Forget Me Not by Maria Robles

Today we had a great feat on our hands… not to forget our items for today’s journey.  This morning we forgot a few items: the sandwiches we had prepared the night before for the feeding, the chips we were going to hand-out and other sundry items. However, after having to go back twice, we were able to stay on track to encounter today’s new adventure. 

As we arrived, I could feel myself becoming nervous and anxious because I did not know what to expect. I kept reflecting back to last year’s feeding and how overwhelmed I felt.  I hoped that what were able to pack today would be enough to help feed the 50 children and families in this tent village. As the tap tap (our Haitian taxi) pulled up on the gravel road, I could see that we had not packed what would not be enough for everybody in this village. My heart shattered as I carried the items up the gravel path into this small compact room in the middle of this tent village. This room currently held about 200 people. I could not break down now, I told myself; I needed to keep it together.

We got into the room and I can see so many beautiful smiling faces eager to welcome us. I felt fortunate that they were giving us the opportunity to be in their company. As I headed to the back room of this small compact room, I decided that we should halve the 100 sandwiches as well as halve the amount of chips in order to distribute some to everybody present. I can feel myself getting nervous as we started to distribute the food. I felt hopeless and frustrated at the same time because we did not pack as much as we could for the people we came to help. I hung out in the back room as I help distribute piles of sandwiches and baggies of chips. I felt like I could have done more; we could have done more. I realized that we should have been more prepared.


As we finished distributing the last items, all I could think about is: what can we do different for next time, how can we better prepare. I don’t know the answers to these questions but I feel like next time we should over pack and expect to be in the company of more people. After we collected our bags, we headed toward the gravel path back to the tap tap. Many children walked up to me as I headed out asking for more food.  As I held back my tears, I responded with a no and jumped into the tap tap. A crowd of about 60 people followed us back to the vehicle asking us for the soccer ball they had seen from a distance in the back of the tap tap. I knew we did not have enough to go around and felt a rush of emotions, overwhelmed, angry, frustrated and saddened at the turn of events that I could not give anymore; that we did not have more to give. For me, this is an experience that will be left as an indelible imprint that I will carry home with me.