Day 24: We have no money

Today we (I mean I) got up early and went to the clinic at the boys orphanage to meet the doctor for the girls "lady health." 22 girls had appointments so it was a big day. I was in the room for all of the appointments because the doctor didn't bring his female nurse with him. Most of the girls have infections and malnourishment. He gave us a TON of prescriptions and papers for tests that need to be done for almost all the girls which will probably cost us more than we have. We told him we may not have enough to pay for all of them and he is going to give us two tests for free since they are in his specialty and he can do them for us. He also told us about a place in Port-Au-Prince where we can buy some of the medications in bulk which will help with the price. Even with all his help I don't think we are going to have enough to cover it all since we already spent $300 on the class and consultations. If you feel like you want to help you can email or call Rodrigo at tabletennisfool@gmail.com/925-961-7142 or you can call Extollo (extollointernational.org) We are also a little stressed about time because we are leaving Haiti on the 3rd and don't have much time to get everything done.

Thanks for reading!

Oh and Amy didn't wake up early with me not because she was being lazy but because she wasn't feeilng good. Haha

-Becca

Day 23: Girls get a class!

Today the coolest thing happened. We had a meeting at 7 a.m. to meet with a gynocologist to talk about him coming to talk with our girls. He said he could come if we waited for an hour. He talked with them today and it was awesome!! Sunday, all the older girls will be getting exams. Praise the Lord.
amybecca

Day 22: Dokte Dokte

As all our posts and all our days start out we woke up today. We had to get up early to get the workers started on planting the trees. We had Tou Tou, Emmanuel, Enel, and Mackinson working. Coi-Cou made the decisions with us about where the trees should go. It was good to see him leading the boys. An even better part was when Becca and I were pasing things off for measurements and they wanted a measuring tape. Not just a regualr measuring tape but a long rope like one. This boys have learned so much and it seems the are putting their skills to use! We left them to work and headed to the doctor.

Renette, Chirbyne, Chabine(newer girl, Wichmie, Charley, Becca, and I went to the Doctor today. As we previously mentioned that doctor has been so helpful to us in the past year. Its so crazy to me that everytime Charley and I go to that Doctor its like he really remembers me. I feel very connected to him when we go there. He always reaches for me, and when he cries he doesnt want anyone else to hold him. The doctor said today, "He knows you" Those are big words for me. I struggle with my attatchment to Charley. I have seen the negative effects of me growing too close to him. When I came in September I spent all day everyday holding him. Then when I would give him to someone else he would scream and cry for me. Part of me was happy that he was so attatched to me, but the other half felt aweful for forming that attatchment only to rip it away. I try to love him and hold him but not too much so that it becomes hard for him. It is VERY hard for me. When I am home I sometimes find myself asking God why he has put Charley in my life, why He has given me so much love for that baby when I cannot bring him home and care for him, I don't know the answer is but I trust God knows what he is doing. Anyway we had a good visit at the doctor. Charley got an antibiotic for his eye and some fluid in his ear. Chirbyne and Wichmie have worms, and Chabine has an abcess near her hip that the doctor is concerned about. The doctor is also helping us figure the Gynocologist situation. We will be meeting with the gyno tomorrow at 7am! No sleeps for me. One intersting thing that happened was the surprised and happy looks on peoples faces when they saw us carrying kids through the streetes to the doctor. I think that most "white people" who come here have cars. Sadly we do not. Its good for our legs, good for getting to know the community, and keeping in touch with reality to ride tap taps and walk rather than be closed off in an a/c car. Don't get me wrong though I love cars with a/c!

I need to mention that I have the worst sunburn EVER on my head right now. I can't even touch it. Last night when it rained it felt like needles were stabbing my head. OW!

After the doctor we wet to find a Haitian Flag, get some food, then head back to the orphanage. We couldn't find the flag, the food wasn;t ready.....but we did find some mirrors for the girls! Happy surprise for us. We then headed back to the orphanage. When we got back we saw that the trees were planted amd they looked great! We payed the guys for their work then headed out again. We went with Mackenson and Junior(brothers that live in the village next door) to go see Juniors dads farming area. We went because Becca wanted to go buy Coconuts today and junior said no we can go see my father. It was so INCREDIBLE! We walked down a road to where his dad was. A guy climbed way up a tree and knocked down a ton of coconuts. The used a machete and opened one for each of us. We drank the coconut water, and then they cut them in half so we could eat the coconut "meat". Yum Yum Yum! They also cut up 4 coconuts to go! yay. After that we were very full. But we weren't done. His dad wanted to give us Sugar Cane also. We got that "to go" as we were very full. it was so nice to recieve these free gift. Not that we should be getting all kinds of gift or anything but when it happens it is sooooo nice. After we got that stuff we went to go back to Leogane. On the tap tap was our friend that we buy drinks from a lot. She had a BIG basket with a lot of salt. I commented on how much salt she had. Awhile later she nudged me to pass me a salt. I said oh thank you but no, She kept nudging so I took it. Then she gave me another for Becca. Its like a BIG ol salt container like you buy at the grocery store to refill your shaker. I was so touched. I cant wait to bring it home and think of her when I use it. Oh no...now I'm getting sad again about leaving Erg. So we went to town got some food.Of course we hit up Miglise! We forced her to take a picture with us today. She actually totally loves us and was resistent but happy to pose for a photo. She is one hard working lady. After we ate we walked down the street to go see about the flag. Earlier in the morning I had walked down the same street and my gauge(earing) had fallen out of my ear. I was really sad because I lost a different one the other day. So I told Junior, Mackenson, and Becca to keep their eyes open for my gauge. I asked 3 people if they had seen it and showed them my other one. That last girl I asked said no. Then a couple minutes later said she thought she had. She started looking around and spotted it on the street! I was overjoyed! YAY!! Sadly the flag was not a success. So we will see about it tomorrow. We did passby a guy wearing a digicell shirt and we have plans to get one for each of us tomorrow!

