And at 7am, and at noon, and at 3 in the morning. One thing about Haiti – it is NEVER quiet. And when you are sick, sometimes all you want is the noise and the spinning to stop. I woke up late Friday night knowing something was wrong, but willed myself to go back to sleep. Then I started throwing up Saturday morning and didn’t stop until Saturday night. It is so hard to be sick away from home, but somehow – 8 Dramamine, 2000 mg of Cipro, and 3 liters of Gator Aid later, I am on the mend. God is good!
But back to those roosters… When you are sick, you just want quiet. Peace and quiet. But in Haiti, you are surrounded by sounds. All kinds of sounds! There are the sounds of the goats in the neighborhood, the dogs barking, the cows across the gate, the roosters, the children laughing, playing, crying – the sound of children reciting prayers at lunchtime, and lessons in the classroom under you … There is the sound of the generator clicking on and off, the sound of nannies calling to the kids, the sound of the Haitian neighbor’s radios (that blare as loud as possible whenever Haitian electricity comes on – doesn’t matter the time!), and the sound of your roommates and house mates moving about the place. Car horns blare, drums roll, engines cough – all of these are the sounds of Haiti. When I was feeling the worst, I just listened to the sounds of the children’s voices just outside my window and tried to remind myself that they were the reason I was here. It was not about me – I would get better and in 10 days or so would go home. But what about them?
Miss Jessica – Yellow Professor
Today at preschool we read Harold and the Purple Crayon. It was a gift to the kids from a friend of mine, and I took the book with me and gave it to Miss Kiki today. She asked me to read it in English to the kids. I did, and she piped in now and then with an explanation or a translation in Creole. It was amazing! The kids were so attentive, and even though they didn’t understand all of the words I was reading, the hung on every word. They would try to echo some of the things I read, and call out items in the pictures that they recognized. They really seemed to enjoy it. When I was done, Miss Kiki took them through the book again, and this time explained the story in Creole. Afterwards, we worked on letters and numbers in English and went over some basic colors (red, blue, yellow.)
After class, we went out in the yard and a couple of the kids were scared of a dog that was roaming around the lot. They ran to me and asked me to pick them up. I said no today, since I still wasn’t feeling well. Miss Kiki explained to them, in Creole, that I was sick. One of the little boys came right up to me then, touched my arm gently and said, “Jessica yellow.” I guess to them, maybe I looked a little yellow today!
Rocking babies
On Friday night, before I got sick, I decided to go and get Davidson from the nursery. It was after dinner, and technically I am “off duty” by that point, but I just wanted to give him a chance to be rocked to sleep. I snuck up to the nursery, and he was in his soft, blue footy PJs. There was a bottle in the crib, that probably would have been propped up against the bars for him to take as he fell asleep in his crib. I asked the nannies if it was okay to take him, and they said yes. So, we went up the flight of stairs to the balcony where we spend the days playing. He and I were all alone up there. I sat in one of the big wicker rockers, slowly rocking him while he took his bottle. As we rocked, I sang him Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and we watched the sun go down beautifully over the mountain. It was misty and calm – as calm as Haiti can be. I had to wipe away my tears as he drifted off to sleep in my lap. He deserves to be rocked to sleep every night. All of these kids deserve to have someone love them, hold them, rock them, and tell them how special they are each day of their lives. I hope and pray that they get that chance.
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