Water truck day. 3 stops. At the
first stop I was so afraid when I was in the “tap tap” (our truck). But As soon
as I stepped off the truck, I felt fine. Kids; all ages, tiny toddlers, babies,
older kiddos just swarmed us. They are desperate for you to hold them and just
touch them.
I've never felt the feeling of such
desperation from a child. The moment was overwhelming. You can't hold enough
kids I was holding two at time as much as possible. The water is flowing from
the truck and the women and kids are lined up with buckets. They are so
desperate for clean water. The kids carry the buckets back to their
"home" which consists of a couple pieces of tin and stacked garbage.
At each stop, a child would "choose" me to love them, can you
believe that? They cling to you and climb you, they want love so badly. I can't
imagine needing love or touch so desperately that you will cling to a complete
stranger.
Most of the kids are suffering from
extreme malnourishment. Their bellies are bloated and eyes are yellow. I was
told the kids with orange hair are dying. So my heart would sink when I saw a
little with a head of orange hair. The tiniest toddlers, wander the streets
naked or with the filthiest, tattered clothes, nobody watches them, nobody
holds them, there is a sadness in their eyes I have never seen. I don't think I
can ever explain how I felt. I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.
We walked throughout the streets
while we waited for the water truck to be refilled and the kids all followed
us. We walked through some of the worst areas; trash, filth, pigs, goats,
chickens, broken glass, feces, rotting food, you name it...we stopped in a
small clearing and all got in a circle.
Wilson, one of our Healing Haiti
staff translators, started singing and all the kids started singing "God
is so good", they were all smiling and singing and dancing, almost like
they forgot for a second what their reality is. My heart almost stopped. The
memory of the kid’s faces is burned in my brain.
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