When God Speaks: Haiti Day 3

7/3/13

Squeezing our usual 6 on the back seat of a three row van so that we can all fit to go to the church. We were truly getting the Haitian experience.

After talking the night before we realized that there was no way our team of 5 and 2 translators could handle the amount of children again especially if it was going to grow like we anticipated, so we went as an entire team to the church in the morning and orphanage in the afternoon. This was one of the best decisions we made on the entire trip. The morning ran so smoothly with the extra translators. You know, vbs is already very chaotic but when you are trying to direct children that can't understand a word you are saying it is near impossible. The language barrier seems like a huge problem, but honestly these children communicate so much with their actions and expressions that it's like you are having a conversation. This goes especially for my little friend Angelo. He was back again on Wednesday and of course I held him the whole time. He never said a word to me the entire two days, but the look in his eyes and expression on his face was enough for me to know exactly what he was thinking. This two days of holding this 14 pound five year old (I can't say it enough, because I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around it) was life changing to me. I went from thinking I knew what poverty was with feeding the homeless in Jackson, to knowing what actually poverty is and learning from a 5 year old. He never spoke a word to me but he taught me more in those two days than I have learned in a long time. Like not taking for granted all that I have and being appreciative of it, and much more. We are so blessed to be where we are and it took holding this precious child that is literally grasping onto his life each day for me to ACTUALLY realize it. I mean I have always know this, but there is a difference knowing and actually knowing. Anyways, when lunch time rolled around they served rice and beans. I asked Angelo's teacher if it would be okay if I fed him. She said yes and showed me how to do it. I began feeding him and every bite he swallowed without chewing and before I could get the next bite to his mouth began crying, begging for more. This was almost unbearable to me. That he was so scared I was going to take the food away he rushed each bite down to beg for the next. The cry was so desperate for that next bite. Tears just streamed down my face as I thought about how his mom has to listen to this everyday knowing that there is nothing she can do and it's only a matter of time until he is no longer with them. I thought about handing the bowl over to his teacher to get as far away from his desperate plead for food because each one broke my heart more, but I realized that at that moment I was who he was depending on to give him that little bit to last him another day or maybe even week. I could go on and on about how I just couldn't imagine the feeling of not know the next time I will eat or even worse not being able to feed my child, but hopefully by now you get the point. That little boy will forever be in my heart and the memory of my life changing. After I got up from feeding him I looked around and realized that not everyone had food, I asked one of the other girls on the team if there was more coming out and they said no. We had to watch these little children that didn't get food watch the others eat. Again tears came streaming down. That could have been their only opportunity of the day to eat and we couldn't supply it. It was silent in the room as we left to head to the compound and they finished eating or watching. We headed to the orphanage and hung out with all of our sweet friends there. It was great!