What Happens in Haiti...

I was awakened around 7am by a persistent knocking on my hotel room door. I was enjoying another excellent night’s sleep on a beautiful tropical island. Although I had slept with my patio door open to enjoy hearing the ocean and the sounds of island life, I suddenly went into panic mode. I glanced around for something to use as a weapon. Should I call the front desk? Finally, I realized that I was probably overreacting.

I opened the door to a woman with a small child, “Is this your child?” she asked. Although fear had awakened me, compassion and confusion suddenly overwhelmed me. “No.” My confusion must have shown because the woman explained that she had found the child aimlessly wandering the hotel floor.

My other hotel neighbors were peeking curiously out of their doors at me, wondering if I was the reckless parent or worse. I vaguely remembered seeing someone walk down the hall with a child the day before so I knocked on another hotel room door.

A man with bloodshot eyes swung open the door, looking even more baffled than I. No! The child wasn’t his either.

By this time a group of us had gathered, wondering what to do. Most of us were Americans enjoying our vacations. Should we call the cops? Was that the right procedure on island life?

Finally, the child’s mother stormed into the hall and disrupted our group and grabbed her errant child, without so much as a how-do or thank you. She didn’t look none too motherly or concerned, just irritated that her child had attracted so much attention.

As it turned out, the concerned woman who knocked on my door worked in Social Services on the island. She told us of the hundreds of children who are often left on the side of the road, abandoned by parents who just can’t take of any more kids or don’t want to. So many at-risk children wandering around a place that looks like it was made in heaven.

Truly, an unexpected event to happen on my first vacation in years. I went home and for the most part, forgot about that incident, until now.

Obviously, the child welfare situation in Haiti is critical right now. It has been for years, that’s no secret. I’m not going to share any lofty solutions. After all, if a group of adults has trouble deciding what to do with one child within the confines of a hotel, what on earth can Haiti be expected to do with its thousands of needy children?