Weekends at Kay Timoun

Weekends are great!  The kids at Kay Timoun have activities that are not much different from kids in the U.S.  They are up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and then off to exercise.  Stretching exercises, running, and then sit-ups and push-ups are all included in the program.  The kids return home invigorated and ready for a big breakfast.  After showers and breakfast the older kids have acolyte training.  There is no coaxing here to get kids off to extracurricular activities.  They value the opportunity and are excited about learning.  All the children have music class in the late morning.  They are now being taught music theory and will soon learn to play music on a simple instrument.

After lunch everybody chips in to tackle the mountain of laundry.  They scrub and wash by hand, and then dry on a clothes line.  The boys are responsible only for washing socks and underwear because they have other yard duties in the afternoon.

Weekends are also for relaxing and watching a favorite movie.  We show both Haitian and American movies on a laptop computer.  A favorite is “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” 

Sunday mornings are special for the kids at Kay Timoun.  They dress up in their finest, carry their bibles and prayer books and are off to church, usually the first to arrive.  They sit in the front seats, sing all the hymns and fully participate.  This Sunday I found it amazing that four year old Odiana, sitting in the front row, stayed focused on the entire service, which I might add is two hours long including announcements.

Sunday afternoons are for visiting family.  I walk Benjamy, Ange, Jean Marie and Odiana to their parents’ homes.  Wonel goes with Zachary and Sundreen.  The older kids are on their own.  They know that they are to return at 5:00 but most of the kids are here at 3:00 for the Sunday afternoon movie.

After chapel prayer and singing at 7:00, the kids prepare for bed, last minute touch ups to school uniforms, and another exciting week at Ste. Marie Madeleine School.

 

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.

Reflection on "Sandy"

I think of how hurricane Sandy came through Bondeau, Haiti...lots of rain lasting several days, on and off showers, not constant downpour.  Our house flooded, as it does in any heavy rain, due to poor construction.  The kids all chipped in to clear the house of water; some kids swept water out the doors, others mopped, and the little ones scooped water with their hands into small buckets.  We were rather safe despite the severeness of the storm.  People in the community were much worse off than we.  This would include parents of the children living at Kay Timoun.  Many people lost animals that they depend on for income; goats drowned, chickens were washed away.  Others lost crops that they had nurtured along in hopes of harvesting.  Corn and sugar cane plants were broken and bent over from the high winds.  Water washed through houses built of woven sticks.  Mud surrounded the houses when I visited two days after the storm.  Food is scarce and expensive, so many families had no food, waiting for the school to open so children would at least have rice and beans provided by the school feeding program.  And yet, there were no complaints.  People began to help one another, making repairs as needed, as soon as the storm was over.  Haitians are the most resiliant people in the world!  They deal with one disaster after another!

And I see on the news all the suffering in the northeast: people stranded without electricity in bitter cold temperatures, gas stations closed, no gasoline available, flooded streets.  Government relief isn't there to help the sick, the elderly, and simply the general population.  People are helping their neighbors, people are helping people, just like in Bondeau!  So, does it take disaster to bring out the best in all of us?  I don't know, but I do know that people, both Americans and Haitians, step up to help their neighbors when help is needed the most.  People have compassion for one another and that is God working in us and among us.

I'm writing from my home in Boca Raton and will return to Bondeau this coming week.  I miss all my kids and the simple, although challenging life in Bondeau.























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Friday afternoon gardening

It’s so much fun watching the boys haul banana trees from the local banana tree nursery to our garden.   The boys are full of energy as they all vie for who is going to push the wheelbarrow.  Even young Benjami worked with all his might carrying one of the trees over his shoulder.  The kids are all involved in growing a fruitful garden.  While the boys are working Boss Gardener is trimming back a “lela” tree to allow for more sunshine and give the tree a pruning.  In the meantime, Zachary discovered that the tree not quite in the center of the garden is bearing fruit.  He picked six cashima, a sweet fruit full of seeds, which he ate immediately, planting the seeds for future trees.  Yesterday Wonel marked off an area where he planted carrots, eggplants, and tomato seeds.  Sugar cane is planted in the far rear of the garden, not that we are going to make sugar, but locals like to peel off the rough outer skin revealing a soft sweet white inner part of the plant, which they chew and enjoy the natural sweet flavor of sugar cane.

Like a garden anywhere in the world, sufficient water is needed to keep a garden healthy and growing.  It rains very little in Bondeau.  I see clouds all around, lightening in the sky, but no rain here.  A few nights ago, however, it rained and rained hard and strong, straight down.  The kids loved running around in the pouring rain getting soaking wet.  We placed huge barrels to catch the runoff from the roof.  They filled up in a very short amount of time.  So then we placed every bucket, basin, waste basket and anything that holds water to catch all the water possible.  The following morning the girls and Naomi used all the water to wash all the clothes, about three days’ accumulation.  We’ll continue to use rain harvesting and hopefully keep enough water on hand to water the garden when needed.

