We went to church today with the Heartline Guest House - it was an English speaking church and reminded me very much of my church at home. About half of the people were white missionaries. But the other half were locals which was really cool. After church, we came back to the Guest House. Beverly ran me to the closest grocery store so I could get bread and stuff for lunches for our team for today and the week. Got some Coke Light for several of the girls who love Diet Coke - it's the closest thing to it here. Also - side note: Coca-Cola is way better here and not made with high fructose corn syrup. After the store run, we threw together some pb&j sandwiches, ate some chips that are just like pringles and had ourselves a lunch.
After we ate, it was about 1:20 and our driver hadn't shown up yet so I called. Good ole Haiti - even though I made a reservation on the phone a week ago and even though I sent an email reiterating the dates - what do you know - they didn't have us scheduled until tomorrow. Well, at least I knew we had a ride tomorrow cause I spoke to our actual driver. We want to leave by 9 so we told them to be here at 8. If we can leave at 8 - great. But we're on Haiti time so 9 will be just fine too:) Not a huge deal that the ride fell through because right before I left TN - Amanda had been emailing with another ministry about transportation they use. They had written back and said they'd try to help us but at that point, I had it lined up but... I knew enough to say "hey, just in case it falls through - can you give me your Haiti number in case we end up needing transportation". And wala - I pulled out that useful phone number, made a call to a very nice gentleman who hooked us up by calling a tap tap and reserving it for the afternoon for us. Since there's only 6 of us - that was the perfect size. And super fun way to explore the city. It was a neat adventure and WAY cheaper. I'm thinking we need to do that more often. I didn't realize that you could reserve a tap tap for your team - I thought they were all tap taps that anyone could jump in and it might get a little crazy to hop on down to the main road and try to squeeze 6 ladies onto. So this was a nice surprise. There is a photo attached of the girls getting into one - it's basically a pickup truck with a cab on the back and a wide open back so people can hop on. No one hopped on with us. We got a much later start than we planned but all worked out and it was a good intro to meeting the kids.
We got there about 3:15 and stayed till around 5. We had so much fun with the kids. One of the team members brought a big colorful parachute thingy where you throw a beach ball on it and all the kids stand around it and make it fly up. See photo. Another team member brought cool art projects of the kids making their own Haitian flag. That was fun. And we had a jump rope and bubbles for each individual kid - the kind they give out at weddings. They liked that. I did a tour of the orphanage to see where we might be able to fit the beds when Sweet Sleep delivers them on Thursday. And then when all the excitement had sort of died down - kids were just piling on our laps and hugging on us. It was so precious. I had a sweet little boy and girl both on my lap at the same time.
Our team is awesome and it is amazing to see how many supplies we brought. Monday we drive out to Thomazeau to visit an orphanage there that's more rural and reminds me a bit more of African culture. I'm excited to see those kiddos again.
I figured out a way to get photos uploaded so some are attached from our day. Stay tuned - I will post again tomorrow. And thanks for the prayers!
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