Mango

mango

Today is Sunday.  On Sundays when they are in season as they have been for the past few months, we get mangoes for dessert.  On the property of Kay Ste. Anne and houses nearby there are mango trees. I think mango trees are fascinatingly beautiful.  It amazes me how many mangoes you can see hanging off the branches of a single tree.  These trees tend to be tall, give good shade and seem very fruitful.  Each Sunday I try to cut my mango open a different way telling myself that if I am careful I can eat this mango without making a mess; I've had little success with this, but I guess that only makes it all the more fun.  


On Monday there was no school, because it was the day after the election so I spent the day with the children at Kay Ste. Anne.  These are busy days.  Sometimes I feel like I just go from one activity to another, sometimes trying to multitask.  One child is asking for water, while I am holding a toddler who I know will have a tantrum if I put her down, and while I am on my way to get someone a glass of water someone else needs toilet paper, which is sometimes hard to find and the workers are busy with diapers, mopping and other childcare tasks.  Sometimes though there are calmer moments, when I can really enjoy the children.  One little girl, a young three year old was singing the other day.  I recognized the tune and that the sounds she was making were actually supposed to be English words which she did not understand.  She must have heard the song at the Karnival party a couple of weeks ago.  When she finished I told her in Creole that I did not know, and then in Creole I asked her who let the dogs out?  She thought this was pretty funny.  We both laughed.      

Haiti's presidential election results have yet to be announced, maybe Thursday.  There are talks of a possible transportation strike tomorrow to protest the rising cost of gasoline.  So the week ahead could be interesting.

Hope you are well.  Take care.

Yo te Rive! (They Arrived)

Liv Yo (The books)
On Wednesday, I met with the workers at Kay Ste. Anne.  I asked them among other things, what they would like to learn more about to help them better serve the children.  I had hoped that they would be interested in issues related to child development, social emotional needs of children, literacy, the importance of play, things that I felt confident enough to discuss with them or prepare a presentation based on my experiences as a teacher and clinical social worker.    The first response I received was that one worker wanted to lean more songs to sing with the children.  I truly value the importance of music in the lives of children, seeing it as a mode for learning, for self expression and for increasing their knowledge of their own culture.  Of course, this was one topic where I lack competence because first of all the songs I knowwell enough to sing with young children are in English (not Creole or French), and even in English reality is that I don't sing well at all; can sometimes get the general tune however I am nearly always too high or too low, and I am musically illiterate (I can't read musical notes.)
      That afternoon, when I arrived back to the hospital grounds, someone said that the person who works in the Miami office had arrived with mail for me, a package that had been lost.  Yes, the books written in Haitian Creole that my family (parents, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents) had purchased  instead of Christmas gifts for one another had after being lost in Miami for a couple of months, finally arrived!  There were 100 of them in a portable case with wheels.  There are a variety of books some beautifully illustrated, some for beginning reading, some board books, some with wonderful stories, a couple of poetry books, and even one large song book with songs for children in French and Creole (which I happily presented to the workers the very next day!)  All of the books, with the exception of about three are written in Haitian Creole.  Books for the children which are actually written in the language they speak!  A couple of them are written in French; I could easily tell because in French unlike Creole, there are "q"s, "x"es and "c"s without "h"s.  Some of the books are bilingual, either Creole and English, or French and Creole.  This is such a wonderful gift for the children.  I am so grateful, so fortunate to have such generous family, so willing to give a gift like this to children who lack family with the ability to provide even their most basic needs.  Thank you!  I am so grateful that I am crying as I write this!

Arisitide
The books were not the only arrival in Haiti this week.
There is a house not far from here , which someone pointed out to me when I first came calling it, "the house of Aristide."  Actually, one can not see the house from the street just the wall, guard station,  gate, with branches of tall mango trees which are growing behind and towering above the wall.  Recently brush in front of the wall had been cleared away.  Then the wall was painted pink and on the wall were placed little flowerpots each containing a few small Haitian flags.  On Friday, some of the children were picked up from school a little early.  My plan had been to go to Kay Ste. Anne for a shorter time than usual and return to the school to begin therapy with an older child who resides at Kay Ste. Louie.  There were reports of "blokisis"  (traffic jams) and gatherings near the house of Arisitde welcoming him home after his seven years or so in exile. In order to avoid the chaos on the streets, and because I thought it might take too long to get there and back, I did not go to Kay Ste. Anne at all that day.
Many people are happy that Arisitide has returned.  Others are afraid that he will somehow bring trouble.  It is suspicious that he choose to arrive two days before the elections; is he here to influence the election process in some way?  The reason, he gave for coming now was that he does not know if the person elected president would allow him to come back.  Of course there will be a period of time before the newly elected official actually takes office.  I am not sure what to think.  I have heard and read some positive things and some not so positive things about Aristide.  He is a former Catholic priest who supposedly became involved  initially in politics because he was motivated by a desire to help the poor in the vein of liberation theology and social justice. I have heard too that in time he became quite corrupt himself.  
Certainly this is an interesting time to be in Haiti.  Today is election day.  Hopefully the person who gets the most votes will actually be proclaimed the winner and that the people will accept this, and that the winner will be motivated to work for the common good of the Haitian people especially caring about the majority of people who live in extreme poverty, and that the new president will not be corrupt or become corrupted once in office.  I guess we have a lot to pray for.

