An Amazing Day

Today was an amazing day in Haiti.  We made several deliveries in Cite Soleil and met so many local Haitians.   

We visited Terre Promise school and we brought in lollipops and suckers, and you would have thought we were giving them the world.  We were able to love on the Haitian children and they love to be touched.  There were little people all the way up to later teens. 

Here I met Gabriel and Michael (Baltazar Mikender).  Gabriel was a talkative, fun young man who says he is very studious and wants to be my Facebook friend now.  He wants to come to Minnesota he said in the future.  

Michael was a more reserved young man who stood outside in the back and did not want much attention paid to him. I was able to seek him out and start communication, even though he did not speak English and I did not speak Creole.  He stood with the assistance of his 2 crutches and had a below knee amputation.  I found out he was injured in the earth quake and he does not have a prosthesis but said he is fine not to have one.  The teacher there did some interpretation for us.  I was able to get a picture taken with him and by this time he had a huge smile.  I had a hard time keeping dry eyes many times today. 

We all returned to the tap tap(bus) and drove through the dusty town to deliver water from the water truck. My eyes were big as I tried to take in all the sites.  I was privileged to ride in the front seat and take pictures. The sights included garbage ridden road shoulders and culverts, wandering goats, pigs and chickens, women cooking food over charcoal and wood fires and many children wandering around alone or in groups.

The afternoon included 2 water deliveries in Cite Soleil.  This is a very poor area of Port au Prince and the people live in very run down dwellings. The first water delivery was more organized and civil and the residents stood in line and waited to get their buckets of water filled.  We assisted with lifting buckets on top of women’s heads, carrying buckets and holding and carrying small dirty children.  The children want so badly to be loved and held and this was so touching and tear-provoking.  

I helped a man carry a bucket back to his home.  There I had a great experience.  An elderly man was sitting in a chair pointed to his aching back and grimacing.  I put my hands on his low back and worked on calming the spasm that I felt.  I demonstrated some stretches in stand and sit and he watched and copied me. When I left he had a big smile on his face.  
Lauie Kuduk