Marie Lourde

I was a little freaked to be out smarted on the first day of sewing school.
In Haiti, it is normal for only about half of the people you think are coming to really show up, unless it involves food, than they bring the whole family and more! It is pretty comman that if they do show up, you can bet that eveyone will be very late! The bride is always atleast an hour late to her own wedding. Why wouldn't the same rule apply to sewing school? Just because we agreed that we would have twenty in our sewing class didn't mean they would all come, I figured by rights I could have extra's signed up and still be fine - right!

Wasn't I at a loss for words when twenty-three ladies showed up bright and early! What to do now? Twenty-three ladies all packed in the benches! Today one lady did call and say she wouldn't be coming because her baby is very sick and she will miss too many classes. So, for the past three days I have been in and out of class watching the ladies, getting all my paper work done, putting sewing boxes together and training my new assistant.
For three days I have also noticed I have another student. She has been watching every detail of what has been happening around here. No one has said a word to her. She doesn't have a pencil or a notebook and I don't have her name on roll call. Billy did tell her to get lost and get way from the window. She didn't really listen to him, she knows he is just the yard man. Besides, I had already taken her picture.

I finally went to talk to her.
Her name is Maire Lourde.
She is ten.

Most likely you have heard all the bad press coming from Haiti about restavec's. Restavec is a french word that means" to stay with". If your not thinkin' of the French, most people say, slave children or house servants. The press says, Haiti has over 250,000 slave children. I am sure it is more. The wealthy, middle class and poor have these children working in their houses. They cook and clean for a place to live and food.

Before you freak out about the fact that she is a restavec, let me say something. There are atleast a hundred things I don't like or agree with here every single day. Lots of people are up in arms about these children for very good reasons, I agree, I don't like it either.
It isn't OK with me.
Haiti is the kind of place that before you go ahead and think that you are going to "fix" it, you better have a plan worked out from A to Z! FYI - it is never just A,B,C.. it is more like A,a,b,c,d,e,f,g and maybe if your lucky you will start with B, a,b,c,d,e,f,g and so on.
It is layer after layer of complications.
There are reasons why Haiti is the way it is.
Bottom line these children live and work for people with the hope that they will be fed. Most hope to go to school, but that may or may not happen. Most of them come to work in Port so they won't die. Many of these children have families who argree to this as a better life. They believe it brings hope and a chance to have a something more in life.
Maybe?
I can't say - I really don't know if that is true.
What do you do in a place like Haiti? Mothers have child after child with no means to feed them. Tradition and culture says that this is ok. Voodoo is this countries national religion and it says it is ok. The government can't help.
Someone said to me... they have so many children because they don't love themselves. That made me cry.
The problem is so much bigger than taking these kids and putting them back with their family or in a group home.
For now, she can come to shchool here everyday as the window watcher as far as I am concerend. I won't call her name at eight o'clock everyday, she won't have a note book and pencil, but maybe I can talk the people she lives with into letting her come to literacy class for free.
Maybe....