Katilyn: Today was hot and bright. We had the medical clinic again in the morning. Inside it went smoother than yesterday. The nurses and the pharmacy “crew” fell into the routine pretty quickly. Our nurses were on their own for an hour or so, and then the Pakistanis arrived. About 20 minutes before they arrived, Crystal, Brian, and I went to the widow’s house and helped paint it inside and out. We worked by ourselves for about 20 minutes before the Haitians that were standing around decided that “the white people didn’t know how to paint” and took our brushes. After a while I was allowed to go back into the house and help them paint, but every two minutes they would take my brush and show me how, again. I’m apparently not a fast study in white-washing a house. After we finished with the house we made our slow way back to the clinic (due to all of the children hanging on our various appendages.). We got there just in time for lunch with our new Pakistani friends.
Heather: For those not working in the clinic or painting the house, there was lots of playing with kids of all ages today. It doesn’t take a lot to play with these kids, which I find very refreshing. Somehow I can’t picture kids in the U.S. being entertained for hours by climbing all over an adult (K: Literally, they shimmy up you like a tree trunk!!), trying on sunglasses, playing hand clapping games (often accompanied by songs), having their photos taken (K: Though once any of them see it, you will have AT LEAST 15 kids mobbing you demanding “fait bon foto!”-basically “I get to take a picture, and there is no debating.” It’s awesome and very worrisome!) or getting a balloon as a gift. I even got some Creole language lessons today, and learned a valuable lesson in soccer. When it comes to the World Cup in Haiti, you root for Brazil and not Argentina.
I am always struck by how little these kids have here and how that plays into how they respond to us. Haitian culture isn’t very orderly to begin with, but you throw in poverty and that adds a whole new level of chaos, particularly when a child isn’t guaranteed that there’s enough for everyone. As an example, we brought balloons and a pump with us to make balloon animals for the kids. Ever since one kid in Jubilee got a balloon, they have become the hottest commodity in the neighborhood. Today, we tried to organize a mass distribution of the balloons by having the kids line up and wait while we blew up a balloon for each of them. That plan worked well for about 45 seconds until one kid got a balloon and lifted it in the air. That’s when about 300 kids came running at us and any semblance of line was gone. It was unfortunate, but we quickly had to stop giving out balloons because children were soon shoving one another to get a balloon.
Ultimately, I think that’s okay because I don’t think this trip is about giving stuff to the kids for any of us. I think each of us just wants the kids to know that we love them. Giving them stuff, even when it doesn’t work, is just an expression of that. I noticed today that several kids are already starting to recognize me after just two days. My hope is that by the end of the week, these kids understand that I just love them. That we all do.
K: After the clinic was the feeding program, and then back to Emory’s house for lunch, at least for most of us. One of the car’s keys broke off in the door lock and half the team ended up waiting next to the building project the other team is in charge of for the better part of an hour. It was frustrating because none of us knew why we were still there, just that we were. But it was nice to get more time with some of the older kids as well as the little ones. Most of the hour was filled with photo taking and the older guys trying to get various female members of the team to marry them! I told them “Jesus loves you” when they tried to trick me into saying “I love you.”
We finally made it home and it was “grab a sandwich” and off to the English class that Emory is in charge of. The teacher was there today, and they were going over colors when we arrived. He broke the class in half and sent three people with each half to help them practice their conversational English. The half of the class Brian, Crystal and I worked with was a total of five men, while Mike, Julia, Heidi, and Sarah’s half had about 30 people. After talking with students (on our side of the blackboards) or playing games involving what words they had learned that day (on the other side of the blackboards) we came back to Emory’s house only to leave immediately for a pastor friend’s house for an amazing dinner of fried chicken and shrimp, rice and beans, pink potato salad, and cane sugar coca-cola. After dinner he told us of his time here in Haiti including the earthquake and both of the floods he’s been through here. And by floods I mean 14-15 foot deep water and then eventually mud.
I would love to tell you more but this blog is already the longest yet and it’s time for group time.
Bon nuit!!
-Katilyn and Heather
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