Jesterings: sa say coupay dwet

Today we joined the Forward Edge group as they went to work at the church. It was where I had been before and I was curious to see what it would be like to return to a place I had been two months before. We all piled into the back of a pickup truck and trundled off in the morning heat. As we pulled in I heard “Roget” being called out. It was great to be back. The children immediately made juggling motions, took my hat and mimicked it flying off their heads and made the gestures of diabolo.

I took the bag of nearly 300 spoons and forks donated by the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School students to the outdoor kitchen prep area, and showed the pictures I had taken of the 5th grade holding their utensils. It was satisfying to complete that circle.

After having breakfast we started in on helping with the work of the day. They had started the demolition of their church, walls had been knocked down, the columns tumbled and the rebar being hacksawed to make way for the new expanded construction. Even the young boys were wielding hammers and smashing away at the concrete pillars that had toppled. At the same time, there were new tents being erected, lots of hands holding poles as the stakes were driven in by the sole sledge hammer.

There was no school today, for tomorrow is Haitian Flag Day, so there were tons of kids around. I helped with the rope work of securing the tent poles, but as soon as that task was done I wanted to do something for the children. I was surrounded for most of the day. We juggled, I taught several of the boys how to do three balls, we jumped rope, we did rubber band tricks and spun a ball on dozens of fingers. As the day wore on we played and played. They played singing and dancing games, clapping games and one wonderful game that started with a long line going under the bridge formed by two people who would capture someone at a certain point in the song, at which point they would be asked a question, and based on their answer, they would fall in behind one sides of the bridge. This went on until the last person was captured, at which point total bedlam broke out with everyone chasing someone else, tagging, slapping and shrieking the whole time. The wonderful thing was that all of these games were played by all ages, from maybe 5 or 6 to 15 or 16. They were playing so hard, the sweat dripped off of them all.

They took a break; while I had be admiring their play, a little girl came and crawled into my arms. I held her for the longest time, so sweet. She was maybe 3 or 4, but fearless. She started to get a little heavy so I tried putting her down. No way that was going to happen, so I sat down, leaning against one of the recently erected tent poles. I didn’t notice that she had snuggled in and gone to sleep. So I continued doing string tricks, with my free arm as she dozed while my hair was being plaited, until we were called for lunch. That's multitasking!

After our lunch it was time for their feeding program lunch. Plates of rice and beans were carried out and placed on the tables that had been set under the new tents. They all patiently waited for the last one to be served, and grace said before they dug in. They polished off huge plates of food.

After lunch we lolled around, every time I looked around for Sarah she was buried under a pile of children. They had a heyday when she let down her hair. Very styly.

I came up with maybe a brilliant idea. There are hundreds of used water sachets everywhere. And if you fill them up with stones or dirt, they make a pretty good juggling bag. I made a few and gave them away to some boys. Only time will tell if the idea catches on.