A final errand

First of all, thank you to those of my readers who have left comments. I am mostly writing for my own satisfaction at this point, but comments are always encouraging.

Also, Lisa has written a thoughtful piece here, if you would like her perspective.

Friday was our last full day in Haiti. We wanted to finish up our garden and were hoping to take some supplies to a nearby orphanage. Unfortunately, we couldn't find out the location of the orphanage and we didn't have a car anyway, so we gave up on the idea.

I had also heard about seven orphans who were living with their grandma and had very little food. The doctors thought it would be okay if we gave her some money for food and a few supplies, but said we would need to be circumspect because if her neighbours found out about it they would also want money. So we sent Lucien to exchange some of our American dollars and later in the afternoon, a little contingent from MBH set off along the road.

This is a common sight, as are women carrying heavy loads on their heads. I didn't get any  photos of that because pointing the camera at such close range seemed to be a bit intrusive.

More heavy equipment, this time with a woman driving.

Little boys always want their photo taken.

Not sure what was being built here, but it's something big. 

Of course, it may not get finished for ten years!

Haitian beauty.

Here is the house, in a much poorer part of the village. It is tiny, about as big as our family room. I imagine that most of the children sleep outside. Notice the succulent hedge. Most houses that don't have walls around their property have these. In the Dominican Republic, they surrounded whole farms.

The dog and chicken looked pretty healthy. 

The baby was, however, malnourished.

Such a pretty rooster.

I haven't figured out how everyone keeps track of their chickens, because they wander freely.

The house is crudely constructed. I wonder how well it keeps out the omnipresent rain.

We gathered tightly around Grandma and the baby so that no one could see as we slipped her the money. We didn't give her any supplies because it was impossible to do so discreetly, so the doctors told her to come to the clinic next week.

It is a thorny issue in Haiti, deciding who to help, because almost everyone is in dire need of some kind of help. And then the aggressiveness of the people who see help being given and want it for themselves is kind of off-putting, even though I can understand why they are so. It also makes interacting with any Haitians quite tricky, because at some point they will always ask you for something. Then, you wonder to yourself, are they only (helping me with the garden, walking with me, talking to me, etc, etc) so that they can get something from me? And in most cases, I think the answer is yes. 

More on this topic later.

Some Haitians love to have their photos taken and others are adamantly against it.

Guess which category these fall into.