Up and at it for the worship service at 7:30 a.m. and breakfast following.
We then loaded in our vehicles and headed for the work stations. Terry
chose to work in the nursery with the very sick babies. She met Diane,
a nurse from Minnesota who had spent the last twelve years of her life
dedicated to serving the children of the orphanage. She was very helpful
in learning about the babies illnesses (AIDS, tuberculoses, pneumonia,
malnutrition) and other matters about the center. Terry held, fed and changed
babies. Today was visiting day for the mothers, many of them had come today
to spend some time with their children. Although some of the children are
truly orphanages others are merely too sick for their parents to care for
them. Later, Terry ventured outside with the older kids where she painted
fingernails of the children and several of the mothers. She completed her
morning by returning back inside and feeding infants. John spent the morning
in the nursery with 14 children. He made sure each one was held and got
a chance to play with a mobile and look out the window. It was sad to observe
that these children were actually older than what their size made them
appear to be. Lack of food and nutrients had stunted both their physical
and intellectual growth. John taught several of them to bang on the walls
telling them in a humorous fashion that they were learning how to make
a "jail break". The group returned to the Coconut Villa for lunch
and group sharing time. Tim, John and Terry again ventured out onto the
streets to get fabric and check out the "One Stop Market". After
getting a couple of postcards and drinks at the market, we stopped at a
fabric shop to barter over some material. Initially, they told us $4 per
meter, but upon paying they wanted $15 per meter. We eventually settled
on $10 per meter (approx. $3.00 U.S.) and wondered if they were trying
to con us "rich" folk.
|
Typical middle class neighborhood; Several of the children on the roof tops are flying kites |
We returned to the villa and spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and
lounging in the pool area. John talked with Angel, a cab driver from New
York who was vacationing at the villa. When asked to compare the traffic
on the streets of Haiti to that of New York City, Angel said it is far
crazier driving here. "At least we have traffic lights, stop signs
and enforced traffic laws", he chuckled. Supper was the best yet -
shish-ka bobs, grapefruit, rice, bread and pudding. It was fabulous! After
dinner Terry phoned home and talked with her mom and two of our children,
Laura and John. Her dad had gone to pick up daughter Annie at Brownies.
They all sounded good and were very pleased to hear from us. Our speaker
this evening was Necar Desot and his daughter Angeline who runs a Montessori
school here. After a two hour talk we ventured to the pool area for drinks
and conversation. One of our group entertained us with stories from his
wilder days. It seems he returned home intoxicated one evening. He decided
to take a shower before going to bed. Unfortunately, he fell alseep in
the shower with his body blocking the drain. He awoke to the screams of
his wife who was disraught with the water now flowing through the house.
Last updated April 20, 1998