Great news yesterday, the little girl in oncology’s father came!! I still haven’t been up to see her and her father yet, but I brought some puzzles back from the warehouse today to take to oncology, so I’ll definitely go tomorrow. I went the day before her father got here and it was so sweet because one of the older boys was so happy to see me. Every time I’ve tried to talk with him, he’s totally plugged in to Ivy’s i-pad, so I thought he barely noticed I was there, but he gave me a huge hug and told me he was very happy to see me which was so rewarding to hear.

I had a very busy morning, filled with visitors taking supplies for their various projects. It feels so great to have volunteers and employees come in to find the supplies that they’ve needed and be able to give it to them. Even though I can’t take credit for getting a single donation in that warehouse, it’s so nice to be the one that says, “yes, you can have that” and they respond, “oh this is like Christmas!”

I also (finally) met the medical director of St. Luke Hospital and she is fabulous!! She is everything that this organization needs plus more, and I can already tell that she and I are going to work very well together. Almost all of her suggestions to me were things I hoped to accomplish but just needed the go ahead, and a couple of ideas I hadn’t thought of, but instantly realized how well they fit into her needs, as well as the needs of the other programs we supply.

We had a fabulous girl’s night at Caribe Lodge and I ate some delicious fish that was absolutely worth the US price. The lightening was beautiful as we drove home and even lit up my path walking back from the car. But the first big roll of thunder made me think- bomb- then earthquake, it was such a full, low sound. Now the sound is clapping like its back in the sky where it belongs.

I’m back at home thinking about programs that we have to close because of budget issues. Thinking about 400 children that will not be going to school. Thinking about good people that will no longer have a job. Thinking about my time in the fundraising office, when raising money was a gift, not a need. I have so much respect for the people who work to raise money, because I know exactly how hard it is, and without them we would be nothing. I want to say that I wish I knew then what I know now… but here’s the reality: I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I was a college student, with a job, with a leadership role and helping this organization was a hobby. I still remember, towards the end of my time volunteering, when Father Rick said something much more eloquently than I’d ever be able to repeat. But the message was so simple- if this was your neighbor, you would never let this happen. If you see a picture of a child running down a street filled with garbage in tattered clothes, you think “oh ya, that’s Haiti.” But if you see with your own eyes, that same child, you know that it’s the middle of the day and that child doesn’t go to school. What if your best childhood friend, the one you played with every day after school, didn’t GO to school because their parents didn’t have the money to send them? When you see that child with your own eyes, you know he’s being taught to throw his garbage into the street. When you see his tattered clothes, with your own eyes, you want to cry because you know how important personal appearance is in Haiti and either someone doesn’t care about him enough to take care of him or they don’t have enough money to do it. And you’re not sure which is the greater tragedy.