Haiti Journal - Wednesday, March 25, 2009

6:42 am   

Rain.  All night.  Barking.  All night.  In fact, I'm fairly certain that at least one dog was devoured by the others last night.  I woke up with a start last night to the gnarly sounds of a vicious dog fight outside my window.  Alyssa was wide awake with me!  We both just stared into the darkness until it was over.  Then, we awoke again later to sweeping on the street outside at 4:30 am.  I am tired.

6:38 pm

I love singing Bible songs with the first campers of the day.  I do my best to sing the words in Creole, and the little ones correct me.  I love to sit near them and hold dance with them.  I love to hear their collective, tiny voices echoing off of the church walls.  They come to camp hungry.   Hungry for lots of things, but hungry for food.  It it so satisfying to feed them...to watch them eat...and to see them perk up with energy soon after.

The second soccer camp of the day went so much better today!  The middle grades learned their lesson, I think.  Getting to play today was a good motivator for good behavior.  They stayed off the fields until 10:30 am when it was their turn.  This allowed us to really focus our attention on the littlest kids.  The toddlers stayed in the church for songs and games, so for the first camp, we really only had preschoolers through 1st grade.  It was perfect.  They did passing games and even got to practice taking shots on goal.  Then, when it was time for the second camp, the children stayed organized and listened.  We skipped any type of drills for the second group and went straight to setting up teams and games on two fields.  One field for the boys and the other for the girls.  The girls were so excited to have their own field, their own teams, their own ball.  I stood between the two fields and tried to referee both simultaneously.  The boys seem to disregard any out-of-bounds markers, and so their play often spills over onto the girls' field...until I chase them off (unless the girls on the field get to them first). 

There are many more boys than girls.  Many girls don't want to play soccer.  They stay on the sidelines or sit under trees and play clapping games.  Still, both of the fields are crowded.  

I did not get to go on a walk into Pillatre with Parice today.  Instead, I served as referee for a soccer game for the high school/university boys.  They played on the larger field - 9 v 9.  They were mostly the same young men who played Monday afternoon.  My friend, Omar, from Monday, was back.  He said that they all had late classes yesterday and that was why they weren't around.  No late classes today, though, and they were anxious to get on the field.  They played shirts & skins today.  They are very slender, and yet, very muscular.   

Omar speaks English very well.  Today, I told him to tell the teams that the winners would receive soccer jerseys (that were donated by American.  This inspired more intense and aggressive play than Monday's game.  The trickiest part was that the concrete for the basketball court was still being poured...about 10 feet behind one of the goals.  I am certain that the players understood what I was saying when I explained that the ball could NOT be kicked into the drying concrete.  But, I suppose it was inevitable.  The ball sailed into or skimmed across the soon-to-be court 3 times.  Yet, the men working on the court let us have the ball back each time - miraculously. 

They played two 30 minute halves again today, and when the time ran out, they were tied 7 - 7. I put another 5 minutes on the clock and finally, the skins team won.  We took a team photo, but not before there was a crazy MOB of young men grabbing for their prize jerseys!  I came out of the mob unscathed, and recounted the best plays of the game with Omar and a few others. (Apparently, when they go to university, many students learn English, because several of the young men from this 3rd camp of the day spoke it very well.)

I am still on a high from that game.  It was exhilarating.  It was awesome to watch.  My first Haitian football game!  I am exhausted.

Somewhere during the day we also sorted through the bags and bags of donated clothing, dividing them into piles for women, men, boys, and girls.  I was able to see the medical clinic close up.  The doctors and nurses there take any and all patients and deal with all kinds of illnesses and issues.  There are surgeons who make visits to the clinic, too.  Oh, and I learned that they do not use anesthesia for their surgeries.  Ever.  It's just too hard to obtain and too risky to administer.  Think for a minute about the last time you...had a tooth pulled?  Had a lump in a breast removed?  Had your tonsils taken out?  Had an appendix removed?  Ok, I'll stop.  You get the point.  Ouch.  Haitians are tough.  We Americans are wimpy.

God is opening my eyes.  It's just what I prayed for.  I am here reaching, touching these forgotten people.  I see their desperation and brokenness.  Their hunger and beauty.  Their kindness and humor.  Their hope and joy.  I love them.  I see them.  I hear them.  This whole world I never knew.  They matter.  God sees their suffering and hears their cries of agony and their songs of praise.  And, He sent me to be a love letter to them.