Wonderful Wednesday

Our day started in the usual fashion when we piled in the tap tap around 9:00am to the call of "kennel up."  It was another interesting traffic day as we headed back to Cite Soleil.  We visited a school of about 650 children from the ages of 3 to 20 run by a wonderful, gracious man named Elder.  It was amazing to see the students in such poor circumstances thriving and excited about learning; from the youngest who were practicing their letters on the chalk board to the oldest who were learning Spanish, Chemistry and advanced Math.

Piling back into the tap tap, we headed downtown to visit San Fil home for the elderly.  Here we were divided by gender and gave the residents a "spa day."  We applied lotion to dried skin, hair oil & pomade to dry hair, and shared smiles and singing.  It was somewhat quiet and somber when we arrived, but with the help of our interpreter turned song leader, Brunet, the mood was considerably lightened when we left.  It was incredibly moving and peaceful to hear the mix of English and Creole languages singing "How Great Thou Art."

We ate the Healing Haiti version of trail lunch - Cliff bars, jerkey, trail mix, granola bars and Propel - while traveling back toward Cite Soleil to visit Gertrude's, an orphanage for special needs children.  Here we arrived just in time for the children's lunch. We were each given a plate of rice & beans and a spoon and started to feed someone.  After that, the real fun began!  We got almost everyone outside in the playground area that even had a swing for wheel chairs - although, we took them out of their chairs to swing because we could fit six kids at a time that way.  A little later, we went back inside and tried for some quiet time on the floor mat.  Some were more successful than others.

The last stop was a home for sick and dying children.  We spent time just holding children and sharing love.  Some were well enough for games of peek-a-boo, to give high fives, or even escape from the crib and follow us out when we tried to leave.  Some were too sick to be held.  It was heart-breaking to see so many little ones and not have enough time to hold each of them - and to hear them cry when you put them down.  We plan to return there on Friday to spread a little more love.

At each location we delivered donated supplies collected by our faithful supporters.  THANK YOU!  The school was so thankful for notebooks and pencils, much needed in the poorest slum on our side of the globe.  At San Fil they also run an education and food distribution program for mothers of infants and some of their supplies were handed out before we were all off the tap tap.  At Gertrudes, we changed several diapers, using new velcro diapers that we brought along.  All in all, it was a busy wonderful day.