Friday, January 25, 2013

Day 4

Each of the mornings that we have been here we have been greeted in the morning by roosters crowing. They roam the streets here looking for food along side the pigs and goats. Today was no different. I have had a lot of apprehension around helping adults and elderly. It's very much out of my comfort zone. That coupled with the fact that I cannot understand a word they say makes it even more difficult.

Yesterday visiting the elderly was a great experience and somewhat broke down that barrier for me. We visited a home that was constructed of 1 1/2" branches, left over wood from pallets, nails, tin and tarps. We brought three tarps with us to cover a tarp that was over the area where the bed was because there were holes in it. There was also a part of the house that had no covering at all. Because the structure was such small branches it was very difficult to attach the tarp to anything. We resorted to using some nails and a lot of rope to attempt to secure it. It was not the best but it was the best we could do. It took us over an hour to get that up on the roof with the help of one of the kids that lived there who climbed on top of the house (it nearly came down with him on it).

Once we set off today we went to a center for sick and dying adults. Our mission was to bring some lotion and use that for their feet, arms, etc. One guy I stopped to help looked to be in his mid 20's and his biceps were no bigger around than my wrist. I began to put some lotion on his feet and he started twitching. I looked back and he was laughing from his sensitive feet. It was great to bring laughter to him.

Our next stop was to a place called Apparent Project. This is an arts and crafts store that has all sorts of locally made necklaces, bracelets and a whole host of other items. All of the artisans put there items together right on site. We got to visit with them to see how things were put together.

The final stop was to hand out food, hygiene kits and a few soccer balls to the kids as well as some tarps. Many took the tarps over food and people literally followed you if you had a tarp to try to convince you that they needed one more than others. Some even tried to rip them out of your arms. At one point we ended up moving the truck even though we had not finished handing out the food as a mob of people formed and started tearing the bags open while still in our hands. It's hard to imagine things getting that bad that you are willing to get physical over food. For us we look into the fridge and if there is "nothing to eat" we simply go to one of hundreds of restaurants for food. We never even give it a second thought about going to a restaurant much less be concerned that we might get sick from the food being served there which is another thing to think about here. Something as simple as brushing your teeth with the local water is off limits here as you can get sick from the water. You also don't drink a Coke if it has ice in it for the same reason. The Coke here is the real deal however with real sugar and it tastes way better than Coke back home.

On a funny note, we ride around in a vehicle called a "tap-tap." It's their equivalent to a taxi but they cram as many people in them as possible. You "tap" the side of the vehicle so the driver hears you and they stop to let you out. Well, many of the roads here are in pretty bad shape. There was a larger tap-tap passing us on the left and he was leaning towards ours pretty badly due to the terrain of the road. It actually tipped slightly and smacked into the side of ours. Someone made the comment that it was just a tap-tap high five. Good stuff.

Tony Lambertz - Healing Haiti Team Member

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