An afternoon with Christina

We drove to Au Bonheur des Enfants, the orphanage where Christina lives, again today. Today must be market day in Port Au Prince, it seemed like every person was in the streets, either buying or selling things. I saw live chickens in baskets, raw meat (pork?) in a bucket, eggs, herbs, oranges, mangos, onions, tomatoes, cell phones, toothpaste, Doritos, nail polish, fried bread of some sort -- all being haggled over on the side of the road. I have never seen a street so crowded with people. Our driver had a couple stops to make, so we got to see some parts of Port au Prince we would not have been able to see, places where the roads were so torn up we bounced all over the backseat. We saw more tent cities. One tent had a baby, maybe a year old, standing in the dirt, crying, no one else around. A mangy, skeleton bodied dog llicked water from a dirty puddle..

We got a wonderful reception at the orphanage when we arrived. The kids seemed thrilled to see the white people who bring gifts. Our driver told us he would be back to get us in 2 hours and I thought it wouldn't be enough time! I came all this way to spend every minute with Christina, not just a couple hours! But we can't be picky, so we said ok.

She didn't want me to put her down!

Christina was clutching the photo album we had given her and the kids yesterday. One page was already torn out and the pages were dog eared from being looked through so much. I had created an album of pictures of our family doing all the things we like to do-- skiing, hiking, swimming, running, being silly. I included a couple pictures of the dog and cat. Although we did not tell Chrisitna we are adopting her, we gave it to her to look through and she assumed it was her album. Obviously she had held on to it all night.

We got out the bag of balloons, giving each kid one. I spent the next hour blowing them up over and over. Only one child wanted his tied. The rest just liked to see the balloons fly through the air after they let them go. They also liked the squeaky sound when they let the air out slowly. I couldn't think about all the drool I was ingesting each time I blew the balloons up again and again.

Christina instantly jumped onto my lap and refused to let another child near me. Weston had two little girls fighting over his lap, and a third on his back. These kids are dying for attention and snuggles. It's not that they are ignored or mistreated here, but they have to share the affection of the nannies with 10 other kids.

I counted 10 older kids and at least 15 (maybe more, there was a room I couldn't see into) babies either crawling or just beginning to walk. That is a lot of kids, all wanting to be snuggled and loved!

I pulled out another photo album, this one had pictures of our family as well as of most of the kids at the orphanage. I had printed out pictures from our agency directors latest visit and added them to the album so the kids could see themselves. This album was a huge hit. The kids loved being able to point at themselves and their buddies.

Christina did not want to share this album either. She kept pushing the others away. Then she grabbed at my backpack, trying to open the zipper. I thought she was trying to get another ballon, but realized she was trying to put the album I gave her yesterday in my backpack. Once she got the album in the front pocket, she told me to shut the backpack. She was hiding the album in my pack so the other kids wouldn't get it!

We spent a long time going over the pictures. All of the kids fought over both Weston and me, each one trying to get into our laps. It was exhausting. Finally it was lunchtime.

We watched as the kids all ate a big bowl of chicken potato stew. They ate every bite. Christina worked hard at keeping her face clean, using the sppon to catch drips, but succeeded in rubbing the stew all over her chin and cheeks. One little girl, younger than the other older kids, each time she caught my eye, she would burst into tears. She did not like the strange people in her house. Finally the nanny had to block her view of us to get her to settle down and eat.

After lunch we settled back into snuggling each child. They all really needed naps, but I guess they don't take naps here. They also don't seem to take the kids to the potty. The kids just hold it. Weston colored pictures with three little girls and I rocked a little boy, Christina sitting beside me, finally sharing her album with another little girl. They had such a conversation about each picture! I wish I could have understood what they were saying.

Weston took picture requests, the kids would say what they wanted him to draw, we would have to figure out what they said and he would draw it to their delight. Rabbits, butterflies, cows, dogs...but one phrase we couldn't figure out. Blanche mama, Blanche papa. They kept repeating it. Then I realized white mama, white papa. They wanted him to draw a picture of us! They laughed so hard when we finally figured it out. (just so you know, it sounds much harder than it looks! Kreyol is not an easy language to understand!)

Meanwhile, the little boy I rocked to sleep was put on a little cot and Christina once again crawled into my lap. I rocked and cuddled her and soon she too was sound asleep. Weston rubbed the little girls back beside him, and she too fell asleep right at the table.

Another little boy, who had not interacted with us much, began to irritate the little girl next to Weston, trying to wake her up. Weston kept telling him no, but he persisted. Any attention, even negative, was better than none, I guess. So Weston invited him to sit beside him, and he lit up. He snuggled right up to Weston for back rubs and snuggles. He just wanted some love too.

A sleeping Christina

As I rocked a sleeping Christina I felt something wet drip down my leg. A little, then a lot. Poor baby wet her pants and she never even woke up. The nannies were no where to be found, I think they were grateful to have us watch the kids so they could wash dishes and do laundry. So I had to sit in pee for several minutes until we finally found someone to change Christina. A nanny changed her and put her in a bed upstairs to finish her nap. I am not sure the nannies were very happy with us for putting three of the kids to sleep. But they were so tired! They needed a nap!

Finally our driver showed up. He was over an hour late, which was fine with me. We didn't get to say goodbye to Christina, she was still sound asleep, but I gave the album to her nanny to give to her when she awoke.

The other kids gave us hugs and kisses. We thought we wouldn't get to see them tomorrow, since it is Sunday and no one works on Sunday, but to our surprise we were told the driver would pick us up at 8:30 am tomorrow to take us back to the orphanage. Yea!!

I have learned a ton about Christina, about how kids have to survive in an orphanage, even a good one. I will save my observations for another day, however, I am exhausted and it is hard to type this much on an IPad.