Sorry we've gotten a bit behind on the blog, we've had some very full days.
Yesterday we went to Cite Soleil to deliver water and then to the General Hospital. If you remember this is what we were planning on doing Wednesday but our plans needed to change.
Water truck delivery into Cite Soleil is an incredibly unique experience. The day begins with a 20 minute drive to where the water truck fills up after each stop. From that point we head to Cite Soleil. When we pull up with the water truck a line fills up behind the hose and kids begin to swarm our truck as we get out. Some of our group scoop up the kids that are so excited to hold them and some of us head toward the hose and begin to assist in the distribution of water. Our goal all morning was simply to communicate love and care to whoever we came in contact with whether through giving them water or through smiling and moms or through holding and playing with kids.
The kids seem to love to be held and given attention. The older ones enjoyed playing a hand slapping game that relies on speed and concentration - as with most things in Haiti our team typically loses to the Haitians we play with. The younger kids want to be held and and held and held the whole time we are delivering water.
When we are delivering water it is a culture clash of language and methodology. We quickly learned the Creole word for line and did our best to make sure that we weren't filling the buckets of the people that cut in line because we never had enough water to fill all the buckets. After we filled a bucket we wanted to get it out of the way of the hose as quickly as possible and sometimes kids and adults would ask us to carry their water buckets with them back to their homes.
Nothing I could type would really do justice to the experience of delivering water - when our team gets back and you see one of us ask "what was the water truck like"?
We were only able to do 2 of our scheduled 3 stops because the water truck malfunctioned. After delivering water we came back to the Guest House, got cleaned up, grabbed the care packages that we'd put together with items that were donated (THANK YOU AGAIN IF YOU CONTRIBUTED!) and got in the truck on our way to the hospital. Along the way we stopped and picked up water to hand out as well. When we arrived at the hospital we went to a large dome kind of building with a metal frame and a waxy canvas exterior. This building is more permanent than temporary though. When we walked in we quickly realized that we were in an area reserved for very young children (Infants - 2/3 years old). Each crib/bed had a parent next to it with one significant exception.
The first thing we saw walking in was the exception, a little infant boy had an incredibly swollen head and seemed to be near the end of his short life. After noticing that we saw more than 30 beds in one room and about 20 in a second room with little children in various states of needing care. Some had scars and tubes, some were quietly resting, some were being held by their parents. We quickly distributed the water that we brought and the care packages (diapers, soap, canned food, apple sauce, toys, books, pens, etc). We delivered 50 bags and as is always the case it was not enough to meet the need but it was something. Afterward we visited with parents, held and played with children and watched as doctors and nurses made their rounds.
Thursday was an emotionally and physically exhausting day and we ended it by wandering around a Haitian grocery store - the funniest purchase that was made was by our 15 trip member Shane who bought butter and mac and cheese (we had milk already). Later on Thursday night he made it (and did the dishes after he was done!).
After the grocery stop we had a noodle and chicken dinner called Yakisoba and spent the rest of the night relaxing and debriefing.
Today, Friday, we were slow to wake up and even slower to get going (Thursday ended up being even more tiring than we thought it was). Our first stop was to an orphanage called Gertrude's that has 47 kids, 30 of them have some kind of mental or physical disability. It was a really inspiring place to see and to be in. One of the missionaries staying at Gertrudes told us about their exhausting daily schedule and all of the incredible good that they are doing for these kids with physical therapy, access to school (and special school for those with learning disabilities) and just generally creating the best possible environment that they can.
Our team dove right in and served the kids in all kids of different ways. We played with them, did different sorts of physical therapy with them, pushed them in swings, pushed them around in wheel chairs, played bubbles, made a craft, played soccer and basketball and fed them lunch. As team leaders we were so proud of how each of them found their niche in this space and gave such tremendous effort even though we were all really tired.
After Gertrude's we drove to a place called Apparent Project. We were hoping to tour the facility but it was only open for shopping so we looked around, bought some stuff and a few people got smoothies. If you are interested in seeing what it is like, why we went to check it out or why we think it is so great click on the link.
When we finished at the Apparent Project we went back to the guest house, had dinner (Taco Night - very delicious) and then some of us went to play soccer again with the neighborhood boys. Tonight they wanted to start by playing Haitians vs. Americans in a version of soccer that has a 3 foot goal (marked out by cinder blocks) and where the ball has to be on the ground rolling as it goes through the goal - the game is played without a goalie. This kind of soccer emphasizes speed, footwork, ball control and passing...it was a tremendous advantage for our Haitian friends. But we did pretty well we only lost by 1 (5-4). After a long game we split up the teams and kept playing until it got dark. By the end some of us were playing, some of us were talking and all of us were enjoying the relational connection that we are beginning to develop with these kids.
We hope to go back tomorrow to play soccer - please pray for the small impact that we might be able to make in communicating God's great love for these boys not just by the way we act but by what we say. Ask God to give us words of encouragement and hope to speak from God to them through us.
Good Night!
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