The orphanage has been a smashing success and while I never learned anything of the benefits Harry derives from the endeavor, Pastor Slimette has done quite well. Today he owns a two-story home in Baie-de-Sol, another home in Port-au-Prince, and yet another in Miami.
Besides the orphanage, Slimette has several churches in the area. He also sells swamp land on the outskirts of Baie-de-sol. He drained the land himself and mortgages lots to poor immigrants from the countryside. His success as a pastor and orphanage manager and slum lord spawned an interests in politics. At the time I was doing the CARE survey, Slimette was the mayor of Baie-de-Sol.
I went by Slimette and Harry's Orphanage. It is called Orphanage of the Father and it is supported by Mission HW, meaning Harry Wothem. Pastor Slimette and his wife, Madame Slimette, are responsible for the orphanage. But at the time a, Heith and Sandy, an American missionary couple were living with the orphans and supervising them. The Slimettes also run a school on the orphanage grounds and Madame Slimette is present during the day.
I find Madame Slimette giving a class to some older school children ...I learn from Madame Slimette that there are 80 children in the orphanage, 35 girls and 45 boys. All the children are sponsored by U.S. churches.
Madame Slimette tells me "all the children are from rural areas" and smiling, explains how they like the young children "because they can better benefit from what the orphanage has to offer. The big children however," her smile fades, "they are a problem." She goes on to tell me that the day before my arrival Pastor Slimette and the orphanage staff had a meeting about the older children and they are going to have another meeting today. "Something has got to happen," she repeats.
Later that day I visit Madame Slimette again. This time I go to her home. She lives behind an eight-foot wall in a two-story cement house as large as the orphanage itself. I tap on the big metal gates. Tap tap. A guard opens and I am allowed into the driveway. An SUV is parked beneath an awning. Her oldest son's 250 Kawasaki motorcycle is propped against the house. Bicycles lie strewn about. It's a much different sight than the orphanage.
I ask if other Haitian families ever adopted any of the orphans.
"Only the parents can come get the child."
A little confused, "The orphans have parents?" I ask.
Madame Slimette's demeanor suddenly changes to indignation and "Look," she says and then, in a comment that surprises and puzzles me "Our orphanage has been here for 20 years and we do not give people's children away. Non!"
Her
indignation causes me to back off. I'm not here to offend her. So I let
the obvious question go and decide to clarify the matter on my own.
*
I stop back by the orphanage and ask the cook if I could see the kitchen and depot. As I walk through the compound curious children begin tagging along with me. I profit from the occasion to ask several children, "hey, where do your parents live?" I ask five orphans. The responses: "St. Angle," "St. Angle," "La Fonn," "Baie-de-Sol," "Baie-de-Sol." All cities.
All the children I interviewed not only had parents, they also were not, as Madame Slimette had told me, from rural areas. They were from urban areas. I left the orphanage wondering why they call the children orphans and why Madame Slimette misled me about them being mostly from the rural areas. What difference would that make? Unless, since in Haiti rural is synonymous with poor, it was to suggest that they took in only impoverished children, the kind that appeals to sponsors.
That evening I am back at Sharon's apartment savoring a sirloin steak dinner and the air conditioning. There is a knock at the door. Sharon answers and in come the American couple who live at Slimette and Harry's orphanage. Heith and Sandy, a pear-shaped couple, are plain rural middle Americans from Ohio. They have country common sense. Heith is semi-literate but a crack mechanic and handy at building things. Sandy is almost completely deaf. She is a good homemaker - Christian, faithful wife, devoted mother. She and Heith have two children of their own. It is not clear to me if they know that I am researching orphanages, but they immediately begin complaining.
"Harry Wothem is here," Heith tell us with a country twang, "and this very day he and Slimette kicked out 21 orphans (of 76, not 80 as Madame Slimette had said)." Heith explains that they kicked out all orphans over 14 years of age, some of who were 18 or 19.
"Well, where did the expelled orphans go?" Sharon asks.
