Little Actions Build Into Big Results...

I woke up singing the tune to "We are the world," because that is the number one song that is played on the radio here in Haiti. There are so many different versions of the song and in so many different languages. The original song was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie back in 1985 for the famine/ hunger movement. This updated/re-mix version of the song is dedicated to the Haiti 2010 Earthquake. The reason why I was so excited when I woke up was because today's distribution was at an orphanage that I loved. There are around 25 to 30 cute-as-can-be children there. This will be the third time that I have visited this orphanage/church site. At exactly 5am everyone got into the car, with the Argentina army escorting us to the first site (God's Family Church) for our 362 families distribution. People were already lined up in front of the site, all ready to go. We pulled the truck, bad end facing the fence, into the compound. All the volunteers, both Tzu Chi and local, all lined up in triangular shapes to do the line-up for unloading the truck. One rice bag after another, we unloaded the truck. One box of blankets after another, we brought it all into the church area. The first 74 people received a ceremony and the rest was an ongoing flow of people to receive donations. I had the children line up as dividers in between the in-flow traffic into the church and the out-flowing traffic who are leaving with the goods in hand. I taught them the idea behind respecting others and manners. They all bowed down with me whenever a person came by with the goods and to say "Merci (Thank you). It is part of our goal, especially for Haiti, to focus on the education part. It is especially important with young children, since that is the time to plant the seeds of love, compassion, and knowledge. This was also a way to boost the children's confidence in their abilities and to include them into the ceremony as an equal party. They were super cute and imitated everything I did. Candy was passed out to the children and one or two of them immediately threw the wrappers on the ground. It is a reflex for Haitians because no one has ever told them no not to litter. To them that is what they know, and that is just how it is. If you look around the streets of Haiti, trash is one of the biggest problems. You will see mounds and mounds of trash around every corner of the street. This is not due to the earthquake, it was like this beforehand, the earthquake simply made it worse. So I educated the children about not littering and that trash belongs in the trashcan. Because there really are no trashcans to be found anywhere, whether it be on the streets or inside the home, it is something that they simply don't value. The little girl next to me asked, "Can we use a box?" I was happy to let her know yes that works. All the children followed suit after her and it was really a great sight to see. Little actions build into big results!

We have two more distributions this week at Croix de Mission, so we headed to the UN compound again to get approval for security measures from JOTC (Joint Operations Tasking Center). The meeting was super short today and I think we are going to be collaborating with the Jordanian army again. We also paid a visit to the U.S. Base to see how they were doing. It turns out they are leaving the base/Haiti for good in about two weeks, since they will be done with their time. The Ltc. (Lieutenant Colonel) told me that they are the disaster response unit, so it is mandated by law that they do not stay in a country for more than 90 days, no matter what the situation is. They are solely an International response team, because in the US it is up to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to attend to the crisis. So yeah, long story short, we will be no longer working with the US army....sadness.

After returning to the camp, I had a discussion to M. James about 10 different orphanages that are under the services of Médicines du monde - greece. I hope we can go conduct site assessments soon. After dinner, we had a quick meeting for the newly arrivals and to hand over our positions. Daai TV reporters and I are the only ones that are staying to the next rotation. There were a total of 25 newly arrived Tzu Chi volunteers this weekend. It feels weird to have so many people at the office at once. At night time, I headed out with the Daai TV crew to report on the nightlife of Haiti, such as filming people sleeping on the streets and the night market places. The story/images now are of people sleeping where ever they can find dry ground. The raining season is fast approaching us, so I really hope people can find some better shelter and the waterproof tarps shipment arrive soon.

I held a 11-day old baby in my arms tonight. Next to the burning pile of garbage and leaking aluminum roof top...a smile appeared...accompanied by a look of recognition as to say, "It is going to be okay."