More thoughts on Day 8

This place is the epitomy of dusty, my mom would never survive. The house is impossible to keep clean. She use to make us wipe down the walls at home when they got ‘dirty.’ Here, it requires repainting the walls with oil based paint.

We sorted and laced shoes today for a shoe drive tomorrow. It was dusty and dirty. Almost all the shoes were new but most looked used simply bc they had been in boxes getting dirty for years. Over 1,000 shoes later and we still were not done.

I took out my braids so that tomorrow I can get some pictures with the kids looking ‘normal’. I lost about half of my hair in the shower and rewashed my hair about 5 times, no exaggeration.

Emery is grilling for supper and it smells delicious even though it smells burnt. Food is food and when your hungry, your taste buds are far less picky. I am tired but yet excited about the drive tomorrow. I hope to get a few good pictures out of the ordeal.

Day 8: Tie your shoes

Breakfast was served late, making me wonder if we were having a lazy morning or if they were serious about us painting the house. Come to find out, they were serious about us painting. After a quick cereal breakfast we heard that tomorrow we were going to do a shoe drive for nearly 30 families from our census. I was so excited! Thankfully us girls volunteered to help with that so the boys were sent off to paint. Unfortunately Ben tore his ACL and Micah and Josh both have headaches and the runs so painting is not the best idea for them.

We were ushered into Gertchewd’s bedroom where hundreds and hundreds of shoes were stored in boxes about to fall apart.The task at hand? Sort the shoes into sizes, then lace up each pair and find its partner shoe. Finally, set up a store like counters so the people of Jubilee can come pick out new shoes. Easy enough? Reread that task list- LACE the shoes. There were at least 1,000 shoes and only a handful were laced. All the rest were new shoes that looked old because they were dusty and dirty from being stored in boxes for years. It was no easy task. We began by sorting them into sections, girls infant through 11, then size 12 (because there was a MASSIVE box full of just size 12), 3-6 and so on for the boys too. Then we seperated the audlt shoes. Gertrude and another man helped us, but they were almost more work than help because they were too lazy to lace the shoes so they would try and pass them by without lacing them. We would then have to go through and check each one they did to make sure it was laced and the size they had said it was. Needless to say the entire process too us almost all day. I am happy to report however, that the room is set up nicely and I am sitting near a fan currently.

Being able to help out with donating shoes is going to make up for us not being able to hand out stuff to the kids. I have been wanting to give them stuff since coming and it has been tough standing by Emery’s rule. I am very pleased with Ken and Rich for working their butts off with this census. Without it no real helping program can be put into place because we need an accountability system. The end result of this census will be a picture with the entire haitian family living in the home along with their names and ages. This information along with the picture goes on lamentated cards that the people will bring to Emerys house when we have a drive or they need something (i.e. the shoes tomorrow). We can then keep an accurate record of who has gotten what and when so that they do not try to cheat the system and everyone gets equal help.

After a quick nap in front of the fan I was awoken to the sound of boxes moving. Jesse and Emery had emptied the hallway and I was assigned to help (along with Hope) to put together care packages that included food, soap, toothbrushes, clothes, ribbons, jewelry and other miscellaneous items. It took another hour or two and we even were able to make infant packages for those with new babies. But truthfully with the kids we saw tomorrow, even 1 and 2 year olds could wear those clothes easily.

I am super excited about tonight because it is laundry night and better yet, I am taking out my braids and showering a good shower after a long, hot, dusty day. Emery is grilling chicken, so I know a good dinner is about to be served.

I am even more excited about tomorrow and the shoe drive. I hope we have a good turn out!

Day 7: Peanut Butter Tears

I was super excited to wake up and get to the school this morning. I knew that Lala’s peanut butter program was today. The program has just been recently started, it is only in it’s third week. The first week she identified five cases of extreme malnutrition and weighed the kids. She also measured their height and gave them amoxicillin. The next week she took their weight and height again and then gave them a dewormer to cleanse their system. She also identified their target weight and measure how much of the ‘special’ peanut butter to give them. It is full of vitamins and minerals and fats and proteins and all the good stuff you want an young kid to have. It is a science in fact because she is able to calculate exactly how many ounces they should gain in a week.

