Watch For Falling Rocks

His mother sent him out early in the afternoon on Thursday to collect sticks for fire wood. Not an easy task when you are looking out at mountain after mountain with no trees. Haiti is 98% deforested so it wasn't all that odd for him to be gone for hours at a time. His mother was home with her other eight children, breastfeeding the baby, their papa was in port. As he passed in and out of consciousness he told me he was eight and his name was Antonio. No one who came with him could verify that any of this was true, his mama said wasn't coming. They would send someone for her later telling her she didn't need to worry about paying.

Thursday would turn into Friday while he lay alone, hurt and bleeding from his head, nose and ear. He was dusty and dirty, the dry brown earth fell out of his clothes as Lori cut off his bloody shirt. He was so thin that his pants fell off his body as he struggled. Someone had tried to make the waist of his pants smaller with a piece of string tied through several belt loops but it was no use, his thin frame had nothing to stop them from falling off. It would be Friday afternoon before a yard man saw the sticks that he had collected now laying on the ground. He knew something wasn't right, he began to look for other clues and found Antonio laying alone.

This was suppose to be a relaxing family outing with Zack, Lori and Licia at the rescue center. We had just looked at the property Zack is interested in buying. It was about three o'clock, we stopped on the top of the mountain to see what the problem was with our truck. It was smelling hot and making an awful noise. Two unpleasant things when you are at the top of a mountain and know you have to come down, preferably not on foot in the baking heat with no water.

As we stood out in the dust and hot wind Maddie was deciding just how badly she needed to go to the bathroom as a white pick up truck approached us. Not all that bad she said as she hopped around trying to convince herself that she could wait. The Estella work crew had found what we had thought was a old woman who was now wrapped up in the back of their truck. She had been hit by a falling rock as the road crew worked 24/7 to carve out a fantastic new road in the mountains past Cazelle. I am still not sure where this road was going to take people but I can tell you I wouldn't want to be on it in a Cameo going 100 miles an hour on that road.

As we made our way down the mountain, Dan and Zack went over a mental check list of things that "could be" wrong with the truck. I don't get sick easily but I was now feeling sick about a broken truck in the middle of no where and what I thought was a badly hurt old woman who could easily die. All the talk wasn't making me feel any better as dollar signs flashed in my mind. The squeal of the clutch cut through the air reminding me I wasn't feeling good when Dan and Zack looked at each other and said, that isn't good. A few turns later Dan announced he had lost the breaks. I told him to quit screwing around it wasn't funny. I wanted him to laugh but he wasn't laughing.

Zack had finally gotten a signal on his phone so he could call Lori and tell her what had happened. She and Licia would be ready and waiting. The fluid had burned off the clutch and the noise was gone as we pulled into the gate, I was feeling better. I thought we had beat the truck down the mountain but as I rounded the corner I saw what I had been thinking was an old woman was really a little boy, Anotino. My heart sank and I felt sick again.

The work to get him taken care of went quickly. Lori got an IV started, their nurse shaved and cleaned his head, Lisha tried to gather as much information as she could. The room was small and very organized to help things run smoothly. It was hot and filled with the smell of blood and body fluids. As he struggled to get a way from the pain he listed reasons why we should let go of him. In all of his wiggling to be free Licia found a red whistle that had fallen out of his pocket. He had been laying on it all this time. It quickly reminded me that just yesterday he was a normal little boy playing outside, now he was a nameless little boy crying in pain every time he woke up. I lost track of how many shots he got to numb his head as Lori worked to sew his wounds up.

Earlier in the day I had told her I wanted to learn how to do stitches. Now was my chance. As she worked she walked me through step by step instructions so I would be ready to go. It was now close to five and we needed to get on the road so we would be back before dark. I hated to leave him alone but he was in good hands. They had sent someone for his mother. I am not sure she ever came, but in the search for her they found yet another boy who had been hit by a falling rock.

That was Friday. On Saturday, Zack said a woman in labor showed up at the gate. She had delivered one baby and the second was stuck with the arm hanging out. Lori worked to get the baby out but couldn't. She ended up putting her in a tap-tap sending her in to port. Yes, in labor with the arm stuck!

(note: photo's by madisen lynch)