Sisters of Charity

Well, my day began by dragging my suitcase downstairs, only to be crowded by toddlers who all had tears in their eyes because, when they saw the suitcase, they thought I was leaving. They looked so panicked and clearly upset, even when I assured them over and over that I wasn't leaving and that the things in the suitcase were for the babies!

We had another unique opportunity today. We had our driver drive us down to Port au Prince and we spent the morning volunteering at the Sisters of Charity orphanage right downtown. It's the poorest orphanage in Haiti, and they take in the poorest of the poor. The orphanage is run by the same organization that Mother Theresea started.

I was suprized by how clean they keep the orphanage! Every room was very well swept and all the babies were very clean. All the babies wore uniforms and each room's babies had a different colour of uniform so that the babies would always be kept in their appropriate room. The babies all wore cloth diapers and underneath each crib was a bowl of clorox, which gave the rooms a bit of an overwhelming aroma.
A lot of the babies were severely malnourished and extremely tiny. I held a little girl who was probably about two and a half years old. She was literally just skin and bones... I honestly wondered if she might just break when I picked her up! She was such a beautiful girl though. Even though her face was all sunken in and her body had almost no weight to it, she still had a beautiful smile and big brown eyes.

I also saw a little boy who had no eyelids and it looked as though he had been burned in a fire. Besides not having any eyelids, his eyes had some kind of clear membrane over them and beneath it, I could see him trying to look around. He was also extremely tiny and all of his skin looked as though it had been burned. I'm not sure if it was an infection or a growth of some kind on the back of his head, but there was definitely a big something sticking out of it! I've honestly never seen a human being look so awful! I could hardly believe that he was human. When I looked at him, I was reminded of what Dixie had said to us before we'd left that morning... that babies die daily at this orphanage and that the Sisters make a daily trip to the morgue....

We were there over their lunchtime, so I got to put on an apron and help feed the babies. It took a really long time though, because one of the babies I fed was not a fast eater at all. He only had two teeth though, so I think that might've had something to do with it. Their lunch looked pretty healthy, but I'm not sure that I would want to eat it. It was just rice with beans in it and some kind of red liquid poured over it to give the rice some more moisture and probably more nutrients too. Oh, and the ones with teeth got to eat some chicken too. I was so amazed at how well most of the kids ate. They practically absorbed the food, picking up anything that fell on the ground! Haha!
Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures, so this pretty palm tree will have to do.

As an update on Jessica, she seems to be doing well at the moment, but still has a lot of weight that she needs to gain. So please continue to pray!