Family Week!

Every week is busy here at Be Like Brit, and this past one was no different!  Len and Cherylann arrived last week on Monday to visit with the children and tend to some business, and our Be Like Brit family grew by three boys!

Len and Cherylann greet the children as they come home from school!

Brothers! (L-R) Kerby, Davidson, and Fredo

One of the week's biggest events (and one of my favorite days!) was last Sunday after church when Rosenie and I took 14 of Brit's children out with us and visited the communities they were living in prior to coming to Be Like Brit.  Part of our programming includes regular family involvement (keeping in mind that family may mean a variety of things in this context!) and while the policy itself is ever-evolving and being tweaked to accommodate for each individual child's need or desire, I believe it's very important to keep the children connected to their roots.

I sometimes refer to Be Like Brit as a "bubble of privilege", and the last thing I want is for our children to become so insulated inside that bubble that they lose their sense of identity and all familiarity with what the real world is like for most people in Haiti.  That's how we bring up a generation of future leaders who value things like reciprocity - by keeping them connected.

At any rate, the children were more than excited to go and put on some of their best clothes as we piled in the pickup truck and set out for the afternoon.  And yes, driving a pickup truck filled with children in Haiti does make me nervous!

Let's go, already! 

I really had no idea what to expect as we set off for the first stop.  I had spent a lot of time discussing the visits with the children involved, being sure they wanted to go, talking about how they felt about going, etc., etc., but still, those things you plan for the most often are the things that you have to have a "wait and see" attitude.  I wanted our children to be excited about seeing aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, old friends, and even a few moms - but I was nervous about the emotional toll it might take on them.  I mostly feared that some of our children would express a desire to stay - to not want to come back to Be Like Brit.  How would I handle that?

One of the homes from where some of our children came from

I was so relieved to be witness to the excitement and the anticipation each child felt for the others as we neared the next "house".  They couldn't wait to introduce their new brothers and sisters to their extended families or to the people with whom they were living; to show their new brothers and sisters their old home, to see old friends.  They were genuinely happy, excited, and spoke proudly of going to school and what life is like for them now at Be Like Brit.

Steeve was happy to see his Grandmother!

Something that I don't think I'll ever be able to fully "get" or understand is how familial relationships seem or appear to work in Haiti.  At face value, even when bringing children in to the Orphanage, there seems to be this stoic, emotionless, very matter-of-fact exchange of "child for birth certificate" sort of arrangement.  I always ask the adults bringing us children if they would like to walk around and see where their child will be living, meet their caregivers, etc., and almost always get an awkward no.  When I ask adults about visiting the child they will be bringing us, they almost always say something along the lines of, "yes, sure, when would you like me to visit."  There's not often tears, there's never a screaming child holding tight to the arm of the adult who has provided him or her with care for the last 'X' number of years.  At least not on the surface.  I remember crying so hard the first day of school every year until I was about 9.  I have yet to see that happen here - that separation doesn't seem to bring any sadness.

Walking to another house!

And that's how these visits seemed, at least for the most part. Children and adults were not overly emotional about seeing each other. They didn't run up to one another and embrace.  There were no tight, long hugs and tears of joy like we see in the States every day at something as simple as an arrival gate at the airport.  And I can't quite yet figure that out.  It wears on my mind constantly.  Is it that simple?  Is the presence of a child in your home so much of a burden because it's another mouth to feed that the absence of that child provides so much relief that the dominant emotion is not sadness?  Or is it a facade?

Socrate, waving?

I can't help but believe there's more going on beneath the surface, though I realize that's my own Western framed mind telling me this.  The whole idea of trauma is something scholars contest as a social construct of Western thought and not so much a reality for those who are supposedly suffering from it.  I don't know who is right and who is wrong, and quite frankly, I don't care.  I'll continue to be mindful of all of this while keeping the best interest of our children as the number one priority.  Smiles don't usually lie.  Our children seemed overwhelmingly happy to reunite briefly with friends and family, share a quick hug, and head back home to Be Like Brit.  As I spoke with each child afterwards about how they felt about their day, it was clear that all was well with their world.  At least for the moment.

