I am sure you remember the video I posted a couple weeks ago, of Pastor Rigaud explaining about these mud pies… how the people in La Saline feed them to the children, so that their stomachs don’t ache while they are slowly starving to death. To read, or even write those words, seems so unreal, but this is the reality of these children.
photo by Jack Miller
I received an email update from Jack today, outlining Pastor Rigaud’s plan for helping the children in La Saline. It was so exciting to hear, that I had to share it here! Pastor Rigaud’s first plan is to build a school, where the children will receive a well balanced meal each day while attending.
“ He believes that the best way to address this issue is by starting a school for the kids, including a kindergarten (age 2 and up). He believes that he could start with a facility of about 9-10 classrooms, a kitchen, a storage room and a cafeteria. With that, he feels that he could accommodate about 500 children (kindergarten and elementary) in some form and include feeding the kids as part of the program. The deal is that the kids have to go to school to qualify for the food which then sets some level of commitment on the part of the kids and parents to participate. Additionally, it provides hope that kids can improve their socioeconomic position by obtaining an education. “
He also wrote:
“This approach is essentially the same model that he has employed in his school adjacent to his large church, except this one will be in the slums of La Saline. There will be a need for funding the construction of the facility, to hire staff and purchase food in the long run. Tom Apsey (my traveling companion) and I met with some other leaders from our church this week and we are going to attempt to get something moving in the way of planning and fund raising. It is too early to launch anything but we are working to place some structure around the concept and move forward.
Pastor Rigaud told me that he is planning to move forward with the school with whatever resources he can get. The government has deeded him land in La Saline which he would utilize for this purpose. He also mentioned that we could establish some sort of program to provide food for the kids in the interim as the construction, staffing and enrollment process will take some time to get off the ground.”
I’ll post more details as I hear them, as well as ideas of how we can help!
In case you missed it, we are now raffling off another quilt donated through a connection at Rich’s work! Visit our fundraising blog for more details! If you have ideas for places to sell raffle tickets, or would like to sell some yourself, let me know!
Someone this week made a video of the walk to school for the kids from the orphanage. He just happened to be following our boys!!! You can see Augenson holding Wisly’s hand, and navigating him through the perils of the 1/3 mile walk through the alley-ways of Cite Militaire, in Port-au-Prince. Enjoy!!!
This is the photographer, Jack Miller, whose stay overlapped ours at the orphanage. He came with another gentlemen to see the orphanage addition project being funded by their church, and to also scope out other needs, and see where else God might have them try to make a difference.
I will be writing again soon, with more information on the effort to help the people of La Saline (the part of the city where you saw the video of the mud pies). The Haitian government has given some land to Pastor Rigaud, for him to use to try to help the people of that neighborhood, and he is hoping to build some housing there, to get people up out of the dirt, and into stable buildings, instead of leaning tin and cardboard “huts”.
Thank you, Jack, for helping to tell Haiti’s story… our boys’ story, the story of our new dear friends, so that the world will see…
In my first post about our time in Haiti, I talked about the intertwining of the appalling and the lovely. Here is a very short glimpse at the appalling truth of life in Haiti, outside the protecting walls of the orphanage. This is why we are not done in Haiti. This is why we ache to do more. To tell the stories. To raise aid. For the children who do not have the sanctuary of a place like the orphanage.
These videos and pictures are from two groups who traveled just after we did. The second group was a medical team, who also went to the tent cities on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, and set up a day clinic to offer care.
I’m not an activist. I’m not a missionary. I’m a mom, a wife, a music teacher. But I am also a follower of Jesus. Who somehow has chosen US for some kind of adventure we do not fully grasp. (That’s probably a good thing!) We have committed to enfolding two orphan boys into our family. And, somehow, we find that means we have also committed to loving Haiti. For their sakes.
This adoption journey has been many things… ranging from thrilling to heartbreaking, and everything in between. Life-changing. And this has probably been the easiest part.
So much adjustment is ahead of us all. We are going to need God’s help, wisdom and strength to navigate it.
One good thing about this process, is that it keeps you thinking, keeps you praying, keeps you asking, and keeps you listening.
I remembered in one of my God-chats this week, that as a little girl, whenever we had missionaries visit the church, and share their stories, and encourage people to ask “God, do you want me to go out for you?”, that I would say “What about ME, Lord? Do you want to send me? I could go!”
And as there never seemed to be any answer, I figured, a little bit sadly, “I guess He isn’t calling me.”
And now, 15 years of marriage, and 3 kids later, I have been privileged to love on some orphans in Port-au-Prince Haiti. And Rich and I both strongly believe we are not done with Haiti, even when our boys come home. We don’t pretend to know what that looks like. We only know that at this point, after the sudden change of direction to our path, we have to remain open! The sky is the limit. As Rich said, “this is just the beginning of the adventure.”
Yes, there is still so much of wonder, that “this-is-really-my-life?”-feeling in this journey. God’s timing is truly not our timing. But it is a thrill to watch Him unfold His plan.
I have always wanted to go to a foreign country, and speak French. (I think I have mentioned when I was 7 I decided I wanted to be able to speak FIVE languages). Often I was convinced I had lost all the French I had learned. But although my aural comprehension is rusty, I had a chance to speak plenty of French in Haiti, and also to try out my new Creole!
