Saturday, December 3, 2011

Day 5

Healing Haiti is building a small city - 15 acres in the mountains outside Port-au-Prince.  A colorful, safe, walled/gated modern home for 40+ orphan children plus two house parent families with a play ground and a cottage industry that, like the disciples in the Bible, will give them food to sustain themselves and their work.  A Tilapia fish farm from which the waste is siphoned to supply water and nutrients for a hydroponic vegetable garden.  What an amazing idea.  When we visited the orphans at Giullame's yesterday we saw some of the orphans who will be moving there this month.  They will no longer be crowded 20 to a room but each have their own bed in a nice new bunk bed.  8 to a room.  A lunch room/school room/church that looks much like an American lunch room.  I am so excited for these children to have this.  It fits into the culture of Haiti and yet is a picture of what can be for them.  Clean, safe with room to play and live. Changing Haiti back to Haiti 15 acres at a time.

We make a quick stop at the market to buy some food for the elderly who we will visit next; bananas, hot dogs and a bottle of Pepsi.  We have brought sardines from home for them as well.  We have 6 homes we will visit.  There is a man who is in charge of the elderly program who is with us and will find their homes for us.  If he had not been there, we could have wandered forever.  Every walkable path looks identical to the one 20 feet either way.  Some of elderly live in tents, a couple live in a small cement home that measures about 8x8 which HH has helped them rent or in one case, for the woman with the older child whose seizures have rendered him incapable of speech and have locked his limbs into a rigor.  Their half dozen chickens roam their tiny dirt yards.  They ask us to pray and sing with them.  I grab the hand of the seizured young man while we sing and make small conducting movement along with the music.  When we finish, I put his hand back on his chest.  We begin the second song and he raises his hand towards me....again...do it again...I grasp his hand and we conduct the second song together....like I have done so often with my own children and grandchildren.

So here we are standing in a place of dwelling that is smaller than most of our bathrooms, in a dirt yard that would fit in my walk-in closet, singing songs of praise to God for his love and care.  These precious people are so grateful to God for what they do have.  I am so humbled and so honored to be in their lives for 5 minutes.

Some of the elderly, like Angeline, is doing well and wears a gown sewn by one of the team members who have come before us.  She looks lovely sitting in her place on the floor.

They take their sardines and tuck it under something so that no one will steal their special treat.

Our last stop of the day is at Yvonne's orphanage.  It is tucked amongst the tents and cement dwellings...we weave our way through the cactus "clotheslines"...cactus plants with sheets and shirts and at least one pair of tiny Dora the Explorer tennis shoes drying in the Haitian sun.

So many children (40)...so little space (20x20 play yard).  They sing songs for us about praising Jesus and we sing songs for them about praising Jesus then we break into our teams similar to yesterday...a dental station to identify potential teeth problems, an English writing station on the little dry erase boards (a big hit), a menstruation education station for the older girls and an Art Adventure station.   Rotations! Exactly like I designed for our physicians that we teach at work.  It works for MDs as well as tiny children from a third world country.  I LOVE education!!!

Paul and Jan and Andy have their routine down and get through everyone including the kitchen staff.  Their efforts will be handed off to another medical team in the near future.

Maureen and Bill are a huge hit with their dry erase boards and since paper is so precious, these little ones can write to their hearts content.  Some make their way back for a second session.  One young girl obviously needed some "man time" and sat next to Bill to share her work.

Heather and Karen and Fan-Fan (our male interpreter) have given such a gift to these young women.  They will not be frightened of what is a natural process for their bodies - menstruation.  They love Fan-Fan who is a frequent visitor and he made giving potentially embarrassing information a safe environment in which to learn about this.

Art Adventure...sounds relatively benign in a world that has nothing but they also NEVER get to see anything other than painted flowers on their walls or someone's attempt at painting a human being. This is real art and this group was fascinated by the two pictures we brought. Some were not interested but there were a few boys who came back to talk more about the art.  "why is this here?"  "why is he holding that?" "who is that?"  One young man, who's English was good enough to help translate for some of the younger boys. He was very smart and processed the information and then talked about some higher level thinking.  He started to read about the picture but the children wanted to see some of the other pictures.  He got interrupted.  We asked him if he was interested in reading more.  Yes, if you will send me this book.  Jenn said, "you may have this one".  "Meci!!!"  he quickly went and hid the book so no one would take it and he could read it later.

One little girl has a terrible split in her lip from drying.  We happened to have a small tube of medicated lip balm which we gave her and she immediately hid so no one would take it from her.  Soon she will be able to smile again without pain.

We are almost full to overflowing with emotion.  These children will not be moving to Grace Village because the director prefers to keep them where they are at.  there are no words.....

Driving back to the Guest House, we make a brief stop at the mass grave from the earthquake which is coming up on its two year anniversary.  Officially between 200,000-300,000 people perished in the quake.  Jean feels that this may be very short of the actual number.  Half of those that perished and could not be identified are buried in this mass grave now covered with white rock and tiny black wooden crosses, most of which are now lying broken on the ground.  We face the grave and the grass-covered mountains.
"I lift my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help."Psalms

At our backs is the most beautiful view of grassy knolls rolling to the ocean.  It looks like we are on the edge of a resort property.  The sun is setting in a blood red flame.  "My blood is shed for thee".

This has been the most emotionally draining day so far and we are empty....which is where God wants us...empty of ourselves and our "stuff" and all the junk that we carry around with us.  A truly usable vessel for Him...He can fill us all the way to the top with HIS love, HIS hope, HIS smile, HIS strength.  Just like the water buckets....all the way to the top and spilling over. His water of life is constantly pouring out just like the water truck...never stopping...gushing....we just need to continue to aim it at whoever He brings into our path...The Water of Life....sustaining, critical to survival

Father, help me to continue to be an open vessel for the outpouring of your love.  Use my broken vessel...I hurt.   Duct tape me so I am usable.  (p.s. We've been using the green duct tape...I'm kind of partial to that color).

Lynne

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