Thanks for reading - and enjoy a few more photos from that day!

Jonathan

Old friends in the neighborhood!

Love na's neighbor is happy to see her!

Waving to Be Like Brit from another hill!

Ephesiens recognizes his old neighbor!

Many of these homes have yet to be rebuilt, 3 years later.

Like A Local!

It's not easy being a 6' tall bald-headed white man in Haiti.  People tend to notice you.  They tend to point and yell "blan! blan!" - which is to be expected.  After all, who am I to them?  Why on earth am I here?  Sometimes I wonder what locals think when they see me driving through their city streets, or walking through their communities, almost always escorted by one or two Haitians, clipboard in hand, looking for children we have heard about in need.  I wonder how they feel about my presence - do they like me?  Do they hate the fact that I'm combing their neighborhoods?  Are they largely indifferent towards me?  Do they wonder if I'm a Missionary or if I'm someone there looking to give money to a large-scale project?  All of these questions run through my mind on an almost regular basis.  I certainly have never felt like a local.  Yesterday, however, I did something for the first time that made me feel more "local" than anything else I have done so far while in Haiti:  I went to the market!

(Photo credit: Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images).

Those of you who have traveled the world and visited these open-air markets know that there's nothing quite as hectic and lively as the public market in any given town.  Having only the markets in Rwanda to compare this experience to, I expected to be swarmed by merchants and market-goers alike, pulled in different directions, asked to buy lots of items - hear things like "good price for you blan", etc.  Imagine my surprise when none of this happened!  Sure, there were stares and a few people who chose to follow me fairly closely, but there was none of the overwhelming inundation of pressure and attention that I found to be the case in any public market I visited in Kigali.  I even ran into a few familiar faces, people who called me out by name!  I couldn't resist carrying the 50 lb. bag of rice on my head as we walked back out of the chaos towards National Route 2 (still chaotic!) where my car sat waiting to carry me and the two market-goers I had joined back up the hill.  That sight alone earned much more comments, gawks, stares, and laughter than any other throughout the experience.  I may have been caught up in the excitement of it all, or perhaps searching for something deeper where perhaps everything was at face value - but for the first time since my arrival to Haiti I felt more like a local than I ever had previously.  It was a very awesome sensation.

Then, there are experiences like this:

Earlier this week, Rosenie and I received a phone call from a man who claimed to know of some thirty children who were true orphans and in desperate need of assistance.  He claimed to know of Be Like Brit through an employee of ours, and so reached out and asked us if we would make the 20 minute or so drive to the neighboring town to meet these children and the adults with whom they were living to see if we might be able to help them at all.  We agreed to meet him at 9am, which, let's be honest, could mean anywhere between 9am and 10am in Haiti.  Naturally, the man needed some phone minutes transferred from my phone to his so that he could make the arrangements and call each of the respective families.  Given that he only asked for 20 goudes (about 50 cents) I didn't really hesitate.

Rosenie and I set off with one of our security guards towards Petit Goâve on time, me at the wheel.  As we approached the predetermined spot, Rosenie made a phone call to announce our arrival.  Her tone immediately shifted from professional and very matter of fact to stern and authoritative.  While I am somewhat impressed with my Haitian Creole language skills, I wasn't able to catch everything that was exchanged.  I did, however, decipher that the man we were to meet was not where he said he would be.  Instead, he was a bit further West, in a town he failed to mention before, and asked if we could just drive there to meet him.

We obliged, irritated, but hey, it's Haiti, and if you get easily irritated you may not want to visit.  Plans change, specifics and details are sometimes lost in translation or just held to a different standard than we uptight, by-the-minute scheduling Westerners consider important.  We laughed a bit - even more so when we found the radio station blaring the Backstreet Boys as we all sang along.

