Do You Need A Sister?
Even just for these brief moments, walking the Haitian main road through the central plateau region in the midday sun was hot and dusty; it felt good to get out and stretch. I mimicked standing on the side of the road hitch hiking, thumb turned out for a pick up, one of the farthest things from my consideration.
Two little girls in yellow dresses held hands with an older woman in front of us and led the way. These “at home visits” were very meaningful and humbling. Ingrid, our translator, grumbled about this “little 5 minute walk” taking a lot longer than 5 minutes! We followed them up a rocky path to a small cement house on a hill. It stood there neat and tidy, buckets of plants hanging from the extended roof. The girls hovered in the doorway unsure of all that was transpiring as their grandmother brought out chairs for us to sit on.
She told us that her daughter had become pregnant and had a baby girl three and a half years ago. Too soon after giving birth she moved farther north to Cape Haitian to work, leaving the granddaughter with her mother for keeping. Unfortunately, she left her too soon, when she should have still been nursed and the baby began to suffer from malnourishment.
Months later another pregnant young woman landed on the Grandmothers doorstep claiming that she was about to have her son’s baby. She gave birth to a baby girl approximately a year after the first Granddaughter had been born. A month or more after giving birth left, abandoning the baby and hadn’t been heard of again.
The Grandmother looks deep into my eyes as she tells her story. She exudes a deep sense of love for these two adorable littles. She continues “I don’t tell you this for any reason other than to say I am so grateful to the Clinic. The Clinic identified that both babies were suffering from malnourishment and with their help in a few short weeks the girls were both doing much better. The Clinic helped teach me to cook nutritious food with what we have and now, monthly, the women gather here together and cook for our families.
They cling to her legs as she shares and move over to perch in the doorway along with the Grandfather. It hits me that sometimes even in hardship God provides a sister to walk it out, hand in hand, together.