Peace,
Kathleen  

Lent

The work week began with two days of Carnival celebrations with the children, which consisted of their getting dressed in donated costumes that looked to me like pirate costumes, (although when I said that a child looked like a pirate nobody seemed to know what I was talking about even though I thought I learned the word for pirate in creole class in Miami last summer.)  The children crowded into the van and went to St. Louie to celebrate with the older children.  When they arrived adults and older children painted their faces with glitter.  There was music, children danced ate bonbons (cookies) and played musical chairs.  It was wonderful for me to watch a child who has a developmental disability participate; she does not speak, though her smile spoke of excitement and joy simply to be dressed up and at a party.

The season of Lent began on Wednesday.  I decided to lead an evening prayer on Friday evenings during lent for anyone (workers, volunteers, visitors) s interested in coming.  A few people said they were interested but were unable to make it this week.  Nobody came, but I can't say no-body was there, as on the chapel floor there was a dead body in a white bag, waiting to be prayed for at mass the following morning.  We continue to have frequent funerals during daily liturgy.  Even when there is not a body there, we are often remembering the dead.  Every Thursday we pray for the dead who will be taken from the morgue of the general hospital in down town Portaprince to the potter's field for burial.  On Friday morning, there were special prayers said for an Italian woman who died in the earth quake last year, since her parents were visiting because they are working to provide funding for prosthetics for survivors of the earthquake who have lost limbs.  In some ways at first glance it seems like it is always lent in Haiti.  There has been trial, and suffering one after another, taking shape in political unrest and cholera.   Actually it often feels like every week is Holy Week. Like Jesus, there are people in front of us who died young, and unjustly (I say this because their maladies that would be prevented if world resources were distributed more equitably.)  

If I focus only on my own trials, what I have given up by being here, the pain I have witnessed, I could convince myself that my whole time here has been one long lent so far.  Yet, this is not the whole story, not by any means.  Not for me, and not for the people I work with, and probably not for the people of Haiti as a whole (although I do feel a little  presumptuous in saying that).  I simply need to look at the babies at Kay Ste. Anne, including one who had been badly injured as an infant in the earth quake who are all at least starting to walk.  Since I arrived, I have been gifted with new friends, new understanding and insights, new life, wonderful gifts.  The children here have grown, I have witnessed this.  There is joy in the midst of all of it. The children smile, laugh, sing, and learn.  Recently, I heard that most of the tents in the camp behind Matthew 25 are gone, because people have moved on.  Now, I notice in the car when we drive by certain areas, that some of the large tent communities actually seem to be slowly shrinking.  In some areas there seems to be a lot of construction happening.  There is hope here.  There is new life, maybe even at least in some small ways, resurrection.
I think it is important to have liturgical seasons to communally focus on aspects of the life and death of Jesus each year.  Yet, I also believe that every season is happening everyday only most of the time I forget to look for it, or name it as such.
May these days of Lent be blessed for you!                          

Visitor's Day, Safety, Mardi Gras!

Yesterday, being the first Saturday of the month, was visitors’ day for the children at St. Anne and St. Louie. This used to occur only once every few months, now it is a monthly event. This is good, as I think it is important for the children to maintain contact with family members. The longer I am here, the more convinced that more needs to be done in some cases to keep children with family members, when possible. There are of course children who seem never to have visitors and who truly are orphaned, but many seem to have someone, an extended family member who does care. A few even have a parent, who for whatever reason was seen as unable to care for the child. I ask myself what can we do for the families to help them meet the needs of their children. Even before I arrived, the program was considering the possibility of having children go to their families for weekends and holidays. There are many reasons for this, as in some ways children as they grow older can be too sheltered if they only know life in the orphanage. The move towards more frequent visitor's days is a good one and the possibility of children who have someone, going home for weekends seems to be in the plan for the future, but of course ground work would need to be done first, and planning then for the children with no place to go.

Being here, I have come to realize how safety conscious my American culture is, and how in other places this is not the case. When people have always been trying to survive and don't have a lot of resources, things are prioritized quite differently. When I was in the states a few weeks ago, I watched as a child, (the son of a dear friend) who is taller than all of our children at Saint Anne, got into his booster seat in the back seat of a car and fastened the seat belt. Our children ride back and forth from St. Anne to the school either sitting in the back of a large truck with a flat bed, or in a crowded van; nobody fastens a seatbelt. If any of the smaller babies are with us, they tend to be held in someone's arms in the front seat. When I was home too, I stopped by the transitional housing facility where I used to work. There were no drastic changes in the childcare center, but it seemed so calm to me, and the ratios of adults to children seemed wonderful. We easily have more children in the three year old kindergarten class here than there are in the three preschool classrooms there. Issues related to safety, supervision and sanitation are often challenging for me. I strive to do what is best for the children, to advocate for their safety, while also not wanting to come in as the outsider sounding critical of workers or assuming that my way of thinking is better. Yesterday there were a couple of social workers visiting the program, from a university in the states; it was good to talk with them briefly discuss topics like culture and empowerment in this reality from a common professional perspective.

On Friday there was a Carnival celebration at the school. Children got dressed in costumes and danced and sang. Many children had glitter on their faces which teachers had given them to decorate themselves for the “fet.” An older child, who I don't really know, came up to me and wiped some of the glitter from her own face and put it on mine; later a couple of younger children tried to wipe the glitter off of my face and put it on their own. School will be closed on Monday and Tuesday for Marid Gras and on Wednesday for Ash Wednesday. I will spend the days mostly at Ste. Anne and go with them to the celebrations at St. Louie (where the older children live.) It should be fun.

If I were in Philly I would have a party; if I were in New Orleans I would go to the parades, but I am in Haiti, so I will go to the parties we will have for the children and celebrate with them.

Happy Mardi Gras!