my routine & babiessss

I've finally settled into a routine down here. I'm sure it'll change, especially since I'm taking the time to write it down, but I'm pretty happy with it for the moment. I wake up around 7am and make it over to St. Luke/ St. Philomene by 8ish. Depending on the day, I'll meet with people there for a while to figure out what we need and meet new administrators (happens often enough that yes, this is actually a part of the routine). Work at the warehouse until 1ish, then come back to St. Damien and the volunteer tents to have lunch. Chat with friends before I drag myself back to the hot, hot warehouse for another hour or two. The last two hours typically involve a lot less manual labor and a lot more "Kreyol lessons". That's my professional excuse for sitting and talking. To be fair, a lot of google translating goes on. Around 4pm, I head over to FWAL to play with the kids for about an hour. After that, I come back to St. Damien and go up to the abandoned baby room for another hour of playing with them. Walk back to my house from St. D, take a shower, and feel completely happy that I had such a full day. I'm so tired by the time I get back from FWAL, but I love going to see the babies. Every time I think I'm too tired and I make myself go up there, I'm so happy I did. I'm going to write about the babies that I've been spending the most time with because they are adorable and apparently I didn't do enough talking today...


I guess first I should describe sal pwason (the fish room). It's on the second story in the corner of the non-infectious side of the hospital. There's a big blue fish outside the door which is why it's called the fish room (the other rooms have a mango, balloon, etc). It's nicer to have the symbols, easier to remember and you don't have to be able to read to figure out which room your kid is in. The room is really nice with lots of windows on two of the walls. The walls are painted a Caribbean light blue, and little white boards hang over each crib, with the name of the child in the crib below. There are 12 cribs total right now, and the babies range in age from newborn to 3 years old. They are all children who have been abandoned at the hospital and are waiting for a social services organization, Beni Sociale, to figure out where they are going. Sometimes the children go up to our orphanage, however a lot of times (like now) our home is completely full so the babies end up waiting months and sometimes more than a year, for a more permanent home. Many of the children there are deformed and disabled, and sadly for some children there is nothing the hospital can do to help them and they are there waiting to die. The first time I went to visit the children, was the first time I had to stop myself from crying. It's very, very difficult to see the girl with advanced hydrocephalus or the baby who's joints are all going the opposite way, so her limbs are pointing the wrong directions. With these children, I usually just spend some time standing beside their crib, rubbing their hands or arms, although for some children this only upsets them. There are two older boys with some severe behavioral/mental disabilities and I hope that in time I'll be able to play with them a little bit. The babies I take out of the crib and walk around with, but my boys are who I spend most of my time with.

First is Lubin, a little one-year old with dark eyes and the roundest little mouth. He tends to sit back and watch everything that goes on, but has no problem letting me know that it's his turn to go on a walk outside. He's had a cold for a little over a week now, and when Bridget asked about his breathing, the nurse showed us that he's a cardiac baby. They think that he's a tet, which means our hospital has a program that could potentially send him to the US for surgery, but without a mother or father I think it's almost impossible to get the documents to go. Anyways, today we were playing and he was sitting next to the wall and the next thing I know, he's climbing his hands up the wall and stands up all on his own! I've held him up to practice standing, but he's never been interested in taking more than a step or two. I think he's just a little cautious and the day he decides he's ready to start walking, he'll just do it.


The second baby is Marco who's the oldest, I think about 2 and a half. He's big compared to most of the kids we work with, although I think if we were in the US he'd be about normal. He never talks, although he seems to understand Creole when you talk to him. What he lacks in verbal communication, he makes up for in his expressions. However he feels completely takes over, so when he's happy it is the most adorable thing. One day I was dancing with him in his crib and when I twirled around his entire face lit up and his smile reached his eyes and he let out such a happy shriek. Today, he started copying Yvens, who was doing Indian calls and I was trying to encourage Marco to keep going. I don't know the first thing about speech therapy, but if the kid barely lets out a peep, I'm definitely going to encourage him to be vocal however he can. He loves going on little walks around the hospital, kind of a borderline obsession, and today I decided the Dave Matthew's song, "Save Me" should be about Marco.


"I'm driving through the desert I, met a man
Who told me of his crazy plan
He'd been walking there for 20 days
He was going to walk on
For 20 more
Said 'How about a drink or a bite to eat?'
He said "No, my faith is all I need"
So then, save me
Save me mister walking man
If you can"

My third little guy is Yvens. Oh Yvens. He is about 1 and a half and pretty much never stops smiling. He loves smiling, yelling, Indian calling, blowing raspberries, jumping, pounding and all-around being adorable. All the nurses at St. D know him and call him menage mwen (my boyfriend). The only time I ever see him cry is when I have to put him back in his crib to leave. Even though he's got quite a ways to go before he walks on his own, that doesn't stop him from charging full speed ahead on our walks around the hospital, hanging onto my hands completely for support, while his little feet run all over the place. The other day it had rained, so the tile hallways were slippery and he was like a car stuck in the mud with his feet going a million miles a second slipping and sliding around everywhere. He has such an amazing personality and I can tell that he is going to be such a happy person, no matter what Haiti throws his way.


So there are my boys. Except for what the nurse said about Lubin, I know nothing about their families, their medical history... even their ages I'm just taking a guess at. Part of me wants to find out their birthdays, assess their development and work with them. But the other part of me, the part that I'm choosing to listen to, tells me to just play with them and love them exactly the way they are. They aren't my projects, my job. I desperately want what's best for them, but I know that this is out of my control. But I choose to get to know them because they are adorable, precious, beautiful children, just the way they are. And they return every moment of happiness I give them with cuddles, smiles and laughter.

Almost forgot my quote for the day-
Me: "Do you like Lady Gaga?"
YV: "Yes because when she sings she's almost naked"