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.