Happy heartbreak

Today is a very happy and scary day for Job Adonis. He is flying to Spokane, Washington to start life with his new family, the Moores. It will be hard to leave behind Haiti, HFC, and everything he's ever known, but it will also be exciting to meet his new siblings and experience life in America.



Unfortunately, Job's departure will be extremely painful for Bernadin. They are both being adopted by the Moore family, but Bernadin's paperwork is not done. It could be months or even a year before he goes to his new home. Imagine the pain of watching your brother leave with your mother and having no idea how much longer you are going to have to wait to be reunited with them. My heart breaks for him and I hate the fact that I am not in Haiti to console him after they fly out today.

Peter and Matt

While I was in Boston a few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to visit HFC's Peterson and Mathurin, aka Peter and Matt, in their new home in Massachusetts. I almost didn't recognize them! OK, it would have been hard not to because they make up nearly half of the black population of Ashburnham so when you see 2 black teens walking down the street there, you can be pretty sure it's them. But still, they looked different. Both of them have much thicker and longer hair now that they are not required to shave their heads every month, and Peterson has gained 17 pounds since coming to the US in February. Plus, it was the first time I'd ever seen them wearing cold weather clothes!

We played basketball together and talked. The boys were very honest with me, telling stories about school and home life. They said that it has been hard to get used to having parents that actually get mad and discipline them - I think a lot of our kids get the impression from movies and from the short term visitors at the orphanage that American adults don't get angry or set rules. Reality check, boys! They miss Haitian food (good old rice and beans) and they think our milk is disgusting. In Haiti, they drank powdered milk with lots of sugar. The thing they miss the most is the other boys, though they are very grateful that they are allowed to call the boys' home every 2 or 3 weeks. On weekends, they aren't really sure what to do with themselves because they are used to having 30 people around. A house of 6 seems very quiet when you're used to 30!

The kicker question for me was this: "Do you feel more loved here than you did when you were at the orphanage?" The kids come to the US with high hopes of getting a good education and a good career and a chance to help their native country, but more than that, they come with the hope of a second family. If we fail to provide them with that, then what was the point of removing them from their HFC family? To my relief, they responded to my question with an unhesitating "Yes".

Top 10 things I miss from Haiti

In no particular order:

1. My HFC kids





2. Sammy and his guitar


3. Kevs



4. Quiet moments on the roof



5. My fellow youth leaders, Marc, Karen and Michael




6. Speaking Creole and being told that I "speak like a rat" (that's a compliment in Haiti).



7. My Quisqueya students




8. Pate and rice with legumes



9. My roomies




10. Johnny J

I'm an adult. Really, I am!

I am a mature 23 year old. Therefore my final evening in Haiti was spent cooking a nice dinner, drinking wine and chatting with my friends, praying about the future, and stargazing.

Oh, never mind. Who am I kidding?

I spent my last evening in Haiti ... do I dare admit it? I spent my last evening in Haiti reenacting songs from High School Musical 3 with my roommates.

I know, I know. Those movies were made for 9 and 10 year old girls. We are 23, 25, and 29 years old. What's wrong with us? Well, in our defense, let me just say that it started as an outreach to the girls at Dannae's school. We invited some of them over for brownies and a movie a few Sundays ago. The movie? High School Musical. They loved it, so we had them over again to see the second movie. To make it a little more fun, we decided to dress up like the characters. I was Troy, Dannae was Gabriella, and Casey was Sharpay. We were amazing.


After that, High School Musical became - this sounds really weird - our love language. We roomies sing the songs to each other all the time, we quote lyrics and lines to each other, and we spontaneously break out into dance moves. In our defense, the songs are catchy and the dances are easy (which is important for me because I can't dance). So that last evening, Casey filmed while Dannae and I acted out our favorite songs. It was the craziest, funniest, most memorable night I've ever had with roommates!







Go Wildcats!

Good-bye to my good students

The day before I left Haiti, I threw a Good-bye Miss Furth/Happy Birthday Djamina and Ricky/The Freshmen are Super Amazing Party at Quisqueya Christian School. I've substitute taught there occasionally over the course of the year and the class that I have gotten to know the best is the 9th grade. They are an exceptionally polite, fun, and tightly unified class. I loved teaching them. And even when my subbing jaunts were over, sometimes I would go to the school in the afternoon when I was done with clinic to play soccer with them. One third of the class also attends youth group at my church, so I got to know those teens particularly well. These are missionary kids or children of the upper class, so they don't have the physical needs that are common to most people I encounter in Haiti; instead, they struggle with the same kinds of issues that face American teens: eating disorders, rebellion, crushes, frustration with parents, temptation to abuse drugs and alcohol, etc.





One of my students, Kevin, gave me a going-away gift. It was very appropriate to my age and interests. It was a baby doll. A baby doll that came with a pink cell phone and glittery cell phone case. Thank you, Kevin!

Will you help?

In March, over 300 homes were demolished in the Ravine where I work. Nearly 1000 people became homeless overnight. Among the victims, 4 families that I see and care for weekly have turned to me for help. They all have small children ranging from 5 months to 7 years and until they can find the money to rent their own houses, they are forced to share the already overcrowded shacks of their neighbors and friends. One family is living in an unfinished room where the dust from the raw concrete blocks causes the 3 year old boy to have a chronic cough, and where open windows let in malaria-carrying mosquitos all night. Another had no choice but to move to another neighborhood where they can share a hut with relatives; they have a place to stay, but away from our Ravine, the baby no longer has easy access to health care and supplementary food from Sherrie's feeding program.




I need $1600 to provide these families with rent money for the year. I can't do that myself. I know times are hard right now, but if you can spare a few dollars for my families in the Ravine, we will be immensely grateful. I have promised them that I will help and they trust me to keep my word.





If you can make a donation, please write checks to Much Ministries and mail them to me:
Keziah Furth
89 Pleasant St #6
Brookline, MA 02446
USA

(Much Ministries is a non-profit organization based out of Georgia. They partner with me in the Ravine ministry and my work in Gonaives. You can check out their website at muchministies.org)

From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.