This week was our first opportunity to see these kids. I wish I could explain in detail the horrible conditions they were in but pictures would be better. The first kid was the worst starvation I had seen up until that point. He name is Jan (said like John). He is 2 years old and weights a remarkable 15 pounds. He looks like a super skinny 9 month old and cannot walk on his own. His mom does not seem to be giving him the peanut butter because he had no weight gain over the past week when he should have gained at least 1 ounce. It may seem like a small amount but every ounce counts when your only 15 pounds. Lala thinks his mom is feeding the other kids with it. He did not seem too concerned with this child and had asked me to ‘make him American’ on several occasions. Jesse held him for what seemed like hours after his turn. She sat and rocked him and cried. It was an emotional time for all of us. I just simply tried to suck it up and compartmentalize it.

The next four kids were just as bad if not worse than the first. Biolan is a 9 year old who should not be in the program because it is only for 6 months-5 year olds but the poor kid would have probably died without it. Truthfully I am very surprised he made it to 9. He has the look and statue of a 5-6 year old and weighs and astonishing 32 pounds. He is only on a ½ dose of the PB because he is not suppose to be in the program but still he has gained 2.5 pounds in the past 2 weeks, which for here is really good. I am so glad his mother is following the program. They said he seemed to sit and eat the entire pouch of PB in one sitting. An exaggeration but close to the truth, he just sucked it down like you would expect any starving child to.

Christela was next. She is probably the best out of all the kids we saw. She is 11 months old and weights about 13 pounds. Again we were heartbroken to see she had no weight gain. Lala was frustrated and explained fervently that if she does not get the food she won’t gain weight. If she doesn’t gain weight two weeks in a row (for unexplained reasons, not like she has had diarrhea or something) then she has to be kicked out of the program and will most likely die. The mom still did not seemed too concerned and Lala sent a pouch of PB home with her. The mom said she still had 1 ½ pouches left over. We brainstormed ideas of why she wasn’t gaining weight and thought maybe Christela was refusing to eat it but that idea seemed disproven when Christela saw the PB packet and squealed and tried to grab it. She nearly clapped her tiny hands in excitement.

Next came Guetchina. She is 2 years old and again looks way younger and could easily pass for an 8-9 month old. She weighs 16 pounds. Lala was nearly in tears to find out she lost weight. She is skin and bones so we could not attribute it to water weight lost (like some starving kids who shed water pounds the first couple of weeks). Lala sent 2 pouches of PB home and again explained that 2 weeks of no weight gain means she is out of the program and will likely die. The mom left seeming more concerned than the last but nothing in comparison to how worried we were.

Finally came Garvenson. He was the worst of them all. I want to cry at the thought of him. In walks this mother of 18 in nice clothes for a Haitian with cute sandals and her hair done with a tiny bundle of baby piled in cute clothes. His clothes were baggy and you could barely find him in them. We stripped him of the clothes to weight him. At 14 months old he weights a little over 10 pounds. He is all skin and bones and I wanted to slap the mother. I know there may be extenuating circumstances such as she had a problem with breast milk not producing or the clothes were donated or something like that. I try to keep that in mind but he should have been on solid food 6 months ago. Unfortunately he too had no weight gain and we all shook our head to hold back the tears. Covered in scabies, Lala gave him some medicine. Because the only scabies medicine we can get is for cattle and because he is so small the amount we gave him was .1 cc diluted with water. I hope that helps clear him up and more than that I hope he gains some weight. We ran out of the special PB to give him so Lala gave the mom three jars of regular peanut butter. How much that will help I do not know, but hopefully it will get him through one more week. Overall the PB program was the hardest thing to see, beyond the feeding program and the naked dirty children. 9 years old’s at 30 pounds and 2 year olds at 15 pounds… that is just heart wrenching.

Thankfully the feeding program went really well today and we even had leftovers. I was able to give a couple of kids a second helping. They looked at me like ‘I know I am not allowed seconds but I am starving and I had to share the first plate with my sister so just don’t tell okay?’ I simply smiled and ushered them to eat. Which they did, ever sharing with each other which is the most amazing thing to see. A child with one plate of food for the whole day and possibly several days will willingly share without being asked, to siblings and hungry friends. If they got a plate and someone next to them didn’t, they will hold it out for the kid to take a handful. It is precious.

