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Raising Nate part 9 - And I cried [1]
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Date: 2025-04-30
The first few days in DR, Nate and I walked everywhere, to the store, the supermarket, and fast food restaurants, Nate had never tasted a McDonalds hamburger before. We tried, McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, Dominoes, Pizza Hut and KFC, KFC extra crispy got a 5 star review by Nate lol, the rest he liked the McDonald fries and ice cream…. And Pizza Hut’s crust filled pizza… that’s it.
After spending nearly 3 years in semi confinement, our legs hurt but it did not matter… the simple fact that we could walk in the streets without fear, without worry, no smell of burning tires or police gas in the air made us forget our aches and pains. The first morning in DR at around 6 am I got a cup of coffee and sat OUTSIDE the hotel, watching cars and people going by… and I cried. I cried because this simple most common of things, was something I had been unable to do in Haiti since 2018.
We went out when it rained, when it was hot, when it was sunny, we walked just because we could. Don’t worry we wore our masks all the time lol. The first morning after our arrival, I took a cup of coffee and sat outside the hotel… and as I drank my coffee looking at cars passing me by, looking at smiling pedestrians… I just cried.
I was sitting outside and there was no fear, no stress, no worries… just normalcy, and I cried.
One of the first things Nate asked me for when we got here was a giant teddy bear, well medium sized, it cost 20$ but we got it, he would hug that thing to sleep. The first few days he insisted on going everywhere with me would not let me out of his sight… a couple of weeks in he let me go get coffee on my own and stayed home watching TV.
Normal school is still out of the question for Nate, but we’ve obtained a tutor and combined with the free Khan Academy program Nate is catching up or basic subjects. But in other things he is far ahead of his peers because Nate loves documentaries and I’ve realized that Amines have a lot of educational stuff slipped into them.
The nightmares, haven’t mentioned them yet, but Nate would get what I think are night terrors, cold sweats and moaning groaning even yelling in his sleep to wake up screaming… those continued for a few months, but seem to have stopped now (it’s been a year since we got here).
About 4 months ago, we finally moved into our separate rooms, before we were sleeping on the floor in the leaving room cause he didn’t want to be alone… one day he just went… can we move my mattress into my room? Another breakthrough!
Asthma attacks also greatly diminished, except for about 6 weeks in September/October where something just revamped them, he’s had perhaps 1 attack a month maybe 2. If you recall he use to have multiple attacks a day up to 20 at times. Not too far from us, there is a hospital and it’s FREE. It’s not fancy but it’s free.
We still make do with only the basics, birthdays and Christmas are not something we can right now afford but we keep planning for them in the future. We still sleep on mattresses on the floor have no living room furniture but we are at peace for the most part. End of months are hard but someone will send a 20$ here a 10$ there and that helps.
Next up, part 10
Muriel Vieux
November 6th, 2023
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paypal.me/murielvieux to help Haitians families 10$ x donors can go a long way.
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