by Jonathan
It’s been a fairly calm and quiet week here at Be Like Brit in Haiti. As calm as it can be with 67 children, that is. With 67 children there’s not a day that goes by that isn’t just a little bit crazy (in a good way, of course).Again this week there were several protests in Port-au-Prince on Monday and Tuesday making travel along all national routes impossible. This forced us to change some of our plans, but we’re pretty good at “going with the flow” in Haiti, so they might have been minor bumps in our plans but, as we say, “it’s Haiti”! Never to worry, with our great team in Haiti, we eventually got everything done we needed to do! Len, Cherylann and Bernie were set to travel down this week to spend some time at BLB for Bernie’s 23rd birthday, but due to the protests, they changed their plans. We trust that Bernie had a great birthday and are grateful for all of the IT work that he has done for BLB over the past 5 years. We look forward to seeing Papi Len, Mami Cherylann and Bernie in the near future!
While Jonathan gets some time off each weekend to go to Petionville for some rest, it’s been quite some time since he’s left Haiti to go to the States. Wednesday morning bright and early, Jonathan left for the airport. He flew home to Plattsburg, NY to surprise his family at a party. From what Jonathan has told me, they were quite surprised and very happy to see him. While the children, staff and I miss him very much; I know how important it is to take these trips home to see loved ones and spend some time rejuvenating. We look forward to Jonathan’s return this coming week.
With 67 children living in close quarters, sharing things is imperative. We teach the children to share their toys, books and most treasured possessions. Sometimes, however, there are some things we really don’t want them to share… namely, GERMS!!! We are constantly going over with our children the importance of washing hands, when they are expected to do that and how to properly wash hands. Our staff has had multiple trainings on this, as when teaching our children anything, we need to be sure that our staff understands the way we want our children to learn. This also allows our staff to share the knowledge they gain in these trainings with their families and friends in the community. Unfortunately, this week we have had quite a bit of germ sharing. Several of our children have caught the stomach bug. From the littlest to some of our older children, it’s made its way around the building. We had to keep some children home from school so that they could rest and get this bug out of their system. I knock on wood as I say this, but we might just be in the clear.
It was also a big week at school for the children, each school finishing with a party on Friday the 13th. While Be Like Brit was celebrating Bernie’s 23rd birthday on Friday, there is a different reason for celebration in Haiti. Haiti celebrates the Catholic tradition of “Kanaval”, or Carnival, the celebration leading up to Mardi Gras before Lent. The festivities for kanaval throughout the country include parades, lots of music and dancing. So the schools have their own kanaval celebrations. I was invited by the Director of St. Francois to attend the party at their school. I was glad that I went as I enjoyed the kanvaval experience with the children.
As Jonathan has mentioned, there is a conflict between the Catholics and the Christians in Haiti. Due to this conflict, the Christians do not celebrate kanaval and are quite against it as they consider it “sinful” since many of the activities are historically associated with Vodou rituals. The children at the Christian school, however were lucky enough to still have a party for St. Valentine’s Day, not quite the Hallmark holiday in Haiti as it is in the States.
With love being at our core, I find Valentine’s Day a good day to welcome a new group to Be Like Brit. Saturday evening, the new group from St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, MA, along with Britney’s cousin, Ross, and returning Medical Britsionary, Deirdre. This group of 17 is sure to have a wonderful week full of love both inside and outside the walls of Be Like Brit. We are always happy to welcome Ross Pentland back to BLB as he was the original Britsionary with Bernie and PJ at the beginning of construction. Ross has a special connection to the group this week as he is an Alumni of St. John’s and is one of the athletes to hold a record of scoring 1,000 points in his high school basketball career. We thank Ross and the group from St. John’s for giving up their vacation to spend a week with us at Be Like Brit.
On a personal note, I was very happy to have a special delivery Friday night of my Permis de Sejour! This will allow me to stay in the country longer than the 90 days allowable on just my US Passport. It took Jonathan slightly over a year to get his Permis after having to re-do paperwork. Len received his not too long ago. After just 7 months in Haiti, I think it shows signs of improvement for Haiti that it only took 3 months after my application for the actual Permis de Sejour to be completed- only 6 weeks longer than the 6 weeks they said it would take.
Stay tuned next week to see the wonderful things that St. John’s will be doing. It’s sure to be a week full of LOVE!!!
