Week 7

"Tout sa w'we, se pa sa."

- Nothing you see is what it seems.

Another week full of so much fun, love, and learning (most often by me!). English classes are back in full swing and it had been really awesome to get to work with each of my students and learn more about them. I am blown away by how quickly some of them are picking it up. This week one of the assignments was to write about their opinions and thoughts and the protests and two students wrote a full page in English with some super interesting insights into everything. So I was a proud teacher!

It was also the birthday of one of the girls at CESAH (Edyaina, one of the ten girls at the orphanage) so I got witness the whole shebang they put on for each kids birthday. Having snacks, cakes, decorations and her being led in to her “receiving line” in a dress and tiara. It was so over the top and made her so very happy. It was so great to see her have this special day where she felt important and most of the girls at the orphanage have never had or been to a birthday party in their lives, it falls pretty low on the priorities of families struggling to feed their children.

I also began to interview a few of the women that work at CESAH about there living situation. Rea explained to me that it had come to her attention that some of the women working at the school are living in terrible conditions. So with the UCLA group and donations from a few of us, we are going to all pitch in to buy materials for the women to improve/build their houses (ie cinderblocks, cement, tin roofs, etc). Hearing how hard these women have it, with up to 10 kids all relying on them for support with no aid from family or a husband. One woman’s roof is just wood planks that are splintering and she along with her 5 children sleep together on a mattress and when it rains they try to squeeze in one dry corner, waiting for the rain to stop and then set out all of their drenched belongings to dry. The hardest part for me was when I asked each one what their biggest dream was, and every. single. One. Said a better life for their children. That just really struck me because everything they do is for others, they have no one supporting them and dreaming for their lives to change.

On Sunday however, my spirits were lifted as I got to share one of the most incredible experiences: taking all ten girls from the orphanage to the beach for the first time. The UCLA group had arrived on Saturday and we felt this was a fun, awesome experience to get to share with these girls. They were SO excited the entire car ride (24 people in one van is not great for a 2 hour drive by the way) and when we got there, they couldn’t change into their suits fast enough. We went about an hour and forty five minutes north of Port au Prince to DeCameron, where we spent the day at a private beach with a pool for the younger girls (huge thanks to Soulouque’s friend Jean Marc for having us). Getting to everyone rolling around on the beach in the waves will forever be one of my favorite memories. There was swimming (isa - we tried! Only two of the older girls were brave enough to really swim), eating of PB and Js, hammock lounging, crab expeditions, and lots of snuggles. One of the best days I have ever had here and I feel so lucky that were able to bring a day, even if its just one day, of pure fun to these beautiful strong girls. They deserve it.