Finding Chika by Mitch Albom

Meeting date: February 25, 2020 ;
Star rating: 4.7/5 stars

Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince.

With no children of their own, the forty-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. Chika’s arrival makes a quick impression. Brave and self-assured, even as a three-year-old, she delights the other kids and teachers. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says, “No one in Haiti can help you with.”

Mitch and Janine bring Chika to Detroit, hopeful that American medical care can soon return her to her homeland. Instead, Chika becomes a permanent part of their household, and their lives, as they embark on a two-year, around-the-world journey to find a cure. As Chika’s boundless optimism and humor teach Mitch the joys of caring for a child, he learns that a relationship built on love, no matter what blows it takes, can never be lost.

Told in hindsight, and through illuminating conversations with Chika herself, this is Albom at his most poignant and vulnerable. Finding Chika is a celebration of a girl, her adoptive guardians, and the incredible bond they formed—a devastatingly beautiful portrait of what it means to be a family, regardless of how it is made.

Comments from attendees:

• This book brought home the dire situation Haiti is still in since the earthquake in 2010 - out of sight out of mind for the American public
• We laughed and we cried.
• We weren't upset about crying; we didn't mind it.
• Very different from Tuesdays with Morrie which deals with a similar topic - the person at the center has a completely different experience since Chika hasn't lived a long life like Morrie
• "We were yours" - relationships and bonds can be made from anything; ownership of a child is not relegated to blood; child has ownership of you - not the other way around
• "found families" and "finding a family" were two phrases that came to mind when reading
• Albom's grief and how he is coping is laid out for all to read. Very powerful.
• Albom's conversations with Chika in the book made her a real person. It didn't feel cheesy or "like a plot device"
• The situation of the poor in Haiti feels hopeless.
• How can we change it?
• Who should change it?
• Who is responsible to fix it? Does that matter?
• Infinitely quotable book:
• "What we carry defines who we are"
• "A child... both an anchor and a set of wings"
• At what point is acceptance ok? (Acceptance of Chika's illness and eventual death)
• Can we be okay with the amount of suffering Chika experienced?
• Was her suffering for the Alboms or for her own sake?
• So many tough decisions had to be made. How can you make those choices for a 7-year-old? Can the 7-year-old make those choices?
• Should the Alboms have told Chika she was sick?
• The audiobook version is FANTASTIC. 100% recommended.
• All attendees agree: Chika's story needs/needed to be told.