We have a "monthly support' option now for helping Haiti.
The button here looks "meh" but the version of it on "belhaiti.org" made me do the happy dance.
Can you do $5.00 per month for Harry? For Bel?
What about $20?
$20.00 is like a bajillionty times more money than Harry could do on his own every month.
Will you help?
Showing posts with label Harry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Harry. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
My Kingdom for the Rent...
I'm having a "sigh" day. I chatted with Harry last night.
He started his conversation with me by saying, "I am very worried for some things". That's Harry saying, "You've got to help me. I can't sleep because of some of these things I have no control over. Remember how there's no way for me to get work here? Remember how I'm trying to care for so many other people that I can't take care of my own family sometimes?"
I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I need to get the rent to the owner".
In Haiti they pay rent for buildings a year at a time. That means it's easy for me to forget that he has to do that. It also means he's been worried about this for weeks and just now wanted to remind me that he still owes that.
I asked him what the rent was. I honestly don't know.
See last year at the first of the year, my son was still in an orphanage in Haiti. Last year, Bel Haiti paid the rent at THAT facility.
Then the earth shook and walls fell and all hell broke loose.
My son came home.
We had to split off from the orphanage he was in for a lot of reasons that aren't open for public nosiness.
We reorganized ourselves as Bel Haiti and Harry became our employee.
Harry lives in a building that should technically be paid for by another organization, another orphanage. He lives in a building that was one of three locations of another orphanage. Harry (and his wife and two kids) live in that facility and run the location for that orphanage's director in exchange for a roof over his head.
He, his wife and two children live in one room of that building. That's it. Their "home" is one room.
Oh, and his family gets to eat when the orphanage kids eat.
Have I mentioned Haiti's a rough place to live?
This year, things aren't good in Haiti. The orphanage director can't pay the rent on Harry's location. Since all that orphanage's locations were severely damaged by the earthquake, they are STRUGGLING for every penny this year.
Where does that leave Harry? What is he to do?
He said, 'The rent is $7000, but this building very bad and need much repairs. All the board part [he means "everything made of wood"] been distroyed the woof and the kitchen. also the gates. It all need paint. Very dirty."
I said, "in America the building owner pays the repairs."
Yeah... not how it works in Haiti.
I said, "Harry, please help me remember. Do you feel $7000 is a fair price for that building?"
See it's hard for me to translate things into "Haiti". I live in America and have a garage for my cars and electricity all the time. I have sewage and running CLEAN water piped right into my house.
What do I know about the going yearly rate for a broken down building in Haiti?
Harry's optimism never ceases to amaze me.
He said, "Yes. $7000 very good price. I would like to have better place but i love this place because it is safe and the weather is cool and it easier to take tap-tap when the car is broken."
In Haiti, the cars are always broken. It's always hard for Harry to get things. He has to find a water truck to come and fill the cistern so that he and the children will have water. That costs him $75 every other week. He has to find gasoline so that they can have the generator run in the evenings for a short while. At $4 per gallon, that's not cheap.
But here he is, 6 weeks into the new year, and the landlord wants his money.
How do I tell a man who is living somewhere that should probably be condemned by US standards but by Haitian standards is someplace to "really love" that I don't have the $7000 he needs to cross this worry off his list?
Sometimes I get so focused on raising the other $33K we need for our part of the wall that I forget that Harry still has day-to-day in Haiti to pay for and no funds to do it.
He's always so grateful for every penny we send him. I know he really feels sad when he has to ask for more money because the rent is due or he can't feed the kids if he doesn't get money soon. It's usually smaller increments and we can usually send it to him, but we don't have this chunk of money for the rent.
What do I tell him?
I tell him "I'll get it. We'll find it Harry. We can't have you homeless."
And I cry as I type it from my warm house with the running water because my son "came home".
Harry IS HOME. That's his world. He lives there. That's what he knows.
He started his conversation with me by saying, "I am very worried for some things". That's Harry saying, "You've got to help me. I can't sleep because of some of these things I have no control over. Remember how there's no way for me to get work here? Remember how I'm trying to care for so many other people that I can't take care of my own family sometimes?"
I asked him what was wrong and he said, "I need to get the rent to the owner".
In Haiti they pay rent for buildings a year at a time. That means it's easy for me to forget that he has to do that. It also means he's been worried about this for weeks and just now wanted to remind me that he still owes that.
I asked him what the rent was. I honestly don't know.
See last year at the first of the year, my son was still in an orphanage in Haiti. Last year, Bel Haiti paid the rent at THAT facility.
Then the earth shook and walls fell and all hell broke loose.
My son came home.
We had to split off from the orphanage he was in for a lot of reasons that aren't open for public nosiness.
