Haiti 2005 (Part 1)

In 2005, I volunteered at Haiti Children’s Rescue Mission (HCRM), an orphanage located in the mountains above Port-au-Prince, Haiti. At this time, the orphanage was undergoing a major transition, as the original founder had been removed from his position as head of the orphanage. Because of this, Joe and Cindy Kraft and their family (from Texas, who were in the process of adopting four children) moved to HCRM to help out. About a month later, I moved down as well.

The following is comprised of excerpts from the journal that I [sometimes] kept during this time. Obviously, it is edited both for conciseness and to respect the privacy of certain individuals and circumstances. I basically chose entries (or portions thereof) that I found to be 1) humorous, 2) representative of this time as a whole, or 3) key events/experiences.

January 23, 2005

I can’t believe I’m in Haiti and I’ve been cold all day!

January 25

Caitlin [the eldest Kraft daughter] and I spent some time this afternoon working on the Bible study we’re going to be doing with the older girls. It was fun. Caitlin’s a really sweet girl, and I’m really glad she’s here. She’s only 14, but it really doesn’t seem like she’s that much younger than me. It’ll be fun getting to know her better. All the Krafts are so nice.

January 28

I was getting ready to go to bed [on the 26^th], and one of Cindy’s girls came in to get towels because there was a leak in their bathroom. So I went in there to help…the bathroom floor was covered in about an inch of water that was coming in through the wall by the bathtub. Cindy and her girls were putting towels on the floor to soak it all up, but it just kept coming. Cindy and I ended up standing over the tub wringing out sopping wet towels… After doing that for awhile, Cindy decided to go wake Mark up (a man from Elkhart, IN, who is adopting two kids) and see if he knew what to do. He…looked around to try to find where to shut the water off, and eventually we ended up outside, watching while Mark let water from a hose dump into huge bowls. I really have no clue what that was all about. All I know is that whatever he did, it got the water in the bathroom to stop coming through the wall, temporarily at least.

January 29

Nahomie [my sister, who was living at HCRM while we worked on her adoption] and Salou [Nahomie’s cousin who was adopted by the Krafts] are watching the DVD I brought for Nahomie of our family, and they’re mimicking everything that’s going on on the screen. They just did the whole dance that the kids did at our church for Christmas. It’s so cute to watch them J

January 30

This afternoon, Dia [an adoptive mom who was visiting her kids], her parents and their friends, Dia’s 3 kids, the Krafts, Nahomie, and I, and Emarc went down the mountain to Petionville to go swimming… It was nice to get away from the orphanage for awhile. I played with Housmey [George] the whole time I was in the pool, so that was fun. He’s such a cute kid.

[Interestingly enough, I did not include in this journal entry the red devil man we saw in the street as we were leaving to go back to the orphanage. That was an interesting and somewhat frightening experience…]

February 1

Well, today was definitely…interesting. I didn’t do much—just helped with Cindy’s kids. Ok, the lights just got turned out on me, so I’ll finish this tomorrow.

February 2

Oh goodness, fun times…Caitlin and I just had some hot chocolate—and lots of marshmallows!—which we drank sitting on the counter in the kitchen. That might not sound terribly exciting, but it was very fun!

February 3

The major event of yesterday was “The Flood: Week 2” in Cindy’s bathroom. Same thing as last week—the water came in at the same spot and flooded the floor, so we ended up turning off all the water in the house. We sopped up most of the water with towels, and then Nahomie and Salou used cups to scoop out the water in the hole where the leak was. We all ended up staying in the bathroom for a long time, and Caitlin, Caroline, Jeweliet, Nahomie, and Salou unbraided my hair.

February 6

Friday night was a lot of fun. The Kraft girls, Nahomie, and I had a hot chocolate (and lots of marshmallows) and movie party….Then we watched “Radio”, which is a really good movie. . . Yesterday we had the December birthday party…and Claudino (because we’d thought that his birthday was in December and we’d [already] told him he could come to the party). So Caitlin and I made cupcakes for the kids, then we brought them up to the balcony for the party.

February 7

The good part about today…making and eating s’mores with Caitlin and Caroline.

The bad part about today…all of the conflicts and confrontations.

February 26

A LOT has happened since I last wrote, but there’s no way I’m going to take the time to write about it all… I’m in Jacmel right now with the Krafts (minus Joey, who is still in Texas). Joe came last Saturday, and on Wednesday we came to Jacmel for a little vacation. And, oh my, it has been very…interesting. We’re staying at Le Jacmelien Hotel, which has the potential to be nice… We’re basically the only ones here, except for some old men that we see every once in awhile and a pirate who was here the first two days… But anyway, there’s basically no one else at the hotel and it’s not too hard to see why… It’s definitely been quite an experience! Caitlin, Caroline, Salou, Jeweliet, and I are sharing a room, and Cindy, Joe, Teeko, Housmey [George] and Phoebe are next door. Before we actually ended up in the rooms we’re in now, we had to change rooms…3 times maybe? 4? I don’t remember, but it was a lot.

February 28

Well, I’m still not feeling particularly inspired to write, but I know that if I don’t at least get started now, nothing will ever get written. One thing I’ve realized on this “vacation” is how much I’ve taken things for granted in the States… Such as: in the States, restaurants and hotels don’t run out of the majority of the food on the menu (and if for some reason, that happened, they would be restocked within hours); towels, electricity, soap, and toilet paper are givens; beds aren’t made up of a mattress and a concrete block; mosquito-proof rooms don’t need to be specified; and tour guides are sought by the tourist (instead of vice-versa).

Oh my, this past week has definitely been memorable… I don’t even know where to start… I guess with the food, since that’s a recurring dilemma. From the very first night, the hotel restaurant has been out of several items on the menu, and over the past 5 days, one by one other items have been knocked off the list. No more hamburgers, pancakes, syrup, bananas, chicken sandwiches, and no, no more cheese sandwiches. That’s basically the entire menu right there. So what does that leave us with for dinner tonight? Fried chicken and French fries, which is what we’ve had for the past several nights as well. For a few days we were relying on cheese sandwiches for lunch, but that option is apparently no longer available either. All we have for breakfast now is eggs, which is sad because the pancakes were so good.

On our first day here, we decided to take a walk in the morning. That’s when we met our most (unfortunately) loyal “tour guide”, who has persisted in following us around everywhere. He’s even shown up a few times when we’ve been swimming and tried to get us to come talk to him. Saturday we went to Guy’s Guesthouse for pizza, and sure enough, while we were waiting for our food…Mr. Self-Appointed Tour Guide came in, sat down, and started talking. He stayed for the whole meal (although, he did fall asleep in his chair for awhile). He also followed us back to the hotel when we were finished, probably hoping to get paid.

March 3

Well, we’re back at HCRM now. And…it’s very good to be back. Although our vacation was definitely memorable…”there’s no place like home”. Eventually I’ll write more about our interesting little adventure, but for now, I’ll stick with more current events.

We have another ACWAM team here now, and I have to say, even though I still don’t understand some things about these Canadians, this group is definitely an improvement over the last one. There’s more people, though, so it’s a bit crowded.

Anyway, Caitlin, Caroline, Jeweliet, and I attempted a mini slumber party last night, but it kind of didn’t work too well. For one thing, we didn’t get started until pretty late, and then when we did, we were joined for awhile by two guys from Canada (we have yet to find out their names). So that was kind of weird. They only stayed for a little while, though, because they had to be up early today…. And then [the Kraft girls] all ended up falling asleep, so we just stopped the movie and went to bed.