Childhood

Yesterday my teacher friends Dawn and Sarah and I went with a friend of a friend to visit a children's program in City Soleil, one of the more infamous parts of Port au Prince, known for the poverty and instability that have thrived there since the earthquake. As we drove over to City Soleil, Lukens, a young Haitian medical student, explained to us that he went to visit the neighborhood a while back with a pastor who was working there and was touched by the needs of the children there.  He said he was surprised by the conditions that they were living in and also by how they didn't know anything about Jesus.  Again the heart of compassion and concern for others, which I have often seen in my Haitian friends, was evident.  There was a need, God showed it to me, and so here I am serving. 

On Saturdays the program usually has about 75 children for the Bible and feeding program and on Sundays they have church for about 2,000 children.  We spent the whole day with some of the most joyful, clever, silly, and welcoming children.  We shared stories in fractured French/Creole/English, sang songs, played games, drew pictures, and waited for a simple meal of rice and bean sauce to arrive.  

The children were eager to try to converse and ask questions of their new friends.  Where do you live? What is your mother's name?  Do you have work?  How old are you? (Apparently that isn't a cultural taboo here!)  Through the course of the day I had many different hair styles put together by the girls who thought this funny strawberry-blonde hair was something very strange.  We played a Haitian version of the game Jacks with little pebbles and made silly faces at each other.  It was a day spent simply enjoying childhood.

One of the children, a little boy with cerebral palsy, captured some of the moments of the day with my camera.  I think his photographs taken from the view of his wheelchair are a perfect glimpse into our day with the beautiful children of City Soleil.  A day of fun and joy and silliness - a day of childhood, which poverty and violence and instability has not been able to crush.

Thank you for following along with me on this summer in Haiti!  I'm thinking a lot about the children I am privileged to know and love back home and praying that they are enjoying their summers also and reveling in the simple joys that childhood brings, no matter where you live!

Much love in Christ, Jessie