Haiti Happenings: Tet Chaje (Overwhelmed)

You know, today started out well. Headed out to the store without any problems. Found everything we needed: pheno for Judeline, Epi pen stuff for Erin, books for Susan, and groceries for all. Hanging out in the therapy room went well. My lunch went well.

When did it all get off track?

Lunch. That's what did us in. We have a number of children who struggle with the whole eating process: opening their mouths, keeping the food in, swallowing. You name it, they struggle with it. Today, little Junior was not being fed properly, and he started to cough. And then choke. And the person feeding him wouldn't let him cough. The spoon was held over his mouth so that he couldn't really cough.

I stepped in and held him so that he could cough. The women knew that I was upset, as was everyone around. I was too angry to be able to tactfully find a way to finish feeding him, when one of the interns stepped in and did what I couldn't do: she gracefully took over and never made the other woman feel bad. I was so thankful that she had the gifts that Junior needed in that moment.

I was so upset that I could barely finish working with the child that I had before heading up to the roof. We brought Junior up with us, and he struggled to relax. Erin held him until he calmed down, and we were able to settle him down so that he could sleep. He was able to spend the rest of the day up on the roof sleeping or being held.

The supper meal didn't go so well either. This time, it wasn't the struggling eaters but the dippy able-bodied kids and food grabbers who created the chaos! Brilner snagged a bunch of extra food when we weren't paying 100%; Gabrielle thought it was funny to smack everyone--hard; Jephte was literally stealing plates of food from pretty much everyone, especially Skyler (I think he might have been flirting). I don't know what happened, but meal time was not good!

Based on the frenetic energy of the kids, I decided to cancel the Saturday night Bingo session we had planned. I didn't think they needed to get all hopped up again, this time at my own doing. I can probably re-schedule it for tomorrow when I have more energy and the kids have less!