Kids of Delice

I figure it is time for a few more cute kid pics.  Almost all of these pictures are of the kids who live in our "model" village, Do Digue.  I call it a model village because it is where CHI recently started their latrine project by building two composting latrines; have a CHW who lives there; have most homes using the Gadyen Dlo system; and are the village that will be benefiting from the road project set to start later this month. Do Digue is an area with a lot of need because it is located across the river from the main road and thus inaccessible by vehicle; but is also home to many of the warmest and most helpful people I was lucky enough to meet while in Haiti.

These kids particularly loved borrowing my sunglasses and trying to read English words from my Kreyol-English dictionary.  They were actually all home from school that day because of varying illnesses.  The girl in the middle suffers from asthma - I could hear faint wheezing every breath she took - but her inhaler ran out several months ago, and her parents think going to school and running around with the other kids might exasperate her condition too much.

Playing soccer - although not evident from the picture, this ball was actually deflated due to a huge rip in it. It didn't bother these boys.  And, it worked to my benefit at least, because it made the ball move at a slow enough pace for me to actually be able to kick it with some amount of accuracy when the kids would pass it to me.

These kids were actually from Raypool, the community where the school we taught at is located.  They started following Alin and I towards the river as they were all supposed to be collecting water for their families.  Alin and I were heading from Raypool to Do Digue to continue our surveys, but had decided on taking the "back" way through the river for a change in scenery (and honestly because I was so hot I just wanted to walk in the water for a while).  I only noticed what a large group of kids were behind me because they starting singing "Lave men ou ak savon, ak savon!" - the song about hand washing we taught them during our lesson at their school.

These little girls from Raypool were helping me to get this darling boy to "souri!" or smile, for the camera.

Puppies and kids - this might be my favorite picture from the whole trip.  This was taken at Islan's house right after Alin and I finished our 50th (my goal number) survey.