Wilson

      I will write more about my trip to Haiti later, but today I want to tell you about Wilson.  We took our two friends, Moses and Wilson with us to Dano. Dano is the village where we went to work last week.  It is isolated and remote, a beautiful place to spend a few days.  These two young men work hard at the orphanage in Port au Prince cooking and providing anything we need when we are there.  They needed a break and a time to rest.  There were women in Dano to do the cooking and providing. 
     Even though we can't communicate with them because of language barriers, it is sweet to walk around and hear your name called only to turn and see a huge smile aimed your way.  The hugs they give will crush your ribs.  The love they have for us is evident in the way they seek to serve. 
     On our last night in Dano I watched Wilson prepare fresh Mango for us.  He had a bowl of water and put the two fruits in it.  Gently, ever so gently, he put his hand in the bowl and rubbed the water over the fruit for several minutes.  Then he peeled it and cut it into slices, covering it with a paper towel until he passed it around for us to eat.  He was there to serve. He never assumed the fruit was for him.  He was doing this for us.  (Of course, we shared.) He did it with obvious love and care.

     During the week Wilson would come from behind, link his arm into mine and say my name.  We would laugh and talk, somehow understanding one another and getting our message across.  I sat with him on the bus ride back to the city.  It's a rough ride up and down that mountain.  At one point I heard Wilson call my name as he placed his hand on top of my head and push me down so that the tree limb coming through the window did not slap me in the face. When I needed my contact solution to clean grit out of my eye, he dug for my backpack and found it for me.  I have to tell you it was funny to see his reaction as he called for Moses to look as I removed that contact from my eye.  I heard three words in what he said that I understood:  Moses, Vicki, contact.  The looks on their faces were priceless!   
     Anyway, as we were saying our goodbyes on Friday night he said, "When you come back you will not see me here.  I live with my mother now."  The most natural thing in the world is to see those kids who work so hard to cook and clean.  They are always there.  They are the first people we see when we get off the bus.  Why does that have to change?  He began to cry and I did too.  He told us how much we had meant to him over our visits there.  I wonder if he will ever know how much he has meant to us.  The good news is that he is in college and studying business.  He had a statistics book that he was studying last week.  Wilson is smart.  He is steady.  He will succeed.

 

 

Me with Wilson (R) and Moses (L)

     Change is hard.  There were many changes in Haiti last week.  Most of the children had gone home for the summer.  Some will return for school in the fall.  Many will not.  While I am thrilled for Wilson that he has graduated high school and is attending college, I am jealous that he will not be there next July.  Then I wonder how hard it will be for Moses.  He is there alone now without his constant companions.  All of them are gone right now.  Will they return in September? 
     I am very thankful for Facebook!  As soon as Wilson accepts my friend request we will be able to keep in touch.  Well, I am going to have to learn to read and write Creole, but maybe Google can help with that!  And I am going to hope that he will do next year what he did this year -come spend a few days with Moses when the Americans from Shelter Church come to Haiti.  May God bless these two special men.