DAY 5
To me, children are everything. Their spirit, their energy, their purity, their creativity. Especially in a place like Haiti, where suffering is everywhere you look. We celebrate the opening day of St. Damien’s School, which is only grade 7 for now. Like St. Luke Children’s hospital, the school is supported by Paul Haggis and the Artists for Peace and Justice. It’s such a happy and extremely clean place, especially in contrast to what’s going on outside.
Bryn Mooser who runs Paul Haggis’ foundation, takes me on a tour of the school and then to the hospital, across the way by motorcycle. It is my first bike ride in Haiti, and it feels so liberating. The hospital is just as clean and happy as the school. I’m desperate to get our UZITS [Urban Zen Intergrative Therapists] to work in this hospital. We want to give them as much help as we can, and immediately go about putting this into action.
We visit Shelly Clay’s “Apparent Project” workshop, where they make beads and jewelry out of recycled products. Shelly came to Haiti to adopt a child and wound up adopting a community. An extraordinary heart, she has created a sustainable home for mothers and children. Everyone works here. We buy out the store of necklaces and bracelets, which I plan to show them to everyone I know back home. I also plan to sell them in our stores, as I know they will be an instant best-seller, and create future demand and business for Shelly and her community.
Isabel and I go to Caribbean Craft to meet with owners Magalie and Joel Dresse. This is the place we first saw the stone hearts. We want to design a paper mache bag and a possible jewelry line. Caribbean Craft is the model for job sustainability and education in Haiti. They supply jobs and nutritious meals to those living in nearby tented camps. Magalie introduced me to her daughter Kian, who is celebrating her seventh birthday. Kian gives me a beautiful gift of sketches that looks like a ruffled version of my seven easy pieces.
We have dinner with Paul Haggis and his team. I meet Conan, the hospital director of St. Damien’s, and we talk about having UZITs come and train the nurses in the hospital. I’m want to make this happen as soon as possible.
DAY 6
We have an extraordinary visit to We Advance Clinic, started by Allison Thompson and the actress Maria Bellos. (Allison is a nurse, cinematographer and a friend of my friends, Russell James and Lisa Fox.) A beautiful woman named Tina runs the clinic and shows us the humble two rooms they have created with ten cots, a birthing table, minimal medical supplies and a wheelchair made from a plastic patio chair. This is one of the most devastated places in Haiti, and this makeshift hospital is doing its very best with very little. You can’t help but think how it doesn’t take much to make a difference.
Then comes the highlight of my trip. We pass a village where we are met by dozens of beautiful, smiling children who walk us to their school, a tiny wood shack. A teacher is giving a geography lesson and invites us to join. I draw a map of the United States and Haiti on their stone wall, which was a makeshift blackboard. One child asks why Haiti is so small. I then draw a big heart around Haiti and said “my heart for Haiti.”
As we leave Haiti, we pop back into Caribbean Craft to look at a prototype paper mache bag we had asked for the day before. It was almost perfect. And it also symbolized the beginning what we came to Haiti to achieve. I can’t wait to go back to Haiti. There is so much work to be done. I have yet to visit Sean Penn’s camp – I so admire the work he’s doing. I also need to make good on my promise to kids who when I asked what they wanted, told me shoes, food and soccer balls. I can’t wait to make that a reality.
If Haiti speaks to my heart, it also breaks it. There is endless devastation everywhere you look. So many places are just rubble, dirt and debris. You see people in horrid conditions I can’t begin to describe. The most heart-rendering part of this trip is feeling great about our work to help rebuild Haiti, while watching the very same disaster unfold Japan every night on television in our hotel rooms.
Haiti brings out every emotion you have – despair, compassion, love and hope – as well as the excitement of what’s possible with some heartfelt connection and creative collaboration. You must admire these people. Despite the circumstances in which they live, they still go to work. It says so much about their spirit, soul and pride. Speaking of which, look at this heart we stumble upon in the rubble. Talk about symbols!
I have to thank President Clinton and his Global Initiative task force for taking on this important work on in Haiti and bringing us all together. His commitment dedication continues to inspire us all.
To be continued.
Related posts:
- RETURN TO HAITI: ART AND SOUL – DAY 2
- RETURN TO HAITI: ART AND SOUL – DAY 3
- RETURN TO HAITI: ART AND SOUL – DAY 1
- RETURN TO HAITI: ART AND SOUL – Day 4
- HOPE HELP & RELIEF HAITI / THE STILLER FOUNDATION BENEFIT Honoring SEAN PENN
