The first day of camp was less hectic than I suspected it would be. Each day of camp, the bus would pick up our team and drop us off at the Salvation Army, then take some of the team members to the tent city to pick up the children for the camp. I decided not to go to the tent city today, not sure I could handle what I might find there, so I waited to hear some opinions from the other courageous team members that decided to go.
The children arrived at the camp about an hour later, and the heat was already becoming unbearable. I understand that we as Delawareans are not necessarily accustomed to extreme heat, but it still amazed me that the Haitians could bear this weather on a consistent basis. There was no respite for them, due to the lack of funds for air conditioning and cold water. My respect for their situation rises each day.
Our first task of the day was to give water to each of the children that attended the camp. We lugged two large buckets out into the main area and began to parcel out the water. Already, I was facing some moral conflicts. First of all, some, if not the majority, of cups that we were using were very dirty. I understand that you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but are we really helping people by giving them dirty water? They were appreciative of course, but I wished we could have gotten new cups for the week. My second problem was that we had to skip over some children because they were not in the camp. The counselors could determine the campers because they received a green necklace at the tent city. Basically, no green necklace meant no water.
After the children received their water, it was time to go down to the beach to start the sports portion of the camp. We were given roughly 40 minutes a day to play with the kids, which may not sound like a lot of time, but in the 98 degree weather, it was plenty for everyone. We led the kids single file (surprisingly easy) down to the beach through an alley of shops and homes. There were already many people coming out of their homes to beg for money or food. Sadly, we just had to follow the motto of the trip: just ignore them. Maybe it won't always have to be this way, but for today, there was nothing I or anyone else could do.
The first impression of the beach was that it was very dirty. Without the trash all over the place, Jacmel could easily be a resort town. It overflows with natural beauty, all it needs is a good cleaning. But anyway, we arrived at the beach, and immediately realized that many problems were going to erupt due to the lack of sports equipment. The smaller children would all ask the counselors to get a ball for them, but we couldn't because they were all taken. No one seemed to want to cooperate with eachother, and many of them were quick to fight. Don't get me wrong, the children were incredibly nice to each of us, but they just weren't used to having this much equipment.
After an exhausting half hour of quelling potential conflicts, we went back to the Salvation Army and had our first lunch service. It was the same set-up as the water in the morning. Only the children with the green necklaces could receive food, so once again, we had to walk by the ones without it. Every fiber of my being is telling me to give some of the food to some of the local kids, but I know that we can't.
I'm not sure I want to do lunch service anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment