Day 7 "Neuvo Blans bay nou stres"

When we woke up this morning Becca went to the bathroom....and.....guess what she found?!?! A freakin spider! I (Amy) needed to use the bathroom and shower so I went to the girls orphanage to do both. Their shower rocks! I think Becca said this before. Soooooo good. We then accompanied Josely in the big box truck to the airport. We got to ride in the front seat which was soooooo much better than the bumpy back seat. In fact it is especially nice.

The moment we walked up to the airport our "white people" were walking out. It took us quite a while to get out of the airport. The loaded all the bags in the back of the box truck, and some people too. Most of the other people loaded into Pierre(our main driver)'s van. Then Becca and I went with "The Steve's" to find out about renting their car. It took a very long time and we had to walk all over the place only to find that we had to walk back to where we started. Thats how things go though. We all then met up and drove together to Leogane. It took foreverrrrr.

We chatted up the new white people a lot. It's surprising how much we love being able to speak to people who fully understand us and who we fully understand. I rode some of the way in the back of the box truck, and then decided the nice SUV with A/C was a much better option. So I got to ride with the "Steve's" and learn about who they are. Little Steve i.e. the Highschool Director decided that he and his wife, his friend and his wife, and my husband and I should go eat Thai food at Lanna Thai in Livermore when we get back! Yay!

When we got to Leogane we got everyone settled. We ate linner(lunch/dinner) at the boys orphanage. We then headed back to the girls side to explain the rules we had come up with for the kids. We were extremely tired so we didnt really have it together. When we talked to everyone they just stared at us blankly. It was pretty aweful. The teens then went into a time of worship that we joined in on. When Becca went over to ask the older girls to join in on singing they were not having it. They were clearly not feeling the new people. We got Roberline & Ketaine to come over with us. Once Becca, the two girls, and I started singing the other girls came and joined in. The dog also wanted to sing and was barking non stop. Welcome to Haiti.

Here comes the fun part. Becca and I had to sleep in the girls orphanage because there was not enough room anywhere else for us. We had planned to sleep on the floor on mattresses next to Yveline....but then we saw a spider. The kids tried to kill it but missed. They decided to tell us it was dead but we knew better. We panicked for a couple minutes trying to figure out where we could sleep. If the new americans hadnt passed out we would have tried to get the keys from the rental car to sleep in it. We convinced ourselves that spiders dont climb metal bed posts. So we moved beds away from the wall(cuz spiders crawl there) and went to sleep. Unfortunately the beds are pretty small so our feet hung off the edge. We also slept in the only room where the fan wasnt working. It was HOT. After an hour or so I couldnt handle it anymore so I went to sleep on a mattress on the floor right under a fan. We learned very quickly that someone is always awake in that place. Literally at every hour if you woke up someone would be talking or singing or going to the bathroom. Also, most of the girls woke up around 4am! Becca and I were soooooo sleepy. We just layed around till like 7am trying to go back to sleep with only a few minutes of success.

To summarize our day with the highschoolers- It was way intense and we werent even the people in charge!

-Pom de te/Amy

Instructional Video

We are bad updaters!

Soo sorry for the lag in posts! We have been really really busy.

On day 6 we did a lot of walking so we were extra tired. We needed to pack up all our stuff in the container since the Cornerstone High School team was coming the next day. It took us ALL day because we kept getting distracted and just hanging out with all the girls. We walked all around the village with Ketianne in search for the right soap so she could wash our clothes. We finally found it. Pastor Kelly texted us and needed us to take pictures of the church roof for him so we had Nadine take us. We were very tired from all the walking! We then had to hurry to Leogane to get dinner and return some water bottles that we bought our first day here. It must have been traffic time on the way back because there were TONS of people waiting for taptaps. We had bought a chunk of ice so we could have really cold water. The bag that it was in had a hole in it. If you weren't aware, Haiti is really hot and when it's really hot, ice melts really fast. So we were waiting for the taptap standing around with like 50 people holding a broken bag of melting ice. It was kind of awful. Everyone was staring because I was soaking wet from the water. Everyone kept telling me that my bag was no good and I told them that was the only bag I had! Everyone was talking about it and someone went to get me a new bag that was stronger and had no holes. I was very excited. Every time a taptap pulled up people shoved to get on and it was very hectic. A very nice man took us under his wing and helped us onto a giant bus. I thought I was going to get crushed from all the people shoving and pushing! When we finally got on and sat down we were nervous that it wouldn't take us to the right place. We only recently learned that not all taptaps go to the same places. We were getting nervous that it was one that didn't stop in between. However, someone got off right away so we knew that it would stop at the orphanage for us. We had lots of help from the people here and it was wonderful.

