Every time I go into my bathroom, I see the WORLD magazine in the basket by the toilet and I think about people in Haiti eating dirt cookies. Did you know that? People in Haiti eat dirt cookies because they have no food. I find this so distressing that I Googled “Haiti” to find out how many people live there and if I could possibly solve this problem with a few dozen bags of rice from Costco.
But, alas. Haiti is the second poorest country in (the world? the hemisphere?) and has 8 million people. EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE. Eighty percent of them are unbelievably poor. The unemployment rate is . . . did it say 90%? All I know is that Haiti is an impossible problem and the people there are eating dirt cookies.
This hurts my heart.
I can’t stop thinking about it.
Tucked next to that obsession in my head is this thought: I love that Oprah is kind of chubby again. It makes me feel marginally better about my ten pounds weight gain. I intend to write a letter to myself on my other blog one of these days soon. I need to straighten myself up, remind myself that I am more than my waistline.
Oh, get this. A book publisher sent me $300.00 worth of books as a gift. Just for fun. Honestly, could anything be better? (Chocolate? Did someone say “chocolate”?)
Also, please, Neighborhood Boys, I am begging you to stop knocking over my flimsy white wire fence onto my pathetic flower bed. I only have one flowerbed, things are growing and YOU ARE RUINING MY LIFE.
My computer went into a coma this morning–absolutely refused to load. That freaked me out. I ran a diagnostic scan (I have no idea how I did that) and the computer roared back to life. I am Annie Sullivan. Yes, a Miracle Worker.
I recently read my first two Dean Koontz books, two of the “Odd Thomas” books. I adored those books and read them practically non-stop. I also read an Elizabeth Berg novel . . . and a few other things. Tomorrow I will post about a book I reviewed for a blog tour. I’m going to update my Librarything.com account–I like to keep track of what I’ve read using that website. Do you know about it? You should. It is such a great website.
Oh! And last weekend I saw “Iron Man” with Robert Downey Junior. (Robert Downey, Jr.?) He is exactly my age, by the way. So is Brooke Shields and Melissa Gilbert. Just in case you were wondering. Anyway, the movie was really good, very entertaining, funny and worthy of its success. The only thing is that I wouldn’t take a three year old, as some of the people in the theater did. I have to say that if your three year old is NOT sensitive to violence that appears in movies rated PG that perhaps that is a problem. I would hope that small children would be too sensitive to see action movies like Iron Man. (See: Melodee’s Biggest Pet Peeve.) Small children should be protected from inappropriate visual images.
Last night I stayed up until 1:20 a.m. because I had washed a million loads of laundry this week that sat in baskets all week, unfolded. Usually I fold each load as it comes out, but I have been swamped by the tidal wave that is my life. I also did a load of dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. What a delight it was to stumble downstairs this morning, blind without my glasses, to a cleanish kitchen and folded baskets of clothes.
Well. I guess that’s all.
But what are we going to do about Haitians eating dirt cookies?
Oh, don’t forget to put out food for the mail carrier to pick up tomorrow. It’s the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive.
Actual Unretouched Photo 
Go to Compassion.org. They are a highly-rated organization that partners with local churches in areas like Haiti. You can “adopt” a child for 32 dollars a month. We found that using some of our tithe money this way made helping others much more “real” to the children. Even my alienated teen daughter got into it.
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dirt cookies. so sad. This has been on my mind a lot lately too.
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Dear Annie Sullivan Miracle Worker,
Can you please tell me why I am losing my hair?
Sincerely,
A faithful reader
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Having had extensive experience traveling to Haiti to do mission work and orphanage work, I *can* tell you that Haiti is a bottomless pit of need.
Haitians are delightful people who seem to have been cursed to have the most corrupt and inept governing officials in the known universe.
Their economy literally hangs on a thread of donations from the US and Canada. Anything nice that exists there, it’s because someone here provided the money to do it. Any real industry eventually fails because there is no infrastructure. The only time there WAS some semblance of infrastructure was during the horrible times of the Duvalier regimes.
That being said, individual Haitians are precious people who often benefit from our help. There are privately-run orphanages in Port-au-Prince that often allow visitors to come work for a few days.
Compassion International and World Vision are active there as well and do good work. I worked with youngsters from remote areas who had received old musical instruments from a Compassion grant and who were learning to play in a band together. It gave them a tremendous sense of accomplishment and pride and they cared for their instruments as tenderly as infants. In fact, to come to music camp, they carried them (one kid actually had a tuba) for several days on foot over mountains to reach the highway where they could then catch a bus and ride for five hours to camp.
Hope that gives you some good ideas. It’s dire, but unfortunately it always is. Haiti is a dreadful place that I grieve over daily because of the people I love who are forced to live there.
I am hoping that the Haitian expats in Miami and NY and Toronto who’ve gotten education and good jobs will finally one day go in and put the place to rights, like the Cubans long to do, but I don’t know if it could ever actually happen there. There’s just so much corruption and devastation.
Don’t know if that helps much, but the situation there is really, really bad and infinitely beyond a truckload of rice and beans. —Kris
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I didn’t get a bag of groceries out early enough for the mail carrier. Instead, I donated money online to the Oregon Food Bank. I feel your grief about Haiti…I heard about the dirt cookies, too. And what about the debacle in Myanmar?! A government that barely allows any aid to come in and help all those storm victims?! I heard on the news there are THOUSANDS of orphans there now, too. Maybe this is that government’s way to control population?? Absolutely heinous!!!!
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Read this book. http://www.amazon.com/Mountains-Beyond-Quest-Farmer-Would/dp/0812973011/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210474720&sr=8-1
This is a most amazing man who has done great things to help the people in Haiti. I admire him so much.
Then read Three Cups of Tea.
There are so many people who are trying to help, and so much need it seems hopeless. I hope our new president, whoever he/she turns out to be, will put helping people at the top of the agenda.
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HI. I am upset by the dirt cookies too. I get upset on Oprah’s favorite things show where she gives out thousands of dollars and cars to people who don’t even need them. She could rebuild New Orleans if she wanted to. I’m so over her.
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