When my husband and I went to visit our girls in Haiti for the second time, we brought our eight year old son, Ryland along. When we returned home, I asked him to write an essay about his view on Haiti. This is what he wrote:

Last week, I went to Haiti. I saw lots of people that were poor and lots of trash everywhere. Sometimes people burned the trash. I also saw trash in the river, with pigs running around everywhere. I saw skinny dogs that you could see their ribs. I saw people carrying heavy things on their heads. There were lots of people walking on the streets and cars would honk to say that they were coming, so that people would get out of the way. The cars were driving crazy. The roads were very bumpy, with holes everywhere. In Haiti their taxis were called, “tap-taps.” They were painted very colorful. I saw lots of broken-down trucks. There were walls that had broken glass bottles on the top of them. That is how they make their homes safe. When we were driving past places, we saw a lot of markets. There were women sitting with baskets sitting in front of them filled with fruits and veggies. We also saw lots of sugar cane. It smelled gross there. The people were so poor, but I saw a nice Presidential Palace. It was clean and beautiful. It was white. It was sad that the President has such a nice place when so many people were poor. It was very, very hot. My mom was never kidding when she went there before I did. There was also a lot of fighting. I saw lots of soldiers with guns. There were people in front of the hotel with machine guns. We saw palm trees and coconut trees. I went swimming at the hotel. I kind of liked their food. I went to Haiti because I went to see two of my sisters that were there. One is named Talley, and one is named Georgia. Talley was cute and Georgia was shy. There were cockroaches in our hotel room. We also found a giant cricket. We trapped it in a cup so he couldn’t get away. The beds in Haiti were not very comfy. They were as hard as cement. There were lots of kids in the orphanage, but Georgia and Talley lived in a different orphanage than the one we saw. They brought Georgia and Talley to the orphanage where people get their kids to visit them. Georgia and Talley’s orphanage is up in the hills. We were in Port-au-Prince, which is the capital of Haiti. Talley was very happy, but when we left her, she was sad. Georgia cried also. Georgia never talked. She is 3 years old. Talley is 1 years old. Talley has three teeth—2 on the bottom and 1 on the top. It was very hot outside, but inside it was very cold. I got sick while I was there. I had to take 3 pills to make me get better. The language they speak in Haiti is called Creole. It is like French. I liked going to Haiti.

In a future post, I will talk about the pros and cons of bringing a child or children to Haiti.