At our nightly chapel service here at Kay Timoun we either pray for rain or give thanks for rain.  It’s all part of life at Ste. Marie Madeleine Parish.  People pray for what they need and give thanks for what they have.

A little girl named Angi

 

Benjami has a younger sister, Angi.  Angi (pronounce Ahn gee) is four years old.  I’ve known her since she was an infant.  Her mother is away in a convalescent home.  Angi has been coming here to Kay Timoun and spending the day.  I would love to be able to take her in.  She needs loving attention but the Kay Timoun budget is not able to provide for another child.  In the meantime, Angi comes here in the morning after the older kids have gone to school.  Always barefooted, I was able to give her a pair of sandals that she treasures.  She usually needs a bath and a change of clothes, and then breakfast.  She stays till evening when I walk her back to her house.

There are so many children here in Bondeau that need loving attention, three meals a day, schooling, shoes…all that the kids at Kay Timoun are blessed to have.

 

Part of my Deacon's letter to St. Gregory's

Life here for the poor is unlike anything we can imagine, unless we see for ourselves.  For instance, a poor mother comes here every day, walking a long mountain trail while carrying her twin babies with her toddler boy following close behind.  She makes the long trek to receive food for her twins.  I have been making them breakfast for the past three months and watched them grow from undernourished infants into chubby little babies.   Mother and little boy had been dressed in rags until I gave them clothes that had been donated. Mother shows her gratitude by helping with the laundry here at Kay Timoun.   A young father of four comes here to weed and cultivate the garden.  Garden work is a back-breaking job because it’s all done with a hand held curved sickle. In exchange for his hard work, he receives a few dollars, a meal, and clothes for his children.  Many accidents happen while people do grueling garden work, trying to grow food to sustain their families.  This week an older man came here seeking help with a deep wound on his leg because he accidentally hit his leg with the sickle.  He walked over a mile to get here, all the while bleeding profusely.  We stopped the bleeding and treated his wound, and recommended that he go to the hospital for stitches, which he did.  He continues to come and have the bandage changed.  Life here for the poor is unbelievably difficult.  Personally, I don’t see how they survive!

On to brighter news, Ste. Marie Madeleine Parish has a new priest-in-charge, Rev. Pere Jean Bertrand Phanord.  He has done marvels with the parish in just the short time he has been here.  He lives here in the guest house with his wife, Patricia, and three boys.  Church attendance is up so much that people are now sitting outside of the church.  Even the 6:30AM service on Friday morning is a full house.  He has a gift for coordinating teams of people to do ministry in the church, as well as work on the campus.  It looks to me that everyone likes him, and people are willing to participate in parish improvements.  He brought with him a musician who has been working diligently with the children, forming a children’s choir.  They practice often, singing simple melodies accompanied by him and his guitar.   A team of young men have been sickling and cleaning the grounds.  Others have worked on the school building, painting, building cabinets and desks, and making general repairs.  The school feeding program is up and running again under his direction.  However, the price of food in Haiti has increased significantly in the last two months.  As a result of higher prices, the feeding program could be in jeopardy very soon. 

Butterflies and gardens.

It's so easy for me to put off writing.  Thoughts whirl through  my mind that I'll "write tomorrow", or "later on today".  "Who is really interested in what I have to say?" is another way to procrastinate.  I know, however, that a few people are interested, so that's why I'm sitting at my computer at this moment, on the second floor galri with not a breath of a breeze, as the sun sets to the west.

Earlier today I walked by the garden where we have planted twenty four banana trees, as many coconut trees, and beans that have sprouted and are growing into fine plants.  I have high hopes for this garden and have invested in a strong "live" fence to keep out the goats that can devour an entire garden in one sitting.  I've also made contact with a garden expert who will watch over the new plants, remove weeds, cultivate, and water the young plants when there is not rain.  We are grateful that it has rained a slow gentle rain several times since planting.  In another area, the "nursery", healthy tomato plants have grown from seed, carefully nurtured by Wonel.  Just as I stopped to admire the garden, hundreds of butterflies descended, white and yellow beauties, twirling and dancing all around.  Butterflies, the symbol of new life, dancing above my garden.  Is this a sign that with care the garden will flourish?  Is this a sign of "new birth", birth of lots of nourishing fruits and vegetables for everyone to enjoy?  Or is this simply Mother Nature?  Whatever the reason, if there indeed is a reason, the sight took my breath away and put me in closer touch with the One who created gardens and butterflies and me.