Anpil Bagay (Many things)

There are so many things I want to write about this week.  As it was a full weekend, is already getting late, so I'll give brief perhaps seemingly random summaries and thoughts:

One day my heart ached for a mother who arrived at the chapel during morning liturgy looking sad and distraught because her child was one of the several dead we were praying for that morning, lying there covered in a cloth on the chapel floor. This mother still had a hospital bracelet around her own wrist which made me wonder if the child had died at or soon after birth, or if they both had been in the Cholera hospital at the same time.  

Yesterday was the monthly visitor's day for the children of St. Louie and St. Anne.  As always it is such a difficult day for some of the children who do not have any relative that comes to see them.  Yet, it is difficult for some of the children who do have visitors when their visitors' leave.  Yesterday one father decided to take his children home with him.  In this particular case I think this was a good thing for him and for the children.

It seemed rather ironic to me the other night, when I decided to wait until the heavy rains stopped before leaving my house to get water, especially as water (although not safely drinkable) was dripping from the ceiling onto my bedroom floor.

Today I went on a day trip to Kenskoft to visit the children who used to live at St. Anne that moved to the big orphanage in the mountains several weeks ago. The children mostly seem to be doing well there, thank God.  I am a bit concerned about one of the youngest little girls who was sent up there, because she looked so sad on both occasions that I have visited since they moved.  As I am not planning to return to Kenskoft in the next (less than) three weeks, it was the beginning of goodbyes for me.  

School will start for the children at the Father Wasson Angel of Light School tomorrow.  School is started later this year than originally scheduled so that more children can go to school for free.  It is hard for me to get a good sense of exactly what took place in the past month that will enable more children to attend school than would have if it had started in September.  This has been one effort of the president and I did notice billboard type signs on the road to Kenskoft with pictures taken of President Martelly with smiling school children wearing new uniforms and Haitian Creole words about children going to school.  In general though it seems that many people here in Haiti are frustrated with how little is happening to improve their lives.  

Have a good week!