About two o’clock we set out on a ride to visit the Baptist Mission and the Wings of Hope – which is a home for disabled children. Wings of Hope grew out of the ministry of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys. It is located in Fermanthe, south of Petionville in the mountains above Port-au-Prince. Michael and some of the older graduates of the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys decided to take over the home when they heard that after eight years the previous directors were leaving Haiti, but were unable to find placements for any of the disabled children. Michael told us a moving story of how the boys and he visited the facility and saw a paraplegic child named Soni, who was confined to a bed that represented his whole world. The nurse disparagingly referred to him as a “living piece of furniture” but in his mind, Soni always dreamed of flying.
Michaels’ boys were determined to keep all the children at the orphanage together. They extended themselves and took these children under their wing. Thus came into being the second home of St. Joseph’s, even though Michael had told them it was totally impractical. But then the boys reminded him that when he had started St Joseph’s they had nothing, but God provided. Michael recognized that this was the inspiration the boys needed to reach their potential, bowed to their faith and God did provide. Soni eventually learned to walk, and we actually saw him dance (fly!) with the Resurrection Dance Theater Group. In 2001 and 2002, Soni Derazin (shown in photo below, right) came to the U.S. on a book tour with Canadian children’s book author Peter Eyvindson (who we were fortunate to meet).
When we arrived at Wings of Hope (WOH), Alcindor – St Josephs graduate and director of the WOH orphanage – took us on the tour. Like St Joseph’s WOH has grown from a modest edifice to an impressive edifice with marvelous architecture, tiling, skylights and gardens. They had state of the art equipment for therapy and helping disabled children. We met Renee, KC Berst of Baltimore (who as I wrote earlier performed for us in St Joseph's Godspell show), and another young woman on a 3 month graduate study program for sociology and genetics. They showed us a game room, kitchen, and school. Multiple levels, cycling ramps with rough brown tiled floors. Atrium with a tree, playset and a yellow slide...
And we met the children. One is named Junior; he was in the bed making grunting sounds. He is 29, Alcindor says "He is my brother." We walked through a bedroom where younger kids were resting or sleeping. My heart went out to one little 2 year old who was just laying there. I wish I'd been more spontaneous and picked him up at that moment... We went into the kitchen were a bunch of disabled kids were sitting in high chairs. Some of them seemed insane, but there was one little half paralyzed 5 year old girl named Josephine with the most beautiful smile. She is very smart - speaks French, English and Creole – I played with her a bit, let her take my hat. One boy/man who was rather smelly shook our hands, and then settled on Lyn, leading her all around the place for some minutes.
All of us had strange reactions to the kids. We were uncomfortable, or moved. I found myself most comfortable with the younger children, most creeped out by older ones that seemed insane, or better said, living in their own world. But all of us wanted to reach out, to make them feel that we cared.
On the way back we stopped at Kenscoff Road, at Boutilliers or the “Look Out”. Our Haitian handbook reads: “From this high point you can see all of the greater Port-au-Prince area except Petion-Ville. You can see the bay, and on a clear day you will even see the island, La Gonave. You can see the National Cemetery, that seems to glimmer in shades of turquoise, the National Stadium, the National Palace, the Catholic Cathedral, the PAP International Airport, and the lakes and mountains which form the border with the Dominican Republic. You can shop for crafts and paintings with some of Haiti’s prime sales persons.”
Haiti’s prime sales persons – that’s for sure! No one else was there and they were desperate to sell us their paintings, carvings and other souvenirs. “Please buy from me. I need money!” one begged. It may be an act, but one senses genuine desperation in their voices. There are few jobs. It is heartrending. I feel that as much as anything we need to bring jobs to Haiti. On the street I saw men in yellow shirts sweeping the streets; 5000 such are employed by hip pop musician Wyclef Jean. Back in the U.S. I bought Wyclef’s “Welcome to Haiti” album and listened to the songs.
“If I were president, elected on Friday, inaugurated on Saturday, assassinated on Sunday, back to work on Monday…” he sings – there is a link to his "Hope for Haiti" web site on this page…
I bought what I could from various vendors I met, but there are always more…