Tonight we went over to a local Pastors house. Pastor Genadas and his wife are Pilipino and were only the second missionaries sent out from the Philippines. They run a local church as well as a bakery where they employ deaf Haitians to bake and deliver food. They also run a Bible College and have a deaf college too. They try to make jobs for the Haitians. Tomorrow they are buying supplies to make a water purification system next to their college. They plan on employing 32 Haitians to run it on a daily basis. I am so impressed with them and hearing the wife share about their calling and how they had to step out in faith, blazing a trail. Now over 200 missionaries from the Philippines are on the field working in different countries. All because someone had the courage to follow God. Impressive. Not to mention the food was delicious. Fried chicken, shrimp, coleslaw, potato salad (which is purple here, fyi), and my favorite- cold cokes. DELICIOUS. It’s made from the cane sugar and therefore better than any American coke. That woman can cook. Also she can speak 4 languages. Overall just an impressive family. I would not mind living here if I could do something like that, work to make jobs, teach in the school and still maintain a family. That would be ideal.

I just finished up my shower and I am impressed that I was able to catch up on all my memories in one day. A couple of last minute things: All the kids want to marry me here (and most of the older guys too, I am sick of having people making kissy faces while driving to Jubilee). Including the three boys who live here. Kevin, Marvins (yes MarvinS) and especially Fresno. Fresno is daily hitting on me and going between sweet, like keeping all the flies off of me while I slept in the school today, and sour like demanding I respect him and if I don’t he will hit me. Tonight while I was showering, so were Marvins and Kevin in the stalls next to me, they were cracking me up, hitting on me, saying it wasn’t their fault they were attracted to beautiful women. Kevin is going to be a womanizer and Marvins is too shy to speak in English about those things but will tell Kevin who will translate (whether or not it is accurate is still up for debate).

Well now that I have wrote 7 whole pages of reflections, which will be much more effective when I can add pictures to all of this, I think I am going to try to email this to you and then hit the sack. Or play another game of cards. Haha.

Day 6: Cold showers

Us girls spent the morning at the school watching Greg and the other teacher work while the boys explored town with the children and swam in the dirty ocean. Greg teaches English and writing where as the other man teaches arithmetic. Both are good teachers. Greg asked us to do a bible story/ project with the kids the next day, so we eagerly prepared a plan: Daniel and the Lion’s den to talk about Gods protection followed by making lion masks and having a parade. I was nervous, but excited.
The day seemed to blend into all the rest with the feeding program and the heat. I counted nearly 50 bug bites and had pink blotches of calamine lotion on them all at dinner. I looked ridiculous but felt better. The sun seems to reject coloring me, so I am almost as white now as I was when I left. Albinoism must run in my family somewhere.

At night, Ken, Hope, Greg and I finished our card game. It took us a total of 26 hands I think before we finally beat them. The score ended as 500 something to -100. I was thrilled but tried to be gracious about winning. Ken wasn’t so good and tried to say that he said he had not won in twenty years, but I called him out on that and we did a standing ovation for his twenty year reign as king. Hope and myself had quite a time laughing about her subtle screw-over’s she threw at him during the game. I was so pleased, even if it was accomplished by cheating kinda, it knocked his ego down a little. Good thing too but I was about to send him to Nurse Lala for a healthy dose of ego-reducer.

Shower felt cold instead of refreshing for once, I think because we have had good weather (mostly overcast and around high 90’s versus 100’s all week. After cards I was quite comfortable with my internal temperature so a cold shower felt well, cold. Therefore it was quick and unfortunately my soap fell on the shower floor. I wondered what to do to wash my soap. I couldn’t think of anything but rubbing it with my hands, so I did and then rubbed it some more to wash my hands from the soap dirt. Ridiculous I know but it was for my sanity sake that I had to. Again I slept soundly but for some reason I never awake full rested.

