Vendredi

It's Friday night, and we had an extremely long day.  I am very sunburned.  The wind was crazy so I had no clue how hot it was.  ANYwho.....very long day.  We started by feeding the village around 9am with bread and peanut butter.  I was able to connect with my friend Pouchon for a last time before he went in to work (one of the only community members who is employed).  We promised we would email daily and help each other with our languages.  I think I mentioned before that he speaks English probably better than I do.  But a promise is a promise, and I look forward to returning more fluent in Creole and French next year.

After we ate, a group of us toured the village with the "boss" of Croix des Mission.  He showed us several houses (more like shacks) that were damaged in the quake and how our efforts (and fundraising) has helped several of them rebuild.  When I say "rebuild" what I mean is that we were able to lift the tents sent in by other countries and put them on a cement foundation - so they are no longer sitting directly on the ground, which allowed rain and bad weather into their only place of cover.  One family has their mother sleeping in the tent, while they were rejoicing that they now were able to at least sleep on a cement slab outside of it (rather than on the ground). 

We had Greg and Jason with us from the Valley News (our story will be hitting the paper this Sunday) so they were able to spend some quality time in the village and with the Haitian community we have worked with now for several years.   

We then spent the remainder of the afternoon watching the children perform music, dance, etc., which they have worked on all week.  It was AMAZING to see all the children and their families show up in beautiful clothing for this day.  They take great pride in many things - dressing for special occasions is one of them.  It was amazing. 

After we shared lunch, we gave out over 200 bags we stuffed the night before.  It was chaos.  And actually made me quite nervous.  But we got through it and everyone seemed pleased.  I have SO many photos to share, and promise that once I return home, I will get them downloaded and posted here and on FB. 

Tomorrow we depart from Port au Prince, and arrive in Santo Domingo (Domincan Republic) and have a 1/2 day layover.  Usually this would seem horrific, but our plan is to get through customs, and head out to the beach for a few hours.  I have never been on a carribean island - or anywhere such as this for that matter, and I cannot wait to end our very long, tough, intense week with some R&R.  Then onto Boston arriving late, spending the night and back home later Sunday.

I am thankful for this opportunity.  I realize that not everyone agrees or agreed with my coming here - either through my raising money or such an unfortunate country or risking my life by visiting.  I realize also that many question why I think that a week in this community will make a difference - or how could it even make a dent in such an impoverished and desperate area.  I think I may have questioned it myself once or twice.  But this week, the answer again became very clear.  If I can spend my time with children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and am able to clothe, feed, house, and give water to them - just even for a week - then I "have" made a difference.  To have a child smile, laugh - or a baby who is so sick to be held - that was something they would not have had otherwise.  And how on earth can that be wrong?

So as I leave, I am feeling blessed.  Blessed to be able to help others because I can - and even more so - because I want to.  And blessed by the smiles, the hugs, the kisses.....I will be back next year and the year after and so on and so on.  Because changing the world one life at a time is all it takes. 

Namaste.