We then arrived at this next town.  Rosenie made the call - and again, I listened as her tone changed, this time coupled with a drastic increase in modulation.  She was flat out screaming at this guy - and I found it to be quite hilarious!  It seemed, yet again, that he was not in the town he told us he was in, but instead, just "a little bit further" down the road.  As I picked up on some choice phrases and expressions she had for this man, we decided to call the drive and time a loss, and head back to Grand Goâve.

Rosenie was ready to fight! 

Frustration and annoying days are what you make of them anywhere, but in Haiti, there's almost always an option A, B, or C to turn to.  We did just that, and because of our morning frustration and the wild goose chase we found ourselves on, we were able to stop off and make a different visit.  The home of Fredo, Kerby and Davidson, our newest three children here at Be Like Brit.  I don't often travel with enrollment documents in my bag, but that day I had, anticipating that from this supposed group of 30 orphans we would be enrolling at least a few.  So, while frustrated and having racked up a few miles on the car, our day did not end without some awesome results.  We welcomed our three newest boys home to Be Like Brit that afternoon, long before Rosenie had a chance to take any swings at the deceitful man who was leading us all over Haiti.

Fredo, Kerby, and Davidson - with a Rosenie much happier than just a few hours earlier! :)

We had taken a few weeks off from bringing children in to allow for our first group to adjust and establish a routine.  We can't believe it that we are already 1/3 of the way towards our goal of 66 children!!!

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention another wonderful thing that happened this week here at Be Like Brit.  For those of you who have followed us, you know we are blessed with some very talented professionals who volunteer their time and money to help us in all sorts of different ways.  If you've been a faithful follower of our Facebook page (we have over 13,000 now!) you absolutely have heard how wonderful it is that we have a 60,000kw generator as emergency backup for the all-too-common rolling blackouts we are faced with here in Grand Goâve.  Until this week, that generator was housed in a storage room inside the building.

Greg and Chris Love!

Greg Smith has been one of those wonderful people.  After 6 trips in to Haiti to help with electrical projects at Be Like Brit, Greg came back to help us with the very important and difficult task of moving this generator to a secured outbuilding.  We decided to move the generator for several reasons - including needing the space to store all of the wonderful donations all of our friends and supporters continue to send.  It's also, as you may imagine, a very loud machine when it runs.  We wanted to keep the environment inside Brit's Orphanage as free from noise pollution (and the smell of diesel!) as possible.  Greg flew down specifically to help us with this gargantuan task!  We can't thank him enough!  Now, when the power is out, we don't even realize it, as the generator kicks on and is far enough away from the building that we can't even hear it over the hum of the ceiling fans and the chirping of crickets!

A new home for the generator!

What's wrong, Chris Love?

Ok, come with me buddy!

"Must you take so many pictures!?" 

Again, it's been another week of blessing for us here at Be Like Brit.  We continue to work hard to provide the best home and environment for our children to grow and learn - and another "first" for me this week was being the "parent" at school on report card day, collecting 20 "carnet scholaires" for all of Brit's Children enrolled at the school at Mission of Hope International.  To say I was nervous is an understatement.  I found it a bit comical when Renèe Edmee came up to me and said, "in a sea of all of these heads, your white shiny head sticks out a bit!"  Indeed, it did.  And while some of our children have room for improvement, we couldn't be more proud at their ability to perform as well as they did given the drastic changes in their lives in such a short period of time.

For most of our children, their first day of school ever in their lives was after January 21, 2013, when they came home to Be Like Brit.  Having been removed from their homes, brought to a new place filled with new people, new rules, new expectations, and enrolled into school almost immediately, I believe firmly that our children are doing amazingly well.  We have one more term before the end of the school year, and each of our children knows they have a bit of work to do.  Like any parent, though, they know that as long as they work and they try, we will be beaming with pride - and amazed at how well they have adapted and adjusted to a life so unlike that which they were living before.

Kervins and his report card! (He's VERY good at drawing squares, by the way!) :) 

Saradina!

Sherly!

Thanks for reading, all.  We'll see you next week!

Jonathan

Back to Work!

Mariette poses proudly with the Easter cake she made for the children here at Be Like Brit!

