day 2: the candy-man can

Upon waking, I immediately returned to my favorite place on earth: the baby room. The babies would all just lay with their faces pressed against the cool tiles on the floor because it was so hot. I also got to play with some of the older children. Aaaaaahhhh, they were so cute. All different ages, and all of them scrambling and wrestling each other to jump on top of you or sit in your lap. I watched them get ready for lunch, stand in perfect lines without even being told, and pray together before they ate. There were several tables of different ages and two separate tables of new children who had been brought in recently. They were keeping the new children separate because they had not been tested for different kinds of diseases, health issues, etc. One of the members of the group told me that these new children had been found while someone was trying to traffic them out of the country. I don’t even know what to say about that. There is no place in hell dark enough for the people who hurt and abuse children. Period.

After several hours and some physical force, they pried me out the door, and we helped set up some tents for a woman’s center that Gina was creating right next to the orphanage. It is going to be used for women and their families that have been displaced since the earthquake. And, since it was Sunday, Ty and the boys really wanted to check out the local LDS ward. I felt so bad, because I was in the exact same grungy clothes I had worn the day before, completely nasti-fied with paint still caked all over me, no makeup, and no shower of course (ok, for those of you who know me, that last one isn’t really a big deal). But, I figured God wouldn’t mind, so off we went.

Well, I’m sure God didn’t mind, but those Haitians put us to shame. Not difficult given our present condition, but still. These people live in shanties, have dirt floors, bathe in run-off water and yet were dressed to the nines for church. I am not exaggerating, it was unreal. The shirts on the boys were white as snow and perfectly pressed. The girls had perfectly done hair with pretty bows and ribbons. I don’t know how they did it. They had to have walked to church, like nobody has a car, in the dust and dirt and 100 degree heat outside. Unbelievable.

Since I speak fluent Creole, listening to the service was an easy task. Oh ya, I don’t speak a single word of Creole. And yet, it was fascinating to sit through. They all sang beautiful hymns and it was testimony meeting, so we got to listen to them bear their testimonies. Amazing, especially the young men. After church, we passed out large bags of candy to the kids. It was pretty much like passing out shanks during a prison riot. They loved it, and mauled anyone holding the candy bag.

We left church and I was informed that we were driving up to the mountain creche, which is the other orphanage that Gina runs. Pretty much thought I was going to die for a good two hours straight. Well, it would either be us or some other crazy car or person or family living in a tent set up in the middle of the tiny road (bobsled luge) that wound us up through the cities and into the mountains. During our roller-coaster ride (good thing I don’t get carsick) up to the creche, I got to witness close up some of the damage that the earthquake had done.

Skeletons of buildings and homes filled with rubble were scattered along the streets, next to tiny food stands or markets that looked like they hadn’t been touched at all. Tents were lined up along the streets too, lots of people were too afraid to go back into the remaining buildings after the earthquake and aftershocks happened, so they were just living outside.

Mountains of trash everywhere.

Along the mountainside, houses (more like shacks) were built one on top of the other. So close that they shared walls, so if one of them went, 10 of them went. So sad and unbelievable that such a beautiful country was living in such squalor. You could see that even before the earthquake the living conditions were just tragic. It really is a beautiful country too. Gorgeous mountain landscapes, lush green trees, stunning shorelines. The weather driving up into the mountains became increasingly cooler and was pretty much perfect by the time we got to the top. A good 20 degrees cooler at least.

We first arrived at Gina’s home. She lives about a five minute walk from the mountain creche. Her house was beautiful there on top of the mountains. She was preparing a barbecue dinner for us that evening and had a nice table set out. We had a few hours before dinner, so Tonya (an amazing girl in our group who is also in the process of adopting an adorable little baby boy, see last Post) and I walked down to the other orphanage. There were mostly babies and younger toddlers, not many older children, at this orphanage and most of them had either already been matched with families or were HIV positive and therefore more difficult to match.

* On a side-note, I have done a little research on children who are born HIV positive, and I think it is important to share a little info on it here in the blogging world. I preface this by saying that I am in no way an expert here, I just wanted to give a brief description of what I had learned. Just because a child is HIV+ does not mean that they have AIDS, in fact they may never develop AIDS. HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus, whereas AIDS stands for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. So, a child who is labeled HIV+ means that he or she has signs of HIV in their system (usually from being born to a mother with HIV in her system). HIV is a virus that attacks white blood cells, or "T cells." After several years and if too many T cells are attacked or destroyed then a person may develop AIDS which means the body is less able to fight off germs, infections, or diseases. While there is currently no cure for AIDS, there have been amazing medical advancements on treating people who are HIV+. Continuous medications make it possible for children who are HIV+ to live long, normal, healthy lives. Obviously there is still a lot of research to be done in this area and again I am by no means an expert. But, prior to meeting these kids in Haiti I had no idea what HIV+ really meant, except that it was definitely a bad stigma. One of the guys in our group talked to me a little bit about how it is a shame that these kids are labeled HIV+ and then nobody wants to take them. Someone wanting to adopt a child who is HIV+ should absolutely know the risks and medical requirements involved, but it is not nearly as "scary" or risky as it sounds (that sounded like an ad, I know).

Ahem, sorry about that, back to my story. The kids were, of course, absolutely adorable and engaging. They all wanted to play and climb up on you and the babies were, again, breathtaking. I was able to hold and take some photos of one baby in particular who is being adopted by one of the women running the adoption agency Gina works through. (Gina only works through one not-for-profit child welfare adoption agency in Illinois. Gina is very protective of her kids and for that I am truly grateful). The sweet little guy was born blind and just sat and snuggled and touched my face. Tonya and I finally said goodbye to the kids and walked back up to Gina’s house to meet up with everybody else for dinner. Mmmmmm, dinner...