The wedding was to take place in a rather old and dusty tent in the police car park. The groom, John, who is Haitian works with the boys and was going to marry his beautiful local bride. As budget and resources were at an absolute minimum it was necessary to adopt a creative approach to laying on a wedding. So, in our newly assumed role of wedding planners an impromptu trip to Port Au Prince's biggest supermarket was hastily arranged. As items are hard to source, they are extremely expensive; well beyond the budget of the majority of local people. But we were adamant that the bride should have flowers of some sort. We decided on a rather unconventional blue hydrangea stem at $10 and left the shop with the flowers and the best we could do for decorations. The primary school teacher in me was going into overdrive at this point, imagining how 5 paper bags were going to transform the tent into a sublime and romantic setting! The end result was not quite of this magnitude, but it didn't look too bad, all things considered. We had also managed to get hold of some blue material that we used as drapes and two tablecloths gave a lift to the overall state of affairs and set off the wedding cake. The cake itself had its own tale to tell, which I won't go into here. But in the end it looked lovely and the bride and groom were absolutely delighted by the whole event.
The boys wore their best clothes and were fantastically behaved during the proceedings. They put out the chairs and sat patiently through a fairly lengthy service and then joined in the meal afterwards. Dudley had the weighty responsibility of being both the ring bearer and the babysitter, but he did it brilliantly and looked dashing in his borrowed suit. The more time we spent with the boys the more we observed how well they got along and also how they looked after one another. Given the hardships that they have experienced, they obviously have learned to draw on each other for support and it was moving to see this in action. In addition, when we asked the boys who their best friends were, they all without exception named each other.
Unfortunately Charlie was not feeling so good and he was led out with a fever. He was clearly suffering, so doctor Abner took a look at him. Chickenpox was the verdict! So it was to be bed rest for Charlie for a few days and regular doses of soothing chamomile for the spots as they developed. It was dreadful to see him looking so poorly, but he bravely managed to join in a group photo of the boys holding their "flash flash" torches that we had given them and even flashed us a special smile.
There were times during the day, when the boys were not at school, doing homework or jobs and it was these times when we were really able to catch a glimpse of them behaving as boys. I was missing my 14 and 17 year olds and all the stuff that goes with that so I loved to watch them joking around, a little rough and tumble and on the odd occasion a burst of rapping. I was secretly hoping to see a full blown rap session in action, but so far I had not been lucky. However, after several days of asking "Chantez pour moi?" I was rewarded, as they suddenly jumped into action. Goji led the way and the performance was complete with hand movements, cool looks and lyrics that were delivered with gusto. It was pure class.
It was made all the more special by the fact that we had spent the afternoon walking around some of the city to visit some of the boys' homes. Many of them live in the tent cities and these are dangerous and overcrowded places as we were to see first hand. It had been an emotional time as we discovered just how severe some of the conditions were and also how much some of the boys were hurting from last year's events. Goji was not keen for us to visit his house, which he now shares with his grandma, but at our request he took us to meet her anyway. She is a very diminutive lady in her 80's who has tried her best to care for Goji this past year. She told us that Goji had been due to go back to his mother when the earthquake struck, but instead he had chosen to go to grandma's for the night. When he returned home in the morning, his house was demolished with his mother dead inside. As grandma explained the story, Goji could not stand to be reminded of that terrible day and he ran off into the street. John later told us that Goji was once one of the most outgoing boys, but in recent months he has become more insular and withdrawn as the reality of what had occurred has been sinking in. He is not going to be seeing his mum again and yet every day he has to walk past the place where their house once stood.
On the way back I thanked Goji for taking us to meet his Grandma. "Next time you come I am going to have a better house." was his reply.
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