Easter Sunday started like most mornings here at Be Like Brit do.  As the roosters started to crow and the chirping of birds began to fill the air, the sounds of the children rising from their slumbers mixed in.  From my room in Be Like Brit, I listened carefully as the children exchanged words filled with excitement:  "It's Easter Sunday!", or "my new dress is so beautiful!" - Indeed, there is an anticipation and an excitement in the voices of these children that is so refreshing and so rejuvenating.  They wear this anticipation and excitement openly on their faces each and every day.

Ready for Church!

I just returned to Haiti and to BLB after my first week off after 3 months here as Program Director.  I can't really believe it.  Here we are, swiftly moving into April, and the changes in my own life are far too many to count.  My own reality between September 19, 2012 when I applied for this position up to today is one that I still can't quite grasp entirely.  Five months ago I was working in the Sociology department of a state university, teaching undergraduate classes to some very well-off (mostly) American teenagers, and today by 8a.m. I've spent two hours helping orphaned children in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere get ready for church in their donated clothes with smiles more genuine than any I have seen before.  It's quite a shift from life in the States.

We take so many things for granted.  I think that may be what struck me the most during my visit home last week.  Surrounded by family, friends, food, drink, all of those comforts of home we in the developed world "need" in order to survive.  A hotel bed, king sized of course; wifi a necessity; a rental car (because who wants to walk in the cold!) - all of these things seem so wasteful when you return back to a place like Haiti.  While I don't fault myself or any of us who know this as our own realities, it really is so trivial and so selfish to think we need any of those things.  That's something that Haiti has taught me, we really don't need much.  We just need to know different.

I definitely feel a bit rejuvenated after my first week off.  Part of my contract mandates that every three months I take a week to avoid burnout and fatigue.  This is a good thing, really, because Haiti demands the most from a person both mentally and physically - especially in a position like mine.  Living where you work brings a whole new meaning to being dedicated to your job, and the children at Be Like Brit mean very much to me like I imagine my own children would.  Watching things happen here at Be Like Brit on Facebook while I was away was so strange for me - and being removed from it only underscored how much these kids mean to me.

Rolson, Alexander, Kervins, Medlens, and Whenly (L-R)

I was so blessed my last two weeks in Haiti before my vacation to have Debra Pallatto-Fontaine on hand, as well as a visit from my cousin, Giovanina.  Debbie is a member of our Program Committee, and she wears many different hats!  Debbie is a Minister and an educator.  Her expertise and guidance over her two week stay was invaluable to our staff and children here at Be Like Brit.  Through caregiver training, modeling of behaviors, helping to implement schedules and routines, and her overall guidance have made life a bit less chaotic and much more ordered!  Our caregivers and our staff alike miss Debbie already, and we can't wait for her return again this spring to lend another hand in her gentle, patient, and generous way.

Debbie with Saradina and Kervins

My cousin Giovanina Bucci from Plattsburgh, NY decided to spend her spring break from her master's program in School Psychology here at Be Like Brit.  Part of me is convinced it's because she missed me so very much (Ha!) but I also know how excited she was to get the chance to work with the children here!  Giovanina and I are cousins, but we are and have been inseparable for as long as I can remember.  Something like kindred spirits comes to mind - At any rate, Giovanina wasted no time in jumping right in with our children, bringing along with her hundreds of dollars worth of art supplies, paint, brushes, paper, etc., so that she could share her talents and skills with Brit's children.  For those of you who missed it, she and one of our own caregivers, Willman LaGuerre, were able to paint an incredible mural in our courtyard - in just two days!  This mural has brightened up an area in the orphanage where the children spend much of their time playing, and together they produced a magnificent and culturally relevant piece of art which will remain on these walls for years to come! Bon Travay!

Willmann and Giovanina work hard on their mural which now brings new life to the courtyard at Be Like Brit!

