Elias

The boy on the right is Elias (this picture is taken during Club Amistad Especial, our Best Buddies Club). He is one of my favorite kids. Elias is 19 years old and super social. He talks to EVERYONE and always has a huge smile on his face. Whenever I see him, he yells, “Brigida!” and greets me with a smile. He always wants to stop and talk with me, which I enjoy. Some of the things he says are hilarious. I wish I could remember an example right now. Elias is very energetic and loves to sing, dance, and have fun.

Elias has a cognitive delay and apraxia of speech. I work with him three times a week and he usually loves coming. At the end we sometimes dance and sing together for the last few minutes.

He also loves to help the other kids. It’s really cute. Elias always says that he wants to be a tío (caregiver) in the Casa de Bebes. And during school or other activities, he’s often leading Alvaro (one of the kids with autism).

One of my favorite memories of Elias was when we had a goodbye party for Orlando, the former house director of NPH Guatemala. During speech intervention, Elias told me that he wanted to sing a song for Orlando. “Aquí hay amo-o-o-o-o-or …” (“Here is love …”) was what he wanted to sing. So, we practicad the song. Then, that night they had a “discoteca” (dance party) in the dining hall. Elias and I found Orlando and sang him the song. It was really sweet.

Then, Elias and I danced crazily for a really long time. He got really into it and we started dancing REALLY fast. It was so much fun! I’m going to miss him a lot when I go home. When I went to Florida for a week, I was missing Elias. He’s an incredibly special kid.