by Jonathan LaMare

Port au Prince is a fascinating place to me. I think that my sociologically curious mind can't get enough of the ordered chaos that is the capital city of Haiti. It never ceases to amaze me how despite the apparent disorder and seeming absence of social control, the city functions rather efficiently, all things considered. While to the outsider, we can spot all sorts of things that we think don't work or could work better, the reality is that for a city of upwards of 2 million, with a struggling infrastructure and a total absence of public utilities, to me, it's amazing that Port au Prince works at all. While the streets are littered with garbage and the dust and exhaust from the unrelenting traffic are suffocating, people live and survive in this city every day.

It is for this reason that I always travel with a camera. One never knows what one may see when they move about in and around Haiti, and no more so is this true than in Port. Myriad things can catch your eye. At times, those things are funny or beautiful, while at other times, the images can simply break your heart. As a blan, it isn't uncommon for people to come up to you asking for money. Children approach me all the time. It's such a hard thing to reconcile in your mind - that whole notion that giving encourages begging, or maybe they will just go buy booze with it, or whatever - all valid concerns, but for me, at the end of the day, what does it matter? Even if that dollar was used for a $1.00 bottle of rum, doesn't everyone deserve to escape their own reality? Who am I to judge how they do that?

I was stuck in traffic last week while in Port on work-related business. This child was sleeping on the sidewalk in a particularly busy part of the city, near a bus station. Passersby largely ignored the boy. A few stopped to be sure he was in fact still alive. I couldn't help but see this child laying here on the ground and think about our own children at Be Like Brit. While rural poverty is a bit different than urban poverty, it's really just the landscape that changes. Sure, cities are a tougher beast to tame, but absolute poverty is just that - absolute. While our own children weren't laying on sidewalks next to busy roads in congested city streets, their situations in many instances were comparable. 

Indeed, the children of the community around us are equally poor in many cases. The backdrop is a bit different, though. Beautiful mountains and rolling hillsides with goats, donkeys, and other livestock roaming around is a bit more palatable than seeing a child asleep, possibly even dead, on a city street next to speeding buses and screaming traffic. Our Britsionary program allows us to help change that landscape, little by little. We're working hard to replace those temporary shelters, USAID tarps and pieced-together 'homes' of plywood and metal are taken down so that we can build more temporary homes for our friends and our neighbors. Our Britsionarys are literally changing the landscape here, for the better. This past week was no different.

Our most recent Britsionary group, Team Zanmi Loray built a home for one of our employees, an overnight caregiver, Francklin, who works 6 nights per week with the children of Be like Brit so that he may provide for his family. Francklin, his wife Maxina, and their daughter Alicia were living together in very basic conditions. That is something that is easy for me to forget. As the Director here, I don't spend a lot of time off-site with our Britsionary groups. We have more than 80 employees, and I don't visit their homes often, or even at all. I often forget the conditions that so many people live in around here. 

While we pay a more than fair wage for the local economy, the reality is it is hard to pull oneself out of that level of poverty. While we work hard on a program level to teach our children basic things around health and hygiene, etc., it's easy to forget that our adult employees may not have access to the things our children take for granted every day. We are working to bring some balance to this reality and this perspective, but it is very challenging. How can we teach our children to appreciate what they have had, while recognizing and keeping relevant the situations from which they came to us? How can we bring to our family of staff what we've been able to bring to our children? 

It is through our Britsionary program, I believe, that we can do this. Not only do we deliver the safety and security of a home for families, but we bring the realization that our employees are as equally precious to us as our children are. While we are an orphanage first, we will never stop with the children who live here. Our blessings and our good fortune compel us to do more - far beyond our own walls. As you will read as you enter the orphanage, painted on the wall above the door, "To whom much is given, much is expected." In many ways, this defines our work as an organization. 

While our summer program is in full swing, we are busy planning things for the rest of the year on an organizational level. Our ongoing fundraising efforts and planning for things like our Walk in September and our Fall Gala in November take a tremendous amount of work, and our Team in the USA is always working diligently to prepare accordingly. While their work may get less time on Facebook and in the blogs, it is no less important. In fact, without it, we simply wouldn't be able to operate or function as an organization. It's for these reasons that it is so important for Cherylann to be in Haiti at least once a month ~ it allows us an opportunity to work together on these initiatives and gives everyone a better sense of perspective in terms of the massive undertaking it is to be responsible for raising the money in which to operate here in Haiti. 

We were so excited when Cherylann made it back to Be Like Brit last night! After a VERY eventful drive in from Port, after being stuck in traffic for almost 3 hours and enjoying the Ford overheating, breaking down in the middle of the road, she arrived last night all smiles! We look forward to a very productive week together in Haiti as we prepare for and plan out the rest of our year! The children always LOVE when Mami Cherylann visits, and last night's arrival was no different! 

We are certainly busy here as summer speeds on. Soon, we'll begin to prepare for the Back to School season, a major event when 66 children are concerned! There will be many, many uniforms to order and have made - requiring precise measurements for clothes and shoes, the arduous task of buying school supplies for 66 children in all different levels of school, varying between multiple schools, etc. We'll have big pushes for things like lunch boxes and water bottles. backpacks, and the like. While these smaller, every day items are necessary for us to function effectively, so too are those larger items. We are still in need of replacing our Ford F150, as it has served us very well for many tough years in Haiti. We continue to explore ways to meet those needs, and ask our friends to keep their eyes and ears open to possible avenues for us to explore! 

With lots of summer fun - and some summer chores - our children are having a great break from school! We know there is lots to do between now and the start of the next year, and we're working hard both in Haiti and the USA to make things happen! We appreciate all of your love and support, and even if you can't help out by way of donations, you can ALWAYS help us by spreading the word around our needs! Liking and sharing our posts on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere is one of those ways! We thank you for helping us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit!!! Thanks for reading!