While we were walking back to the edge of town to catch a tap tap a moto drove by and i thought I heard my name. So I turned around. I told the guy I dont know you. Turns out I did. Hello Pooshon. haha. Its funny because he seemed shy and quiet. Maybe he is sad that Becca doesnt love him. Earlier when we walked into town Becca held on to Mackensons arm when we passed Pooshons families place so it would look like she was taken. Poor Pooshon.

So we headed back to Leogane on the tap tap. The tap tap where some lady was staring at my ears angrily the whole time and where becca got ripped off. The tap tap costs 20gds for both of us to ride. That is equal to $0.50. Today they gave her back the wrong change and when she told them this they told her she didnt understand Creole and drove away. Mackenson was very upset and gave Becca 5gds. Now we are at the Internet Cafe where we spend our time talking to you.

Our time here is coming to an end and it is very sad. I want a picture of everything and everyone. There have been so many wonderful things that happened this trip. Progress above and beyond ecpectation. Friends bonded tighter, new friendships growing, and people loving each other. I know it may sound cheesy but it is so true. Its hard to judge the progress of relationships from an outside perspective....but to see and feel that growth is life changing. The love I feel here is so great my heart my explode. For real :)

Mwen renemn ou Ayiti. ANPIL

Amy

Day 21

We woke up early to go to Yveline’s nursing school Carrefour. We were surprised how long it took us to get there. We were wayyyyy tired, and were surprised that she can do this every day. We asked the students to pay their fees because we want to go to Yveline’s graduation but they won’t hold it if people don’t pay their fees. We spent a while visiting with some of Jeans friends since he has a house right near the nursing school. Amy bought a giant avocado. We then took a taptap with Jean to go to his friend’s house to buy some trees to plant at the orphanage. Amy and I got 12 trees. 8 mango trees and 4 Qennepp trees. Qennepps are a little fruit with a green peel that is slimy on the inside with a big pit and come in a bunch. Both kinds of trees are big so they will provide a lot of shade for the orphanage. Amy and I carried all 12 trees (they are babies so they are pretty tiny though) back to the orphanage on a taptap like true Haitians. We put the trees in the boys side of the container to keep them out of the sun until the next day when we’d have some of the boys plant them. It was a REAL hot day and we didn’t really eat or drink much so we decided to go get some food at that place we discovered by the internet café. It was really nice to sit and enjoy our cold cokes. One Haitian man told us he was happy to see people taking a minute to relax and enjoy his country and not just be on the run all the time. Ketianne also told us that she likes us when we relax and spend time with them instead of working all the time. I think spending time with other people is very important to people in Haiti. Amy and I would rather be sitting around “getting nothing done” if “getting nothing done” means building relationships with people. So anyway, as we were sitting waiting for the food we ordered we saw a white guy walk out of the internet café so as always, Amy and I yelled “hey blan!” and he came over to say hello. His name is Kyle and he moved here because he loves Haiti and does construction projects. He stays with his Haitian friend Mario who was with him. Right now he is building a church in the mountains. He told us about a place in Leogane where we can get delicious French fries so we were pretty excited about that. We were also really impressed because he has a new truck with air conditioning. I’m saving his number just in case I ever need a ride somewhere far away.. Haha! But for real, he gave us a ride to the church so we could re-take pictures of the roof for Pastor Kelly because we took the wrong ones before. (don’t worry Sherman, we didn’t die!) Kyle and Mario then drove us back to the orphanage where he gave all the girls lollipops so they fell instantly in love.

We went to visit the boys orphanage when it started to rain really hard! All the little boys were running around naked in the rain and it was funny. It’s something I think a lot of American kids miss out on. Haha! Amy and I were only there for like an hour and boy are those kids CRAZY! They were running around like little monkeys, bouncing off the walls, doing handstands and cartwheels, beating each other up and climbing all over us. WHEW! One little boy smashed his finger in the door and got a HUGE cut which was bleeding quite a bit. One Band-Aid could not keep it from bleeding. I held him because he was so tiny and seemed so sad. He didn’t cry but I could tell he was holding back tears. He was about 4 years old. I asked one of the workers to get him a new Band-Aid because he was dripping blood on the floor and she went and got some hand sanitizer and a new Band-Aid. I let her do her thing and SQUIRT HAND SANITIZER on his cut to wash it out. OW!! He still didn’t cry but I almost did. I cry if I get that stuff on a paper cut. Those boys sure are tough. It was starting to get dark so as soon as the rain eased off a bit we went home.

We went into our container where we tried to turn the air on but it was barely blowing out any air. We were scared it was broken. Haiti power was on so we decided to turn the pump on to fill the water tank. However, it was spurting out barely any water. We turned it off and were getting nervous that the pump AND the air conditioning were broken. We finally figured out that the problem was the Haiti power. We had talked with Kyle earlier about how the amount of power fluctuates. It must have been running too low to make anything other than the lights work. Glad both things aren’t broken!!

We hung out with the girls for a while in their house. I prayed in English and Andrise prayed in Creole which was nice. We got Amy’s video camera out to show the girls some video’s we took of the VBS in Jacmel to see if they knew any of the songs to teach us. We ended up showing them all the video’s we had and they LOVED it. It was really touching when it got to the video’s we took of the orphanage in La Gonave of the kids singing. The girls all started to sing along and it made us teary-eyed to hear kids from our orphanage singing along with kids from a different orphanage across the country.

