its official. i have a cold. it started out a few days ago as just a weird sore throat but i wasn't concerned because Shara felt it to. its a full blown cold now. i have a runny nose and sore throat and i can't sleep. got up to blow my nose a few minutes ago and almost stepped on a cockroach barefoot. now there are several mosquitos inside my net. its just not my night! took some benadryl and chugged a nalgene of water though so i should fall asleep soon i hope.
i started another project today. shara did her bible study with the older girls while i helped the little girls make flowers with their hand prints. the older girls will do the same thing tonight and the middle girls tomorrow night. it was pretty messy but lots of fun. i let the girls use paint but I'm going to do the same project with some tent city kids this afternoon but i think ill stick with crayons. not sure how many will be here &paint can get out of control quickly with too many kids.
i also finished organizing and putting away all the craft materials we found last week. ill probably spend the morning taking inventory so when i get back to the states i can figure out what I'm missing &what i need to bring back.
paul and shara went to deli mart and brought me a hamburger from the place above the store. shara thinks they taste different than american burgers. she's probably right but it had ketchup and pickles (which i don't like at all) so i was distracted. ate every bite though. i feel like I'm in college again. ill eat anything you put in front of me as long as its cheap and easy. and i got a coke! yumm.
i have got to learn creole. i am starting to feel bad that i can't talk to the staff. i know how to greet them and ask how they are but thats about it. and when the little girls talk to me i have no clue what they're saying. but some of them know that and are trying to teach me. kimberly is the best at getting me to learn things. she points and tells me how to say it and makes me say it until i pronounce it right.
okay i can feel the benadryl now. bon nwit!
and figure out how to fight off all these mosquitos in my net!
Monday, January 30, 2012
I went with Shara and another missionary who lives down the street, Beth, to the Tabarre market saturday morning. my favorite nanny, madame rosalinde (not sure thats how you spell it, just a guess) took us to get a new laundry basket for Shara. it was a pretty overwhelming experience. there are a lot of people and the stands are really close together so people are constantly touching or pushing each other to get by. everyone stared at us obviously because were the only white people for there. guys shouted at me in english telling me they loved me, blah blah blah. i wanted to by some rice and black beans to take home for my mom but i just didn't feel quite comfortable yet. maybe when i speak a little more kreyol i can go back and try again.
on saturdays the girls get their hair washed and braided. they take turns so there are always girls on the veranda or in the courtyard. other than that, they play all day. when we came back from the market i played for a little while. then i forced myself to clean up in the storage room a little bit. bouillon soup is lunch on saturdays and shara won't eat it so that just left more for me &paul. its a spicy soup with beef, potatoes, dumplings, plantains, onions, and carrots. the dumplings are shaped funny but its absolutely delicious!
after lunch we sat in shara's room and talked all afternoon with beth. the girls get up from their nap at 3 so i took some coloring books and crayons downstairs and we colored all night until dinner. other than ripping up the coloring books pretty bad it went well. i got all the crayons back minus two or three. they ripped up the coloring books but i tried to make each girl pick one page at a time and they had to finish coloring that page before they could have a new one. it didn't work out exactly like that but thats alright. they're just kids.
we haven't been to deli mart in a few days so the food in the kitchen is pretty weird and random. i had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on pumpernickel bread for dinner. yes, it tasted as bad as it sounds. but i was hungry so i ate it all. the girls had popcorn for dinner so they brought a big bowl up for us to share. haitian popcorn is so good. they cook it on the stove i think &whatever they cook it in must be what makes it so good. so paul &i sat on the roof for a while and ate popcorn until bed.
haitian church starts around 7 and lasts until whenever the preacher is done (yesterday it was about 10:15). it was cool the first couple times i sat through it because i was so interested in what their services look like. they are very simple. its in a tent, we sit in folding chairs, there are no instruments when we sing, and people come late &leave early if they feel like it. but now that I've done it, its impossible to sit and pay attention when i have no idea what anyone is saying. i asked shara and she said the man that spoke yesterday uses a lot of french words. not sure ill ever really understand whats going on but again, maybe once i learn some more kreyol it'll get better. paul started a bible lesson with kids in the bigger tent city yesterday. he said it didn't go well but those kids don't sit still and take directions very well haha but they're so cute.