Day 5: Songs and Spades

We awoke to the usual fast packed nature of the morning. This time, instead of Jubilee it was church we were off too. Behind an in-passable pile of rubble and down a block or two by foot was the church. It had been raised four feet off the ground to protect it from the flood that hit last November. It was hot but not as bad as I imagined because it was an open air church. Cement block walls and a roof of tin kept the sun off but let the breeze in. The people were, as usual, nice and welcoming. We sat in the back and experienced their worship. It was Baptist like. No jubilation or shouting for joy. Different people would get up and sing an individual song and then sit down. The pastor introduced us to the church and then we were asked to come up and sing a song. Rich got so into it he had us sing four or five songs. By the third one they were laughing at us. It was embarrassing, needless to say.

After an hour long sermon which concluded with another song, in true American fashion, we packed up the truck full of people and drove to a restraint for lunch, Ken’s treat. We packed all 19 or twenty of us in that little place (which thankfully had the only air conditioning I have seen in this country) and ordered our food hesitantly, because none of us read Creole. About an hour or so later we were served; I apparently had ordered a ham and cheese sandwich with fries and international ketchup. Oh that sweet sauce can I not get away from you. It was a very good sandwich and interestingly enough they serve it with eggs, which I also ate. The fries I passed off to Ben along with the fake ketchup. The entire process took about two hours and was quite an ordeal. Every once in a while the Haitian boys would go outside, claiming it was too cold in the air conditioning. I think we make the owners revenue goal for the entire next month. He had to call in help to cook and serve. It was a fun afternoon.

That night Greg, Brian, Hope and I engaged in a little spades card game. I had never played before, but had seen it done and knew the basic gist of it. About 16 hands in he turned over his spot to Ken to finish. Mr. Ken had not lost a spades game in 20 years. He finished the game and won again, maintaining his record. He then asked for us to play another ‘quick’ game, claiming it would not take long at all, even though the last game had taken 19 hands and a couple hours. We agreed. We played until almost midnight before we called the game. It had gone back and forth like a yo-yo the entire game but we postponed the end until the next day with Greg and me ahead by almost 200 points. I took a quick shower and barely felt my head on the pillow before lapsing into a deep sleep.

Day 4: Muddy Ocean

More chaos and standing around. Morning began much the same with quickly getting ready, backpacks and breakfast before we headed off to Jubilee this time to lay cement at a family’s home. The process began with using a hammer, machete and some sticks to level out the existing dirt floor. Next we sifted gravel out of a pile with the front portion of a fan cover and covered the floor with it. Then we had to sift sand from the gravel pile using a smaller sifter to fill and entire wheelbarrow. Needless to say, it took a while. The sand then had to be mixed with a concrete mixture but that however still had not been delivered so Wooben took us out to the ocean. Surprisingly the ocean is really close, though you could never tell. Just beyond the mud huts, the community toilet and right at the horizon sits salt houses. Just beyond those is the ocean. Wooben promised it would be a ’10,7,5 minute’ ‘walk, jog, sprint.’ It took us 30 minutes. We were escorted by our usual entourage of children, eagerly holding our hands. The beach is mud, the ocean floor is mud, and the kids were covered in mud. What could it hurt if they jumped in? They quickly stripped of any clothing they had and ran right in. I thought ‘yay for a bath!!!’ They splashed and played like never before and were all smiles. After playing a rousing game of catch the crab and kill it we began heading back preparing for the long walk. The once dirty, now clean kids took a mere 5 minutes to be dirty again. The dust here is ridiculous but they are magnets I swear.

The boys went back to the house to finish laying cement while us girls again went to the school to help with the feeding program. This time I was prepared for the heartache and resolved to feed the smallest and youngest first. 30 minutes later and almost 150 plates of food we were out and they were not nearly full. We had to turn away many kids but I stuck to my resolve and the littlest were fed first. Again after the feeding program ended we left. Saturdays are half days here (though most of them seem to be that way anyways) so we spent the remainder of the day inside trying not to die of heat (it was difficult). Another good dinner and glorious shower (they do not have hot water here, so cold showers only!) and I hit the sack eager for the next day where we would visit a Haitian church.