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Haiti: Day 5

By Julie Rearick

The ribbon-cutting is today at 10:00 am, but we left at our normal time of 7 a.m., so we could decorate the playground with balloons and ribbons.  Families stood in every available space to watch in anticipation.  As I looked around, I thought how clean and respectable they have been all week.  This amazes me when I consider their living environment.

The mayor of Carrefour spoke some words of thanks and cut the ribbon.  Then children ran and screamed with delight.  There are no words to express my emotions.  Mardoche` was holding my hand and saw my tears.  When I pulled out my tissues, he took them and said, “me” and then took them and wiped my face.  It was a moment in my life I will never forget!

A few hours later we said our goodbyes.  I promised to send clothes and basic supplies when I get home.  I am pretty sure I will return to this place.  When I got back to my room, I thought of Darrell Hammond the founder of KaBOOM!, and remembered something he said in his book How One Man Built a Movement to Save Play.  I brought a copy along to give to Pastor Randy and pulled it out of my suitcase and found this quote:  “It’s all too easy to remain passive and think that someone else is going to fix things.  Instead, people need to step forward and be the spark that ignites change.”  How true!

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