 

Yep, I am a big fan of beginning at the beginning.

 

 

Olivia arrived here when she was one year old.

 

The Institution is run by nuns.  And when I say "run by nuns", I am dead serious.  Those ladies are IN CHARGE. They keep everything going like clockwork.  I am not precisely sure how many nuns live there.  It seemed to us there were about five; although many others were in an out while we were there.

 

 

 The institution has been here for quite some time.  Since we couldn't really ask them, I have no idea exactly how long.  I did meet one deaf man who grew up in this institution and he is now 51(he is two pics down). He showed me old black and white pictures of the institution from long ago.

 

There two three/four story buildings. They are separated by a parking lot but joined at the third floor by a long enclosed walkway. The closest one in the picture is (I believe) the oldest building and it houses the laundry, kitchen and bedrooms. The second building is newer and houses all of the play rooms, therapy rooms, and class rooms. 

The walls here are very thick. I am guessing this helps keep the buildings warm during the long, cold winters. The institution is heated by coal and some wood. I was told that coal is more expensive than gas, but they do not have the money change over. Everything here is clean, crisp, and orderly.  The walls and furnishings are all brightly colored. I am guessing this is due the fact that most of the children hardly ever see the outdoors except during the hottest part of summer. They are really missing out too....the outside is quite pretty.

 

 

There are gardens and orchards everywhere.  I recognized onions, lettuce, strawberries, apricots, apples, blackberries and a variety of beautiful flowers.  There is a gardener (and as you can see from this pic, he prefers short pants...hehe).  Everything is so organized and pretty.  See that shed in the background?  I stupidly assumed it was for tools, but could never figure out why they left the door open so much.  Josh finally went to inspect...he said there were pigs and I should come look.  Wish he had told me how AWFUL pigs in a very small shed would smell.  Uck!

 

Ok.  Back to the institution.  The nuns said there were close to fifty children staying in the institution. We asked what the age limit was.  Apparently it is more a matter of size.  a Child can stay until he/she no longer fits in a crib.  Which for some kids is quite old and for others not very long.  The oldest child living there right now is around 15.  They have a few exceptions, though.  I stupidly assumed that this girl was in fact a girl because of her size.

 

 

She is 38. And she has lived in the institution since she was eight years old. For the first eight years of her life she was locked in a dark room by her parents because they were ashamed of her.  The police intervened and brought her to the institution where she stays now.  She does not hear or talk.  But that does not stop her from being extremely bossy. She made sure Orrin never stood in his chair at the dinner table, or climbed anything, or ran to fast.

 

They say that they usually have around five children die each year. Many of them have very severe handicaps.  We met three boys who were brothers; all of them where severely handicapped from fetal alcohol syndrome.  It was really sad that parents could do something like that to their child THREE SEPARATE TIMES. Most of these children are unadoptable; they actually have families, but they can/will not care for them.  Some families visit their children, while others do not.

 

Besides Olivia, there was only one other child that could be adopted from ZLO. Her name is Ewa (Eva).  We have know about her for some time, because she was actually the first girl we found through our agency (Children's House International) to adopt.  But as time progressed, the agency decided it was not in her best interests for us to adopt her.  Ewa is much more medically dependent than Olivia.  Although they both have Down Syndrome.  Ewa has had serious heart operations, she gets sick very easily (pneumonia and bronchitis), and she doesn't seem to grow (she is six years old and is smaller than Olivia in height and weight- so basically the size of an average 18 month old -2yrs).  Since we do not live in a good medical area, they figured it would be much too hard on Ewa to live with us.

 

 

But none of her medical issues seem to keep this little girl from being a real spit-fire. She has personality to spare. Josh said he actually watched her tackle a little boy who has no legs and wrestle him (the little guy was pretty good at wrestling too).  She is all spunk and attitude. She just needs a family who can care for her medical needs.

 

I can not tell you about ZLO without mention these two who helped us through our stay. First there is Anya.

We loved her.  She is the only nurse who would speak to us in English (found out later that quite a few spoke English). She helped us more than she will ever know. We all cried when we had to say goodbye to her. And although she says her husband thinks he is the best nurse, I must say she was the BEST NURSE EVER!

And then there is this guy...

Axel.  The guardian.  He is by far the fattest lab I have ever seen.  He could barely move. But he would follow us from one place to the next.  Always waiting for a rub. One of the workers told us that he has epilepsy...she joked that they only get dogs that are like their kids. She said the dog before Axel would just be running along and he would pass out randomly. 

 

 This institution is a good place for the kids. The nuns and nurses really do love on the kids. They have toys, education, food, therapy, and constant care. 

 

So why adopt Olivia, when she is fine where she is?

 

I had this question too the first few days I was there (talk about that later); but here's what I came up with.

 

Because no matter how much activity and stimulation you get, an Institution is not a family.  The kids spend every day going from one room to the next...being occupied. They have food brought to them and at exactly 6pm every night they are taken back to their room and placed in a crib to sleep. They get up at 6am every morning and do the same thing all over again.  They will never know what it is like to interact with anyone outside of these. They may never excel, go to school, travel, experience life outside...they may never leave. And if they do, what's next? Another Institution?

What kind of life is that?