Haiti April 11th

Monday 4/11/2011

We had a productive evening last night - got all the supplies organized by which place we were going each day and separated into bags accordingly. Today - we just had to grab the right bag and we were good to go. That made it nice. We also had a great time of prayer before bed. And everyone had a great nights sleep last night. A few dogs barking but not near as much noise as previous trips. I'd have to say it was the quietest night in Haiti I've had. We are the first team at the guest house for this week so until tomorrow - we have the place pretty much to ourselves which is a nice way to start out. It was even kind of cool last night in the middle of the night - we even needed a sheet. I have to say I much prefer the Feb and April weather to the June and October trips I took last year. Very nice! It's hot but a nice cool breeze. 

We headed out this morning at 9am in Haitian style - a tap tap vehicle (see photo). We stopped at a store called DeliMart along the way to get bottled water. And then we were on our way to the orphanage - Children Household of Tomorrow. This time was a little bit different than previous trips in that all the kids were in school. The school is held on site at the orphanage so we got to observe them doing their lessons and we could hear their cute little voices repeating back the lessons to the teacher. Claujine, the house mom, let me give the team the tour to show them all the beds we put together last October (thanks to Sweet Sleep) and where all the kids rooms were. The kids had a little break at 10 am so that was good cause we got to interact with them a bit. They all ate some rice during the break and since it was a short one, we decided not to pull out any arts & crafts cause we wouldn't really have time. School got out at noon and we did a really fun art & craft with them that Lynelle came up with - rain sticks! It involved quite a few steps and lots of items - mailing tubes with plastic ends, pipe cleaners, tin foil pieces, 3 caps full of rice, masking tape, these little decorative ends that went on with rubber bands and made em look more like instruments and then all the stuff to decorate them - little pieces of material to wrap around the outside, stickers, marker, yarn, etc. The kids did awesome and it went smoother than I ever would have guessed. They really paid attention when she explained the steps and they picked it up with ease. Before long, they all had their very own rainstick/musical shaker in all different decorations and colors. It was so cute - they were grinning from ear to ear. When everyone was done, their pastor who teaches the kids Sunday school had stopped by for the afternoon and he led the kids in a whole bunch of songs and they all proudly shook their shakers, sang praise and worship, jumped up and down and sang their little hearts out with smiles on their faces. It was awesome. I got some great video - can't wait for you to see it. The joy on their faces was priceless. And we all got to dance and clap with them. I'm sure their voices were heard for a mile! Which means, the praises of the Lord were heard for a mile too! Awesome!!!! Then the pastor led them in a prayer for us and he said "we want to pray for you for safety and protection so you can come back because you see the joy you bring them whenever you come." And the joy they bring us - that cannot even be put into words. Love those precious kiddos. And it's so nice to know each one of their faces now. The team loved meeting them and interacting with them. We didn't have a ton of time with them because they had to study but after the songs, we went into the front yard and did "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and the "hokey pokey" and then we dig duck duck goose and they had such a blast with that. It was a great day. Even though our time with them was short it was well spent and we loved every second of it. We are going back there on Thursday and since they do have school, we will go back there in the afternoon this time and spend a few hours with them so we don't interrupt their studies or distract them:) 

I wanted to post all the pictures but the internet is really slow here to upload them so I will post a few here and there and the rest once I get home. 

Tomorrow we will spend the day at Well Being orphanage. Can't wait to see those kids. They are in school too but they go at different times so there will be kids there all day which will be fun. And I love seeing Louizanne, the momma who cares for all of those kids. She is precious.