Day 3: Water Truck Day: Two Views of Cite Soleil

Today was an incredibly difficult and challenging day yet so rewarding on so many levels. Our day began with us arriving in Cite Soleil greeted by an overjoyed group of kids shouting "Hey you!" as they eagerly awaited the arrival of our water trucks.  As we stepped off the Tap-Tap these kids literally jumped and climbed on us desperately seeking to be hugged and held just so starved for affection. Some of us held up to two kids at a time while others carried as many as four.  A lot of these kids weren't even wearing underpants and the poor children are filthy and none of us speak Creole but love transcends through all languages and all we could think about is reciprocating the warmth and affection that these children so freely gave.  We also all took turns manning the water hose that distributes the water to individual families as they all impatiently lined up to have their buckets filled.  It was astounding to see most of the children and women do all the work as they all carried the unbelievably heavy buckets.  Overall it's hard to get past the images that will be forever ingrained in my mind from of all the unfathomable sounds, sights and smells to the look in the child's eye that's desperately yearning for love and attention and the sight of children immersing themselves inside the water basins as if it were the best thing in the world.  What I experienced today was completely heartbreaking and left me with an incredible sense of overwhelming sadness, guilt and anxiety.  However I am also completely humbled at the thought of how privileged we really are and how most of us take the simplest of things for granted.  

Daisy Taylor

Cite Soleil revealed more layers of complexity to me with each of our three stops today. The first stop was on the edge of the community, probably a newer, less established part, and the social order was pretty basic with the needs for survival and emotional health right up front. The small children wanted attention and some needed help getting water their homes, but their comfort with the routine and enjoyment of the help and attention were apparent. At the second stop I saw more social structure appear, with teen boys passing by with no concern for helping, more people in more established structures physically and socially, a longer line with some irritations, and small children playing with the water while older ones were more on task, some girls at a younger age. The third stop seemed to have a much more established social order with a full range of community you'd see in any ethnically uniform neighborhood. The physical and social structures were even more clearly defined with much older women coming for water along with others. Older young men breaking into the line revealing a power structure, others asking for help getting water at all which I later realized may have been because they weren't allowed even in line. And the small children still wanted attention and affection, but some played established water games together instead, and some really young ones needed help getting water home further down the street than we'd ventured at the other sites. So more slave children were in play, revealing economic as well as social structure within what we view as just all poor people. Their lives are complete with family and community relations, differing challenges at the detail level among individuals and families, and dreams and hopes, but not the same ones we'd hope for them. This all leaves the question of how we can elevate their hopes and encourage them to work together to align the community to common good without undermining the good things they have, some which could be as good or better than we have in terms of community already at some levels. The answers are no less complex than the situation.

Roy Schermerhorn