Haitian Children

[caption id="attachment_1214" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="A random cute kid and some random macaroni."][/caption]

I'm not really a kid-person, meaning I'm not one of those girls whose uterus does a backflip when I see a mother and her child, my biological clock isn't ticking (well, not very loudly) to have kids, and I certainly don't have baby-fever like most normal 27 year old women.

But the kids I interacted with in Haiti, well, I miss.  The first question a child asked me when I got off the bus in front of the hospital was if he could have one of our many bottles of water we unloaded.  I have never in my life had a child ask me for water.  Usually I hear kids screaming for ice cream or toys or other items of pleasure.  Children shouldn't have to ask for water.

[caption id="attachment_1215" align="alignright" width="227" caption="A rare moment of me being "maternal." Or something."][/caption]

The kids were constantly asking to have their picture taken.  They got such a kick out of posing for the camera, and squealed in delight when I showed them their digital image on my camera.

[caption id="attachment_1216" align="alignleft" width="223" caption="BALLOONS!"][/caption]

We went and visited a University down the street, and decided to give away various items (toothbrushes, diapers, etc.) to people living in tents on the campus.  We also had balloons, and I don't think I've ever seen a happier face than that of the child who got the bag of balloons.  It was like Christmas and his birthday and the Tooth Fairy and Johnny Depp (okay, that's just for me) all erupted into one amazing gift of sheer joy.

[caption id="attachment_1217" align="alignright" width="231" caption="Sweetest little girl ever."][/caption]

And, sadly, because of who I was and what I was doing there, the children were constantly asking me to take their pain away.  I did what I could with Morphine and Tylenol and kind words, but Western medicine was often no match for a scared kid with disfiguring tumors, or a fractured cervical vertebrae, or 3rd degree burns.  So that part was still kind of the same.