Walk Thru Town

So this morning I was a lazy bum. I slept about 11 hours last night and then ate breakfast and came back and laid down for another hour or so. I think I slept too much but it was nice also! After awaking from my deep slumber, I went and read with some of the kids for about 30 minutes before lunch. Pile asked me to read to her but she kept asking questions and would turn the pages about 2-3 words into reading a page. I started to get frustrated but just kept going and leaving out parts of the book that weren't important.

For lunch we had grilled cheese and fries, very Dominican huh?

After lunch, I came back and read my new book, Complications, which is by the same author but now it is about him during his residency whereas the other was about him out in practice. Brian, if you are reading this, you should read these books. I'll bring them home for you!

As I'm typing a large cockroach is being killed by my roommate! AHHHHH! I'm such a wimp!

Anyway, after siesta I went down and took sidewalk chalk to the kids to play with. They had me tracing them on the basketball court and they were tracing me as well. Once Bryson came down to play he started making animals out of the kids while they were lying down and this continued for a good 45 minutes. It was pretty funny to see how excited they got. I became the chalk police because some of the kids were trying to steal the chalk.

Later I went with Coco to visit the house of the kid with the cleft lip and cleft palate. She wanted to take pictures to send back to an American group that comes here and repairs these. We arrived at the house and the boy was naked, walking around in the backyard and leaning against a new barbed wire fence that had been made. No one was home except him. There was an elderly man next door whom we spoke with an apparently his daughter who is the grandmother of this boy was sick in the hospital with vaginal cancer and she had gone to the hospital on Friday morning and her granddaughter was with her there. The old man told us that this boy had been left alone and people were coming to feed him but that was all! Soon thereafter, some nosy neighbors came by to see why us "Americans" were there. They helped get the boy washed off and dressed so that Coco could take some pictures. At the boy's house there was a separate wooden "house" or shed that had this boy's bed in it. It was a double mattress with no sheets and the ladies that came over just kept telling him to go lay in his bed. The clothes you see him in were nice and clean, and he was actually able to put his own pants on with some assistance. However, after standing for about 5 minutes, he just squatted down and laid down right into a puddle of water and sand from where they had bathed him. He had wet sand all over his clean shirt and in his hair, and then went to lay on his mattress! All I can say is WOW!

We found out that the elderly man was 89 years old! He was walking up and down his yard carrying being of old sheet metal and large 6-7 foot posts to certain areas in his yard. He didn't stop the whole 15 minutes we were there! He was so skinny you could see his ribs and his skin was falling off of him. He was cute but at the same time very pitiful. Imagine an 89 year old man being left in charge of a 19 year old blind, disabled boy who can't talk. I wanted to take the boy back to the orphanage with us until his sister returned so just he'd have someone watching over him.

The walk home was interesting as well. We stopped and talking to two Haitian moms for a little bit. There were 4 little kids there with them and they were so adorable. One was 11 months old, the next 3 years old, and the other sister 6 years old. The oldest was wearing what looked like a plastic bag with the bottom cut off and the handles worn as straps for a dress. Yes, I believe she was wearing a plastic bag as a dress. I wish you could hear the sounds of her moving because the picture doesn't quite capture the experience. But she was adorable and super excited to see herself in the pictures. There was also a 6 month old little boy that I tried to hold but he didn't like me. I think he is related to Carter! :)

We continued on and found this family who wanted their picture taken as well. Coco asked them "What is your name" in English and they all answered. Then she asked "What is my name" and they all knew. It is funny because even though she doesn't know a lot of people, they all know her name since she has been here so long. Even on the walk down to the boy's house, some other little boy yelled, "Hola Coco" but she didn't know who he was.

The last street we went up was the street that Pastor Ramon lives on. At the end of the street there was a Haitian lady and her son who is probably 3-4 years old. I don't remember if I spoke of her before, but we had seen her elsewhere in town on some of our morning runs. I've now decided that she is a begger and makes her son beg as well. As we walked by he kept saying, Madam, Madam, eat, eat, eat but in Spanish. He was begging us for food but wasn't enough looking at us. He was just playing with the dirt on the ground but repeating what his Mom was telling him to repeat! Such a sad situation but nothing we could really do about it. He is probably illegal because he is Haitian and she probably is as well.

We returned and I read some more and then showered before dinner. For dinner, Sharon made baked chicken, roasted potatoes and green beans. It was like being home. Yummy!

I hung out with Domingo some after dinner and in the kids kitchen there is a large part of the wall painted with a world map on it. We played, "see how horrible Elizabeth is at geography". He would say the name of a country and make me find it. Let's just say I wasn't very good at it!

For the rest of the night, we had volunteer game night. Coco, Sharon, Christine, Bryson and I played Quiddler. It is like Scrabble and Rummy combined. Jo and DJ, you need to get this game, it encompasses both of your favorite games! It was a fun game!

That's all for now! Hope you guys didn't freeze too much if you went to the UK game! Here are a few more pictures that Coco took today. http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/WalkThruTown?feat=directlink