It was getting late and Amy and I had to get up early to tell the boys where to plant the trees the next day. We also had to figure out WHERE we thought they should go. So we said good night to the girls and went to our container. We couldn’t just let the boys plant the trees wherever because there may be more buildings going into the property later. Amy and I had to look at the plans for the orphanage grounds and chose a spot where they wouldn’t get in the way. Then we went to sleep.

Becca

La Gonave Boat Trip

Went to the clinic then ate some coconuts

We went to the doctor on day 22 with Charly and three of the girls. This is a picture taken with the Doctor that took good care of Charly. She's wonderful! The second picture is of me eating a delicious coconut from Junior's dad. I LOVED it.

Day 20: Thoughts

We woke up in the morning feelin' like P. Diddy. We were so happy we got to drink coffee today. Becca has been NEEDING coffee. We had made a plan to go with Renette(The Dezman Fleury secretary/records keeper who speaks English) to a couple Doctors to see about getting the girls a class about their bodies, and also to set up some exams for them. Many of them have been having problems but are embarrassed to talk about it. We want them to know what is normal and what is not. We want a gynecologist to give them the right info, rather than heresy from their friends.

As things in Haiti always go we did not leave on time. This morning was really hard for me because everyone was expecting me to pay for everything. Becca and I are realizing we have created a monster. Every time Americans come here we/they are always paying for everything, giving gifts, and acting like money bags. This all happens unintentionally. Its very hard because you want to help. You want to use money that people gave you to help the kids to benefit them. The thing is I think we are crippling them and those in charge by the way we have gone about "helping" Anytime anyone is sick, they come tell us. Anytime someone is hungry...they come tell us. This trip Becca and I came without an organizations money to spend, so we are really realizing a lot of things as far as money goes. Even before this trip we were talking about how everything we do has an impact even when we think what we are doing is helpful it may not be in the long run. This isn't just happening at our orphanage, or even just in Haiti. An example in Haiti is the show "No Reservations" with Anthony Bourdain. You should look up the episode he did in Haiti on youtube. He is trying some food when he sees that all around him people are hungry. He decided he wants to buy out the food that the cook has made and feed all the people around. Watch to see what happens. Another good resource for this is the book "When helping Hurts" Becca and I's approach to Haiti lines up very well with what this book says. You can't just think about right now. You have to think about the long term. You can't just say here is the solution without knowing the people you are finding a solution for. (Jill this is what we have been learning and MUCH more)

Back to what was happening. We went to a new doctor place because we met a guy on the flight over who worked there. We brought Renette with us which was good because our guy had already left Haiti and there were only people there who spoke Creole. The new place we went to was a different branch of a clinic that we frequently go to in Leogane. They were nice. We asked about having a doctor or nurse come talk to our girls and get exams. They told us how much it would cost per exam and it was way out of our price range. We went to the clinic that we normally go to since we know the doctor who works there, hoping we could get a deal. She's helped us a lot in the past and given us free medicine and pedialite for Charly when he was really sick last summer. She asked how Charly was and was really concerned when we told her about the skin problems that the kids have been having. She told us that she would be working in the clinic this Thursday and that she'd see two kids for free for us! We really love her not just because she gives us free things but because she really has a heart for helping people and is gentle with the kids we bring in. Amy feels really connected to that place because a lot of emotional things have happened there. We took kids there every day on our first trip last summer. Charly got free medicine from that doctor every day for two weeks. This is also the clinic that Amy took Charly to when she came alone in September. In January we took Charly there and he took some of his first steps in the waiting room. There's lots of emotions and memories connected with that place and they all come rushing back every time we go. Anyway, we plan on taking two girls there this Thursday and we will talk to her then about setting up something for all the older girls.

Judith was supposed to take Yvrose and a little boy from the boys orphanage who was sick to Doctors Without Borders but the wait was too long so she took them to a different clinic. She was going to ask the people at Doctors Without Borders about getting a class for the older girls but since she didn't go she couldn't ask. Amy, Renette and I went to ask instead. While we waited to talk to them in the waiting area we met a woman named "Kob" which means money in Creole. We thought that was awesome. The people at Doctors Without Borders were nice but told us they don't have enough doctors to lend us one for a day. Bummer.

We went and got food from our favorite cook Miglise, Amy borrowed a loudspeaker from a dude and said some sweet things in Creole and had the biggest smile in the world after. It's the happiest I've seen her in my whole life. Right next door to the Internet cafe is a place to buy food and drinks and we've never been there before so we decided to try it out and see if they are in the running for coldest cokes in Haiti. They are. I'd say they are definitely number one. In case you didn't know, this is definitely one of the most important things we want to learn about Haiti. It's like in the Bible how the word "love" is in there more than any other word. In our blog, the word coke is used more than any other word. Most important business for reals. Seriously.

We tried to upload pictures but the Internet is too slow. Sorry!

Love,

Rebecca and Amy

Day 19: We're basically professionals at EVERYTHING now.

