Hello All,
I hope this update finds you well. Things on our end remain busy and eventful.
In mid-September we began serving lunch to our kids again. We have about ⅔ of the kids that we used to have and are now just serving most children one big plate of food. We are continually amazed at how poor Haitians live on such small household incomes. We have been doing the numbers on what our people need to make a month to live with dignity and they are a bit mind boggling. Between rent, school expenses and daily food, their expenses are more than their income and that doesn’t even account for more frivolous expenses like new clothes, hair extensions, etc. The simple fact is that most people down here just skip food on a regular basis. Not uncommonly, they will live on sugar water or dirt balls made with butter and salt for a couple days so that they can buy a school uniform or get appropriate church clothing. By taking on our children’s daily lunch, we cut a big chunk out of our families expenses, ensure our children remain well fed and allow the families to focus on other financial priorities.
We had a funny cooking story the other day. We have two cooks, one is a total character and her name is Chikita (cheek-ee-tah). She is a great woman and would absolutely run through a wall for her family or Catherine and me. She is also not fantastic when it comes to conflict resolution and thinking things through..
The JRF Kitchen/eating area is in one of the homes that isn’t occupied by a family. Chikita was throwing dirty chicken water out the front door with a bucket and the family living on the other side of the building got annoyed. That water is filthy, brings mosquitos and is generally not something you want outside your front door. Catherine calmed down the situation and they agreed they would throw the water somewhere else. Five minutes later the neighbor made another comment, so Chikita starts yelling, “These people are BRUTA, BRUTA!” (a mix of rude, uncivilized) then grabs a bucket and starts throwing bucket after bucket of filthy water in front of these people’s house. Catherine then, again calmed things down. Unfortunately, the irony of throwing filthy chicken water in front of someone’s house for being rude/uncivilized was fully lost on Chikita. We are currently in the midst of conducting meetings that focus on communication and conflict resolution within the community.
We have started a new toddler program. We are working with the children age 18 months to 3 years. We are hoping to get them started learning English as children that age pick up languages incredibly quickly. Catherine and one of our new interns, Anna, have started the research and slowly bonding with infants. They have done a couple classes, but mostly they are helping the kids adjust to them and a new type of environment. In the first class, they gave the children blocks and some other toys and the kids had no idea what to do. None of them have toys at home and didn’t even know how to play! It was a shocking discovery. It is many of the children’s first time spending any significant time away from their parents and that has been a challenge for both the children and parents. We are excited to get the chance to work with them at such a young and impressionable age
As always, thank you all for your support. Many of you have been extremely generous and it is through you that we have been able to do our work. We are still struggling a bit to get up and running, so if you haven’t given in a while or want to give more, please do. We assure you it will be well spent. As always thank you for your support, we are making a difference in our children’s lives.
