Hand-Me-Downs
Since, school started, it was more difficult than usual to find a private place to conduct individual therapy sessions with the children I have been seeing for play therapy. The tent I used during the previous school year is no longer standing. There was an empty shipping container at St. Louie which seemed like a reasonable spot, although it was impossible to close the door the all of the way from the inside. While I was working with one boy who is about seven years of age, a girl who used to live at St. Anne came to the container door and slid papers with hearts drawn on them through the crack between the container door and called out the name of the boy I was working with. Later I realized that the tee-shirt the little girl was wearing had a picture of two dogs sharing a drink and and had the words, "Puppy love" written on it in English. While I thought her shirt was perfectly appropriate she hadn't a clue what the words on it meant. Many people in Haiti don't know what their tee-shirts say, because often they are hand me downs from the United States. My guess is that somehow when thrift shops get too much, the excess finds its way to the Haitian people. When we have passed people selling clothing on the side of the roads volunteers have joked that one of us might see something that once was ours. People wear shirts with the names of events they could not possibly have attended, races they have never run, schools that are very different from their own, and cities no one in their family has ever visited. Sometimes people are oblivious to the reality that their shirt has a rude message on it. On one occasion I explained to a very kind and agreeable woman who among other tasks, mops the floors (an endless job) at Kay St. Anne, what her shirt meant, on the front it read, "why be difficult" and the back said, "when you can be impossible." Another day, I saw a young dark skinned Haitian man wearing a tee-shirt with the words, "Irish grandmother" printed across the chest. It is not just clothes, many cars, trucks, including tap-taps,were probably once in the states. Sometimes they still have fading signs of companies that I just know are not doing business in Haiti, or signs which make untrue claims, that they are shuttling people from the New Ark airport to a New Jersey hotel. Every now and then you see a vehicle adorned with two license plates, one Haitian and the other American; Florida is the most common but I have seen several other states represented.
Ti Bebe
Yesterday I accompanied a sister who is a nurse to volunteer at a clinic at a parish church near one of the poorest areas of the city. The image of one tiny baby stays with me. This fifteen day old, was being cared for by her young aunt, who said that the mother of the baby had died. They tiny baby was quite malnourished, probably because the aunt was not able to purchase formula. The baby was given medicine because she had a fever and infection and referred to a malnutrition program. As I looked at that tiny child, I could not help but think of how we have no control over the circumstances in which we are born.
Next weekend will be my final weekend here. This blog may be ending in a couple of weeks as my time here ends. If I know that people would continue to read it, perhaps I will at least for a couple of months, do some updates as I reflect on my time in Haiti when I am no longer here. Please, let me know if this would be of interest to you.
Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers, especially that little baby and other very sick people who are living in extreme poverty like those whom I met yesterday. Thank you!
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