Indescribable

      Wednesday was "water-truck" day; we were going to spend the entire day delivering chlorinated water to THE poorest city on earth: Cite Soleil (City of the Sun). The city is a 4 mile radius which came to pass from the boycott of their main export, sugar cane, in 1991. This boycott left thousands of factory workers unemployed and in turn led to more intense poverty.  Nothing can prepare anyone from a rich nation what we were about to see, smell and experience...nothing.  

   Healing Haiti owns 2 water trucks--one 3,500 gal capacity and one 2,500 gal capacity. A wealthy Haitian owns a deep well that supplies Port-au-Prince with all of its clean water via water trucks. All of the trucks charge the Haitians for water no matter how poor the family, except the trucks from Healing Haiti....  There is no available water for free anywhere else in the slums .  HH trucks deliver the water to 3 districts within Cite Soleil 6 days per week--Sunday is a day off for the team to be with family.  We began the delivery at district 17 within Cite Soleil.  It requires several of the team to run the truck efficiently...two to handle the hose, one to move the line of people and buckets forward and several others to move the buckets-- most 5 gal size, out of line once filled. The buckets must then be transported to the persons shanty. Most able-bodied women carried the bucket on their head, which weigh 50 lbs ea filled. We assisted them in moving the bucket up their bodies to their head, however some were able to do this on their own. The majority of the water fetchers were women and children...most of the children required assistance, but we were cautioned that the children who weren't in school were most likely restaveks (child slaves) who are given by parents who cannot afford their care.  These children are treated poorly and not like a member of the family they serve.  We carried hundred of buckets to their destinations, with one of our Haitian team members close behind whenever we left the view of the trucks. Ironically, I felt very safe as we were delivering a basic need to these desperate people who were so grateful. The children were a pure delight and jumped into our arms as we unloaded from the bus. Many were unclothed, but surprisingly clean. They simply wanted to be held, touched, sang to, played with and ultimately loved. Not one of us women shied away from a child, no matter how many were clinging to us already.

   We went to 2 additional districts and dispensed an entire truckload of water to hundreds of families...carrying and transporting the buckets to their homes. We in turn played with their children and were offered several infants that mothers wanted a better life for... One mother took her baby from one team member to me as each had to decline to take her child...heart wrenching.

   A highlight was visiting a soccer camp within the slums that HH and Feed My Starving Children supports. Each district within Cite Soleil sends 20 children chosen by hand to this camp which meets after school 4 days per week. The children are then fed a meal after camp, which is a manna pack from FMSC...pretty cool.

   One does not live in this filth and disgust by choice....there is no other place for them...illiteracy is pervasive and unemployment upwards of 70%.  All of us women left this place of despair completely changed and with a new perspective of our own lives and deeply touched by the lesson of our creator, each unique to the individual.