We reorganized ourselves as Bel Haiti and Harry became our employee.
Harry lives in a building that should technically be paid for by another organization, another orphanage. He lives in a building that was one of three locations of another orphanage. Harry (and his wife and two kids) live in that facility and run the location for that orphanage's director in exchange for a roof over his head.
He, his wife and two children live in one room of that building. That's it. Their "home" is one room.
Oh, and his family gets to eat when the orphanage kids eat.
Have I mentioned Haiti's a rough place to live?
This year, things aren't good in Haiti. The orphanage director can't pay the rent on Harry's location. Since all that orphanage's locations were severely damaged by the earthquake, they are STRUGGLING for every penny this year.
Where does that leave Harry? What is he to do?
He said, 'The rent is $7000, but this building very bad and need much repairs. All the board part [he means "everything made of wood"] been distroyed the woof and the kitchen. also the gates. It all need paint. Very dirty."
I said, "in America the building owner pays the repairs."
Yeah... not how it works in Haiti.
I said, "Harry, please help me remember. Do you feel $7000 is a fair price for that building?"
See it's hard for me to translate things into "Haiti". I live in America and have a garage for my cars and electricity all the time. I have sewage and running CLEAN water piped right into my house.
What do I know about the going yearly rate for a broken down building in Haiti?
Harry's optimism never ceases to amaze me.
He said, "Yes. $7000 very good price. I would like to have better place but i love this place because it is safe and the weather is cool and it easier to take tap-tap when the car is broken."
In Haiti, the cars are always broken. It's always hard for Harry to get things. He has to find a water truck to come and fill the cistern so that he and the children will have water. That costs him $75 every other week. He has to find gasoline so that they can have the generator run in the evenings for a short while. At $4 per gallon, that's not cheap.
But here he is, 6 weeks into the new year, and the landlord wants his money.
How do I tell a man who is living somewhere that should probably be condemned by US standards but by Haitian standards is someplace to "really love" that I don't have the $7000 he needs to cross this worry off his list?
Sometimes I get so focused on raising the other $33K we need for our part of the wall that I forget that Harry still has day-to-day in Haiti to pay for and no funds to do it.
He's always so grateful for every penny we send him. I know he really feels sad when he has to ask for more money because the rent is due or he can't feed the kids if he doesn't get money soon. It's usually smaller increments and we can usually send it to him, but we don't have this chunk of money for the rent.
What do I tell him?
I tell him "I'll get it. We'll find it Harry. We can't have you homeless."
And I cry as I type it from my warm house with the running water because my son "came home".
Harry IS HOME. That's his world. He lives there. That's what he knows.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Cards, cards, cards....
What a strange week it's been! We managed to get all the card orders shipped this morning (or delivered in some cases).
I made up these little tags and tied them to each bundle of cards with ribbon. How many times have I mentioned that I love having a logo? It just makes it seem more official and less like I'm suddenly and completely randomly an importer for Haitian handmade cards that I then package up in my basement and mail off to far-flung places like Montana. Oh, wait....
I thought I'd show you some of the other types of cards that Harry can have made for us. I scanned the sample cards that he sent, so my apologies if they're hard to view or cut off.
I think this would make a cute little set - "Happy Family cards"
These look like good Valentine's Day cards or a nice set to keep on hand to use on wedding gifts.
Here's a grouping for baby shower gifts
These cards say "Tropic Paradise" to me. Great all-purpose cards.
And these are my favorite - "Haitian Women". Some of these are just exquisite. I'm completely amazed by what they can do with a banana leaf!
So - what do you think?
Do you think that you or people like you would be interested in this?
I made up these little tags and tied them to each bundle of cards with ribbon. How many times have I mentioned that I love having a logo? It just makes it seem more official and less like I'm suddenly and completely randomly an importer for Haitian handmade cards that I then package up in my basement and mail off to far-flung places like Montana. Oh, wait....
I thought I'd show you some of the other types of cards that Harry can have made for us. I scanned the sample cards that he sent, so my apologies if they're hard to view or cut off.
I think this would make a cute little set - "Happy Family cards"
These look like good Valentine's Day cards or a nice set to keep on hand to use on wedding gifts.
Here's a grouping for baby shower gifts
These cards say "Tropic Paradise" to me. Great all-purpose cards.
And these are my favorite - "Haitian Women". Some of these are just exquisite. I'm completely amazed by what they can do with a banana leaf!
So - what do you think?
- Any of them strike your fancy?
- Any that you'd buy if I had him make more?
- Do the groupings make sense?
- How many cards would you expect to get in a set (like one of each or two of each or would you expect to get "6 cards" or "10 cards", etc)
- What would you expect to pay for them?
