Seven and a half hours and many boys later I finally recieved the neccessary data needed to develop an appropriate system of order and structure within the Trinity House. Micheal, the founder of the three orphanages I am working in, visits the Trinity House here in Jacmel every Friday to check up on the progress of the development/construction of the bakery, as well as assist Claude and I in any way possible during this implementation of structure/mentoring process. Now that there is a direct flight from Port Au Prince to Jacmel, arriving in the morning and leaving in the afternoon, Michael is able to come on a weekly basis, which is a huge help!

For seven and a half hours, Claude and I sat, (on our very sore buttocks from the horse sattles!) in my room, meeting individually with each director, and then again with the two of them together, as well as with each individual boy of the home. We asked for truth and honosty as we did an inventory of sorts. We questioned each boy individually with some of the following questions:

*How do you spell your name?

*What is your age? (Most do not even know their birthdate...only approximate year)

*What is your daily chore? How often a day do you do your chore?

*Do you like school? What is your grade average in school? (Unfortunatly most of the boys are not doing really well in school. The average grade is a 'D'. This is due to lack of individual attention in the school system.)

*What are some of your interests? (interests focused mostly on football(soccar), dance, swimming at the ocean, and art. Some mentioned things such as wanting to become a lawyer, a plumber and mechanic and a journalist.)

*In regards to implementing a new system of rewarding good behavior, what would you like to have for rewards? (the verdict was a 50/50 split between money and a big monthly outing such as a boat trip or a trip up the Basin Blue Falls etc.)

*If you were in Melchee's place as a director, what changes would you make in the house? Most responses were as follows:

-More order and structure in the Home.

-The younger boys would have more individual attention, more activities for them to participate in and better explanatoin of expectations

-More House meetings to explain expectations, review of rules, talk between the brothers any important issues, provide opportunity to support/encourage one another more.

-The leaders in the home would provide more encouragement to the boys to strive to be the best that they can be.

-The leaders would lead by example.

-A reward system for jobs well done.

-More accountability of the where-abouts of the boys.

-Less noise in the home.

-More team building, talk about the importance of being brothers.

-Make the Home, more comfortable, add decorations, furniture etc.

All of the above statements are suggestions and ideas that the boys themselves told us they wanted to see done in their own home. 95 percent of the boys asked for more structure/order and discipline. Isn't that interesting?!

With the work Claude and I have done with Melchee and Gilmiest this far, the following things have been accomplished and are developing on a continued basis, aiming for consistant follow-through:

*The boys are no longer sleeping anywhere they want to, but are required to sleep in their beds in the dormitory and are to be in bed by 10 PM on weekdays and 11PM on Friday and Satruday nights.

*Because the boys are given two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, (lunch being a large portion of rice, beans and a piece of meat, either chicken or beef)the boys eat half their lunch and save the rest for dinner time. Prior to my arrival, the boys would stash their food in empty cupboards, drawers, the oven etc. until a later time whenever they were hungry again and would return to eat their dinner. This resulted in a houseful of rice and beans scattered here and there, creating a lovely environment for insects such as ants, mice and cockroaches to thrive in. This system was put to a quick halt. The suggestion given to Melchee was that each boy be bought a cover protecting their food from the flies etc. and be marked with their name. When they are done eating they are to cover their food with the cover, and leave it on the designated counter. The food then can be eaten anytime up until 7:30 PM when anything not eaten is given to the neighborhood kids and dishes are washed and the kitchen cleaned by 8PM. This has been working well.

*Some of the boys are still wetting the bed. We have been working to create a system of taking these 5 boys to the bathroom every night at 10 PM and waking them again at 3 AM allowing them to relieve themselves in hopes of stopping the bedwetting. In the morning after morning prayer, any boy that did not wet the bed is given a reward. This seems to be helping as on average now only one or two boys wets the bed during a given night.

*A realistic schedule that can be consistantly adhered to is in the works. This is encompassing morning and evening prayer time, times to do chores, school, study time after school all classes, (art - drawing, dance, paper mache', football(soccar) and bed time. So far the progress made is that Prayer time begins every morning by the bell ringing at 4:50 AM, all the boys and I go to the dinning room where we arrange the chairs in a circle and have approximetly 15 minutes of singing and prayers.

The above are just a few examples of what has been implemented this far. We have a very large list of things changes we see as neseccary, however, it is very obvious that only one change at a time can happen. So it will be a day by day process.