The Bridge Day 6/ Team Work

Bonswaaaa my fellow Americans! I hope I spelled bonswa correctly…probably not but besides the point. How are you all doing on this fine day? To be honest, I’m not the best, physically, or emotionally. Lately we have been seeing things that not every American sees on the normal daily basis, or possibly ever sees. In Haiti these beautiful, welcoming, caring, hard working, people have a whole different world. Everything we take for granted we might not even realize, such as things like water, bathrooms, paper, coffee, soap, those kind of things. And then we got to see how happy, joyful, they are even without those things it really got me. When we are at home we whine about the internet not working or we keep losing in a video game or even the ketchup bottle is out. And they don’t whine and complain about not having things. 

That’s the first thing that got me but then when we went to the home for sick and dying  children I about lost myself. These kids, even with sickness, are still joyful. But some of them were not…Mrs. Jacinda talked about this but I will add on a bit because it hit a lot of us. When we were at the home of sick and dying there was this little girl, 4 years old, in the corner. She was shaking, moaning and it was a really hard thing to see. When I got done in the baby room I went outside to see all the kids playing and being kids. I felt this uneasiness fly by me.  Although I saw all of the kids playing, I felt as if there was a little kid in this room that was kinda hidden and sure enough I got myself up and looked in that room and there was this little boy just sitting there staring at the wall. No emotion was on his face. I went up to say “Hi” but he ignored me. I put my hands out to carry him and he turned away. I went ahead and picked him up anyway. His face leaked of sorrow and his eyes full of  grief. As I kept hugging him and talking to him he slowly warmed up to me. But still no smile or emotion on his face. I decided to sit and let him lay his little head on my shoulder for a while. 

I did not know what He has gone through, but I did know God did. I prayed for him that God would bless him and help him through this rough time in life at such a young age and thanked God for letting me come here and hold him and give him as much love as I could. At the end of it, although I did not get him to smile I did get him to fall asleep on me. That shows that he trusted me- a stranger- enough to lay his head down, close his eyes and rest. When I had to leave I told him my goodbyes and it was really hard to let him go, not knowing what’s going to happen to him the next day. 

I’m still sad and heart broken but God is putting me back piece by piece, with the help of my awesome Haiti team. They are always there for me, and each other. They always hug when I need it and always are there to listen to me and I just want to say to my Haiti team…You guys don’t understand how much you have blessed me. Like I said, you guys always love on me and each other. Mrs. jacinda and Mrs Karen giving me back massages and Mrs. Natalie being a second mom to me. Eliana and Meghan and Izabelle being like loving sisters to me. Mr. Ken and Mr. Jeff being great influences to me. And you can’t forget about Mrs. Lisa! She’s always there to lighten up the day along with the uncle Eli, they just know how to make you feel better. And Jude is like a brother that knows what to say.... well sometimes…. but sure knows how to make a party up to a next level. Tommy, always a good person to be around and is a good man. And of course my wonderful, amazing, loving, mom that came to Haiti with me. She’s always there, it doesn’t matter what it is. That’s my team. 

-Ben Parrish