Night

By sundown we had over 50 children gathered under the almond trees. And the singing began. A chant with no name, “I said a boom chica boom!” response “I said a boom chica boom”. When English is your second language this song took on many translations. “Acera boom chica boom” and it wasn’t till we all tried singing it together that the debate began…What were those kids singing? We were completely clueless as to what was going on. A woman arrived with a humongous pot of spaghetti transported in a wheelbarrow. There was a pitcher of lemonade and 2 large industrial cans of vanilla and chocolate pudding. This was dinner. The singing strengthened while the plates of food were being served. It was a wonderful scene until it began….”I didn’t get any food”, neither did I, I didn’t get any….Yes you did, you were sitting right there. No, I didn’t get any food. Yes I gave you food. Those who persisted got more while some truly may not have gotten any. We couldn’t tell after a while. This behavior applied to any level of distribution of any value; from supper to a piece of gum. Sadly, at such a young age, these kids knew all too well, that everything is about survival. You have to get as much as you can until there is nothing else to get. Thus the new rule; No one gets served until everyone is seated and no one leaves their seat until everyone is done with their meal. The children leave for the night and we get ready for our first night in the Gressier.
We trimmed our supplies down right before our departure. There were things that simply weighed too much. Denim, specialty items, and air mattresses. We took them all out and sent them with another team of volunteers who could accommodate the weight. I would have given my left foot for an air mattress then. We made due. There were some sharp objects like rocks and broken glass underneath the floor of the tent that made it hard to get comfortable. There was the baying of a nearby goat, a barking dog just randomly running though our camp, the croaking of frogs and sometimes footsteps or a cell phone ringing. We had a running joke that whatever animal we heard the night before became dinner the next day. Our theory proved to be true for the most part. If there was a sound to be heard, I believe I heard it. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t rest my mind. I was truly afraid. I had heard of and read many stories. Stories of women getting raped. Stories of gangs cutting through tents and robbing each other. I was waiting for the moment where I would have to defend myself from some perpetrator. There was a gate right beyond the yellow plastic wall. It was “secured” with a piece of wire.
Next to the gate was the row of stone latrines. The smell of raw sewage would flow through like an invisible green fume, a handkerchief flowing in the wind. It was sickening and menacing. There was no ceiling on the toilets or the showers so the smell was free of charge all day and all night. Through the watches of the night I would think…surely its morning…but it was still dark. I must have done this 5 or 6 times. I learned in the morning that most of us did. The days and nights are long in Haiti. Long when you don’t have a cool shelter to relax in by day and a comfortable bed to sleep in at night.

The Aid is Here

By the time we arrived I was already exhausted, thirsty and drained. I hadn’t seen one child yet and was almost ready to get back on the plane and go home. I couldn’t make heads or tails of where we were. We had driven through a gate into what looked like an open lot. A filthy lot. Full of debris. Random people. We sat in the SUV waiting. Was this a private road? A pit stop? What were we doing here? Are we picking something up? From where I sat I could see the ocean. I love the ocean but this one looked sad as it peered into this deserted lot. There were almond trees providing shade. And some palm trees. People working and some music playing.
It was then my observing was interrupted by the unloading of luggage. So,this is it. This is home for the next 6days.
I could tell everyone was exhausted but there was much to do. It was extremely hot already. There was a “welcome” area that our friends had set up. A large bright orange plastic sheeting, strategically wrapped around several trees. This was the left “wall”. On the other side was a long bright yellow plastic sheet also strategically wrapped around several trees. This was the Right “wall”. This was the wall to our enclosure. The area where our tents, fourteen hundred pounds of supplies, and our sleeping bodies would be. This was our “secure” campsite. We were amongst strangers. Amongst people who had lost everything and had nothing to lose and this was the only thing that separated us from them. When we went through the rigorous exercise of collecting our luggage in the convection oven airport fourteen hundred pounds surely passed through all of our hands easily. We were spent. We now had tents to pitch we had luggage to sort through and we had children to greet. Day 1 began that moment.
None of us had ever been to this location but we made ourselves useful right away. Some began pitching tents. Our campsite laden with rocks, debris and broken glass. In an effort to get all of the equipment out of site we put all supplies in my tent. Leaving us only about 6 x4 area of living space. We walked to the beach which was a zero minute walk. We sat under the almond trees and then it began. Out of nowhere it seemed there appeared the children. They came with smiles on their faces. They came close, full of trust and love. They were eager to tell us their names and ask us ours. I shook the hands of the boys and if they gave me the limp fish hand I demanded that they give me another handshake, this time more firm and with confidence. I told them to look me in the eye and tell me their name. We did this all week. We had a list of participants but most of the children who came were not on our list. We gave them all wristbands. The wristbands said Hopeworldwide. They were categorized by age and each age had a corresponding color. The more bands we handed it out the more children emerged from the wall. The wall extended from the main gate and ended at the beach. There barbed wire, thorn bush and branches failed to block the way. The children would twist and contort themselves in order to get to us. The “aid” had arrived.