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| Haiti August 15-29, 2010 |
These are my pictures from Haiti (August 15-29) in both Port-au-Prince, where we spent the first and last nights of the trip, and the bulk from Jacmel. My volunteer work was manual labor at a construction site, helping build a computer lab and library for an orphanage with 28 boys ages 8-21. The orphanage, called Trinity House, also teaches classes for about 75 of the poorest kids in the area who have not had other opportunities for education, and additionally, on Saturdays, they teach Restavek kids (child slaves sold into servitude). Restavek kids don’t get access to education, so the ones that are allowed to attend a class on Saturdays are having a new, life-altering experience that was not going to happen without this program.
There are lots of photos of papier mache masks–a specialty for which the seaside town of Jacmel is known–making Carnival masks for the annual celebration (which was canceled last year due to the January 12 earthquake). The dancers you will see in photos are kids from the orphanage–amazing to watch–the Resurrection Dance Theater. Some of the dancers are currently on tour in North Carolina and Washington DC–Reginald, a boy with one arm, has been invited to the White House to dance for the Obamas. He is amazing to watch, and hug, and get to know, and it has nothing to do with how his body is made, and everything to do with how his heart is made…like every one of these kids I am honored to know.
Change by Doing 