Como Rele?

Sunday March 7th- Ferrier, Haiti Day 2
"We rode in the truck to church, a few of us did. When we got in the truck one of the boys named DoDo was standing by the trunk and they invited him in. DoDo has down syndrome and he has the biggest smile and all he does is smile. We got to church and they had us sit in the front. From there I could see everyone who was there. The singing was just as beautiful as they said it would be. It flowed out the open windows and doors. I had to record it on my camera. Everone was dressed up and although the town has been muddy they were clean and crisp and white. They sang songs in both english and spanish and the kids sang just as loud as the adults. I could not help but wonder how they can have such strong faith despite such harsh lifestyles. They sing with such fervor as if they have so much andthey have little to nothing. But they are thankful for what they do have...

After church we came back to the house and had a very good lunch of beans and rice and french fries and fried plantains. Afterward we went outside to play with the kids, we played jump rope a long time. We had so much fun playing with them. We were starting to learn and remember names and faces, playing with each other and forming friendships. It was nothing like the first day where they were on the street staring at us and we were staring at them. One of the girls, Guermanie, taught me the song that you sing when you jump rope in creole... Guermanie later taught me how to count to ten in creole and other basic words..

Today we went to church and prepared for the clinic tomorrow. We divided medicine into bags based on the number of drugs. We put them on a shelf and put everything in place for the morning. After dinner we jump roped some more and played with the kids. We ate dinner, gruel again (but a different texture) and had a short meeting and talked about things that have really touched us. One of those things is one of the little boys here is albino. He is about six years old. Guermanie first introduced me to him by telling me to take a photo of him and his mom. Later on I see Dr. Nick and the other adults talking and Jennifer holding him and overheard something about cancer. Later Eric tells me that Nick was telling them that the boy was dying from cancer. Jimmy said later that the cancer was malignant and Nick had just confirmed it. The boy has skin cancer. The boy has wounds all over his body. Jimmy was telling us that Jackson said if the boy lived in the US it would be different because they can treat him. But there is nothing that can be done for him here and his mom brings him to the clinic every time to get him checked on. Janet also told us the story of how they believe he came to be that way. They say that his older brother made a deal with the devil and when the devil came to get his pay the boy wouldnt give it to him and while the devil was there he saw the boys mother and fell in love with her because she was so pretty. The albino boy is said to be the son of the devil. What is sad about that is that it is difficult to explain to them the biology and genetics of it all because they would not be used to that. They have a way of putting reasons to the things and how they explain it. We also talked about witch doctors because there is one in each town. Jimmy was saying they are not anti- church type of people and people only really use them as a sort of back up if you may. Like christians may still carry around a rabbits foot or catholics wear a cross around their neck because they believe it will keep them from dying... I already know that when i get back i will have a deeper appreciation for what i am blessed with and when i over dramatize things i will think twice about the magnitude of my situation. It feels like i have been here for five months already. Jim said thats because we are emersed int he town. Its not like we are on vacation and we can go back to our hotel rooms and watch ouf tv and have air conditioning. I think he is exactly right... I wonder if this is how they feel. Like the days last forever and there is no hope and they just want to get out. I'm pretty sure they do. The only thing is we can get out. They on the other hand, they live this life... I only hope my camera stays alive to document this trip so that maybe i can bless someone elses life. But i know pictures are just like those help save a child commercials. They only temporarily make you feel compassion, but not enough to influence action. In order to do that they have to experience this trip. They have to live it. They have to go through is and live among these people..."

Phillip after church (actually wearing clothes)











As you can see Phillip came out of his clothes


Me and my jump rope skills



My double dutch skills




















Guermanie

Boys will be boys

She is a mess

On our way to the clinic

Sorting medicine



Learning the wash your hands song









Sorting more medicine



And more medicine


and more medicine

Rice, Beans, and Fried Plantains

Saturday May 6th- Ferrier Day 1
"What made me so special as to be blessed with everything that i have and these people have nothing? Why did God see fit that i get electricity when these people are lucky to have generators that work for a few hours. I feel so selfish.. like i dont deserve what i have... I catch myself feeling sorry fot them for what little they have when they are the happiest people in the world. The smiles on the childrens faces melt your heart, the pureness of their songs and laughter makes you weak to the knees. They dont know anything of playstation, facebook, the movie theatre, or ipods. They have to choose between paying for food and going to school.... Here we are with our cameras and videorecorders but what is that going to do for them besides put them on display like they are helpless people who have nothing. When they dont! They have so much....

