by Len Gengel
My recent trip to Haiti was filled with Unconditional Love!
My Heart is full, my Soul is plenished, and my Brain is still processing what I just experienced at Brit’s Home. It’s easy to think that you can make every one of your kids feel special, but learning their precious little faces and their extraordinary names is one of the greatest challenges of my life!
Being the youngest of 8 children, I remember how my mother would call me 3-4 names before she got mine right, LOL. It was so important to me to learn their names with their faces before I left Brit’s Home. I ate every meal with the 11 new children that Bernie had brought into Brit’s Home, I even tried the Lollypop trick, it was hard for me at 64, my memory isn’t what it used to be. But “I will persist until I Succeed” said the late, great Og Mandino!
My next plan was Basketball, I saw the older kids were hogging the Basketball Court and Bernie and I had bought an adjustable backboard for the little ones who are now the older kids. I had our mechanic Jean-Jean, fix the piston that was stuck open and by the next day we had a 7’ high hoop. We brought the little ones out after dinner for their first try at shooting a basketball. After a few tries our older little named Rose hit the first basket, she rose off her feet with her arms in the air touching the sky, she was so excited and so happy! At that very moment I thought of Britney, I remember walking her down to the basketball hoop we had in our yard at Glenwood Rd in Rutland, MA. I saw for the first time that Brit had great eye-hand coordination, and she loved to score a basket… I couldn’t believe 15 years later we are teaching the second generation of kids the game of Basketball and my first memories of Britney shooting hoops, shook me like a tropical storm, how bittersweet.
I loved my week in Haiti with our kids, especially our little ones, they are so Precious. The 11-hour travel day reminded me of the 39 trips from Boston to Haiti to build Brit’s Home! It felt great leaving Haiti with my son Bernie, even though the FAA has shut down flights to Port au Prince until September 2025, we figured away around the Gangs for a safe passage to Brit’s Home. Bernie now lives 15 minutes from the MFI airport, Missionary Flights International flies into the north of Haiti every Tuesday and Thursday and a Canadian Missionary group flies us into Jacmel for our security to pick us up and drive us over the majestic mountains of southern Haiti to Brit’s Home. For 15 years, Be Like Brit has been overcoming challenges in Haiti and making daily progress for our children. In closing I ask that you Please consider sponsoring one of our 21 second generation kids at Brit’s Home, these little ones will love you unconditionally and I promise that you will feel fulfilled with purpose.
With Warm Regards,
Papi Len