The night before we had stressed to the girls that we NEEDED to sleep a lot the next day so they shouldn't be loud by our container in the morning. We may or may not have threatened their lives. It was the ONLY morning that we didn't hear a peep from them. Seriously, the ONLY morning EVERRRRR. We slept something like 11 or 12 hours. However, it's a good thing that we did get so much sleep because boy did we have a lot to do! We were overdue on changing the oil and the filter on the generator so we had to find the filter and the jugs of oil in the container. We slept through the coolest part of the day so it was extra hot in the container. We searched for the filters and oil for over an hour! We couldn't find them anywhere. All we wanted was a break in some air conditioning but we couldn't turn the generator on until we changed the oil. What a predicament. All the other times we have needed to get something out of the container we search for it for sooo long, take a break, then go into the container and find it right away. So this time, we decided we should probably take a break to get some cokes. Sure enough, after our short break we found the oil jugs after a two second search. We decided to just drain the oil since we took so long searching for the stuff and wanted to feel productive. We opened the hood of the generator and had no clue where to begin. We decided to call Tom and Amy talked to him for a long time but couldn't figure it out so she handed me the phone to see if I understood better. Right when she handed me the phone she pointed to a sticker on the FRONT of the generator that said "OIL DRAIN." Oh cool, that's exactly what we were looking for. Just like everything else that day, right when we decided to give up we found it. Tom told us to just change the oil and not worry about the filter right away since we couldn't find it. We drained the oil (we only spilled a little.. kind of) and filled it up with clean oil. A couple of the girls were hanging around watching and one of them named Trouble, I mean Jenifer, stuck her finger in the dirty oil as it was draining and licked it before we could stop her. EW! We freaked out and I think it scared her a little. We sent all the kids away and told Vanessa to tell all the little kids not to touch it because it could make them really sick.

We cleaned up our mess and were ready to go to town to buy some food. However as we were leaving it started pouring REAL hard. We decided to wait on the porch of the orphanage for a little to see if it stopped. Jean showed up and we talked to him for a while about the plans to plant some fruit trees on the property. The rain wasn't stopping so we decided to stay and eat some of the food we brought instead. It's a good thing we decided to because Jean called right after he left to tell us not to go out in the rain because the roads are especially dangerous. He told us there was a car accident right outside the boys orphanage (no one was hurt badly thank God) It was crazy because the car that was smashed sat in the middle of the road for 24 hours before some people decided to push it to the side. There are no lights on that road so it's surprising that no one slammed into it in the middle of the night.

Anyway, we went to the AIR CONDITIONED container, had some food (which was gross so we gave it to Enel and Fifi who loved it. Jesus would be so proud of how generous we are. not.) then we sang with the girls. We sat in the older girls room and it felt like a sleepover which was fun. Vanessa prayed for us then we had Roberline read a verse in Creole that Amy and I found about controlling your anger. Earlier in the day some of the girls got in a pretty intense fight and emotions were definitely running high. We hoped the Bible verse would be applicable for how they were feeling. Then we taught them a song in English called "Mighty to Save." One of the older girls never talks to us or even acknowledge that we are there. She sleeps in the room that we were sitting in and we were SO excited when she participated and later asked Amy how to pronounce some of the words in the song. She could have asked Vanessa or Roberline who were sitting right there but she decided to ask Amy. Yay for progress!! Once we finished singing they turned the radio on and it turned into a dance party. It got a little crazy so Amy and I decided to go to bed. As we were walking back we talked about how their lives are like a constant, unsupervised teenager sleepover. It's cool to see them having fun but sometimes we wonder if it's not good for the littler kids to see.

We love these girls so much and wish we could have a sleepover every night with them! We're realizing how little time we have left and it's making us sad.

-Becca

Day 18: Tap-tappin'

We woke up extremely early to leave La Gonave. We got our stuff together, then along with Pierre walked a mile and a half down to the Pier to catch a boat.It took us awhile to find one. Finally we found a "fly boat" to take us back. Our ride this time was much more pleasant as we did not get splashed with tons of water. We rode a tap tap to Port-Au-Prince. On our way we passed through Cite Soley(not sure if thats the right spelling but a guy at the internet cafe just typed it for us) Cite Soley is one of the most dangerous cities. From Port au Prince we went to a city whose name I forget...to visit a metal shop. This whole towns trade is making this metal art. They take a metal drum/barrel, flatten it out, and cut out their design. Its super cool. So after Pierre took us to his friend shop we got some food, then caught another tap tap to Port-Au-Leogane where we switched buses to go to Leogane. Becca met a super cool old man who understood our broken Creole/hand motions. We also sat in fron of some really annoying guys who told us they wanted to tattoo our names on their arms. We told them that was a really good idea.

When we finally arrived in Leogane we were EXHAUSTED! We were so tired in fact that we took a 2 hour nap. We awoke feeling like crap. We went and got cokes because we were so tired and thirsty. We didn't really eat anything so we ended up not feeling so well.

I'm super excited to tell you we started something that I think is soooooo awesome. When we were in Jacmel the Pye family had a special time together every night where they sang songs, read bible verses, and prayed. We decided we should copy them. It has started slow with just a couple kids but each night a couple kids trinkle in. Its great because we sing in English and Creole and we are all learning and all praising God together. We want to make it a normal thing for whenever we come here. Maybe they will even start to do it when we are not here. With the language barrier it is sometimes hard to have meaningful conversation about God, but with singing and praying it doesn't matter what language its in we can all connect and understand.

Amy

Day 17: We work hard for our..? Oh wait we don't get money

We had gone to sleep very late the previous night but had to wake up early today to go to work with the guys. We didn't know if we would be any use to them. We wanted to go to help if we could and as always to learn whatever we can. As a side note we have been learning a lot, but right now we are trying to catch up with what we have done. Probably the wrong way to go about writing it...but such is life. Later we will fill you in on all we have learned.

The day started off slow for us and we weren't really doing anything. We walked to the ladies who were cooking lunch for all the workers to see if we could help them. They clearly weren't interested in that. haha. We then went to check out what everyone was up to. Avery was teaching all the guys how to do trowel work properly. It was actually pretty exciting. Later we too got to take a crack at it too. It was harder than it looked. During the day I was Averys, "Right hand man" those were his words by the way. I walked around with a clipboard marking down his comments on whether the worker passed or not. It was great do that because then I got to see how Avery sees things. He was so good at seeing the potential in people! Becca got really bored and decided to get down to business. I kid you not she was in her skirt picking and shoveling the dirt. YAY Becca.

