Niece's thoughts about Haiti...

My three year old niece has reached the phase of asking many questions. It's usually why, why, why but today she asked me a different question.

While her and her sister were up in my room looking at some of my Africa pictures they started mentioning Haiti. They have seen some footage on the earthquake and my sister has told them that many people have lost their houses and that people died. I am not sure how much of it they really understand but they definitely remembered some of it.

While looking at pictures of me in the clinic in Sierra Leone. My niece said: "That's you helping children in Africa. Now you are going to Haiti to help children." I agreed with her, saying that I would be in Haiti for a few weeks. And that's when the question came. My niece looked at me and said: "Are you going to die too?" I was taken aback a bit and moved by the question, hearing the seriousness with which she asked it. I answered her with an answer I hoped is true and said "no, the earthquake is over, I will be back in a few weeks".

Later in the afternoon my niece brought up Haiti again. She asked another question: "Why can't you bring the children here to help them?" My response was that I thought they would miss their parents (not mentioning of course that many had lost parents). She then said: "Well, if there are children that lost their house, maybe you can bring them back so that they can live here." And she then went on explaining that she would make a bed for them on the floor in her bedroom. The compassion of a three year old.