It’s been a little over one year since my last blog and boy have a lot of things changed!

The children are growing too fast….Macson, Delienne and Fredo are taller than me and they love to tease me by calling me “shorty”.  Speaking of names, I’m no longer Madame Love. I am now Manmie Love! The first time one of our kids called me Manmie Love really touched my heart. My mother’s name is Lauve which is pronounced “love” and many family members and other close friends called her Manmie Lauve to show affection. I don’t think that they see me as a mother figure, but rather, comfortable enough around me to call me Manmie. Creole is an interesting language. It is not very affectionate when spoken, but certain words are all you need to hear to feel loved and Manmie is one of them. Just when I didn’t think that I could love them more, they do something that touch my heart in the most indescribable way. Love really does live at Brit’s Home. I still wake up every morning asking myself what did I do to deserve to be here? Like any family household, we have our challenges but love does conquer all. The smile on our children’s faces; the willingness of the staff to accommodate and just the overall connections that I’ve been fortunate enough to have made give me a different outlook on my life. Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever imagine that I would be living in Haiti.

We’ve also had some changes that I’m sure you’re aware of at Brit’s home. Len and Cherylann are always striving to make life better for all of us who live here with the help we receive through donations and sponsorship. They always exceed our expectations in the projects they come up with. Prime examples are the construction of our new depot which is still in progress; our cistern that holds 100,000 gallons of water which will allow us to give more than the 1,000 gallons that we give to our community daily; the BLB Academy which is held in house….you can call it home school. Some of our children had minor learning disabilities and having more “one on one” interface with their teachers has really helped them tremendously. I remember Tooveno came to my desk approximately one to two weeks after school had started. He was very excited with a paper in his hand. He told me “look Manmie Love, I’m not stupid…I got 100 on my test.” I was so happy and emotional that I had to hold back tears. You should have seen how proud he was knowing that he does have the ability to learn. We have six children in the program and they are doing extremely well. They have all passed their current grade and moving up to the next grade level. We also have our new soccer field, basketball court and volleyball court that are used by our children and staff. On any given afternoon, you can watch a game where both the children and parents are playing together. Our children and staff are also having chess matches. I join in and play with them every now and then. So far, no one has beaten me other than Len. I’m certain that if I give them a month or two, they’ll show me their skills at playing the game and I won’t be such a worthy opponent. This only means one thing, I will need to sharpen my chess skills…lol.  The thing that fascinates me with our children is their willingness to try new things and not be afraid to fail because somehow, they know that if they work hard enough, they will succeed. One great example of their tenacity is shown with the children who participate in the French Reading Contest. A lot of them have never read and/or spoke French. With hard work and practice, they take part in a contest on Wednesday evenings where they not only read selected pages from a French book in front of their peers, but they also answer questions in French that are asked by the judges. I am so proud of them. We also have something similar to Jeopardy that they would do on Fridays. I know that I’m bragging about our children, but you know what, I am so proud of them and they’ve earned bragging rights!

As I mentioned earlier, we also have a few challenges that reminds me that yes…”It’s Haiti.” We finally got our Quitus which certifies that we are recognized as a non-profit organization.  Imagine going to Port au Prince, which is about 2-4 hours away depending on traffic, waiting to see someone for documents for another 1-2 hours; only to be told that they need more information, the person that you need to see has either left for the day or has been replaced, or you can’t get any information because the computer system is shut down and no one knows when it will come back up. Days like this really try your patience and you just keep going back, even if it means months, until you get what you need…which in this case, was our Quitus.  You also experience moments where everything gets lost in translation. Since I grew up in the US, I’m very Americanized and sometimes the staff doesn’t get that because they see me as a Haitian woman who should know and fully understand the way that things are done culturally. It’s been a learning process and I believe that I’m getting better every day even in my speech. I still get teased but I’ll get it eventually. One of the biggest problems I continue to encounter is having to dig through a long process before getting to the point. Perfect example is someone calling in sick. Before telling me that they will not be at work, I hear the story of how they felt the day before, what they went through when they got home, what they did to feel better, how they couldn’t sleep and finally, when they woke up, they realized how sick they were and cannot make it to work on that particular day. This doesn’t happen only on those occasions, this happens every time an explanation for whatever action is necessary. I joke and tell them that I don’t want to hear their life story and to just get to the point at which time I’m told but I won’t understand unless I hear the whole story. I laugh and they laugh with me. Some of them have gotten to know me and would start to tell me a story and just laugh and get to the point directly.

About a month or so after moving to Haiti in 2016, a friend of mine who knew my love for Haitian art gave me a beautiful painting. When I got home, I asked one of our maintenance guys to get me some nails and to lend me a hammer. Since I'm a woman, I guess he figured that I wouldn't know what I was doing or perhaps he thought that I would hurt myself. He wanted to come to my rescue and offered to hang up the painting for me. When he was done, he looked very happy and satisfied with his work and told me that he was finished. I thanked him and later on went to my room. When I looked at the wall, I thought that I was going to have a heart attack because my heart literally hurt. He had pierced the canvas with a nail at the top and bottom in order to nail my beautiful painting to the wall. Just talking about it makes my heart skip a beat while also having a smile on my face. I wanted to cry but the tears wouldn't come out and I just burst out laughing so hard and for so long, that the tears eventually made it to my face. It was one of my best worst experiences in Haiti.  Yes, it was the worst because he destroyed my painting, but the best because to date, I have not laughed this hard. I remember telling Len about it and him feeling bad for me. I had to tell him not to worry because it was the funniest thing ever. So there you have it! Needless to say, since then, I just ask him to put the nails in the wall and I hang up my paintings myself😊 How can I get mad at these little things? Things can be frustrating, but I get it…it’s My Haiti :)

Len teases me sometimes and tells me that I’m still in the honeymoon phase. I’ll tell you something, and I’m being very sincere, I hope I stay there with my eyes just more open. I still love my job and look forward to waking up every morning to start my day no matter what challenge awaits me. When I leave my room in the morning, I’m greeted by our children and our staff with a hug and/or a kiss on my cheeks. How can you beat that? A funny thing happened recently with Darwens. I had gone to Port au Prince for the weekend and when I saw him on Monday morning, I asked him if he had a good weekend. So Darwens, who is only eight years old answered, “it wasn’t that great…you weren’t here” and all I can think is a little Cassanova in the works!  I laugh a lot and sometime cry, but the tears are tears of joy. Our children are growing up very fast and not just physically. They’re thirsty for knowledge and most of them are fearless. I’m happy to report that most of them are actually developing skills and the “know how” on what it takes to become the next generation of Leaders in Haiti.