At Sister Fidelis' house up in the mountains (village of Ferrier) there is no cell phone access, electricity or running water. That also means no refrigeration, flushing toilets, charging of dead batteries (which is why I don't have many photos from this trip), cold drinks, or safe leftovers.
But we did have popcorn! That seemed so out of place. Someone made a big basket of it last night when the kids put on a show for us. They sang songs, including one written for yours truly, and did a couple of cute plays. They are very inventive, imaginative kids who are not generally bashful or too worried about performing badly (i.e. overly self-conscience). Of course, this is an oversimplification because there are shy people, but I don't sense the same level of insecurity as we often find in the US.
Yesterday at Odelin's school down by the coast I was struck by one little girl. Her hair was thin and bronzed, her features sunken and thin. She is malnourished. She stood out rather starkly against the others seated around her. However, I was quite surprised when Odelin, in reading off the children's grades, called out her name. She had one of the highest scores in the entire class! It then also struck me that she clapped and seemed genuinely excited every time a student received a passing grade for that year (which was true of about 2/3 of the class).
Every time I come to Haiti I find a person who breaks my heart. She is one of them now.
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