a silent cry for help

After a good night's rest, we were up bright and early to meet our translator, Jorge and his team in the foyer of our hotel. We began our tour of Cape Haitian with a long trek up a mountain to visit some families living there. It was quite the experience! The stairs seemed never-ending and the sun was out in full force blasting down on us, but we made it to the top! Such a relief!

Danielle and I managed to sneak a few picstures here and there of different things along the way..the Haitian people are much more reluctant of photo-taking than people from the DR..so we had to be pretty discreet. We did manage to get a few nice shots though which we will share with you on facebook when we arrive back on the rock! :)

We began our descent down the mountain when we were called into a small scrap hut to visit a middle-aged man who was paralyzed 4 years ago and has not gotten out of bed since. First of all, you have to imagine living on the side of this mountain with no running water, open sewages everywhere you turn, and homes crammed together so tightly that they were almost on top of one another with virtually no privacy..even if the family had enough money for medical attention and a wheel chair for him, how could he ever operate it up there? It is truly impossible. Because he has been in bed for so long, imagine the sores all over his body? We decided to form a line by holding hands and we prayed the God would heal him..now we are beliving for a miracle!!

Our tour then led us to the city centre and around the edge of town along the beach. The beach was littered with garbage and we could see that the water was filthy as well. We came across a little boy who was sitting underneath a rag held up by two sticks. He had a rubber duckie with him and a few dishes. I wondered to myself if this was home to this sweet little boy! It definitely tugged on my heartstrings..where were his parents, brothers, sisters, or did he even have any? Two of his friends came along and we quickly divided up the only granola bar we were carrying..even for that one little piece, he was so grateful!

Our journey ended with a stop at Jorge's children's program. They sang songs and played a couple of games for us. Then we handed out some treats and water to them along with school supplies to each child! I have never seen more happier faces! They were quite pleased.

I don't think I have ever walked so much in my life and in such intense heat! I was extremely tired by the end of it, but as I sat down and reflected upon my day..I began to think of all the things I would have missed had we toured the city any other way. I saw row after row of old, run-down buildings, sewage running down the sides of every dirt road, garbage that occupied almost every square inch of ground. There were no tv's blaring or stereos blasting. And the people, they just stared at us. And in their eyes I could see their hurt, their pain, their hunger..their silent cries of help were deafening..and it broke my heart to think that I could literally give everything I had and it still would not be enough..


Danielle Pollard.