River fun

I went to Leogaqne on Friday to visit some of our kids clubs in South. I had no idea how difficult it was to get to them! We went over miles of tracks which only a very good 4x4 could get along, through, and along rivers, and then we had to walk for 20 mins. We also got stuck in a river on the way, and had to get out and push... The joys of working in a disaster zone. It was so worth it though! The kids were amazing! They were singing songs about malaria, as well as learning all about how to avoid all kinds of diseases and receiving psychosocial support. Then they played games, and had loads of fun. I realised that I need to make time to spend visiting all the work we do to remind myself why I'm here. Noit that I've forgotten, but it was just such an uplifting and encouraging experience that I kind of wished I could spend all my time playing with the kids!.They are so cool! So I have made a mental note to myself to get out to the programme as much as I can and see the difference we are making in people's lives, and see the smiles of the children as they have fun and forget for a little while the trauma they've been through. Here's a video of them playing...

Lack of control

Ever feel that your entire life is running away from you?  I went to New York but ended staying longer than planned because I was interviewing people. Then I got sick while I was there and came back to PAP with flu, and it's taken a week to get over that. It feels like life has passed me by for the last two weeks, and I am not in control of what I do. There are so many things that need to be done, important meetings to attend, donors to see, contacts to make, and yet I can't do what I know I need to because other priorities or demands get in the way. Sometimes I feel that things are out of my control, and if you know me, you know that is not a comfortable situation for me!! I am someone who likes to be able to go with the flow, or to be spontaneous. Instead my life is mapped out weeks ahead, and then things happen to get in the way that I cannot control. So I have to accept my limitations. I can only do what I can do. I am not multi-handed, and cannot clone myself so I am in a hundred places at once! I am not God, so I am not omniscient or omnipresent. I am just me. So instead I focus on what's important: why I'm here, and what I can do to change the little part of the world I live in, and pray I don't screw it up!

When rain turns into a river...

I was out the other evening meeting with some NGO colleagues when out of the blue it started to rain. The rain was so heavy it was impossible to walk in. We managed to get into our car under cover to go home, but then we had to go up Delmas, the main street in PAP that runs from the port up to Petionville, where we live. It is a steep hill! It had only been raining for 15 minutes, and already Delmas had turned into a fast flowing river. It was pouring down, and was above the bottom the engine and halfway up the car even on 4x4s. Women got out plastic bags to cover their hairdos and weaves (a very common practice in Haiti and funny for those of us not used to it to see a woman walking around with a supermarket bag on her head!) So there we were driving up a deep river flowing very fast downhill. It seems the drainage trenches that used to exist were destroyed in the earthquake, so the water had nowhere else to go. Pretty soon cars were stuck and being abandoned, and I wondered if we would even get home. Then suddenly it stopped as quickly as it had started, though the river kept flowing. It was in a way fascinating to watch. But then all I could think about were the people living in their tents. They would be very wet, even if their plastic tarpaulins could withstand the force of the rain, and the vast wastelands they live on would have turned to mud. Some even had their "homes" collapse. Hurricane season is coming, and there is little hope for Haiti to avoid it. More misery awaits, as even the few belongings people have left will continue to get wet, damaged and destroyed. I live here and yet I have no concept of what it means to live like that. I can only be thankful, again, that I get to live in a house, and work even harder to raise the money and build the houses that these people need!