“I don’t think I can say anything without crying, so I’ll ‘ferme ma bouche maintenant’.”
I’m Aimee, one of three new people here who joined Brian Deux (Bowers) for seven days, and that’s pretty much how my day opened, sitting amongst the big hearts and smiles of the HATS team. After arriving last night at the end of a very full day of travel, Rich, Josh (his son), Brian and I were greeted by 8 or so of the smiley-ist, huggy-ist children we’ve ever seen;I’ve learned big displays of love from the kids are par for the course at HATS.
Today we are adjusting to a climate that imposes its own rhythm: ‘work, drink water, sit…work, drink water, sit’. As a result, the I-want-to-do-as-much-as-I-can-and-make-a-difference compulsion that sets in when you’re here for a short time is kept swiftly in check.
On that note, two things came to light today:
- Just by being here, sharing your spirit and kindness, you’ve made a difference
- Every little job done makes a difference.
And some of the work we’ve done today are certainly examples of #2, like removing a pile of rubble and giving the boys a safe place to walk to their bathroom. Yes that might sound easy, but when it hits 30C likely well before noon with a Nothing Like You’ve Experienced humidity, believe me, it’s a feat. Removing poles from concrete to allow for a building’s expansion (again, picture swinging hammers, sledge hammers, to bash up concrete in the heat). Even this blog. Posting this frees up Karen and Bob time to do things like bring Ti Luc to the hospital for what seems to be a case of tonsilitis.
Of course, this all goes on while work continues on the new house and some fantastic meals are being prepared; “Yeah, there’ll be none of that left” commented Rich on the spaghetti with sauce served for lunch.
So goes the day; working, drinking, sitting and trying to make a bit of difference. I suspect, and I’m speaking on behalf of the other newbies here, we’ll fall into our own rhythm, shift a few gears and find that, in our own way, we did have some effect. As will the children and the HATS team, on us. Boldly, I’ll say we’ll be better off for it to.
A bientot,
~Aimee
