The Children

Today we had the pleasure of having Jeff Gacek the founder of Healing Haiti ride with us on our water drop-offs. He is an incredibly kind and wise man who very humbly walks with confidence among the most desperate slums in Cite Soleil. He is doing God's work, not his own.
With Jeff we were able to walk into the slums and see the most awful poverty in Haiti. A land fill where a potential school might be built among open fields of trash, animals and human feces...the coastal portion of the slums where trash heaps up along the shore and the community is forced to create make shift toilets over the water near the area they swim and bath...Apparently there have been toilets built in these slums but Bullies (as Jeff calls them) take them over and force people to pay to use them... The disparity and filth was overwhelming and the worst I'd ever seen. Jeff met with a few young men (in their early 20's & dressed exactly how it has been described to me that 'Gangsters' dress here) who apparently were in charge of the area near the water and hoped that Jeff might help them build a levee or water-break to prevent storm-water from creating large lake-like cesspools within the living area...Jeff promised he'd try to help, but reassured them that it was ultimately up to God. They smiled and seemed grateful.
Throughout the day I decided to concentrate on taking photographs of the children, specifically their little faces. As I've been taking pictures for last few days, I gradually realized that there is a unique and brilliant spirit in the eyes of these children. -R

The toilets locked with pad locks

And...the toilet they made...