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