Get Over Yourself (Part Deux)

Today made for my fourth day of delivering water in Cite Soleil and my second visit to Gertrude's Orphanage.  My word of the day for my first trip to Cite Soleil was Gehenna (a place of extreme torment or suffering).  The point is that on my first trip, a lot of the shock was in the conditions I see Haitians living in.  My very visceral reaction to those conditions, while very useful for stirring things deep within me over the long haul, would sometimes prevent me from effectively ministering to those around me due to deer-in-the-headlights syndrome.  This was least true at places like Cite Soleil, but maybe most true at places like Gertrude's Orphanage and visiting the elders in Titanyen.

On this trip to Gertrude's, as well as with yesterday's trips to visit the elderly, I found it much easier to focus on the people around me and to be very comfortable ignoring the conditions of the stuff and focusing on the people themselves without distractions.  One of the people I was able to focus on was a girl I saw two years ago--I fed her lunch when we were at Gertrude's.  I was able to get her in the seat swing at Gertrude's and she squealed with delight and grinned ear to ear.  But I was only able to figure out that is what she wanted to do by paying lots of attention to her body language as I wheeled her around in her wheelchair--quite frankly I was amazed I actually figured out what she wanted.  I don't think I would have been able to focus that clearly last time.

Another boy at Gertrude's was just a smooch machine--the most gentle, feather weight kisses you have ever received in your life.  He just wanted to be held and walked around and he would just snuggle against your neck and then alternate between a quiet serenity and smooch machine.

Pictures of those two will have to come later--uploads aren't cooperating at present.