That night was a night of no sleep for Amy and I. We were really tired that night and fell asleep fast. After about an hour at like 12 I woke up to go to the bathroom. I peed and turned the light on to wash my hands and saw that there was a gigantic spider right next to my face. Awesome. I woke Amy up and we debated if we could kill it or not. The answer is no way. Amy had to pee really bad at that point so we went into the other side of the container. There was ANOTHER spider in that side!!! We couldn't sleep in either side of the container because spiders were everwhere. Ahhh! We went to go get Enel AGAIN but he wasn't there.... Amy and I walked ALL OVER the orphanage grounds looking for him even though we knew he wasn't there. We even looked under the trees by the front gate just in case. There was a big storm that night so I think it was too wet for him to sleep on the porch so he went to the church to sleep. We walked around until 1 in the morning freaking out about what to do. We finally decided to call Yveline and she woke up and came to kill them for us. What a wonderful friend! We were so happy we paid her. Haha! We went back to bed but didn't sleep that well at all from all the excitement.

That's all for now!
-Baca

Becca jumping from a cliff today

Some pics

Day 5: "Spiders and Aunts"

Hello. Yesterday when we visited the boys and chatted with the ladies there for a long time. Pastor Kellys neice Jesula is usually very quiet and shy but she talked a lot. I like getting to know her a little better everytime I(Amy) come here. While I was chatting away, Becca was teaching the littlest boys to put all their hands together and say, "One, two, three, yayyyyy" as they all lifted their hands in the air. Just like a soccer team. No they were not playing soccer or doing anything other than cheering & being AWESOME! I told one of the ladies there that is 9 months pregnant that I wanted to deliver her baby. She agreed.

As soon as we saw Haiti power was on, we headed back to the girls orphanage to get to work. As soon as we got the information we needed and got our tools together,(thats right WE have TOOLS) the power turned off. Sad. So, instead we just hung with out with the girls. Salvacienne was pretending she was pregnant with a ball under her shirt. We asked how many babies she was having, and she informed us that she was having 3 babies. Awhile later Salvacienne was laying on the porch making noises, so we asked if she had had her babies. She replied that she had. When we asked her what their names were she said, "Baby Rebecca, Baby Amy, and Baby Sherman." We were thrilled to have namesakes. I'm sure Sherman will be proud as well.

We are SO excited to share with you more about how awesome the new house mama is. We finally understand her name....Judith. Hard, we know. We told her last night that a woman from teh boys orphanage wanted to accompany her to the docter. She had Vanessa tell us that she had called "Doctors without Borders" and they did not have a skin specialist. She also found out that there was a skin specialist elsewhere but it cost money. Another great thing she did was come to tell all the kids it was time to go to sleep, and they listened! We have never seen anything like this before!

We then headed to bed, where we talked forever. Around midnight Becca spotted a HUGE SPIDER under my bed! We were terrified. Becca set off to find someone to help. She found Enel(older boy) sleeping on the orphanage porch. She whisper yelled, "Enel, please come help me." Enel woke up and followed her to our container. They came in and I got out quickly. Enel killed the spider easily. When he was finished we looked and saw that Coi-Coo & the security guard were there as well. I'm sure they think we are very strange. After that we couldn't sleep. We decided we needed to search the container to see if there were more, Luckily there were not. Then we got a bright idea to make an "Instructional Video" for the highschoolers on how to get to the top bunk. This bunk is very high and basically impossible to get to. Long story short we made the most hilarious video ever. Hopefully you can see it someday!

On to today...

We woke us up very early because crazy little kids kept being loud. I'm talking like 6am early, after going to sleep around 2am.(psst Becca is falling asleep next to me as I type). Yveline headed to school and dropped Charley off with us. We fed him and tried to make him happy. He likes to do things himself now. He fell asleep in my arms. I held him while he napped, and Becca rubbed cream on the girls skin. A translator friend of Pastor Kelly came to visit. We chatted a long time with him, and he was very pleasant. We told him we appreciated him stopping by but we didnt have money for a translator. He told us that we did not need to pay him. He knows that God wants us to help others and he will be payed in blessings. That was cool to hear. He seems like a great guy.

Later, Rodriguez and I got to work gathering some things that Sherman had requested. Rodriguez is so sweet and such a good helper. You can tell he is so proud when you ask him to help you do things. I paid him for his work with a cold bottle of water with grape propel mixed in and 3 small airhead candies. He shared all of it with the other kids. What a lovely boy!!

