Cite Soleil

I dont really know how to follow up w PJs thank you, other than a thank you to him in return, kind of a big one actually - He came to Haiti with me- how great of a husband do I have!!  Its' great to share this experience with someone you love and I am so happy to have him by my side supporting me. Enough mushy gushy.

Yesterday the large group left and a smaller one arrived. Following the departure of the group we helped strip the beds and make them for the next group. This group consists of people from Michigan and from Virginia (richmond area). Everyone seems great. We also dropped off the wedding dresses we organized at the maternity center in an extra closet. We heard last time we were over there that there was a mother expecting a baby any day now. Well, that day was yesterday. We walked up to the house, and there she was, in labor, on the front porch in the Haitian heat. PJs look of shock when he walked past her was pretty amusing. They have a poster up on the labor positions they learned about and she was following the poster perfectly. When we asked Beth later on how it went,
we were sad to learn it didnt at the maternity center, and that she had to be transferred to Doctors Without Border for a C section. Beth explained how its tough to do that, and they always prefer not to if they can avoid it. Its very crowded and they only take in the most critical cases, so they have to wait until someone is "critical enough" to get the care they need.

This morning we woke up earlier than usual (which is fine because I'm awake most of the night anyways...) and headed 30 minutes somewhere to a Haitian American church. It was an interesting service with great music - the Haitian girl who sang was amazing, and her voice brought tears to some of the volunteers eyes.  Church was followed by a "tour" on our way to lunch at Beth and Johns house.. We all piled in the Canter not knowing where we would go or what we would see. We stopped by the Presidential Palace, at least where it used to be before the earthquake and then drove by the outskirts of Cite Soleil, an area I had not been too - and no one I knew had been to. We also stopped by the beach for a much a needed breath of fresh ocean air.

Cite soleil: Just when I thought I had seen the worst of Haiti, I saw the worst of the worst. What we saw was absolutely unimaginable, unfathomable to comprehend, shocking to the core - and we only saw the outskirts. Small children with swollen bellies played barefoot in trash filled open sewage hunting for food. Gangs guarded the streets. Hundreds of the thousands of people crowded on top of each other where electricity, running water, and food were scarce. No one goes into Cite Soleil... no matter how tough or big the charity or ministry, they just dont go. Food trucks do not go. Volunteers do not go. Doctors do not go. It is too dangerous, it is too much, and there are too many. Only those from the Jordan UN go, and they go heavily armed and are not afraid to use them. We sped through the outskirts in awe. On one side of the road, the beautiful blue Caribbean waters, and the other, Cite Soleil. These people did not have jobs, they did not have joy, they were not friendly, it was dangerous, they were not laughing, and they were not nicely dressed. It was not like Port Au Price, where despite the vast and extreme poverty, people had joy and they had pride. The hope had been drained from every angle in Cite Soliel.  Its not a place reporters would report in. Its not a place you would see visiting Haiti. Its not a place you would ever want to see.... because once you see it, you can never erase it.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cit%C3%A9_Soleil
Cité Soleil (Kreyol: Site Solèy, English: Sun City) is an extremely impoverished and densely populated commune located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. Cité Soleil originally developed as a shanty town and grew to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 residents, the majority of whom live in extreme poverty.^[1] The area is generally regarded as one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of the Western Hemisphere and it is one of the biggest slums in the Northern Hemisphere. The area has virtually no sewers and has a poorly maintained open canal system that serves as its sewage system
The area has been called a "microcosm of all the ills in Haitian society: endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services, unsanitary conditions, rampant crime and armed violence".^[5]

There is so much to be done here in Haiti. I am so thankful I can help Heartline and dip my toes into this giant pool of need.