By Andrea
About a year ago I watched a documentation on TV. It was about a little boy that was heavily autistic.
Honestly, it was sad to see this little boy not being able to communicate with people around him.
His parents were anxiously trying to get some money for further medical treatment, but couldn't get enough.
Then they heard about an amazing project where disabled kids were able to swim and play with dolphins;
they heard how disabled children opened up and leaving their burden behind them for a few minutes.
They did not hesitate a single moment and traveled to this place.
Unfortunately I can't remember where it was and what it was called,
but I'd like to tell you how deeply it moved me as I watched this documentation….
The eight-year-old little boy seemed absolutely fragile and was scared of the ocean.
Not that his parents forced him to go into the water, but they tried their very best.
It was like a huge swimming pool in the ocean where-in there were several dolphins and small fish.
The water was as blue as the sky and although his parents told their son he should not be scared,
he didn't want to go into the water. He watched the dolphins play with some other disabled kids.
It was so wonderful to see them. You could clearly read it from their faces that they were having a lot of fun.
Some kids who never really smiled and who never really had recognized their environment
seemed like to notice everything around the dolphins and it looked like they were laughing from deep inside their hearts.
Day after day went by and they made the boy touch a dolphin,
but he still didn't want to swim with them.
His mother tried to make him go into the water,
but he just didn't dare. Still didn't dare.
Then one day he fell into the water and as he couldn't swim he was about to drown.
A man jumped in to save him, but it took him a few seconds to grab this boy's arm.
One of the dolphins swam to the two, dived under the kid, and lifted him up,
and together with the dolphin's help they made it to the shore.
Everybody around was shocked and astonished at the same time. I was watching the scene and didn't dare to breath.
Well, it was just documentation and it was obvious that nothing happened to the little kid,
but it was still scary to see what happened.
Although this incident could have made him even more scared to go into the water, it did not.
From that day on, he went in, Not alone, but with the dolphins.
He even started to show feelings when playing with the dolphins and opened up as much as he could.
I still can't explain to myself what it was that changed that little boy that much, but something amazing was going on.
It was scary and wonderful at the same time.
Have you ever seen a person who's heavily autistic? They can't communicate with other people (usually),
they can be very intelligent, but it seems like they do not recognize their environment.
Some of them learn to communicate with others, but some never learn it.
The movie Rainman gives the best example of how to explain what being autistic can mean,
although the man who was autistic in that movie was able to do more than other autistics!
The mother of this little boy was able to understand her kid most of the time,
but other people just didn't understand him at all and didn't know what was going on in that kid's head.
Autistics can seem very emotionless
Those dolphins managed to make him smile, and made him even cry (it seems like he did),
and those dolphins took away his fear. How?
I watched different movies about dolphins and different documentations about them.
Looking at different pictures and when you look into their eyes you feel like they can speak with their eyes.
Yes, you can even see whether they are happy or laughing.
At the end of the documentation, the narrator told us some more stories about the dolphins and the kids.
I wish I could describe his bright and shining eyes when he began to explain to us
what happened with the kids when they played with the dolphins,
but I can't find any suitable words for it.
Well, I've only seen a real dolphin once in a sort of zoo,
but I was really deeply moved when watching that documentation…
Thank you Andrea,
hugs from Daniëlle.
