It’s the end of day two and one of our missionaries summed it up well: “we have done so much already that we could almost go home”. Almost being the key word. We definitely have enough stories to tell already, but we are happy to be staying here in order to continue the experience!
The day began with our first visit to the Children’s Home. We weren’t the only group that was volunteering there today—there were two others (that included some 40 high school kids) and it was also the day that the children’s’ parents came to visit. With all of that, somehow we all had children to hold and to love. (Fr. Thomas, who was also here last week with another Canadian group, told us there were many more children that had been admitted this week.)
The Missionaries of Charity’s work in the Children’s Home is mostly to take in sick and/or malnourished children and give them the care they need (for as long as they need it) in order for them to get better. Our work in volunteering with them is to give them the love, attention, and care that can help to speed the healing process.
As you might imagine, it is quite striking to walk into a room full of crying babies and try to decide which of them to pick up first! In the end, it is a lesson in humility for us to realize that we can only give what is in our power to give and that quality time with just one child just might be one of the most important moments we have had on this mission.
In the afternoon we went to run a sort of “day camp” at Joseph’s School. It is a school that Mission Youth has helped with for more than two years now in various ways. Today, we provided and English lesson for all the children as well as some fun games and a sack lunch. Depending on the kids’ ages, we had differing experiences in the classroom. Some of us taught the alphabet and played jump rope and soccer. Others had further vocabulary lessons (Fr. Andrew led his group in a rousing round of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”).
By 3:00 we were all off once more to the Children’s Home—some to spend more time with the little ones, while others took the opportunity to go to the Wounds Clinic that the Missionaries of Charity run three times a week downtown.
We are blessed to have quite a few people pursuing medical degrees in our group and all of them took advantage of this “hands-on” experience to serve the people of Port-au-Prince. It was hard for the missionaries to see the gravity of the wounds people came to get treated and know that in a first-world country they would never have had to live with these wounds. But even though they weren’t able to work a cure, they saw how just treating them was a healing experience for the people.
We ended our day back at the guesthouse, tired and still processing our experiences—which we tried to share after dinner. We ended the evening with Mass bringing the day before Jesus.
We ask you for your prayers tomorrow as we return to the Home for the Dying!
