Food, Soccer, and Sick Babies

Each morning on the way to the work site we purchase bread through the car window from street vendors.  When we get to the site we put peanut butter on each piece and hand it out for breakfast.  We also try to keep two four gallon coolers full of water for everyone.  We are fortunate that a water vendor has opened right next door.

Today we walked down to the current little church and watched the ladies making lunch.  They were using the 3 pot grate that Bob purchased for them last year.  Can you imagine boiling beans and rice for more than 100 people over charcoal?

The Croix des Mission neighborhood soccer team came by and played a demonstration game for us.  They look sharp and play well in the uniforms Bob bought for them last year.  They are number one in their league and a source of pride for the neighborhood.

Contrary to Haitian tradition, we decided to feed the 52 children first.  (Kids eat last in Haiti.)  Gilbert, the neighborhood boss man, made a plan.  He sat the children on concrete blocks in a small area of the yard and we formed a "plate brigade" passing the filled plates from person to person.  Quickly, all the children were fed.  Next the workmen got their plates heaped high with tasty beans and rice.  Next came the soccer team and then the remaining adults.  It went quite smoothly.  I need to confess that the VIM team was fed before the children at the insistence of the cooks.  I guess you can't break all the traditions.

On the way home from the work site, we stopped at Grace Children's Hospital to bring the babies "comfort dolls" which were handmade by ladies in New Hampshire.

Cynthia was still there.  She is a teenager now who was orphaned in the earthquake, but the nurses let her stay in pediatrics.  She has epilepsy.  I wonder what will become of her in the future?  As you can see in the picture, Joe's heart was touched as he talked with her.