As I sit here writing this blog on a Saturday afternoon in Haiti, our latest group of Britisonarys have left, and are likely somewhere over the ocean on their way to Miami, and then later on to Boston. By the time you read this, they will have landed at their home destinations, fresh back from a life changing week - not just for them, but for the family you see in this photo above, too.
Indeed, by the time you read this, the family featured above will have spent two nights in their new home, spent two days with the ability to cook for and feed everyone in their household 2, even 3 times per day if they wish. They will have spent two nights on a new, full-sized mattress with clean linens and pillows, rather than perched atop a rotting piece of plywood on a sheet stuffed with old rags and clothes to serve as a makeshift mattress. Both the Britsionary group in the photo above and the Haitian mother and her five children will have, by the time you read this, experienced many new firsts in their lives. What a wonderful thought!
We have been busy here at Be Like Brit ~ 2014 has brought us many exciting new things, and two Britsionary groups each month is just one of those amazing blessings! Most of you know by now what our Britsionary groups do ~ identify a family in need and essentially rebuild them a house. The posts are cemented in the ground and the walls braced for Hurricane force winds. What were once temporary shelters are now some semblance of a home. What were once flimsy pieces of metal, tarp, and twig are now secure, sturdy structures with the ability to withstand much more than their previous conditions would have. Our Britsionary group did an amazing job in just a short week at providing this family with a safe and clean place to call home.
They also got to spend some quality time with the children of Be Like Brit ~ who won't soon forget the loving group of Britsionarys who spent so much time playing with them and teaching them new things!
Last week, you read how lucky we were to have Dr. Vicki Kvedar and her daughter Julie on site to conduct extensive eye examinations for our children and staff here at BLB. This week, we were equally fortunate to have on hand a good friend and partner in our efforts, Steve Wood. Steve is the Associate Director of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Disaster Medicine Fellowship and works with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. He's a nurse practitioner who had not previously worked in a humanitarian medical setting.
Steve and the Fellows in the program along with our Medical Directors Susan, Greg, and Amalia are always accessible and on hand for me to send photos, questions about given illnesses, and seek advice for how to proceed with medical care for any given child at any given time here in Haiti. That, in and of itself, has been an incredible resource. Having had Susan visit us several times in 2013, I was thrilled to hear that Steve would be on hand to work our clinic for a full week alongside our Britsionary group while they were busy building a home! It's so important for those working with us to get a sense of what it's like on the ground here in Haiti, and Steve was wonderful and I know he will take much from this experience! We know he'll be back, too!
Here is Steve with another Britsionary, Jess, and Tooveno. Jess and Steve worked together to complete wellness checks on all 38 of our children, as well as 3 extensive physical examinations on our newest children. Overwhelmingly, Steve's findings were great! We have just two children we will be taking to Port for further testing to rule out some areas of concern which could lead to bigger health issues ~ but all in all, we've received a clean bill of health! Great!
Many of our Britsionarys make connections not just with the children and staff here inside the walls at Be Like Brit, but develop strong and lasting bonds with those children and families they help on their week-long service trips. You all may recall Samson. Samson lives with his mother and younger sibling in a tiny home on the mountain. One of our groups from last year worked hard to restore their tarp structure, and Len brought the boy Samson back to BLB to be cleaned up and treated for some medical issues he was presenting with.
Some members of that group, along with other followers from Facebook or Twitter wrote us asking how they could help Samson and his family further. We're happy to report that Samson, along with Johnny and Watson (two of his friends) are spending their Saturday's at Be Like Brit (ok, and sometimes their Sunday's , too!). Here, they get to eat with our children, take a shower, and help us out on our busy market days when we have to bring so much food up the mountain and cart it inside the building. We certainly don't make them work, but their appreciation for the compassion we extend to them is reciprocated by helping alongside our own children as they sort beans and carry produce inside and help Gilbert sort it in the kitchen. We've enjoyed having them for the past few weeks ~ and they are on a regular schedule now! More proof that the relationships and bonds we develop with our community, and the commitment to making life a bit better for those we can is an ongoing goal.
Samson and Watson, yesterday morning, at Be Like Brit!
After having two groups on site back to back, I was able to scoot away yesterday afternoon and sit by the ocean with a book I've been just dying to get back to. I went to Taino Beach ~ the local "NGO" beach. Yes, it tends to be overrun with NGO and development/aid workers from all over the world. Vendors aggressively try to sell you things like painted seashells, Haitian flags, bracelets, and the usual lot as far as souvenirs go. I've been around long enough that they know I'm not a vacationer, so they tend to leave me alone...
It's those times where I am able to get out of my own head ~ out of what can be the chaos of the orphanage, so busy with children running around, playing, learning; away from the sounds that kitchen and housekeeping and maintenance staff makes. Silence. Yes. So very golden!
In referring to misisonaries, aid workers, NGOs, and the humanitarian presence which descended upon Haiti post-earthquake, the authors collectively calls them the "crisis caravan". She essentially states that those individuals in the "crisis caravan" take the tragedies of others and use them for chances to feel better about their own, gluttonous and indulgent lives. As individuals who would exploit and hijack the tragedy of others for the opportunity to find more peace in their own decadent lifestyles and even goes so far as to call it "penance" for greed.
I won't go in to the politics around all of that. I won't even go so far as to say that I disagree with what she says. I will say, however, that the people I've met through Be Like Brit ~ the people who come to Haiti through our Britsionary program are, in fact, doing just the opposite. The caravan they climbed on board with was not an opportunity to "hijack other's tragedy" ~ rather it was because of the personal nature of how Be Like Brit came to be. While it's nearly impossible to not do so, in making generalizations, one must be cautious so as to not paint with such broad strokes...
Indeed, Be Like Brit feels unlike any other place I've worked. There is a sense of service, a sense of passion, a drive that can't be explained. An empathy and a motivation so unlike so many others which creates, by extension, an organic and genuinely rewarding experience. We hope our volunteers would agree, as it is certainly all of this for us as we are so blessed to work together with them. Not in search of forgiving ourselves for our own lives, but in honoring the lives of those who are no longer with us.
A bidonville; a shantytown. How many hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, call this sloping hillside home? How many individual stories of survival, of strength? Instead of looking at this photo and thinking about how strikingly different the people who live here might be from you, I challenge you to consider how you are, in fact, the same. As human beings, we simply cannot begin to know or appreciate others if we aren't able to demonstrate empathy. Don't confuse that with sympathy ~ feeling pity for another's misfortune often implies you know what that misfortune might be. It's easy to look at all Haitians and think of how awful their lives must be and how sorry you feel for them. It's also ignorant. Try empathy.
I think after a week in Haiti, our groups learn that. I think they learn that we're not all that different, we humans. Our standards and norms may vary, but we ought never judge each other against our own. There's your Sociology 101 lesson in ethnocentrism.
We're looking forward to another great but busy week here in Haiti! Life is Good Playmakers, Unleash Kids Laptop programming, and many more friends are sure to stop by. Who knows? We just might end the week with some new children coming in to call Be Like Brit home!
Enjoy a few more photos from our week, and thank you for reading!
