Always with a smile

You see those spots on their heads? It's called tinea capitis, also called ringworm of the scalp. It's caused by mold-like fungi and mostly affects children under 13 years old. Prolonged infection leads to localized areas of swelling, raw skin, or pus filled lesions on the scalp. Most of our kids have it. It's cheap and easy to treat. One of the projects I'm working on is a mass treatment of all the children who have this highly contagious infection. The major obstacle is once again funding. Treatment for one child runs about $10. Let me know if you want to help.

It scares me how most people who've been here long enough, fail to be shocked by anything anymore. It seems they become accustomed to the daily struggles and injustices the Haitian people are faced with. What would happen if we were to stop being shocked by injustice. The answer is exactly what's happening now. Entire countries where people drink polluted and parasitic water, die of dehydration, eat clay biscuits and live on less than $1/day. This is the reality we live in. Yet, it's so easy to ignore when you're not waking up to children dying from hunger and mothers begging for food to feed them.

It's impossible to take a bad picture

I'm going to try and upload a pic with every post so that you can actually visualize some of the kids I'm working with and things I'm doing. That's a soccer ball made of string! You should see some of the homemade toys I've come across. Marbles made of clay, miniature animals shaped out of mud and left to dry in the sun, kites made of plastic bags and string from rice sacks, toy trucks made from plastic bottles, the list goes on.

I spent part of the day helping to repaint one of the children's houses. The goal is to repaint them all but the cost is pretty substantial. The concrete soaks up paint like no other and requires several coats. It costs about $350 to buy enough paint to do one of the houses and it looks like we'll be running short on funds. At first, I couldn't understand why we were even spending money on painting the houses. There are so many other important things that need to be done, things that the children actually need. But my mind was changed the moment I saw one of the little guys walk into the house that we had been painting a beautiful sky blue. His face lit up. The dirty dark gray cement walls are enough to make anyone depressed. It's amazing what the effect of bringing color into one's world can do.

My little guys

I'm so lucky to have these guys. No matter how discouraged I get with everything that seems to be going wrong, I can always count on them to keep me motivated and hopeful.

I went to Haiti's capital the other day to visit a man who I greatly admire. Dr. Bill Pape, founder and director of GHESKIO (gheskio.org) an organization dedicated to the treatment, prevention and research of HIV/AIDS and TB in Haiti's poorest city. GHESKIO's presence is massive, benefiting tens of thousands of Haitians every year and saveing countless lives in the process. It was a 4-hour bus ride to Port au Prince. I was up by 4am to make the 10 am appointment and had decided to go by bus instead of paying the $150 to fly. The bus was only $18 roundtrip, and was unlike any bus you'd see in the US. The buses here, though no bigger than a bus in the US, seats triple the amount of poeple. Crammed like sardines, it was airless, claustrophobic and and full of roaming cockroaches. I was happy to experience it though. Meeting Dr. Pape was a breath of fresh air. Here's a man who has dedicated the last 30 years of his life to helping his country and has made amazing progress. He has never lost hope in his people or faith in himself. He told me not to get overwhelmed, that a single person can indeed change the world and that Haiti is not a lost cause. He advised me to stay optimistic and idealistic because once you turn into a cynic and pessimist, it gets a whole lot harder to make change. I left his office, with a renewed hope that I can truly make a difference and that my efforts are worth making.