... When we were out playing after dinner the women were in the kitchen and one of them was sitting on a chair shaving a goat head. Tiffany thought she was washing it or something so she called to her husband to come down and see. By the time he came downstairs she had turned the goat head around and Tiffany saw that it had no body and it was just a dead goat head. She was heartbroken...

...the streets of Ferrier are wet and muddy and there are children running around everywhere with no clothes on, no shoes, and just as happy as can be... I have learned so much on this trip already... we played games with the kids, passed out some toys, and now they know our names and follow us around everywhere... The kids were in a circle playing "down by the river" in english... It took them a while to get used to us and warmed up, but after a while they were playing their version of "lil' Sally Walker" with some of the other girls with us. Its amazing the respect these people have for one another, the way they look out for them. In America its all about self, here its about community. If one parent dies the neighbor takes in their child with no hesitation or second thought. Chickens and pigs and dogs roam the streets and everybody knows who they belong to and dont bother them. The children, all they want to do is wave at you and play with you. One little boy had the biggest smile on his face and was just happy to have someone to wave to. Like the kids going through town. This makes me realize how superficial the problems that i have had recently really are. I have made them seem so big, really magnifying them with my own over exaggeration when all along i am still blessed and have it better off than some other people. Yes i knew this and told myself this before, but now i am experiencing it first hand..."

This is my first time reading what i wrote since i left Haiti. This is only part of what i wrote on Saturday. I remember how i felt when i first got to Haiti. It was life changing the moment I stepped off the plane. We left Friday, the plane to Houston too off at 12, we got to Fort Lauderdale at 7:30 and flew out to Haiti the following morning around five. About 18 of our bags did not make it to Haiti. They included drill bits, water purifiers, medicine, and personal luggage of some of the people who went with us. My bag made it and unfortunately the extra space that i left to pack for the people of Haiti was filled with toys for the kids. There was kite string, which kept in hand when we put up the mosquito nets (the ones that did make it to Haiti). Riding through Cap Haitian we saw sights unfamiliar to the U.S. i could describe all of them but... pictures are better... We saw children walking down the street as we rode through town many carrying water, dead animals, pushing wheelbarrows. All waving. They we so happy to see "blondes" ( white people) a rare sight. We rode, 19 of us, on the bed of a little white trunk. That was our means of transportation for the entire week. After about an hour of riding we finally got to Ferrier. The ride previous years, we learned, had been about two and a half hours, our ride took less time because the UN had put down a road through the town at the beginning of the year. It is amazing what we take for granted. We noticed after the road began to run out how difficult it is for the people of Haiti to get around without a road. The ground was wet from the rain, muddy, cars got stuck, children walked through the mud, and it was bumpy. When we got to Ferrier we were welcomed by the children who immediately surrounded us. We wasted no time and broke out the toys and started playing. But enough talk... i'll just share pictures....

The Kids welcoming us to their village

Passing out toys and playing with the children

My excellent Frisbee skills.... playing in the mud

These are beautiful children

We were playing in the mud while they were staying out of the rain. Classic.

Me and some of the girls and DoDo- farthest left. (he is the same age as me, he has down syndrome)

There was a little boy who went with us. He is nine, the same age as the other boy in the picture. By the end of the day the little Haitian boy was calling him his friend.

This is one of the boys who would have waved at us all day if he could

The coke bottles there are 1/2 liter!!

Katie with some of the kids she and her sister sponsor

Little Sally Walker Haitian style

The goat head!!! Our dinner for the week....