We finished out the day playing the game "Down by the banks" If you don't know this game you stand in a circle with your hands together. You slap the hand of the person next to you all around the circle. Anyway a bunch of the workers played with us! It was sooo fun!

We were all really tired and hungry by the time we were done with work. I don't know how people here do it. The heat destroys us. We tried to convince everyone to go to dinner with us but they were all too tired. So "The Brits", 2 translators, Becca, and I went to get dinner. It took FOREVER to get. I met a guy in line for food that lives in Miami who said, "This girl who works here is rude! If we were at Subway she would be fired!" Too funny. While we were eating a Haitian guy started taking all these pictures of us. It was super weird. We asked him many times to stop. Our translator friend almost got in a fight with the guy. Not wanting there to be trouble I tried to talk to the guy. A lady who was friends with the guy told me that when Americans come here they take pictures all the time. I told her that if a Haitian asked me not to take a picture I would not. Guess it didnt translate to the guy. I just posed for a pic and I think he was happy. Then we headed home.

Amy

La Gonave

A little girl at the Orphanage in La Gonave that I wanted to take home. She was sooo sweet! I asked if she was sad and she said yes. I asked why and she wouldnt reply. After I held her for 20 min I asked again why she was sad and she told me but I couldn't understand :(

Becca and I when we got off the boat in La Gonave. We were SOAKED!!

Day 16: Orfalina

We got to sleep in on day 16 which we definitely needed. The British guy we met the day before had set it up for us to visit the orphanage that Matt's organization helps. It's run by a wonderful woman named Madame Soliet (sp?). Two kids from the orphanage were supposed to pick us up to walk us over to their house so we waited outside the compound for them at 11 a.m. We waited for about 20 minutes but they didn't show up. So we started to ask the people walking by if they knew about the orphanage. One guy told us he'd walk us there. He was a guy who worked with an organization called WISH who are associated with the Weslyans. He was a super nice guy and ended up staying with us at the orphanage for a while. He tried to help us translate what the kids were saying even though he didn't speak that much English. Madame Soliet wasn't there when we showed up but we talked to several of the workers there and The orphanage was really cool to see especially because it was the first one we've seen that is run the way it is. Madame Soliet stays there 5 days a week with the kids and we could really tell that she loves them a lot. She works for free!! All of the kids looked really healthy and there were a lot of chubby ones! I loved it. I was sitting next to a little boy who looked like he was not feeling well at all. He had a fever and felt really hot. One of the girls went and got him medicine! Yay! Amy and I are still talking about how nice the kids skin and hair looked.

That night we went with Pierre, the Brits, and another translator to the store and to get some food. It was really cool to walk around the town with Pierre because he taught us a lot of things about Haiti and we asked him a lot of questions. He was super excited to eat goat soup which is one of the things he misses about living in Haiti. (p.s. It was safe to walk around La Gonave at night so don't worry people.) We stayed up kind of late that night with the Brits even though we were shway tired. I talked the whole night in a British accent and Andrew (Brit #1) talked in his version of an American accent. Amy almost peed her pants. Also, the Brits made us tea a lot and we miss them for that because it was very delicious.

xoxo
Becca

Day 15: I'm on a boat!

So like we said yesterday we woke up really early aka didnt sleep. We gathered our stuff, Pierres brother picked us up, we met Pierre and headed off to catch a boat to La Gonave. It didn't take as long as I thought it would to get there. We rode in the back of a truck and we got very cold. By the time we were finished with our ride our faces were tingly. Becca and Pierre got some coffee, and I got some weird SPICY tea for breakfast. Then we got on the boat. When we were getting on the boat I was happy that I didn't fully understand Creole because Pierre told me that if I did and I was in the US I would sue the boat owner. Boat owner pa renemen gwo moun pou boat. The boat ride over to La Gonave was very exciting. I'd say Becca and I got at least 10 gallons of water splashed on us. We were soaking wet. At first we laughed a lot but then our eyes started burning from the salt.

We got off the boat and a guy named Matt picked us up. Our first impressions of La Gonave was that it looked similar to the rest of Haiti. Later we changed our minds about this. We went to the Weslyan Compound to see everyone and see where we were staying. When we arrived the Extollo guys Avery, his brother, a canadian guy named Randy, & Tom were having a training session with the La Gonave workers on the back porch of Matts house. We went and sat with them for awhile but we were way sleepy so we ended up going into the house and passing out on his couch. When we woke up we decided to walk around. We saw a white guy who we had previosly seen on the porch sitting by a building. We had assumed he was a Californian but were very wrong. He was British. He told us he was from London...in England. lol. Next we all headed off to the worksite. Becca and I were barely hanging on.

Around lunchtime we started to get hungry and thirsty. We didnt want to be a burden to Extollo so we took a walk to see what we could find. This was one of the first times we noticed the difference between La Gonave and the rest of Haiti. We were kinda in the middle of nowhere though. We couldn't find anything to eat or drink. We did however, find a family that had 15 kids! Wowee. We chatted with them for about half an hour then headed back to the worksite. We ate food with the workers then couldnt take it anymore. We bummed a ride back with Avery to the compound when they needed to pick up supplies. We hung out for a bit and chatted with Avery while one of the guys went to get gas. After he left we passed out for 2hours on Matts couch again. We only woke up because they came back from work.

