The Goodness in All of Us

     Sunday morning. I went for a run on my usual course and then took a detour to the chicken sheds and the fish basins to see if I could make that a more interesting loop. That would have been a nice little run but there is no trail around the basins. So I turned back. Maybe if they cut the grass…

     I showered and then helped Meer clean up the house a bit. His friends from Port-au-Prince called last night and asked if they could come visit and have lunch with Meer in Christianville. Meer knows lots of Bangladeshis in PAP and his two friends work for Digicel. They are both married and each has a son and today is Nihal’s birthday, the son of one of the couples. They thought it would be a good idea to come out to Christianville and celebrate their son’s birthday with Meer. As I walked back from the lab to get brunch at the dining hall, Meer invited me to join them for lunch.

     The women took the day off from cooking and played with the kids while Meer and his two friends prepared the meal. When I met the women, they were in our back yard with the two little boys collecting bori or jujube fruit from a tree that I did not even know had fruit. The fruit are about the size of a small cherry and they look like miniature Granny Smith apples. They taste a little like apples also. 

     Lunch was ready but before we ate we all walked over to the orphanage.

Sue and the orphans

Meer’s friend and his wife brought five birthday cakes to celebrate their son’s third birthday with the orphans. Sue has 25 children in the orphanage right now (a new baby will be coming this week to make the number 26). The kids are all ages. I guess Rose is the youngest. When I first saw her in October, she was four months old and four pounds. I guess she is a lot bigger now; she was sleeping when we went over with the cakes so I did not see her. These were beautiful cakes. Meer’s friends live in a really nice neighborhood in PAP. Caribbean Super Market, one of the upscale supermarkets in Pétion-Ville, is about a minute from where they live. I guess they bought the cakes there. The kids were finishing up their lunch when we got to Sue’s orphanage. There were kids everywhere, in high chairs, on boosters, being fed by Sue’s workers or eating on their own at little tables. Orphans. Some have lost their parents (maybe in the earthquake); others were given up by parents who simply cannot afford to feed and cloth and raise them. Sometimes parents come back for the child when they are better off and can raise the child; sometimes they only show interest when they are asked to sign the papers to put the child up for adoption.

     Sue gathered the children around the table with the cakes,

Three of the birthday cakes

lit the candles and we all sang Happy Birthday. As I watched I was touched by this simple act of thoughtfulness and friendship. It was their child’s birthday. Far from their own family in Bangladesh, they made this gesture to share their son’s birthday with children they had never met who have no family except the other orphans. I was touched by their kindness.

Everyone gathers around for the birthday cakes

Nihal and his mother cut the cake

     We returned to the house and I had a fine Bangladeshi meal of fish and goat and rice and eggs. Everyone ate with their fingers. Meer set out a fork and knife for me. It is sort of amusing that my introduction to Bangladeshi food is in Haiti. Everything was delicious. Meer kept asking if it was too spicy. I told him it should be spicier. Don’t hold back on my account!

     After we had all eaten, Meer prepared another plate of food. I asked who it was for. The driver/body guard, he said. Digicel does not allow their people to drive and they provide a driver who also serves as security for them. He is taking care of them so they take care of him. It’s Haiti. You look out for each other. Actually, that’s the way it should be everywhere, right?

Enjoying the birthday cake