I am sorry that I was not able to post recently. Since my computer has not been working, it has been difficult to get online.
The past several days have been eventful, to be sure! Sunday, I worked with a massive cholera awareness campaign, where more than 150 volunteers traveled to Fort Libertie to pass out small bottles of Clorox and to educate people on the dangers of cholera. Each volunteer visited 25 homes each, so many, many people were informed.
While I was working with a group of people presenting information (we had a Haitian who did the speaking for us), we came to the home of an elderly lady. She was sitting outside of her wood and mud home, and before we could get too far into what we were doing, she stopped us so she coudl retrieve a chair for each of the Americans at her house! She found three chairs and insisted that we sit while we explained what we were doing. The guests were offered seating (the Haitian with us, Kismel, had family in that neighborhood, so he was from there, even though he does not live there). To me, her act showed the generosity of the hatian people.
We spent most of the day walking through the neighborhoods meeting people and explaining the dangers of cholera. We did not have much energy after that!
On Monday, we painted the main office of the clinic. A fresh coat of paint brightened the place up quite a bit. Many people commented on how much of a difference it made when they cam in on Tuesday to see the doctors and nurses.
On Tuesday, we began eye tests for the children of the school. With so many children, we are spreading the tests over several days, but we have already identified a couple of children who might benefit from glasses. Tomorrow, we will see more children and are ready with two eye charts and enough volunteers to help make things flow smoothly.
The Haiti trip is almost finished. While Athens is covered in several inches of snow, we are enjoying sunny and 90 degrees! This experience has been amazing, and I look forward to sharing it with you!
Peace,
Adrian
Your experience with the elderly woman setting out chairs for all the Americans is exactly what happened to us in 2007 in Terrier Rouge. The FPC group was walking through the town when it started to rain, and we took shelter on the porch of a house. The woman who lived there brought out what must have been every chair she owned, so that we could sit down out of the rain. The Haitians are extremely friendly and hospitable. They have next to nothing, but are generous to a fault.
ReplyDeleteRick Simpson