Nothing else memorable happened that day. Writing a blog about a day that was a few days ago is wayy hard.

-AMY

Day 14: Talkin' Walkin' and Ridin'

Today we slept in (except for a slight interruption at 5 am from Fifi knocking on our door to give us Pierre's number which we already had). We drank some coffee, had some breakfast and took some extremely necessary showers (it's been REAL hot). We intended to unpack all our stuff from our trip to Jacmel because we had packed up all our stuff to get it out of the container for the high schoolers, so everything was unorganized. We gave up because we obviously hate doing anything related to packing, unpacking, cleaning, or organizing. We went to the doctor in Leogane with Jr. and Vanessa to get the blood work back from the kids visit with the high schoolers. Jr. also took us to his the house where his English teachers live. They were really cool girls from the U.S. who are staying there for a couple weeks this summer. They do English classes and orphanage visits to teach English to kids. We talked to them about maybe coming with them one day to see what they do. Hopefully that can help us teach our girls. We continued to the doctors where I found a guy selling Haitian movies. We bought two so that we can have a movie night when we get back to the states and miss Haiti. Our qualifications for the movie was that it is filmed in Haiti, in Creole, and that there is no sex (we hear that there's no rating or editing when it comes to things like that..) It was great because everyone in the waiting room was helping me pick the very best movies. One lady was really into it so we got the movies she recommended. As we were walking back to get food and go home we heard a guy in a truck with a loudspeaker talking about drinking coke and how hot it was. He was saying "enjoy coke! It's hot!" In English so it caught our attention. Turns out he was talking about us because we were drinking a cold coke and looked really hot. All the people on the busy street were looking at us and it was really funny. We went to get our normal blan diri ak sauce pwa (white rice and bean sauce) from our favorite cook Miglise. We joked around a lot today and felt like good friends. I even helped her mash some garlic. We also got chicken for Jr. and Vanessa but they didn't want it so we brought it back for Wichmie and Kimberly (smallest at the orphanage). While we were waiting for our food I went back and forth talking to Tom and Pierre about coming to visit in La Gonave. I worked it out with them and Pierre was sending his brother to come pick us up in an hour or two. We had to hurry back to the orphanage to pack our stuff for the trip.

When we got back we found Wichmie and Kimberly to give them the chicken. There were like 7 other girls sitting around too so I sneakily had them come "help" me return some coke bottles to the lady we buy cokes from. They were so excited and we were skipping and jumping and giggling the whole way. Amy said that Wichmie and Kimberly were so excited for the chicken and that they tore it apart. She said they kept looking sideways at each other and smiling. They even cracked the bones with their teeth to eat the marrow in it. There was only a little pile of remains when they were finished with it. We packed our bags up and waited for Pierre's brother to arrive to take us to Pierre's hometown near Port Au Prince. We stayed the night at his friends AMAZINGLY beautiful house. It had the best kitchen ever. We'll post pictures later. But it was the hottest night Amy and I have spent together. We slept in the same bed because there was only one mosquito net and one bed. (and we're OK friends). Basically we sweat the whole night and got no sleep. At one am we woke up and hoped that it was 4 am when we were supposed to get up.

The end. Thanks and bon nwi!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

-Becca

Day 13: Cookin, busin, unpackin, & repackin

The pictures we posted were from our 13th day. We went to VBS(Vacation Bible School) with some white people and the Pye's. We helped with prep for the food as you saw from our pics. Then we headed downtown to go to a fancy restaurant in Jacmel. On the way there we stopped into a cool art shop where a french woman named Paul lived(Later we were telling our friend Pierre who is Haitian but lives in the US about her and he said he knew her as well!). We went to eat at the Hotel Florita Restaurant. It was beautiful. We had trouble understanding the menu as it was in french. We asked a white woman sitting near if she spoke English. She laughed and said yes. We talked to her later and found we had a mutual friend as well. Thats right JEREMY MAURER we met someone who knows you from J/P HRO. She told us she was '

there in August and I asked if she knew Jeremy. She said, "Of course I know him" what a small world. We ate some yummy food and drank coke with ice! (Don't worry, it was safe) sorry the laptop has been hujacked by a british man. the thing about blogging is it is utterly random that is where i come in for i am the random british man "i wish his accent was in it" said she thus speak thee in the sound of England apparently I am rinsing the bandwidth with my incessant typing i write at the speed of light you see and for now that shall be all from me then harry waved his wand and hocus pocus datsum maleeroi and she turned into a toad.

Back to whatever we were talking about. After eating we headed back to VBS, got back on the Pyes bus, headed back to their house posted the pics then headed out. A guy who works for the Pye's took us to the "bus station" where we squeezed into the front of a van then headed to Leogane. The van actually goes from Jacmel to Port-Au-Prince. We payed 300gds which is like $7.50! The ride was quick, it only took 1 hr and 20min. It was soooo beautiful!

When we walked into the gates of the orphanage we were so happy to see our girls. They were also very happy to see us. We didn't do a very good job of unpacking because we were sleepy and missed the girls and wanted to talk with them. We spent a lot of time singing with them from the book of songs that the high schoolers had brought for their devotions. We refilled the girls water tank. Then we went to the container for some air conditioning relief when Coi-cou knocked on our door to tell us that Pierre was there to get more tools from the container. We left our lovely air conditioning to go say hello and to help. When we talked to him we found out that he was going to go to the island of La Gonave where Tom from Extollo and our good pal Avery (aka Pops) were doing a building project. We were talking to Pierre about how we wanted to go and he said that he could help us get there if we wanted. We said we would talk the next day and went to sleep.

