This is the news that I have heard: The police force in Haiti is on strike. They went on strike because some of their police men had been shot on the street for no apparent reason. For the past week, there have been riots all over Haiti in protest of the police strike. People have been burning cars and tires in the roads as well as shooting guns in the streets. On Monday, Katie and I went for a walk to get formula for our boys. It was a cloudy day which hardly ever happens in Haiti. As Katie and I were walking down the street we were saying how the atmosphere felt weird and different because of the muggy, cloudy weather. We walked down the road into town. Two minutes after we arrived home and got back inside the gate, one of our workers came rushing inside breathless. She said that there was a shooting on the road that Katie and I were just walking on. She was in town buying stuff when the guns went off and she, along with everyone else fled. For the rest of that day our area was eerily quiet. There were no cars on the roads, no music playing on the streets, and absolutely no people walking around. Usually there are noises everywhere. We hear car horns honking, several church services, street music and all sorts of activity. But not on Monday. The silence lasted through the night. By Tuesday, things started up again. We didn't hear of anyone getting hurt. But it's scary to think that Katie and I could have been there if we had been just a few minutes earlier.
Although things outside our gate aren't the most stable of conditions, inside the gate, things are going pretty good. On Monday, it rained in the afternoon. Katie and I went outside with all the kids to play and bathe in the rain. It was so fun to see all those silly little kids dancing around in their underpants soaking wet.
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| Michaelle and Dianna |
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| SonSon and Mislanda |
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| Jennifer, Scheelanda and Bebej |
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| Me and Mislanda |
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| Bebej |
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| The big puddle in the back of the house |
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| Jennifer, Erline and Juliette |
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| Marvins |
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| Mislanda |
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| Samantha, Francesca and Erline |
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| SonSon, Michaelle, "Jeannies" and Katie |
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| Betchina and Bebej |
Yesterday was a very proud day for me indeed. My little boy Noah got his first tooth! Jackson is crawling as of a few days ago and goes all over the house. Such big boys we have.
Time is going by so fast. Katie is leaving Haiti on Monday. That means she only has SIX days left with us! After that, I'll have two weeks here by myself. On May 14th, a girl named Mallorie is coming to spend the summer here. She'll be taking over teaching the kids and caring for the babies. I'll be here two weeks with her to show her the ropes. I want to make sure the boys and all the kids have some time with her to adjust. It's going to be really really hard to back off and let the boys attach to her but I know it's what's best. I'll let her slowly take over our routine from bathing to feeding. Leaving is going to be almost impossible. My best OK friend Amy is coming to Haiti to take me home with her. We'll be spending some time in Leogane before I leave. I'm so thankful that she's coming and that I can be with her on the trip back. She'd better be ready to hold me while I lose it in the airport from missing all the kids I love here in Haiti.
Haiti is a hard place. The people here go through so much. It's especially hard to see when kids are affected by the difficult situations that their parents or those in charge of them are going through. I've seen this in two ways the past week or so.
First off, we are looking for a new place for Marvins to go. He's been doing so well adjusting to this drastically different life here at Sue's. But there have been some problems. Yes, he's very hyperactive and we have trouble getting him to sleep at night or obeying during the day. But that's to be expected and nothing that we couldn't handle. However, the longer he's been here, there are deeper issues that have been coming to the surface. We have found him on several occasions alone with some of the little girls here with his clothes off. We've also seen him trying to touch little girls inappropriately. He's too little to understand the magnitude of his actions and how harmful this could be for the girls here. We don't know everything about these kids' stories. Some of these girls we suspect were sexually abused. We can't allow Marvins to be doing this to them. We don't know what Marvins' story is either. He's obviously had a hard past. We wish there was a way to keep him but that would mean that someone would need to be with him at all times to watch him. That is impossible. We've tried it. We care about him and where he goes. I have asked all the contacts I have in Haiti for any contact information for good children's homes for him to go to. So far, I don't have any leads. Please be praying for him and this situation. It's tragic and very difficult.
Another really tough situation is with the girls in Leogane. They're telling me that all of the older girls are being kicked out because of lack of food. There's a lot that goes into this. It's not a simple problem with no simple solution. As of now, those girls really need your prayer. I know that most of them are not finished with school and have had no skills training needed to find a job. When I asked them where they'd go, they told me they'd go live on the streets. This is another really depressing situation that needs a lot of prayer.
I was getting really depressed and hopeless because of these sad situations. I felt that nothing in Haiti could ever change and that there was nothing that I could do to help any of it. I was talking to Amy about it. She said I was getting way to negative and needed to look at all the good things that are happening in Haiti. A lot of the people I love in Haiti are in negative situations and I let my attitude become negative too. Amy reminded me that there are so many good people in Haiti, both Hatians and Americans that are working together to improve bad situations like the one that Marvins and the girls are in. I got to thinking about all the awesome organizations I know of not to mention all the great things I see citizens doing too.
There's a relatively new recycling center that's not far from our house that's providing so much good for Bon Repos. It provides jobs as well as cleans up the streets. It offers people who recycle a small sum of money as well. I have seen so many roads being repaved since I've first came to Haiti too. I see kids making toy cars out of plastic bottles and kites out of plastic bags and sticks. Every time I go out I notice construction being done and rubble being cleaned up. I have seen a church group out on the street in matching shirts shoveling trash out of the gutters more than once. Just the other week our church took a group to the public hospital to pass out donations that they had collected to the patients.
It is happening. Things are getting done. Despite the hunger. Despite the poverty. Despite the negative situations. My reaction to bad situations is to sit and feel bad about life. That's not how Haiti is reacting. People get up, and continue on. That takes amazing drive, strength and courage. Something I obviously am lacking. I am lacking this despite my wealth. Despite my full belly. Despite my privilege. God is here in Haiti. I see him here more here than I have anywhere else. Sometimes I don't see it because I'm blinded by the bad stuff. But then I look at all the amazing stuff and I realize how silly I've been. God's love and power is shown through the amazing stuff. It's shown when that church group get's their hands dirty to clean up the streets. I see it when I see dozens of handmade kites flying in the sky. I see it in the church members when they donate from their tight budget to buy a bar of soap for a sick person in the hospital.
God is here. Things are happening. Despite everything.
