Friendship bracelets

Feb. 15.

Today on the way to the Centre Jean Bosco, a little boy was walking down the street, crying his heart out and wailing that his father had just died. 

Cholera cases are way down though, and the health center has not seen any one affected by the disease in the past few days. That is good news.

The Centre Saint Jean Bosco has made great progress since September, benches and desks have been built for the kids, and blackboards and latrines are up. The cafeteria is set up outside so the guard can use the kitchen space for his sleeping quarters and there are two long tables and 16 chairs ( for 160 kids) that we were able to use to create our first craft: friendship bracelets ( again my thanks to the girls in my 201 class that taught me how to make them) .

This is a huge success: the administrator told me the children never get anyone to pay attention to them individually and being able to make individual decisions such as picking their own colors, was an obvious delight. The 32 kids I worked with,  all finished with at least one bracelet or necklace each. Now they will make some for me to take home and offer for sale so as to raise money for their craft center.  Thanks to the generous support of friends, students and family members, I brought 60 lbs of supplies that will stay at the center and be used in the future.

Tomorrow I will work with a person that might follow up when I leave and I will show her the other projects I have planned. The first one will be the recycled fabric hair ties.  Sister Helene, the French Canadian nun , a heart of gold , who has lived in Haiti for over 22 years and is one of the founder of the center as well as a current administrator who keeps immaculate books , is SO thrilled with that project, because she imagines the production of tulle hair ties that will be used for celebrations such as first communion and wedding, so they can be sold locally: WHICH IS ONE OF MY GOALS. So I am thrilled…

Tomorrow I will write about the other project I have been working on with Bishop Decoste, that too is exciting!  ……. The other exciting thing is that we have running water tonight AND the big black spider behind my sink seems to have chosen to move elsewhere! Life is good!