Our first stop today was the Home for Sick and Dying Children. If you can think of a worse name for a place, I'd prefer not to hear it. Now, in reality, that is not it's proper name; it is run by nuns who, in the spirit of privacy and humility, do not allow visitors to refer to it by its actual name so it has become known instead as the "Home for Sick and Dying Children." True to its name, it is filled with children who are not in great shape. I got to take care of four "babies" during my three hour shift. I put babies in quotes because, although they look like babies, many are just small for their age because of sickness and lack of nutrition. The two year old I held today looked like he was only one year old. The seven month old was long but could not have weighed fifteen pounds and her skin, no longer plump from baby fat, sagged off or her body like the resident of a nursing home. Holding her, you could feel the rattle in her breath. Some babies are hot to the touch from fever. Unlike my previous visits here, this time there was an able bodied person to attend to the children at almost a 1:1 ratio so children were able to get diapers and be fed much faster. One gets the sense that although the babies are sick and many would die without care, they will get the care they need and will get better. At least that is what I tell myself.

After a brief visit at the Redemptor school, we spent the afternoon at Juno Orphanage. I had not been there before and it was a highlight of the day.  As I was getting off of our Tap Tap, I was a marked man. A fourteen-year-old girl named Franscela called dibs on me and she claimed me the entire visit. Big smiles, hugs and no personal space for about three hours; she was a real sweetheart. Our group led the children in singing, activities, crafts and snacks. If you were looking for the hottest spot in Haiti for a game of jump rope, you need look no further than Juno's. Our visit was capped off by sharing gift bags for the children; the tote bags included soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, apple sauce, canned ham, a brush and a small handmade pillow -- these are the sort of things that would be met with polite thank you's or labeled "epic fail" in the gift department for kids back home, but these kids responded with the kind of enthusiasm usually reserved for Santa.

On deck for tomorrow: visiting the 2010 Earthquake Mass Grave and visiting the elderly. The travel brochure just writes itself doesn't it?