EGO Six

We have been on the ground at EGO for 14 days, 10 hours, 43 minutes, and 30 seconds. It has taken me 11 days of this time to figure out that the kids are beyond me. Just when I think all systems are running smooth, I’ve come to the realization that I don’t get it. The system has become an “underground sub system”. Suddenly I remember my first trip to Haiti; it took me 9 days to figure out I was a “blan”. Simply put, a “white guy ”.

Haiti is a different culture. You say, duh! I should know that. The orphanage is a sub culture nestled in the Haitian culture. I should have paid more attention to my socialology teachers. Let me explain. Dixie and I come from down the road “Nan Wo” Haiti. We become substitute Haitian mom and dad to 69 kids, and 30+- staff. (sub culture meet sub culture) To all of you who have kids imagine your kids are wired to a different understanding of life.. “Give me some candy… Give me a dollar, give me a drink.” Well, so far it sounds just like any 3 to 5 year old, right? In Nan Wo and Desselines the children have very little supervision and they are left to fend for themselves. As to the orphanage, if you allow, “No” can mean “Yes”. Dad says, “Stay off the golf cart!” (the line in the sand) So the child only gets half on the cart and falls off into the mud once the cart takes off. “Dad, I did not get on the cart. I was only half on.” Some of you say that sounds just like my kids. I’m sure one of my 22 children sounded like that at least once. So put this into the mix. Your kids don’t speak your language (you may already think that to be true). You speak English, they speak Creole. You tell them to clean the chicken coop….. they don’t want to do it in the first place and they don’t understand a word you just said. In fact, you don’t understand what they said back to you, or in my case, my selective hearing refused to hear it. You think, “Man, they get it now, tonight the job will be done with excellence and on time.” Then you discover you don’t even completely know what their job is in the first place. Do I milk the cow every morning or every other morning? I’ll feed the chickens their week’s food all tonight so I can skip feeding for the next five days. Try this with your dog when you go on vacation. Its cheaper then boarding the dog at “Happy Paws”!

Best way to describe EGO is that its like climbing a mountain, and each mountain peek reveals a valley with a new peek rising up in the distance. In Haiti they call it “mountains beyond mountains”. Is this what they are talking about? These kids have grown on me….. Dixie, can we adopt Marko? Ill only be 70 something when he is 18. Abraham and Sara were in their late nineties when they had their first child. What do you think, Dix?

Thanks for your prayers….

Harley and Dixie