The Feeding Program

We were finally able to go back to the feeding clinic today. It is such an amazing place. The more time I spend there, the more stories I hear of amazing faith which makes me want to be there more. Again this is a program who feeds the local kids, mostly from tent cities, 3 times a week.
All of the children have a "badge" like this that tells their name and I think what table they are supposed to sit at. I am not sure what the date is. It is a great way to make sure about who they are feeding and who is missing. It makes me feel more safe there with the kids that the people who are participating are screened.
Here are some of the little people we met today.

This sweet little girl was hanging on my pant leg until I got the camera out. Then she wanted me to take a picture of her new shoes. Whenever you take a picture they want to see it right away. Imagine a bunch of little children grabbing the camera out of your hands.

This little one had blonde hair. It is not something you see very often and usually is not a good sign. One of the later signs of malnutrition and anemia is red hair. I have to assume this blonde hair is a later stage and really not a good thing. Her skin was really red, if you compare it to the child below here, you can see what I mean. But as IS pointed out when I was trying to tell them that this child was sick, she said "No Mom, she looks to happy to be sick."

This little guy was clapping along to the preacher's message. He was wearing only a womens shirt backwards. It had a deep V that showed most of his backside and fit him like a dress. Something about this little girl who couldn't have have been any older than my own babies really struck me. She was there with what I assume may have been an older sister. However, there were other babies there who appeared to be alone. No parents there. It made me wonder how desperate life must be to send your baby away to get food.
Another beautiful, shoeless child. I think less than 1/2 of the children had shoes and the ones who did were mostly Crocs. I swear those things live forever!


When this little girl saw the camera she wanted me to take a picture of her. It is funny to see these kids in clothes that were probably worn by an American for some special event one time and now they may be one of this child's only possessions. Anyway what struck me in this picture was the picture of Christ behind her. He is so real here. People testify of him freely and have such faith in him. I can feel his presence in a way I only hope to bring back to the States with me. Sometime I will share some of the amazing stories I hear.

Us serving, perhaps this is what helps to make the Spirit so strong here.

The difference a day makes...part II

So it seems that right when we get things figured out here. Life happens. There is Haitian proverb beyond "Mountains there are Mountains". We hit the "mountains" in a major way on Monday.
The power had been out for over 48 hours so we ran out of water. There is a giant underground storage tank that we have to use an electric pump to pump the water out to use it only it will not run on the inverter so we had no water.
Then we woke the babies up early because we wanted to go to the feeding clinic only to load everyone up and realize we had a very flat tire.
Not to worry we got the giant truck up on the jack, which was missing half of its parts (we improvised with rebar, something we have plenty of around here). A nice Haitian guy came over to help when we asked him for a tool to bend the rebar. I am quite sure he thought we were idiots.

So we got the spare on only to realize it was also flat. But only once the jack and helper were removed.
So we put the giant truck back up on the jack this time without the nice Haitian guy to help and remove the spare which is also flat. Justin arrives home from work and takes both flats in his work car down to be fixed. He gets home we put the one that was "fixed" on. The spare could not be fixed as the rim was cracked.
We load up to go to dinner for IS one friend's B-day. As I am pulling out of the driveway I can hear air pouring out of the tire. I am tempted to try and "make it" down the hill, but then come to my senses as I think about walking up the hill in the dark. Most of the people here have huge backsides. I think it is from walking up all these hills. Mine is big enough without starting to be a hill walker too.
So we all go in and eat a crappy dinner that was thrown together. We get the kids all ready for bed and the inverter goes out. Now it is pitch black, we have no water, no car. Suddenly I start feeling really claustrophobic in my dark house surrounded by 8 foot walls with no car to get out and water to use in the house as well as no internet. I am spoiled by the internet, it keeps me sane.
But we went to sleep and it was all fixed today. New tires, new rim, new generator. Although the power did go on although it was 72 hours later. Nothing a good night sleep and an attitude adjustment can't fix.

Class Notes

Dear, Class sava[how are you]?is school getting harder?Im learning a
lot of French and Creole. Creole is really hard but French is easy.
What do you do at recess. When I come back I’ll do the most amazing
escape yet from ropes, handcuffs , and my straightjacket. hope Your
doing good. we have done a lot of stuff this weekend. we went to one
of the best hotels for a swim. The food was tremendous. Rachel came on
Saturday. She is really nice. She knows a ton of French and creole.
Sincerely,
HOUDINI

dear class
How is school? we went to top of the montin. we went to the feeding
clenic with my friend Jenna and Nathen .we went to a very nice
swimming pool .it was very fun .
Love IS

Dear Class-
We went to the nicest place in Haiti called the Karibe Hotel. We went
swimming.and ate American food. We went to the feeding clinic. I
played soccer. It was a dirty soccer game. We went on like a 2 hour
drive. It was on top of the mountain. I was so scared. Our tires were
like hanging off the road the whole time.
I miss you-
TJ

The difference a day makes...

Last week was rough. Some things I can post on the blog now, some that will have to wait until we get the situation figured out.
When we have a bad day here I just have to remind myself it is usually just my expectations have been let down and no permanent damage has been done. And usually "it is nothing a good night sleep and an attitude adjustment won't fix."
I continue to be grateful for the Lord's hand in our lives.
* My sickness is gone, nobody else seems to have gotten it. (now my clothes will fit better after my weight I have gained from eating so much rice)
* He surrounds us with good people. This week a friend who has been here for like 20 years (she is from the States, but married to a Haitian) came over and talked through a lot of situations with me. We have had a hard time figuring out "house help" what is needed, what is not, what can be expected, what we are expected to give. Some of the things I was really surprised by. For example, if the lady who irons your clothes once a week gets sick or her child does you should pay for all her or her child's medical care. We talked about security and safety. She is a wonderful mentor.
* We get to go to the beach and be beach bums, some of us literally.

