Pretty much as soon as we stepped off the tap tap at the orphanage, kids started coming up to us and touching us, grabbing our hands and walking us toward the building. It was sort of surreal, for someone that has never been in that situation.
These kids LOVED the camera and were absolute hams!
While we were meeting with the pastor, I wanted to catch these kids with this cute white baby!! They LOVED him!
Seriously, these kids were so stinking cute. We were enamored by the fact that they were HAPPY! Happy. And they have NOTHING. Let that sink in.
They had this little jungle gym in the front.
And some great swings.
Rachael, along with a couple of the other girls, sat down with Elizabeth Sunday afternoon for a crash French/Creole class. Rachael was a good student and took lots of notes. She was sharing her notes with this little girl.
The man in orange is the Pastor of this orphanage. During this meeting the pastor explained there were 30 children in this orphanage and they are full. He also explained that parents come to his orphanage every week and ask him to take their child or children. It's estimated 60-70% of children in orphanages in Haiti have living parents. They just can't afford to care for them. He prepared us (well, I would say warned us) that we may witness someone coming to the orphanage for this reason...
This was the youngest peanut. Her name is Pascal. Her story was explained to us a few days later. So I think I may wait to tell it...
These kids LOVED being in front of the camera.
Rachael had them all write their names in her book.
More of kids taking pictures.
After some time with the kids outside, we went inside to prepare for our mini VBS.
Elizabeth got all the kids together and had them focused for us and had them sing some songs.
Aren't they seriously the cutest??
Mariann was the first one of us to teach a lesson.
Then it was play time. Tori chose to do something quiet and inside because she ended up puking everywhere during Mariann's lesson. Poor girl.
We had pipe cleaners to make glasses and tiaras.
I felt there was a lot for the girls and the little kids but not a lot for the older boys. I played a lot of soccer with them. I only played soccer for the YMCA but it was a lot of fun!
Elizabeth copped a squat in the shade.
Karen and some boys.
And I grabbed some sidewalk chalk and took some girls out. They had a lot of tile on the ground, not too much concrete. But I noticed a couple days ago that all the walls around the property are concrete!! Duh!
And we had bubbles, that was a HUGE draw for the kids. Always is.
How cute is she?
This one is showing some sass!
Lots of coloring.
And then there turned out to be a beauty salon!
This on our way from the orphanage back to our guesthouse.
LUNCH! Traditional Haitian spaghetti which was spaghetti noodles, oil and tiny chunks of ham and onions. They used onions as garnish a lot. Also, they put ketchup on their spaghetti, not spaghetti sauce. Or, we had the option of mayo or hot sauce. On spaghetti. I chose nothing, just the noddles and it was good! Then there was a watercress salad (tasted a lot like radishes).
By afternoon two of us were down for the count. Tori had gotten sick a couple more times and Maria ended up with a milk case of heat stroke (I'm guessing). Major migraine and no sweating.
Our leaders had to come back to the states in the middle of our stay for personal reasons. We were sad to see them go.
Later in the afternoon we were scheduled to participate in a tree ministry. We were to go around the community (the same community we toured the day before on our walk) and share Christ and plant a fruit tree for them.
We really did plant the tree for them. It was funny because one of the guys that went with us to help us plant had a pick axe. The ground is really rocky where we were. I told them that if we saw someone walking up to our house in America with a pick axe, there's no way I'd go near the door!
These were a couple ladies on our route.
This was Rachael's turn. We offered to pray with them as well.
See? Pick axe.
These ladies were silly. I tried to get the younger girl to take a picture (they were enamored by the camera) but this one grabbed me instead.
This is the younger girl. I think they're mom and daughter.
This little boy was fast asleep on his front porch.
Kids on our route.
This was a cow that was tied up on our route. Just another (skinny) farm animal tied up. They called their animals by the end product: beef, pork, etc.
And these were miraculous storm clouds. We were so excited to see them come and hopefully bring some cooler weather, but it wasn't really all that cool. Just more humid...
All for today!
1 comment:
Oh Dawn, wow. Your posts from your trip to Haiti blew me away. It reminds me a bit of a missions trip we took to an impoverished part of Poland ten years ago. You know, just how super spoiled I am as an American living in the states. It really shook me back then that people live with so much less, in many other parts of the world, and they are still happy and grateful. (Our homes are rather ridiculous by comparison.) And it’s a good reminder for me again. It’s so easy to sucked into materialism.
I love the pictures that you were able to get (even your “clandestine” shots in town :). The people are so beautiful. Those kids at the orphanage. Precious. I wish a couple of them were mine. And your cute friend you'd like to set up, ha. Love! It looks like this was a great trip for you and your group. I am so glad you were able to go!
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