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Kenia & Kafka
I keep seeing Kenia's chubby 4-year-old face getting cross with me because I won't pick her up for what seems to me the zillionth time.l Now I wish I'd done it once more.
Kenia, I think I've mentioned before, came to the clinic in Grand Bois in February 2007. Her mother had a new baby, and apparently couldn't feed two kids. She came into the clinic too weak to cry, literally on her deathbed. Dr. M had to put the IV in her foot.
Now she bounces around the clinic like she owns the place. When amused -- and she's easily amused -- she laughs a deep belly laugh.
A couple in the US would love to adopt her. Michael had an appointment at the US embassy today to see what they could do to smooth the way. The appointment means standing on one side of a plastic window and, after a very long time and for a very short time, having someone not be very helpful. Frustration, here, is a way of life.
So, too, was Dave's mission to get wire to finish electrifying the school in Grand Bois. He found what he needed -- but they wanted $300 for $60 worth of wire. Overpaying for wire is a poor use of precious funds. So the next ServeHaiti group will have to carry the wire from the US.
Illustrating the Kafkaesque aspects of this city was a trip we made to the Presidential palace in the heart of the city. It's an immense white mansion. Just across the very broad avenue is a broken-down hovel. And in between is a monumental statue of a slave with a broken chain and a broken sword, blowing a chonch horn with all his breath. Freedom! Yet all around are homeless people sleeping on the concrete and boys, mothers with infants, and legless men begging for coins or food.
The main Cathedral has broken windows. Across the street from the cathedral gate, a homeless man sits in a hollow he's made in the dirt between the curb and a cement wall, picking nits from the hair of a frail little boy.
Geert was here when we got back to the hospice. He was supposed to have left today, but spent the day dealing with bureaucrats who were supposed to help him avoid customs costs on his boat. After a whole day of this, he had to pay anyway. When we saw him, I asked why he was still here.
"Have you ever read much Kafka?" he asked.
Yes, we have.
Kenia, I think I've mentioned before, came to the clinic in Grand Bois in February 2007. Her mother had a new baby, and apparently couldn't feed two kids. She came into the clinic too weak to cry, literally on her deathbed. Dr. M had to put the IV in her foot.
Now she bounces around the clinic like she owns the place. When amused -- and she's easily amused -- she laughs a deep belly laugh.
A couple in the US would love to adopt her. Michael had an appointment at the US embassy today to see what they could do to smooth the way. The appointment means standing on one side of a plastic window and, after a very long time and for a very short time, having someone not be very helpful. Frustration, here, is a way of life.
So, too, was Dave's mission to get wire to finish electrifying the school in Grand Bois. He found what he needed -- but they wanted $300 for $60 worth of wire. Overpaying for wire is a poor use of precious funds. So the next ServeHaiti group will have to carry the wire from the US.
Illustrating the Kafkaesque aspects of this city was a trip we made to the Presidential palace in the heart of the city. It's an immense white mansion. Just across the very broad avenue is a broken-down hovel. And in between is a monumental statue of a slave with a broken chain and a broken sword, blowing a chonch horn with all his breath. Freedom! Yet all around are homeless people sleeping on the concrete and boys, mothers with infants, and legless men begging for coins or food.
The main Cathedral has broken windows. Across the street from the cathedral gate, a homeless man sits in a hollow he's made in the dirt between the curb and a cement wall, picking nits from the hair of a frail little boy.
Geert was here when we got back to the hospice. He was supposed to have left today, but spent the day dealing with bureaucrats who were supposed to help him avoid customs costs on his boat. After a whole day of this, he had to pay anyway. When we saw him, I asked why he was still here.
"Have you ever read much Kafka?" he asked.
Yes, we have.
Labels: haiti adoption, haiti denoon, haiti grand bois, haiti kafka
4 Comments:
Love the title...love my friend. What a great job! I am proud.
ditto anonymous
thank you.
Vielen Dank
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