We went to Leogane again for our lunch. We went to catch a tap tap and Yveline was getting off so we asked if she wanted to come with. She did. We got our food, and then we needed to buy some clorox for washing out our water tank. We sent Yveline alone because the store was where we met Pooshon. Let me tell you the "Pooshon Story" In January when Becca and I were in Haiti many many men fell in love with her. But one fellow caught her eye. His name...was Pooshon. What actaully happened was Becca jokingly said to me. "I wouldn't say no to him"(asking for her number) So then I, being the person I am decided I should take a picture of them together. I took their picture and got his cellphone number. I told the kids Rebecca had a new Haitian fiance. They made up an awesome song that goes a little like this, "Rebecca, fiance, Pooshon, gwo renmen" gwo renmen=BIG LOVE. The kids still sing that song to this day. Even adults who weren't here then. Later we txted him, and then the crazy started. Becca got like 15txts about how he loved her, how he wanted to hear her voice ect. Creeptastic. So I responded that American girls don't like it when you tell them you love them and you dont know them. Then I returned to Haiti in April and saw him as I was passing by twice. I said hello to him. He tried to call my phone but I did not answer. Anywho, like I said today we didnt want to go near the place we met him. There was aproblem understanding the amount of money. So we went over there. The woman who was selling us the stuff was talking to herself a lot and were just standing there not understanding. At the end she looked at Becca and said something about Pooshon. We were surprised. She informed us she was his aunt. At first we thought Yveline had said something to her, but Yveline said no. Then the woman said I remember. Becca was so shocked/embarresed/freaked out that she covered her mouth as she laughed and quickly walked away.

Fini
Amy

Day 4: "Bruce & Roger.Coffeemates."

We hope that this video uploads. If not, it's a video of Rodriguez building a house with some construction materials he found.

After our last post yesterday we went over to the boys orphanage to say hello. We were happy to see that they were eating rice with VEGETABLES! They looked healthy and happy. We didn't stay long because we wanted them to eat but we're planning on going back over today. We plan on spending more time with them than we have in the past because we love those little boys!

After visiting the boys we noticed Emmanuel, Kinzy, and Willy doing some construction next door. It seems that Extollo has taught them skills that they can use to make money. They seemed proud of their jobs when we asked them about it later.

Amy and I hung out with the girls for a long time in their new building that night. Amy and I were happy to see Yveline loving on Charley and having a good time with him. On a previous trip, Amy and I set it up for Yveline to be in charge of caring for Charley in exchange for her going to nursing school. We're happy to see that she's excelling at both! The girls were excited to show us where everyone slept and we saw that all of them had sheets and their own beds. All the little girls were getting bathed by one of the workers. When the group of high schoolers we will have to spend one night in the orphanage with the girls because the container will be full. We asked them if we could sleep there and they were excited about choosing which beds we'd sleep in.

Today we were planning on waking up early to go to church.. Instead we slept in. Later, we promise we will do our bible study on James! We had a wonderful breakfast of oatmeal and a nice cup of coffee. Thanks Bruce and Roger for letting us use your cups. It was a very relaxed day in Leogane today. Everything seemed very calm and quiet. We put more cream on the kids with flaky skin which they loved. Amy and I were talking about how we used to love it when our moms rubbed our backs when we were younger. We were sad that the girls don't get that contact but happy that we could give them a little bit of it today.

The girls had a great lunch today. They had big bowls of rice with some beans, beets and some sort of herb or leafy something. They also had this soupy juice stuff which was made from mashed up fruit cocktail, milk, ice, and sugar. This made them really happy! It made us really hungry so we got on a taptap and went into town for some beans and rice. Our favorite cook lady was happy to see us. She shared her hot sauce with us and knew exactly what we wanted to order. We're becoming regulars! I wish we could check in on yelp with some good reviews. We bought some creme maize which is our favorite treat in Haiti. We had a little trouble finding a taptap back to the orphanage. We waited for a while and this van pulled up and we got in with the rest of the passengers who were waiting. We sat in it for a few minutes while we waited for it to fill up. I then realized that since it wasn't the usual taptap we ride that it went somewhere different. We tried to ask the driver who didn't understand a thing we were saying. I'm pretty sure it was going straight through to Carrefour with no stops. Good thing we got off and waited for a different one! I'm happy to report that a Haitian man that I chatted with on the taptap told me I knew "gwo" Creole! Yay!

We are now headed to visit the boys orphanage. We're going to call Sherman tonight so he can tell us how to fix the lights in the one room that doesn't work in the girls orphanage. We also need to fix one of the pipes on the water tank.

That's all for now!

- Kann a sik (Fastest typer in the world. Or at least faster than Amy.)