The People and Faces of Haiti

Today I thought I'd share some of the beautiful faces I saw in Haiti.  The stories behind each face are starting to become fuzzy in my head already. I wish they weren't. I'll add what I can to make their faces and stories more real to you.

This little darling is Nathalie. She's 9 mos old, but only maybe 6 or 7 lbs. I love her natural mohawk. Most Haiti babies have these funny little mohawks. (From always being held, and the hair rubs off on the side. As compared to American babies that get bald spots worn off on the back of their heads from their beds!) I love the way she's looking up at me, like we're having an interesting conversation. She was such a little doll. I loved her!

This little Haitian princess was afraid of me at first. She didn't want the "blanc blanc" touching her. (White white.) I couldn't touch her, but she always wanted to touch my hair. I came back a few times to visit her. By my last day she had warmed up to me, and let me hug her.

This little survivor is the only remaining sibling of triplets. Look how huge that diaper is on her. Her charts say she is 6 months old. Have you ever tried to read doctor handwriting? How about doctor handwriting in French? Sometimes the charts are just plain wrong. Or completely illegible.

These little guys were more than happy to pose for me. I was trying to keep them from getting hurt or in the way of the construction crew. I took their picture and played with them- bilingually! I was at a serious loss for what to do with them. So I sat down with them on the rubble, just feet away from where 2 bodies had been caught and killed in the rubble. And I taught them to sing "Give Said the Little Stream." Then we went for a walk around the Healing Hands Campus, singing songs to the sick patients to make them feel better. (video below) (one of the guys gave the boys the tennis ball to play with. you would have thought he had given them a million dollars by the way they held that up for the video!)

and then the tennis ball became a soccer ball, shoes, rubble, and power saws be damned! and you can hear me having a funny conversation with one of the little boys, "pas parle kreole!" (i don't speak creole!) "pas comprende!" (i don't understand) over and over. how can i not speak creole, when clearly i am speaking creole to him!?

my little glee club singing to one of the "sick patients"

One night I got to go over to a local chapel to use their internet and electricity (to blog for you!). These three kids were told to not go in the room and bug me. So they stood right in the doorway all night long just watching me. Occasionally they would burst into giggles, or ask me for cookies. So I amused them by taking their pictures.

I believe this is the bishop of one of the wards, and his family. (Full disclosure, I stole this picture from Pete's camera.)

At a food drop.

Food drop

This is Bobby. He would follow me around out at the construction project and attempt to teach me Creole. He spoke fairly decent English. In return, along with Ret, I taught him to sing the soccer song, "ole, ole, ole, ole..." With the Real Salt Lake ending. There are now half a dozen Haitians walking around singing the RSL mantra.

Charlie posing with the little boys and their muscles.

These kids were so dang cute. They are all one family. The 3 sisters could sing beautifully. We caught it on camera, but on someone else's camera- not mine! They were all smiles till the camera came out. Haitians rarely smile for a camera.

This adorable little girl would show up every day just to sneak up and hold Charlie's hand. There's half a dozen pictures of her all in different outfits on different days holding his hand.

Resilience. Earthquake survivor. Amputation survivor.

We all fell in love with this sweet little guy. His mother had her arm amputated. She was in the bed at the end of this hospital tent. And every day when we went by her little boy was sitting there on a cinder block, playing nicely by himself.