Do you think that you or people like you would be interested in this?
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Helping Harry Help Haiti
It was a good day on the Hope for Little Angels of Haiti Esty store. Our first day in "operation" and we've had 3 orders. Of course, one of those was from my mother ordering a baby blanket made by my mother-in-law and generously paying the shipping fee even though she lives 15 minutes from me. Thanks, mom! The kids will appreciate every dime.
Another hefty order was from a dear friend who is also a Haitian Adoptive Mom and so she "gets it". Thank you again, Melissa.
And thank you as well to Julie in Texas who also ordered some of our banana leaf Christmas cards.
I believe I neglected to tell the backstory on the Christmas Cards....
After our October trip, we'd heard that an American soccer ball can be sold in Haiti for as much as $100. I thought, "If that's the case, we'll start taking flattened soccer balls down!!" So we sent a question through to Harry to find out if he thought he could make money reselling soccer balls. The response came back that he didn't think they could. So I sent a new query through asking if there was 'anything we could bring down to them that they could resell in Haiti".
Somewhere that may have potentially been lost in translation.
Several days later I received the response that Harry had thought of something and he would be sending me samples. Now I was completely confused. We were supposed to be taking things to them, right?
Well, on Dec 2nd we received a box from Haiti with 200 handmade Christmas cards in it. And a note explaining the history.
Harry, who works closely with the needy members of his faith as well as working at two orphanages, had rounded up some church members that did not have jobs and had them make these cards. He then paid for them himself at $1/card. His note said, "if you can post on the cards that buying these cards is giving food for some starving children and is giving jobs for some people".
I sent a message back through to Harry that I'd received the cards and that I hadn't meant for HIM to go to any expense personally, but that we'd definitely reimburse him on our next trip. And I thanked him for being so thoughtful as to find a way to serve the children and the people in his congregation that need work.
He responded that he wasn't worried if he didn't get back the money that he'd spent because:
He's right - they do "need a lot to spend for these kids everyday" because costs in Haiti are so astronomically high and they really can't take care of them without receiving donations."
If you'd like to tell others about these Christmas cards, or post the link to our little Etsy store on your own blog, PLEASE spread the word. I have about 160 cards left and it's Dec 3rd. Please help me help Harry to get these cards sold.
Another hefty order was from a dear friend who is also a Haitian Adoptive Mom and so she "gets it". Thank you again, Melissa.
And thank you as well to Julie in Texas who also ordered some of our banana leaf Christmas cards.
I believe I neglected to tell the backstory on the Christmas Cards....
After our October trip, we'd heard that an American soccer ball can be sold in Haiti for as much as $100. I thought, "If that's the case, we'll start taking flattened soccer balls down!!" So we sent a question through to Harry to find out if he thought he could make money reselling soccer balls. The response came back that he didn't think they could. So I sent a new query through asking if there was 'anything we could bring down to them that they could resell in Haiti".
Somewhere that may have potentially been lost in translation.
Several days later I received the response that Harry had thought of something and he would be sending me samples. Now I was completely confused. We were supposed to be taking things to them, right?
Well, on Dec 2nd we received a box from Haiti with 200 handmade Christmas cards in it. And a note explaining the history.
Harry, who works closely with the needy members of his faith as well as working at two orphanages, had rounded up some church members that did not have jobs and had them make these cards. He then paid for them himself at $1/card. His note said, "if you can post on the cards that buying these cards is giving food for some starving children and is giving jobs for some people".
I sent a message back through to Harry that I'd received the cards and that I hadn't meant for HIM to go to any expense personally, but that we'd definitely reimburse him on our next trip. And I thanked him for being so thoughtful as to find a way to serve the children and the people in his congregation that need work.
He responded that he wasn't worried if he didn't get back the money that he'd spent because:
I'm just open a door to find more money to help the orphanage with these kids. We really need money to save our children. We can't take care of them without receiving donation. We are working hard to create other opportunities to get money because we need a lot to spend for these kids everyday. I'm really appreciate the people which made these cards. I like to keep them busy and have them working to get money.As usual, I'm overwhelmed with the generosity and love of the wonderful people we've met in Haiti. Harry and Nadia and their crew are truly amazing people and are some of the most giving, considerate, compassionate and noble individuals you'll ever meet.
He's right - they do "need a lot to spend for these kids everyday" because costs in Haiti are so astronomically high and they really can't take care of them without receiving donations."
If you'd like to tell others about these Christmas cards, or post the link to our little Etsy store on your own blog, PLEASE spread the word. I have about 160 cards left and it's Dec 3rd. Please help me help Harry to get these cards sold.
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