Water Truck Day in Cite Soleil

We started the day with a great breakfast and meaningful passage about love from Gary.  This was appropriate because we were going to Cite Soleil, the poorest area of Port-Au-Prince.   When our tap tap arrived we were swarmed by excited children running towards us just wanting to be held and acknowledged. Wow!  We were overwhelmed and so happy to see those smiling faces and outstretched arms in the midst of the seemingly chaos. These children were beautiful, and we were happy to scoop them up and play with them. We thought of the quote from this morning’s passage:  To lose yourself in others' arms or in another’s company or in suffering for all that suffer…..To lose yourself In such a way is to find yourself. Is what love is all about. Is what love is. We focused on those sweet faces and spent time sharing love.

In the street women and children lined up with large buckets and barrels to gather water brought in by the water truck daily.  We were struck by how focused and serious they were because this was the only water that they had access to each day.  We assisted them to place the heavy buckets on their heads to take to their homes, sometimes blocks away. Some of these buckets weighed half the weight of these young girls and women. Just helping lift them to their heads was a real struggle for us. Tina tried to carry a bucket a little way to make it easier , and was barely able to carry it.   Each time we helped them, these lovely workers thanked us and gave a smile. We made three stops in different locations.  In each location the scenario was the same.  More beautiful children reaching up to be held, more women and sometimes young men lining up with buckets to be filled and put on their heads to carry back to their homes.   We were tired by the third stop, and it was humbling to think that these wonderful people of Haiti still had so much more work to do for the day, and we could go home and rest.

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A bright spot in Cite Soleil was Hope Church, which opened in February of this year. It was built on a former garbage dump in the center of the city.  Here we found a large, brightly colored church space with three classrooms for the area children.  Our guide, Valery, explained to us how this church has been impactful in changing the hearts of the people who attend. Once again the children who were in school spilled out of the doorways to wave and smile.  We were so honored that our group was able to pray here for the people of this area.

 

 

Another highlight of the day was watching soccer practice and serving Feed my Starving Children Manna Packs to the teams sponsored by Haitian Initiative.  This is a program where the families apply to send their children to join a boys team or girls team.  Here they learn to play soccer, but they learn so much more.  Team work, cooperation, community are all taught along with the sport.  The program also includes a daily meal of FMSC food, which is often the only meal they receive for the day.  We were able to take part in cooking and serving the food to the children.  It was amazing how the children looked out for each other: they wouldn’t eat until their table mates had been served and shared food with each other.  They even offered to share it with us.  One boy had a baggie in his pocket and he packed up his food to take home, while his friend gave this same young boy half of his own food. It was a humbling sight to see those young children, who had so little, share with each other. 

As we climbed into our tap tap to head home we were all exhausted, but hopeful from seeing the resiliency and the sense of community they shared.  We saw God all over in all the people we met, in their hard work and joyful smiles, in their perseverance in their hearts and in ours.  It was a wonderful day.

 

Claire Gilbert

Lori Pfeifer

Tina Zerrath