anpil travay

Monday...the start of a new week. Today felt like it was a full moon. Lots seemed to go wrong today. People were moody, not showing up for work and lots of not fun information revealed.

The high point of the day was my surprise dinner date with Gail Buck and Dr. Ben Nau. Dr. Nau took Gail and me to dinner at a nicer restaurant called La Reserve. The food is amazing, the atmosphere very pretty and open air and the company wonderful. Much needed debrief and time away after a tough day.

Not much else to write. Yesterday Gail took the Portland Healing Hands for Haiti team out around town. We stopped at the Hotel Oloffson where the popular band Ram plays and where famous people like Mick Jagger and others have staying at the famous hotel. We had some sodas/beers/rum punches and continued on our tour of destruction around the city. We stopped to buy some stuff from the artisans and I bought a fun painting.

The other day in the clinic, the team saw our first really malnourished child. His mother brought him to the clinic and he was just completely covered in bruises. The kids we have been spending time with from the neighboring bidonville (slum) have been hungry but not malnourished. This boy was so utterly skinny... We gave him some vitamins and had to send him home. The mother continued to sit there, I'm sure hoping we would do more and provide some food or some miracle to make him better.

It is so hard to hear and see these people that you wish you could do so much for them. The other day at one of the orphanages I played with a little girl with cerebral palsy who has not had stimulation or attention probably her whole life. She wouldn't let go of my hand and giggled as I touched her face. She was soooo excited to have someone there with her. I literally break into tears picturing the look on her face as we walked out. It breaks my heart how little I did and how much that meant to her. I know I could not at this time in my life take care of a special needs child but it kills me to think that that beautiful little girl will live her whole like with no kisses, no attention and no hands to hold.