* The stupid cat finally eats. It has special "cat formula" that it drinks. I am not making this up people. Cat formula. What have a gotten myself into? It had better be a good mouser! If it survives the 2 year olds.

(The dog and cat are still trying to decide if they are going to be friends.)

* The puppy is sleeping in her kennel now. We don't sleep as well, but at least she is in it. Now if only we could get her potty trained. I am now up to 4 things in my house that do not use the bathroom where I would prefer. 4 is too many.
*Rachel, my second set of hands, is here! Now if this does not make your day what will?
* The kids find cheap ways to entertain themselves. This highly photographed child is usually doing something destructive, dangerous, or dirty, but he LOVES it. The other one we have nicknamed "pigpen" because no matter where he is or what he is doing, his face always looks like this. I swear his little mug is a dirt magnet.
(you may have to blow up the picture to see what I mean)

*The kids are "getting used to Haitian food" I was loving it until the other day when Roselie was cooking she wanted me to try a bite and opened the pot. I looked inside and there was literally a chicken foot in there. A real clawed chicken's foot (along with chicken neck, heart and who knows what else) in my food! I decided to tell nobody at the table and fast that night.

*We get to go on Sunday drives to see the top of the mountain and realize again God has made Haiti really beautiful. Again the pictures do it no justice.

We knew it was going to be rough at times and I am sure we are in for some more hard times ahead, but things always get better especially when I take time to remember all that is good and right here. And there is SO much.

You will get used to it...

I am constantly telling the kids "Don't worry you will get used to it." Not just here but, life in general. Here I say it to things like "the cold showers, the food, the heat, the traffic, the people, the smells, the noise, the music (right now I am listening to someone play "You are my sunshine" in disco form outside), the stupid roosters that are up all night making racket, the strange looks we get, the language, the lack of personal space, etc.

Today when I picked Rachel up from the airport and saw her see Haiti for the first time, I realized in some ways we have gotten "used to things". In some ways this is good, in other ways I am disgusted at myself. How can one see garbage everywhere and just think "well, that is how they do it here". How can one see half clothed children in the street eating bowls of rice and think "well, at least they have something to put in their bellies". How can one see houses that are not fit for an animal to live in and their occupants out front, some of which are children, and think "at least they have somewhere to sleep"?

Maybe getting used to it is not such a great thing after all. Is this how turning a blind eye to the situation here starts? I hope not.

One Month Later

We have been here for one month now! It is tough to believe it has already been a whole month.
We told the kids it was a special day. They asked if we could do something special. One wanted to get ice cream, another one wanted to go to a nice restaurant. When we got up and heard it was a snow day back at home, we decided to have a swim day to celebrate our first month here.
There is a really nice hotel in town that will let you pay to swim. It is expensive, but whatever you pay in admission they will give you in food for free. We ate everything we paid to swim and more. We had breakfast and lunch. It was great. The kids had a blast.
In fact, when we walked in the Lobby IS said "It is just like America" then CT came running out of the bathroom saying "Mom, you have to go in there, it was just like in America." Oh how funny the things that stand out now!

The Feeding Clinic

We did one of the coolest things we have done since being in Haiti.

We went to a place called Child Hope. They have a boys home and a girls home. The boys home is run by a Haitian man and the girls home is run by an American couple here as missionaries with their 7 children. They have lived here for 10 years. I met both of their grown beautiful daughters.

This organization is run a little differently than the other orphanages we have been to. They do not do any adoptions, but believe in raising the children in a traditional "Haitian way" and then sending them back out into the community as grown, well adjusted, educated adults. They can then be "lighthouses" to other people in the community and hope to bring a positive future to Haiti. The home is for older children, the youngest is 3 or4, with most kids being over 10 years old. They do not take babies or children who have viable parents. Most of the children are brought into the home from an abusive situation. Kind of like Foster Care in the States except these children will never be put back into "traditional" families.

Anyway, three times a week the organization does a "feeding program" where they invite kids from the street into eat. There are a few tent cities near by and they have a "registration" program where kids can become part of the "feeding program". Apparently there are other children who line up to get food also who are taken on a first come first served basis. They give a brief sermon, feed them and then play after. We only made it for the play part time as I wanted to go and make sure it was a "safe situation" (something I find myself doing non-stop here that I rarely did in the Sates). I think the only danger in bringing the kids is that they may be loved to death or not want to leave. I had to beg CT to leave as he was in a mean game of B-Ball with the kids.

There was an amazing Spirit there and I have no doubt these people are doing the Lords work. We are excited to get to go next time and serve the food and have our children involved.

Before we went we stopped to meet our friends at their school and the kids played for a bit. The babies are like magnets. Especially this one. Roselie did her hair, I love it. TJ says "It looks like real ropes!"

The kids played soccer first. TJ was the youngest one on the field and actually enjoyed it despite being knocked over quite a few times. When we walked in and saw the wall BJ said "Hey Mom look its Jesus"Street Ball- CT " Mom, that was not even basketball it was like tackle football with a basketball. I got fouled like 100 times!"
IS and her friend here. She is still missing her friends at home, but she loves this little girl. Some of the boys with our boys. One thing that I have been really impressed with here are how helpful the children are with younger children. They are sweet and attentive and love to carry my babies around.

The compound. While we were there were volleyball, soccer and basketball games going on. What a great place to raise a bunch of boys! Sierra, I think you should move here!