Haiti Day 3

Just a few thoughts before I go to bed here after another busy day. Our team traveled today to Cite Soleil, an intensely populated, impoverished area of Port Au Prince to distribute shoes to the community there. We are able to fit nearly 100 children and adults from the school and community with new shoes. The smallest child we fitted with shoes today was probably one week old. I was amazed as I fit some toddlers with shoes over the roughness of their little feet; they walk around barefoot all day, such a difference from the soft feet of little American toddlers. After the distributions, we took the group to view Haiti from the mountain overlook and take in some Haitian art and culture. We have an amazing team of individuals on this trip: 2 professional organizers, a medical transcriptionist, a leadership developer, 2 footwear corporate marketing executives, a recording artist, a law student, a devoted dad and husband and a perpetual volunteer...wow, what a crew. And its been awesome to see them in action, laying aside self and routine for a few days, and being super flexible. Its hard to explain until you do something like this, but YOU leave with much more than you came to give. We are giving out shoes and hope, yes, but the smiles, the love and gratitude we receive is truly priceless. Tonight, we jumped rope with some local children tonight, one being a young boy of about 8 who was orphaned from the earthquake, and it was truly a great experience for all. It was time spent with children without TV, phones, computers. Just laughter and smiles and community, even with a language barrier. It TIME that is most important, time you spend with anyone in need to let them know that they matter, and sometimes it involves giving something away and other times it involves giving yourself away.