everybody has a story: Non-stop awesomeness? Yes.

vrrrrrrr vrrrrrr vrrrroooooooooom. Non-stop awesomeness? yes. School started today! The kids were prepping all weekend, washing their uniforms, trying on their new shoes, and even though my boys would say, “No Magdalena, I am not excited,” they're so full of it. they totally were. They were looking pretty sharp this morning on their way down to the school. Boys at that age.... it cracks me up. I get a good chuckle every day, especially when one of them asks me something in English, for example, one of my boys came up to me and goes, “Magdalena, I want some Macaroni and Chet” apparently cheese is a hard word to pronounce. Of course I laughed, he was confused at why I was laughing, but I mean, c’mon. That’s hysterical. And on top of that, don't try and tell me that you're not excited when you totally are. Everyone gets excited for the first day of school.

Claro que si we love soccer!

We enjoyed our last weekend of summer before normal starts to set in again. A weekend filled with soccer, card games, and lots of smiles. But if we are being honest, I for sure broke up 2 fights. Hey, not everything is perfect as it sounds. Kids fight, but it’s a minor detail in a really great weekend. One of my boys is very strong, verbally and physically. Let me take a step back. In the DR, there is a lot of discrimination between Haitians and Dominicans. If you have light skin, you’re Dominican. Dark skin, you’re Haitian. It’s uncomfortable, especially having white skin, when you are put in a situation that you learned about in school. Rosa Parks? It’s real here. Well, one of my boys got into a fight with another in the house and he said, “Be quiet, Haitian!” Uncomfortable? Yes. However, this doesn’t work in my book. Nope, no it does not. There were about 5 boys around when this happened. My response, excuse me? We talked about it and here is what happened-

“How am I different than you? Take your hand. Put it on your chest. Feel that? What’s under there?”

“A heart.”

“I have one too, just like you, just like him. What’s here?”

“A brain.”

“Do you have one?”

“Yes.”

“Me too. What are these?”

“Hands.”

“I have them too. Your skin color doesn’t define who you are. We are all the same. So when you say, Be Quiet Hatian, it not only is mean to him, but it hurts me and everyone else as well. Look at me. I am Haitian. I am from Haiti. Did you know that?

“No...”

“What makes me different than you? My skin? That’s it? Look, let’s say you don’t know anything about me. Let’s say I am a criminal and I have killed a lot of people. Is that because of my skin?”

“No...”

“Exactly, it was a choice I made. I chose to do that. Did I choose to have white skin?”

“No.”

“Then what makes a Haitian and Dominican different?”

“Their language”

“Exactly. We are all people. We are human. We don’t have control over where we come from, what the color of our skin is, but what makes us who we are is our actions.”

Such a powerful chat, something I am passionate about. It’s reality here. It’s hard, but it’s reality. They are fighting something that we are reading about in history books. I was talking to one of our older boys later that afternoon and I said, “Victor. I have to ask you a question and I don’t want you to get offended. What if I were to say to you, Be quiet, Haitian! How would that make you feel?”

“Not good”

“Why?”

“Because that has nothing to do with who I am as a person. I am a human being. Skin color is skin color. It’s not about who we are, it’s about what we do.”

Powerful? The quote in bold gave me goosebumps. Just a concept here that is a reality. To us it’s not right. To me, it’s not right. But it’s definitely a cultural thing. It’s not right. But it’s reality. They deal with it all the time. Towards Santiago, I have seen signs saying, “Haitians stay out!” Has anyone seen or heard about Jane Elliott, a teacher in the 70s, that did an activity of racism in her class by dividing the children up by eye color? She was a 3rd or 4th grade teacher and one day she told that everyone with blue eyes was able to talk, were able to go to recess early, and weren’t allowed to talk with the people who had brown eyes. The kids were very frustrated, upset, and didn’t think it was fair. They also had no idea what was going on. The teacher later sat down with the kids and explained to them what and why she did what she did. She asked how it made the kids feel, they talked, and it was just a very powerful and emotional video. I suggest everyone take a look at it.
The link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bWlTZZN3DY

I am going to do a similar activity with my boys within the next coming weeks. I did it when I was in 7th grade and have never forgotten that day. It was so frustrating. No one knew what was going on, but then after the experiment was over, we learned so much more. Experiential learning, to an extent. It's tough. I will let you know how it goes.

Aside from that, I would also like to introduce to you some of the kids we have from Haiti who stay with us because, unfortunately, they are fighting cancer. In Haiti, there is no radiation treatment available, so, we take in children from St. Damien’s Hospital (a hospital in which NPH works with and has a strong connection with also founded by NPH founder). The kids come with a guardian and stay here at the home for the duration of their treatment. Now, this next part is no way intended to ask, however, the program for these children is currently running off of no funds, which is a difficulty for us, because the program is important to our home and helping these kids get better. If you’d like to send down some things for the children to do during their treatment (coloring books, games, books), any snacks, or anything you may think would be fun for a kid who isn’t always feeling that hot, let me know! Avriel is the volunteer of this house and is very closely connected to the children. She has lots of great posts about the children and her experience at NPH as well.

If you would like to make a monetary donation which will go towards the children’s treatment, shoot me an email and I will give you all of the details! madelonrosemorin@gmail.com