day 2 -- moving day

What a difference a day can make. Lots of activity yesterday, especially by the girls ages 8 – 16. Their level of energy and work activity is always mind boggling to me. Marie announced that she couldn’t watch the girls sleep outside on the cement any longer. She said six weeks was long enough to make the children live this way. Prior to the earthquake she had been trying to improve the conditions in a preschool classroom, so it was decided the girls would return to the orphanage sight. The flurry began with trying to put back together broken bed frames. The condition of the mattresses brought Jeneane to tears. There had to be bugs and such living in these tattered, ripped open, filthy mattresses. I asked Marie if we could go get new mattresses, but she chose to wait and get them settled and someday when they have their REAL rooms again – new mattresses will greet them. I was relieved to see the beds made with clean sheets and from there each girl took such pride in their “space”. Beds were adorned with a dirty doll, or stuffed animal – others covered cement bricks that they used as a night stand and put little things like plastic spoons or forks, or anything that they could find all arranged to look neat and “pretty.”Several had photos of their sponsors lying on their bed. Jeneane and I mainly worked in one of the rooms where we were overwhelmed with garbage, and piles of misc. things from clothes to parts of a Christmas tree. It was very overwhelming, upsetting, not to mention the heat and bites from red ants. Joan was the “camp leader” as she entertained the youngest 12 girls for hours on end with singing, painting, jump rope, coloring – you name it, she pulled it out of her hip pocket. They were enthralled and overjoyed.

By dusk the girls started migrating to the old orphanage after a huge plate of wheat and beans. I felt sad to see them go there knowing how totally unsafe the grounds are. There are SO many obstacles and broken bricks and glass and just stuff to walk around and the space for them to actually “play” almost doesn’t exist. During our dinner of mac and cheese Marie started missing them already. She wanted to walk to see if they were ok in the dark with our flashlights. We decided not, and all went to bed totally drained and exhausted. In the night there was a down pour of rain and as I heard it I was actually glad for the first time they were under cover and not under the stars getting soaked.
A new day has begun and we’ve learned the girls had a good first night sleeping 2-3 in a bed – but a mattress none the less. They loaded a pickup truck with all the cooking pans and such this morning from Marie’s house to return that operation to the make shift orphanage, as well.
My heart so aches for the youngest 12 and Marie agreed to hire another person to care for just them. So – as I type, I new woman who is thrilled to have a job will be going to be working to keep the youngest 12 clean and safe! I am so happy.
Time to get back to work – we are going to spend today continuing to go thru the rubble and piles of stuff to determine what to save and what to throw away. (Marie has great difficulty throwing ANYTHING away - now I know why – sometimes life takes it all away and you never know what you might need!)
We are all hanging in despite the heat. It zaps the energy out of us mid-west girls! Please keep praying for the people of Haiti. Every familiar face I see I throw my arms around them and say, “God bless you!” and they can sense I’m celebrating that they were spared. Strangers have said, “thank you for coming to Haiti to help us.” I almost feel guilty accepting their thanksgiving when it feels like I am doing nothing, compared to their needs. We will see what this day brings our way.