During my week off, of course I attended to some business.  I am fortunate to Skype with members of the Program Committee every week back in the States to seek their advice and guidance on a whole range of issues I run in to on a regular basis.  From sponsorship policies, to visitors, rules, discipline, staffing, issues with children, etc., I have unwavering support from our Program Committee which includes a nurse, child psychologists, a priest, a minister, college professors, and more!  After a few days back in my hometown, where I was lucky enough to visit the 4th grade classroom of a good friend to talk about Be Like Brit and after visiting and catching up with my amazing and supportive family and friends, I set off for Boston to meet with a few members of the Program Committee.

While they are all important and valuable assets to me, I speak most regularly with Christine Steinwand, Len's older sister and the Chair of the Program Committee.  Chris and I Skype two times a week - sometimes for just a few minutes, sometimes for more than an hour.  Chris is a great source of support and guidance for me - and so meeting up with her while I was up north was wonderful!  Along with Susan Johnson and Suzanne Brady, we had a great dinner and evening together.  We even ran into Bernie Gengel while we were out grabbing dessert from Modern Bakery in Boston's North End.  I think it's safe to say we were all pretty content that night!

Susan Johnson and I in Boston

Suzanne Brady and Christine Steinwand, Program Committee members (and dinner dates extraordinaire!)

Blurry, but group!

While in Boston, I was even able to meet up with Tim and Mike, Team Leaders from the St. John's Group of Britsionarys we had here back in February!  We went out for dinner and had a great evening catching up! It was so nice to see that the relationships we formed while they were here as Britsionarys carried over into life after the fact.  The next night, two of the students, Tim and Quinn drove out to Boston from Shrewsbury to say hello and catch up, too!  These trips are about more than just coming to Haiti and doing some work - they are about forming lasting friendships and connections and common bonds - and seeing these guys put forth the effort to meet up was so awesome!

So, after some brainstorming and some rest (okay - a LOT of rest - gotta love those king-sized beds, the ones with the pillow tops - worth every penny!) it's time to get back to work!  As most of you know, we have 20 children.  Our goal is to bring another 12 children in by the end of May.  This, of course, requires us to bring in and train an entire new group of caregivers.  Rosenie and I will begin the process of identifying children and families in need, venturing our into the community to visit and interview them, and making those tough decisions all over again.  This time, however, I will have the benefit of some practice and some experience - and definitely the advantage of speaking enough Creole to know when I am being talked about!  This round will be different.  As the number of children grows here at Be Like Brit, my role shifts.  As much as I love being hands on with the children and being a part of their every day lives, I know realistically that working in that capacity is not sustainable nor is it in the best interest of the children who will call Be Like Brit home.

As I shift a bit and delegate more responsibility and autonomy to our caregivers, I do so with some anxiety.  I know with the help of my co-director Gama (Mr. Incredible, indeed!) and through supports from the Program Committee that in just a few months I will likely be reminiscing and exclaiming my disbelief that we now have 32 children - how I can't believe it was only January 21st when we brought our first child home to Be Like Brit - how I can't believe what little hair I have left hasn't fallen out!  I know the support and prayers from all of you who have been so good to Be Like Brit will help along the way, too!

We have lots of exciting new things in the works at Be Like Brit! I'm in the process of working out relationships with several U.S. universities who are considering Be Like Brit as a placement for graduate level social work and public health students.  We have other long-term volunteer (Britsionary) applications in the works, projects being considered, and networking and collaborations in progress.

Stay tuned for some great new happenings here in Haiti - and remember that it's only because of the support and generosity of our friends and the hard work of those committed to our cause that these wonderful things are possible.

Happy Easter! Please enjoy some photos from our Easter Egg Hunt, and stay tuned for more exciting updates!

Thanks for reading,
Jonathan

How many eggs did we hide in the toy box?

Nashca is looking!

Sherly found her two!

Loobens!

Saradina ignores an attempted high five from Giovanina! Ha!

Saradina found her two eggs!

Ephesiens is all smiles!

Gotta love that Love na! 

Shnaider is proud!

Mirna!

Whenly!

Socrate!

Daphney!

Madame Sintana wanted in on the hunt, too. Tisk, tisk!

Caregiver Carline snuck in on the hunt after Sintana!