Home again, home again!

I’m back in Bondeau after being in Boca for two weeks.  It was great to have all of my "creature comforts", a big comfortable bed and air conditioning, but I’m delighted to be back with my kids at Kay Timoun.  Arriving in Port au Prince at 3:00PM put us right in the rush hour traffic and it took over three hours to travel the 65 miles to Bondeau.  On the way, we slowly passed by miles and miles of tent cities that have become tent slums.  Residents have added on to their tents to have some semblance of a home, but it’s still a tent and it’s still slum.  Banks of bright blue portable toilets stand out among all the earth colored tents.  Little children play ball on a small patch of concrete, no larger than six feet square, surrounded by tent homes.  Stagnant green water flowed along the curb of the street.  Abandoned trucks had been stripped of anything valuable or useful and remain on the side of the road…no towing service here!

Creeping along the route toward Leogane, I was able to see much that I don’t see while driving at a faster speed.  One thing that stood out on this drive was the number of canals and rivers running down from the mountains toward the ocean.  They were all filled with plastic trash!  Plastic bottles, plastic bags, plastic jars, Styrofoam containers, plastic, plastic, plastic clogging up the flow of water.  Plastic piled high on the river banks.  Plastic is a huge problem in Bondeau, as well, because there is no trash pick-up here, and no recycling program.  People simply have no place to dispose of their plastic bottles or plastic packaging, so most of it just gets tossed on the ground, an eye sore for visitors and for me, too.  Thankfully, most food is bought in large quantities in bags that can be reused, and Coke, Pepsi, and beer drinks are in glass bottles to be returned.  Bondeau does not have the resources to deal with plastic trash.

On Saturday I went to a food depot in Miragoane to purchase the large quantity of food consumed here at Kay Timoun.  Among other food items, I bought 110 lbs. of rice and 100 lbs. of pinto beans, 6 gallons of cooking oil, and 50 lbs. of corn meal.  The cost was much less than I had anticipated, thinking that it had gone up again in the two weeks I was gone.  But, actually, the rice was a little less, and the beans about $1.00 lb. US.

I have quickly returned to my everyday routine here at Kay Timoun.  The children were happy to see me.  I am thrilled to be back caring for them.  Every child was able to receive a new pair of shoes because of generous donations.  Also, new dresses , new shorts, shirts, and jeans.  We are able to make a distribution of clothing to the community, as well.  I am overwhelmed with the generosity of people and I give thanks every day.  You are all helping the poorest of the poor!  I hope to post more photos on Facebook.