School resumed for the children on Tuesday; and I resumed play therapy and groups at the school, and continued activities in the afternoon at Kay Ste. Anne. On Thursday there was no school in celebration of Epiphany. On this day the children from Ste. Anne went to Ste. Louie (where the children over six years of age live) to receive Christmas gifts. There were speeches, prayers, piñatas, and bonbons. Each child was given a Christmas gift. Most of the girls received dolls and most of the boys received toy cars. The children were so happy to open their presents, and enjoyed playing with them much of the afternoon. By the time I left Ste. Anne for the day, I had tried at the request of several children and with mixed results to put limbs back on dolls and wheels back on cars. To me it seemed sad when a new toy got broken only hours after being opened, but while some of the children seemed disappointed, I realized that some of them were not as bothered by it as I would have thought, they did not seem to have my expectation that things not break so easily, after all in many ways they are surrounded by and have known so much brokenness in their young lives.
The population of blahs (white person or any foreigner in Haiti) is dramatically increasing here on the grounds of Ste. Damien Hospital. Groups of medical professionals are arriving to help with Cholera, (now the Cholera hospitals are well organized, volunteers who began planning to come when the numbers of patients were rising, may find that they will be doing other things, as fortunately there are fewer patients.) Other visitors are here for January 12th, the first anniversary of the earth quake. Special liturgies and services are planned for this week. I will tell you more about them next week.
Please continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers.
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