Tom arrived with his mother and brother from Malawi, a small country with a big heart in the eastern part of Africa. Unfortunately, it is also one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 174 out of 193 on the Human Development Index. India is at 134; Switzerland is at the top. 

“They do not know what to do with him back home,” Tom’s mother said, telling me of the occasional, sudden jerks in his left hand and leg. “He starts shaking like a machine gun out of nowhere, and the last time this happened, he spat out blood.”