Destra

I spent 8 hours at Destra today. With the unforgiving sun and temperatures it could have been hell but the community truly made it enjoyable. Today they made me feel truly at home. Whether it ws the coconut they brought me when I looked a bit dehydrated, or the plate of spaghetti my kids came together to buy supplies for and then cook for me I truly felt watched out for.

Having spent day’s listening to their trials and tribulations, their secret victories and quiet joys, I feel that I at least partially understand the sacrifice they made to buy me lunch. Perhaps one will not eat lunch tomorrow to school, or forego using a moto for part of their 5 mile trek to school tomorrow. However much money has been spent on me in the past, their sacrifices definitely validate me right now. [I wish it didnt take so much to make me feel needed 🙁 ]

I came out early today to catch the parents of scholarship participants leaving from a community clinic meeting on diabetes. Their interviews will be collected in a video reflection that should be completed later this summer. Luckily I also got the opportunity to watch Jean Kendy one of Goals Local Staffers during an English diagnostic to have baseline data on the effectiveness of GOALS’ english seminars.

Working with Jean Kendy has been a pleasure this week. He not only speaks much better English than I speak Creole, but his good humor and personable attitude is infectious. He also happens to be the GOALS staffer primarily charged with oversight of the Scholarship program. I wonder if he’s getting tired of me poking questions at him about how to make our programs even more effective.