-Amy

Makin' food for the kids at VBS

Today at VBS Amy and I got to help cook! Amy cut onions (I hope you're proud Rodrigo!) without a cutting board and with the sharpest knife in the world. She's still alive don't worry. I grated coconuts on a grater made from an empty can of tomatoes cut in half. Inventive. Amy and I also wanted to mention another reason why we love Haiti. We notice here a lot of ways that people are inventive and not wasteful like we see in America a lot. At the orphanage in Leogane a while back we saw Pastor Coi-Cou taking apart an iron that was broken. Amy said "remember when people used to fix things that broke instead of going out and buying a new one?" We see so much cool stuff here and it makes us think. WE LOVE HAITI.

-Becca

Eskize Mwen=Excuse Me?

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Mesi!!

Pics from Jacmel on Sunday

Day 12: BEACHHHHHHH!!!

We woke up very early today even though we went to sleep very late. We wanted to wake up to eat breakfast at the hotel, and to finalize some plans for the day, before the Pye's left for the day to VBS. The previous day we had told the Cornerstone Highschoolers to come to the beach in Jacmel with us. We wanted to talk to Danny to make sure we had someone with us who could direct us where to go. We ate toast with peanut butter and bananas, drank coffee, and Becca had Haitian spaghetti as well. We taught the Alabamans how to eat the spaghetti with Ketchup. They thought we were crazy until Becca ate it and showed them, Then they tried it and loved it.

We then headed back to our room to...sleep. haha. We know its crazy we woke up to eat and talk then fell back asleep for a couple hours. We finally woke up when one of the girls from the orphanage in Leogane called us to see how we were, and check when we were coming back. We headed to the Pye's house when we were ready so Becca could post all our blog updates. Not long after Becca started our Leogane peeps arrived to take us to the beach with them.

We took a couple of the Pye kids with us. There was some controversy as to what beach we would be going to. Becca and I had worked hard to find the best beach for them to go to. The translators started arguing about which beach to go to. We asked what was up and one of them said to us we are going to so and so beach very angrily and matter of factly. We were very taken aback by his brashness. There was a lot of drama. Becca and I were upset because we invited the high schoolers there, made a plan, and then they didn't even care what we said. We had also hired a guy to help us find our way. We were concerned about how the high schoolers translator had spoken to us and how he treated the guy who was helping us. We decided it would be best for us to do whatever was easiest and not make it a bigger issue. The beach we ended up going to was lovely and there was no problem. We were still upset with the translator that yelled at us though. He kept giving me "dirty" looks and I was about to say something but decided it was better not to. Awhile later he asked me to speak to him. He apologized to me, which was very very unexpected. I told him I was sincerely thankful for his apology. I also told him I was upset that he yelled at me, that I would never speak to him that way, and then told him again thank you for apologizing. He also apologized to Becca. We hope that he decided on his own to apologize to us, rather than someone else asking him to do so. Either way I think it was very significant that he apologized.

We had a lot of fun swimming around with all the Americans and with the Pye kids. The beach we went to was a public beach that a lot of Haitians go to. There were a ton of local kids there and we were so happy to see the American high schoolers playing and interacting with them. I think they made a good impression. Becca drank delicious coconut water straight from a coconut. She also pulled out a loose tooth of one of the Pye girls who came with us. The girl is nine and her tooth was VERY loose. After a long time she eventually let her pull it out. We had to coerce her with an ice cream cone.

It was very cool to see how our little knowledge of Haitian culture and the Creole language has paid off. We have been working really hard to try and learn as much as we can about Haiti and we can tell that the Haitian people we interact with really appreciate it. They are always surprised at us when we try and speak with them even though it's very broken when we speak.

We were really tired after we got back to the Pye house and we hadn't eaten all day. We decided to head to the local hot spot/fast food joint called Jacbel where we ate American style fries. We saw a father and his daughter sharing ice cream together and we could tell that he really loved her. I told him that we worked at an orphanage and that we really loved seeing him loving his daughter. He seemed really happy and proud. (The guy who works at Jacbel totally looks like Tracy Morgan lolz.) We walked home, chatted up the locals and ate dinner with the Americans. We also witnessed Danny being crazy and splashing like five buckets of water on his wife Leanne. She's a really good sport. All the kids were standing around laughing and it was cool to see them acting like a family and having a good time.

That's all folks!

YAY WE'RE UPDATED!!!

Tomorrow we are headed back to Leogane. We have really enjoyed our time here and plan to visit in the future. It was cool to see a different part of Haiti and a different way to run an orphanage. I think we really learned a lot and now we really feel like part of the Pye family whether they need two more kids or not! (Pye blog: www.pyesinhaiti.blogspot.com)

-Amy (Pom de te)

Day 11: Lots of crashing

We started out the day eating cliff bars and chatting with a new team of people from Alabama(is everyone from Alabama???) We were discussing how all the girls were going to have to guard each others butts as we climbed into the tap tap when we discovered that we were riding in a regular bus! YAY! We then headed to church. The church in Jacmel was very nice. All the people were very dressed up. The women were all in skirts and the men were all in dress pants and collared shirts. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves there. There was a lot of great music, but the BEST part was that there were fans! Shallow I know. Actually the best part was one one of the 'bamans broke their plastic chair. There was a designated person to come in, remove their chair, and replace it with a Saturday metal chair. Pretty funny as he was sitting in the 3rd row from the back. After church we were walking out when Becca slipped on the edge of the road. I made fun of her of course. Then like 2 minutes later I slipped on the same part and fell all the way to the ground on hands and knees. I basically spent the whole days slipping around. Toms shoes+a little bit of dirt=slippery.

