Haitian Diaries: Kids And Pain

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Last night I went to bed with a headache, and this morning I woke up with a headache. I get an headache when I breathe in too much auto-exhaust (I didn't get a headache when I used a mask all day the other day, but I had to look like a dork with my tiny mask), but it's usually gone the next morning. So I was surprised that I still had it. Pastor Baek had told me to rest the next couple days, so I slept through the morning. I felt better in the afternoon. I played with the kids for the rest of the day.

Last night, while I was playing with the kids, Jeanoody (sounds like Jody), one of the older boys (about 7 or 8 years old), kept pinching and trying to hurt me when I wasn't looking. I told him many times to stop, but he wouldn't, so I ground his head with my knuckle a little. He cried for a bit, and after that he kept going around behind my back to kick me. I kept telling him to stop but he wouldn't listen. This morning, when I saw him, he seemed hesitant, maybe even intimidated, at first, but soon enough we were playing and he smiled when he saw me. I was relieved to know that he wasn't going to hate me for the rest of my time here. He also stopped trying to hurt me, so that's good, too. I guess kids here really want attention and easily get jealous when they don't while others do. It's not easy to pay attention to each kid when there are so many. It's also not easy to carry all of them at once when they jump to grab your arms.