A Little Goes A Long Way…by Mary Jean

It was HOT today – I mean really really HOT.  Our house mate said over 100′.  I used to always use the expression Africa Hot. But now when we hit those 90′ days in Erie PA with humidity at 100% and no breeze to be found from the lake –  I’m gonna say it’s Haiti Hot.

I’ve come to realize that a little goes a long way here.  Thanks to the many generous people back home in Erie – I brought a lot of shoes to Haiti – almost 50 pairs.  I was working with a young woman today named Gemima who was injured in the earthquake.  Gemima had several injuries one of which included damage to a nerve in her leg which innervates the muscles in her foot.  She can walk but she needs a brace on her ankle so she does not trip on her toes.   Gemima told me that she needed new shoes because the ones we gave her last week to use with the brace were too big.  Now I had to agree that they were a little big but mostly they were kind of ugly looking because truth be told they were probably men’s walking shoes.  So I took her into the back room where we keep all the sneakers that I had carted here and we started going through the box.  I told her she could pick out her favorite pair and we would see if they fit,  if not we would keep looking until she was satisfied.   I told her that after all –  beautiful girls should have beautiful shoes.  So she found a pair she really liked and like cinderella – they fit perfectly.  Boy did she smile!

I also saw a young man named Moses.  Moses is about 14 and fairly impaired cognitively functioning at about the level of a 2-3 year old.  Moses lived on the street in a small community near the hospital.  Everyone in the village knew him and looked out after him.  It came to the attention of one of the missionaries that Moses had no guardian so he and his wife took Moses in to live with them.  They came to the hospital to see us because the dad wondered if we could help Moses stand a little better.  When Cris tapped me on the shoulder and told me she had someone she thought I should see, I turned and looked.  My mouth opened and all that came out was “OH MY!!!!”  Well like they say  - you should never judge a book by its cover because although Moses  looked fairly twisted, turned and bent in standing when he sat down and I started to take a closer look, he actually had very good flexibility.  We decided he might do well with a brace for his back and a brace for his knee.  Thirty minutes later, he stood before us and the transformation was astounding.

For some it’s a new pair of shoes or a brace for their back. For others it’s  a lollipop, a smile, a kind word, bubbles floating through the air, or hand full of ice….  Maybe what I am most touched by – is that is takes so little to make my new Haitian friends so happy. They are so grateful for the smallest acts of kindness.  For me- maybe it’s a call to recognize all the little things that people in my life do for me each and every day.  When I return, I plan to be more thankful.

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