We didn't really have a plan for the day. We asked 2 of Danny & Leann's kids to show us around Jacmel. It was cool to see the different style of buildings there, but no one was really out and about. I think they were not out for 2 reasons. One was that it was Sunday and things are much calmer on Sundays. The other is that there was a major soccer game happening, and everyone...EVERYONE was glued to their TVs watching.

Ok mama Becca and mama Amy don't freak out...but we rode motorcycles or motos as they are called here. We asked that they drive slowish and to please not kill us. It went well and we actually enjoyed it. We made it safely back to the Pye's house.

After going to town we mostly just hung out. We ate "American Spaghetti"and tried to get on updating out blog. YOUR WELCOME! Does anyone even read this? If so why doesn't anyone leave comments????

It was raining a lot so we avoided walking home to the hotel that is like a block and a half away. So everyone here fell asleep. When we decided to leave the gate was locked from the inside. We had to call Danny and wake him to help us. As I was walking out of their house I slipped off their 3 stairs. My butt landed at the bottom in a puddle of water, my neck hit the top stair, the back of my lungs hit the second stair, and my lower back hit the bottom stair. It was awful. I didn't want to cry in front of the guy so I sat up on my knees and tried to catch my breath. Danny asked me if I was ok and I said yes. Then we walked up the hill to our hotel. I was struggling big time. I felt like I couldn't breath and everything hurt. When we got to the hotel I slipped on the tile entry, but didn't fall. We went inside into our room. While Becca showered I called my hubby. Of course he was nice to me so I kind of relaxed and maybe cried a little. Then Danny called on the other line to make sure we made it and to ask if I needed a doctor. I answered him with the shortest answers I could because I didn't want him to know I was crying. Dumb I know. So that's how we ended the night. It was very late like 11pm :(

Amy

Day 10 Just another day in Haiti

Today we woke up early to visit the Pye’s VBS. We really loved the songs and skits they did. We videotaped them so we can show it to the girls when we get back to Leogane. The VBS was run by the 22 Pye kids and a team of Americans from Alabama. They also have some women to cook lunch for all the kids. Amy and I were on hot dog and rice serving duty. I felt Haitian with that giant pot of rice. Amy and I were lucky (kind of) to hold tiny babies all day long. Amy’s baby slept the whole time. My baby however was fine for most of the day but then got really cranky. I figured it was gas. It wasn’t. He must have eaten a lot that day because whatever was in his diaper exploded out onto my skirt. I had to wear a poopy skirt all day. Ugh. I told his mom that it’s a good thing I love babies.

After VBS the team went to Basin Bleu and I went with them. Amy was really tired so she went back to the Pye house. Amy hung out at their house and talked with some of the kids that she hadn’t met before. One of them spoke English really well. I am glad I had enough energy to go to Basin Bleu again because it sure is beautiful. Today the sun wasn’t out so it was a LOT colder. But it was refreshing. I don’t know why but I climbed up to the waterfall again to jump. It was way scarier the second time because I psyched myself out even more.

When I got back to the Pye house Amy and I hung out for a little bit then went back to our hotel to eat dinner with a new team of Americans. We always talk a lot to people who speak English because we’re not used to it. I’m sure they all think we’re a little crazy. After dinner Danny took us with him to a really nice beachfront hotel because he had a meeting there. Amy and I had some drinks while we waited for him. The hotel was BEAUTIFUL. We never saw anything like it in Haiti before. We talked to some boys there that told us that there was a Voodoo place really close to the hotel where they sacrifice children four times a year. We confirmed with Danny who told us that one of his daughters was supposed to be a sacrifice but that he bought her from them for 13 American dollars. Wow.

-Kann a sik

Day 9 Waterfalls and ASL

We were invited to come to a place called Basin Bleu today with a team of people who had spent their time in Gran Goave doing soccer camps. It was a long bumpy ride up the mountain (we have several bruises all over our backs and butts) and a 30 minute hike but it was soooo worth it. There was also this rock that you had to climb down and Amy was really scared. But she was fine. The waterfall was beautiful and I jumped off the top!! It was 120 feet but seemed higher. I was soooooo scared. The cold water was refreshing. The hike back from the waterfall was really long and Amy and I were going pretty slow. All those sporty people we came with were running past us and it made us feel awful because we couldn’t breathe or move quickly. We were the last ones back of course and the only ones breathing heavy and sweating so much. On the way I saw an avocado tree and stole one because it was huge and looked delicious. We haven’t eaten it yet because it’s not ripe at all. Back near the beginning of the hike there were all these workers there who kept making kissing noises at us like the Haitian men usually do. Being the wonderful and hilarious people that we are, Amy and I taught them that instead of making kissing noises at American women they should say “I work out” in English which sounds AWESOME coming from a person with an accent.

When we got back to the Pye house we walked down the street to a restaurant named Jacbel. It has French fries! We were very tired and hungry so it tasted extra delicious. Amy and I were sitting there eating our food when a big truck drove by on the street and shook the building a little and EVERYONE in the place jumped up and ran to the door because they thought it was an earthquake. It was awful to see the intense fear that they had and see how something as little as a truck going by affects people daily. Also while we were eating Amy noticed a deaf couple signing to each other. I told her about how I knew a little sign language and she made me talk to them. I’m so happy I did because they knew American Sign Language. Apparently there is a huge deaf population in Jacmel because they have a school for the deaf here. Cool! I was so surprised at how much I remembered from my classes so long ago. I told them about how Amy loves Charly and wants to adopt him and he said God bless us for the work we’re doing here and made Amy and I cried a little because he was so sweet. When we came back and told Danny about it he told us that a ton of deaf people go to his church and they always have translators during the services. Sweet!

-Becca