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Chapter 9: Discovery
The journey to the company camp did indeed take the Hanson family deep into the mountainous interior of Ecuador. This camp was a small oil well camp, isolated up in the mountains. By the time Jerry had picked up their belongings from the train depot, packed them into the Landrover and crowded the family into the vehicle it was mid-morning. The roads became increasing rough as their journey continued and the boys after several hours of confinement became tired and cranky. When they finally passed through the chain-linked gates of the company compound all the members of the family were grateful. It was a smaller complex than that of Venezuela. There were several buildings and one large old fashioned looking apartment building, that resembled World War II wooden army barracks. Jerry took them first to the man in charge of the camp and he signed them in and led them upstairs in the apartment building to the third floor.
Diana was relieved to see that the building was clean and the people they passed in the hallways introduced themselves and shook their hands in a friendly sort of way. The apartment that they were shown was of standard issue. The couch and basic pieces of furniture were an exact replica of what they had been issued in Venezuela but the rooms were larger. Diana opened one of the bedroom doors to find the regulation double bed and chest of drawers and she opened the second door to find that it had been outfitted with a baby crib and a dressing table and a playpen. She smiled slightly relieved that at least this time they company hadn’t ignored their request for baby furniture. Then she continued her tour and opened a third door to find a bathroom and a fourth to find a closet and a fifth to find another closet. She returned back to the living room and looked around for another room.
“We have a problem, Walker.” Diana exclaimed.
Walker poked his head up from watching the building supervisor light the pilot on the stove. “What would that be?”
“We have a bedroom and Jessica has a bedroom but there is no bedroom for the boys.” Diana exclaimed looking at both Walker and the building superintendent expectantly.
Mac, the superintendent looked down at his clipboard and shook his head. “The orders say, equip one room for a infant and one room for adults. There isn’t any mention of other children.”
“Well, there are others,” Jerry exclaimed. “How could they miss three boys?”
Mac was flipping papers over on his clipboard and reading them
and comparing them with the papers on top. He flipped back about
five pages and then he said. “Here it is. The orders were so
typed in all caps so they would be missed. OUTFIT AN INFANTS ROOM.
The rest of this sentence was left off when the orders were retyped.
See here, the part about needing three single beds for three boys all under
twelve.”
“Well what do you plan on doing about it?” Diana exclaimed
impatiently. “I’m not going to have my boys sleeping on the floor!”
“No ma’am,” Mac exclaimed. “It was just a clerical mistake. I’ve got the bunk beds and singles in the warehouse but I’ll have to put them up in the same room as the infant furniture. Its going to be crowded in there.”
“Move the baby bed into our bedroom,” Diana suggested. “And, move the dressing table into the living room, that way there will be room for the boys. Only bring in one set of bunk beds, the two younger ones can share. I don’t mind being crowded, but I do mind that you misplaced the orders for my sons.”
“What’s misplaced? Mommy?” Zac asked.
“That means that they forgot about us,” Ike explained.
“No one forgot you guys,” Walker exclaimed. “We’ll have everything straightened out in a jiffy.”
“Hey guys,” Jerry exclaimed. “Why don’t I take you out and show you the playground?” Jerry asked and received from Walker a look of approval and relief. Better to get the boys out of the way until they could straighten out the details with the building supervisor.
Jerry took Taylor and Zac by the hand and Ike followed behind. He walked them out of the building and across the courtyard, greeting everyone as he went.
The young man showed the boys the standard playground equipment--the swings, seesaw and sliding board. It was in good shape but recently unused, because weeds had regrown under the swings where it would normally have been worn bare.
“Why is there a fence around everything?” Ike asked looking at the tall 12 foot chain-link fencing. “Are we in jail or something?”
“No, that’s to keep the scavengers out,” Jerry explained. “The villagers are very poor and if we didn’t have the fencing, they would steal everything they could get their hands on. They are not bad people, guys, just very, very poor.”
“There are some kids,” Taylor exclaimed pointing to some small children gathered outside the back gates. “Can we play with them.”
“No,” Jerry said and bent down to the children to explain.
“Those children are waiting for the garbage cans to be put out. You
guys can not leave the compound at all. You have to promise to never
ever go past the fences without an adult being with you.”
“Mommy likes us to play with other kids,” Taylor said.
“Why can’t we play with those kids?”
Jerry didn’t think he could explain, disease and poverty to someone so young. “Ask your Dad about that.” he suggested. “Come on guys, how about I push you in the swings?”
Taylor and Zac were easily distracted but Ike kept looking over his shoulder at the children on the other side of the fence. They were looking through the slots at them, their fingers entwined in the metal mesh. They were dirty and some of them had sores and bruises on their faces and arms. Taylor and Zac became red faced and sweaty from running around in the heat with Jerry. Finally he suggested they return to the apartment. As they walked across the courtyard, Zac took off in a run and Jerry took off after him laughing in a mock, fun chase. They were almost at the corner of the building when Ike pulled back and just stood watching.
Taylor wandered back over to his brother. “What’ya looking at Ike?”
Ike pointed back towards the back gate. “Look, Tay. Some guys just brought out the trash cans and the kids ran off and hid. Now they’re back.”
“Is there some good junk in the trash?” Taylor asked curiously.
The eight year put his arm around his younger brothers shoulder.
“No they’re not looking for good junk. They’ve been waiting for the
trash cans, because they’re looking for food.” he explained sadly.
“Those kids are hungry.”