The Azil

Here we have two posts on the Azil by two of our travelers.  Both are included because the Azil affected each of us somewhat differently.

[posted by Vicki Brooke]

               Friday finally arrived and was the day we would visit the Azil.  We had left our little cocoon of Cerca and traveled to the big city of Hinche.  My husband and daughter had talked about their visit to the Azil immediately following the earthquake, so I thought I had prepared myself for this visit.  But even with this support I found this place to be both beautiful and emotionally gripping at the same time.

              As with all other properties in Haiti, the Azil is enclosed by 12-foot cinder block walls and a enormous metal gate.  As we drove up to the front gate and honked an attendant opened the gate and the first image we saw was a huge picture of Mother Theresa painted on the wall of the building.  The Azil is run by Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, and visitors are greeted by angels in the highly recognizable white and blue habit swishing about the Azil tending to their little guests.  Families in the city and surrounding mountains bring their young children or babies to the nuns and staff at the Azil when they can no longer care for them.  Here at the Azil the little ones get medical attention, food and loving care.  The nuns and staff care for the little ones until they are able to return to their families or return to God.

               The first room with cribs had one and two year old children, many standing up in their metal cribs clearly able to climb out but none of the children seem interested in getting out.  These little ones were quick to laugh and full of joy.  The next room had the babies and children with more significant needs.  Many of the babies in this room were unstable.  We were all eager to pitch in to hold the babies, feed and change diapers.  One team member, a nurse, felt pretty confident that one particular baby would probably not live through the night.  We touched her, knowing that we were in contact with a little angel.  My little guy closed his eyes as soon as I picked him up and brought him close to me.  He never moved or uttered a sound.

               After a while one of the sisters stopped her duties and spoke to us briefly.  While extremely pleasant it was clear that she had more pressing duties than to tend to our questions.  Her mission was the care of the baby.  I knew I was in the presence of Holy Spirit.

               Before leaving we spent some time with a group of youngsters who, perhaps 3-5 year old were on break from class.  While all of us had children on our laps our team member Troy soon had children climbing on him, like he was a tree.  When it was time to leave the children followed Troy out of the building and all the way to the car.  It was a joyful way to end our visit.

[posted by Lydia Turkaly]

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was my second trip to Haiti, my first trip being right after the Earthquake in 2010. 

One of the most memorable and sad experiences from my first trip was a visit to the Azil, a place run by the Missionaries of Charity, the group of nuns that Mother Theresa founded.  Parents can drop off their malnourished children to hopefully be nursed back to health by the nuns.  Parents can visit their children while they are there and hopefully take them home once they are healthy, but a happy homecoming isn’t guaranteed.

 I will never forget my first visit there, the sounds, the smells, the many, many children who were on the verge of death.  As I held one of the infants and tried to feed him I wasn’t even sure he was still alive.  This was so upsetting to me that I am ashamed to admit that when the child would not take the bottle I was offering him I returned him to his crib and quickly left the room.  I was nearly sick to my stomach and overcome with the horror of the situation as I saw room after room of malnourished children.

As I prepared to return to Haiti the only thing I was concerned about was visiting the Azil again.  I felt great guilt about not wanting to go back.  However, to my great surprise I found a very different situation than the one I saw 4 years before.  The number of children at the Azil was greatly reduced and I am hoping this is due to improved living conditions. The children I did see appeared much healthier and were beaming when they saw their newest group of visitors.  The toddlers in the cribs were very playful and I was even able to get a laugh or two out of a few of them by playing peek-a-boo.  There were some very sick infants but compared to what I had seen before I felt relieved and thankful for the progress being made.

The Sisters are amazing and the work they do is so inspiring.  They are truly doing God’s work and will always be my heroes.