Tuesday in Haiti

Breakfast today was sooo yummy! Pancakes, pineapple and oatmeal.

Today we hosted 100 kiddos at VBS. We were supposed to do it inside the church at the Baptist Mission. But when we arrived, we were notified that someone had died and the funeral was today at the church. So we regrouped and set everything up behind the church at this park. We split the kids into groups and they rotated from group to group. I was in charge of my 10 kid group and led them around.













When we got back, we headed to the creche to see our kiddos. As I walked down the stairs leading to the creche, I noticed Jovanika sitting in the lap of a lady. I didn't want to "steal" her away from the lady, so I just walked by. Well, she saw me and hollered out "Mama Blanc" (white mama lol) and got up to come over to me. AWWWW! We played for a bit and then I went with some other other people to go in and clean the kids classroom. I took her in there with me, but you know how it is when you have someone following your every move undoing everything you do! So one of the workers took her out and shut the door. That poor baby sat outside the door and cried for 30 minutes until we came back out and I got her again.






For dinner we had mystery meat (goat, maybe?), green beans, potatoes, brown rice & beans.

Tonight, I talked with Dr. Bernard. He used to live in Fort Worth, so we chatted about the area. Eventually we started talking about adoption and all the kids there. He said that the number of kids he has had doubled since last year. Fortunately though, most of them are being adopted. I was kind of (ok, not kind of) curious if, in fact, Jovanika was one of the available kiddos. Her and I have this crazy connection and I just felt the need to know what her story is. He didn't have any of his files there, so he didn't know any information about specific kids, but he did have a spreadsheet with the kids names and birthdays. Turns out, she IS available and has not been there very long. He couldn't remember her story but I know her name and that she will be 3 on November 18.

Monday in Haiti

This morning we were woken up at 2am, but this time it wasn't the rooster. The leader of our group was in severe pain, and they came to get a nurse, who happened to be one of our roommates. They ended up taking her to the hospital. Apparently they had to go to several hospitals... One of them had no doctor there (really?!)After hearing her agonizing screams of pain, there was no way I could go back to sleep. Good thing I was awake, because that dang rooster was making sure none of us slept!

This morning for breakfast we had oatmeal, watermelon, French toast, bread & peanut butter.

Today I was on the team that worked at the creche. That means I got to play with kids and hold babies all day :) Easy enough for me!

In the morning, the older kids had school. They looked so cute in their uniforms!







While the kids were in class, we went upstairs and played with the younger ones. I helped feed them breakfast, which was noodles with some saucy stuff.








While I was there, I may have just happened to have glanced at the list of girls in the creche. They have a list of names posted on the door with all the kids, their adoptive parents names, and their birthdays. All but 3 girls had adopted parents by their names. Two of them are older girls. There is one younger girl named Jovanika. I asked some of the older kids to show me who she is. Turns out she was the cutie I have been rocking to sleep every afternoon. Today I had played with her all afternoon. I went to their little Bible class with them, where they sang songs and the kids took turns saying prayers. She didn't like it when I had to leave to go get ready for dinner :( I did get lots of cute pics of her this afternoon:






Tonight for dinner we had meatballs, rice, cucumbers, and scalloped potatoes. Unfortunately, there were some people who piled up their plate as if this was their last meal, so we ran out of food before we had a chance to get through the line. So I had some bread, potatoes and a Pop Tart..... Carb Fest! Oh, and a huge coke! Dinner of champions right there, people!

Sunday in Haiti

This morning we got up around 6am. Breakfast is at 7 every morning. This morning we had grits, watermelon, mango and the obligatory bread and peanut butter for the picky eaters. Then we got ready for church. At 8:30 we got on the bus. We attended church at the Baptist Mission. I have to say, this is the first church service I have been to that lasted over 2 HOURS!!!!! There is no A/C so of course we were all sweating and trying not to look like we were completely uncomfortably sweltering hot. We Americans seemed to be the only squirmy ones after 2 hours, so I assume that is the norm there.








So after 2 hours of listening to preaching in creole, we went back to the guest house and made sandwiches. Then a group took off to the Palace, and some people stayed back at the creche. Today was a "down" day, just kind of hanging out.



Dinner was BBQ chicken, white rice, squash casserole and bread. And of course, a $2 huge bottle of Haitian coke!! After dinner we signed up for which projects we wanted to help with during the week. Some groups will be doing construction, some will be going to a special needs orphanage, some will be going to the "big kids" orphanage, some will be doing VBS and some will be staying here working at the creche.

After dinner, I came back to our room to shower. Yay- cold water!! Who am I kidding? I am just happy to be able to shower! Then we had a devotional and talked for a while. There were thunderstorms tonight.... fabulous sleeping weather! Except for the darn rooster..... UGH!

Back to Haiti- Saturday

After arriving in Miami around midnight on Friday, it was close to 2am before we got in our hotel room and got to bed. We had to meet downstairs at 8am to head to our flight to Port Au Prince.

Once we landed in PAP, we got off the plane, got on a bus and headed to another building to get our luggage. It didn't seem as chaotic as the last time we did this. Once we got our bags, we headed outside to find our bus. Along the way, we were hounded by porters wanting to carry our bags for us, trying to make a buck. Since last year, there is now a paved walkway and a covered sidewalk leading to the parking lot. Once we found our bus, we were told that we were going to have to wait for another group coming in on another flight in about 45 minutes. So we waited. And waited. For about 2 hours. Finally, someone found out the flight we were waiting on had been delayed, so we got to leave.

On the bus ride up, it looked like there has been lots of clean up since last year.

But there was still lots of destruction from the earthquake.



We passed many tent cities still filled with people.







Once we got to the Guest House, we got settled in and headed straight to the creche to see the kiddos. I was thrilled to see that the trees had been replaced with a playground for the kids to play on!



Immediately a little girl came running up to me with her arms held open for me to pick her up. I held and played with her. Then we sat down to swing and she fell asleep.



I thought about going and putting her down in her bed. But it never fails, whenever I put the sleeping babies down, they ALWAYS wake up and start bawling. Then I feel horrible. So, I held her and let her nap until it was time to go.

We ate dinner.... mystery meat, brown rice & beans, french green beans and bread. Topped it off with a huge bottle of $2 Haitian Coke. Then we had a devotional and went to bed early, since we were all exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before. The rooster that I grew to despise the last trip started cock-a-doodle-doing about 2:30am. Then I woke up to light outside. Looked at my watch and oh my goodness, it was only 4:30!! Finally got up about 5:30 and got ready for our day.

More Canez

Earlier in the week, we made up bags of clothing and toiletries, along with some toys for the kids to give out in Canez.



We wanted to give a bag to each family we met in Canez. The families also received a 100 pound bag of rice, which should last most about a month. More on that later.

We seperated into groups to go to the huts and talk to the families. Each group had a translator and a man from the village that went with them.

The first man we came to was overwhelmed and cried tears of joy.



As we were walking to the next hut, I ran into this man. He is 63 and suffered a stroke.



When I asked him where he lived, he pointed to this:



He asked me if anyone knew they were there and if anyone cared about them. Then he told me about how he is alive because of Jesus. He said he begged Jesus to let him live when he was suffering from a stroke and He did.


















Each family we met we asked if we could pray for them and if there was anything specific they would like us to pray for. Not one person asked for "more food" or "more clothes" or anything of the sort. They all asked for protection over their families and homes. Or they asked for Jesus to watch over them and their health. It puts things in perspective when we are busy begging for better jobs, more money, nicer cars, bigger homes, etc.