We know there are big bumps in this path we’re on. We have our eyes wide open.
But for now, I am choosing to revel in the wonder of it all.
In some ways, it is still hard to believe **I** went to Haiti.
It’s hard to believe that it was me holding those boys.
These beautiful little guys, who lost their mother, and were abandoned by their father, found in the streets a year ago by Pastor Rigaud, are now calling me Mom.
I spent many moments just in awe of that fact. In awe that I was in fact, even in Haiti. (I have never left the country before… let alone going to one with 3rd world living conditions). Wondering how I came to be there, agreeing to mother these boys who have been through trauma after trauma. Wondering if I even could. Asking God to do a work in me, to make me able to fulfill what He has called me to. To give me a real mother’s heart for them. Because it is different, meeting a child for the first time, that you did not give birth too. But my aching heart already shows that God is doing a work in me.
This is the last morning we were there. In the wee hours, the boys climbed into bed with me. Somehow, it’s all really true. I, Spring Gouette, went to Haiti. I held two precious orphans in my arms, and told them in Creole they are my sons, and they are beautiful, and I am happy to be their mother. I held Augenson as he sobbed at our departure, then watched him have to shut down emotionally because of the pain. I cried in the airport. I cried in the plane. Somehow, in the wonder of God’s plan for my life, I have two children, waiting to come home to me from Haiti.
And there are stories that I want so much for you to know…. At one meal, we gave Wisly a fried chicken drumstick.
He took 3 or 4 bites from it, and then went to the stairs and passed it up to Tomas (another boy about his age),
who took a couple bites, and who then passed it up the steps to another child, who took
a couple bites, and then passed it on again, to another child. Wisly ran back up to his chair,
grinning. Where he took a handful of rice and went back over to the stairs, and began to pass out
grains of rice. He got just as much pleasure out of sharing it, as he did eating it, I think.
In fact, he couldn’t sit at a meal, without going to share some with the children peeking over the stairwell.
When Pastor Rigaud took us to the ice cream parlor (that looked like a place in an
American mall… air conditioned, even!), the kids saved most of their cookies to share
when they got back, and even insisted on wrapping up the left over ketchup to bring
back for other kids to have a taste.
I wish I could explain the feeling of sitting in the church service, listening to the background
music being played. Upon realizing I knew the tune, I began to sing along quietly to myself.
Then I noticed what I was singing… “Give thanks, with a grateful heart. Give thanks….
And now… let the weak say I am strong… let the poor say I am rich… because of what
the Lord has done… for us…”
I started to weep sitting there. In this room full of several hundred Haitian people, one of
a small handful of white people, I saw this song was the cry of their hearts… and I was humbled
to think that I had sung those very words before… but they had not cost me what those words
cost these people. Another powerful juxtaposition... the weak… truly strong. The poor… truly rich.
These mixed pictures are tightly woven together in my mind and heart. The bucket shower,
the non-flushing toilet, the heat, and the smell, are so closely intertwined
with the joy, the friendship, the laughter, the love, and the worship, that I can’t see the appalling without the lovely.
In Haiti, where I was never fully wet or dry, my heart both broke, and expanded.
I felt humbled, and honored. I was a stranger, and I was family.
How do children who are not yours, become so deeply yours? To where you can
be physically ill and heartbroken to walk away, and enter the airport without them?
So honored to have been chosen to mother these special boys.
Well, along this path of our adoption journey… somehow we squeeze in some “real life.” In between fundraisers, we plan family parties, and in between paperwork and appointments, we do our homeschooling, and at this time of year, strive for more field trips out of doors.
Today we ventured to a piece of nature 10 minutes from us, that I am sad to say we have never explored! The Thorncrag Bird Sanctuary.
We were originally going to meet friends, but ended up exploring on our own; life is like that sometimes! So the kids fought past disappointment, and decided to enter into the spirit of it. And boy, they did great! We ended up sitting by the pond above, and I asked if anyone wanted to sketch anything. (Something I try to encourage on outings.) At first, only Molly wanted to draw, and then Phoebe joined her. I decided to write a poem instead. Low and behold, soon we are all writing poetry. Here was our first group effort:
Poem at Thorncrag: May 7, 2010
By Mom, Molly, Phoebe and Levi
I toss in a stone
And the rippling waves
Are growing across
Like the rings of a tree
Tree branches creaking
And little birds sing
A wonderful visit
With the woods in spring
I sit on the bench
And watch the waves
Then the water turns
Back to normal again
The whispering wind
And the rustling leaves
Announce to the world
Spring is here again
Then Phoebe added her own:
By Phoebe Gouette
Sun shining down, warm and bright
It brings me so much delight
Suddenly a special sight
A butterfly, brown and white
Levi added his own, after discovering a thin web with his face while leading the way down a trail. We took this picture to go with it, too! (This proud Mama LOVES this boy’s way with words… I did NOT prompt or suggest any of his poem).
By Levi Gouette
Spiderwebs gleaming in the afternoon light
Sun breaks upon branches, a beautiful sight
When the golden orb sets and night dawns on the sky
(This proud Mama LOVES this boy’s way with words… I did NOT prompt or suggest any of his poem).