everyone was so lazy yesterday. i took a nap after church for a while. i figured i would wake up and lunch would be ready but it wasn't. paul and i sat on the upstairs veranda just waiting for sunday lunch. yesterday we had chicken, rice and beans, that spicy stuff, macaroni, fried plantains, and some potato fries. so good. then i took another nap until the girls were done with theirs. we played all evening until they wanted to watch Matilda. at that point we came upstairs and sat on the roof all night until shara made tuna cakes out of canned tuna.
in church yesterday morning, Amalie's mom sat right in front of us. she kept turning around and reaching for her but Amelie had no idea who she was and wasn't interested in figuring it out. for anyone reading who doesn't know, Amelie was abandoned at church one morning a while back. I'm not for sure how old she was when her mom left her here but she was several months old and weighed 4 pounds she was so malnourished. when her mom showed up yesterday, she had on nice clothes and long, braided hair that had two different colors in it. she looks young, no older than 25. i think she just made bad decisions and just wasn't ready to take responsibility for her actions. as sad as it has to be to give up your child, i think she did the right thing. its not that she couldn't take care of her daughter, she just isn't ready to be an adult. shara and i were talking about what it will be like when she asks someday why her mother didn't want her or was never around? but shara made the point, and i think she is so right, it takes more than giving birth to be a real mother. Amelie has Shara, the nannies, and all the girls that love her and care for her as their family. although its not a biological parent, they love her all the same. but someday that will make her sad and it
on the last sunday of every month, the girls family members are allowed to come and visit for the afternoon. i have mixed emotions about this. the girls love it, i think, and thats what is really important. however, I'm sure it causes a lot of confusion at the same time. especially for the girls who don't have anyone come visit them for whatever reason. i guess as i sit here and write about it, i think its a good thing. even though most of the girls here have parents or families out there, they couldn't provide for their daughters so they gave up their rights as parents so that their children would be cared for. why shouldn't they visit? its not that they don't love the girls or don't want them. they just don't have the means.
paul has an english club that meets on sunday afternoons for an hour. they talk for 30 minutes about a topic paul choses and 30 minutes about whatever they want to talk about. yesterday, paul wanted to talk about how they treat women. women here are objectified by probably about 95% of the male population. of course there are the really great men who are exceptions but for the most part, women are here solely for pleasure. this is also a pretty sexually promiscuous country so its just kind of accepted as the norm. prostitution and rape are so real here. its such a danger that young girls have to watch out for. hopefully with this generation, we will be able to educate the children in our neighborhood that women are so much more than sexual objects and that girls should value themselves and guard their hearts. we won't change that about the culture, i know that. but if we can prevent just a handful of girls from falling into that, we will have changed someones life and that is so encouraging.
i have got to make coffee and get this storage room cleaned! I've had a lot of people tell me they have a lot of questions. comment and ask! i can't answer everything but i can try! orevwa!
on saturdays the girls get their hair washed and braided. they take turns so there are always girls on the veranda or in the courtyard. other than that, they play all day. when we came back from the market i played for a little while. then i forced myself to clean up in the storage room a little bit. bouillon soup is lunch on saturdays and shara won't eat it so that just left more for me &paul. its a spicy soup with beef, potatoes, dumplings, plantains, onions, and carrots. the dumplings are shaped funny but its absolutely delicious!
after lunch we sat in shara's room and talked all afternoon with beth. the girls get up from their nap at 3 so i took some coloring books and crayons downstairs and we colored all night until dinner. other than ripping up the coloring books pretty bad it went well. i got all the crayons back minus two or three. they ripped up the coloring books but i tried to make each girl pick one page at a time and they had to finish coloring that page before they could have a new one. it didn't work out exactly like that but thats alright. they're just kids.
we haven't been to deli mart in a few days so the food in the kitchen is pretty weird and random. i had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on pumpernickel bread for dinner. yes, it tasted as bad as it sounds. but i was hungry so i ate it all. the girls had popcorn for dinner so they brought a big bowl up for us to share. haitian popcorn is so good. they cook it on the stove i think &whatever they cook it in must be what makes it so good. so paul &i sat on the roof for a while and ate popcorn until bed.
haitian church starts around 7 and lasts until whenever the preacher is done (yesterday it was about 10:15). it was cool the first couple times i sat through it because i was so interested in what their services look like. they are very simple. its in a tent, we sit in folding chairs, there are no instruments when we sing, and people come late &leave early if they feel like it. but now that I've done it, its impossible to sit and pay attention when i have no idea what anyone is saying. i asked shara and she said the man that spoke yesterday uses a lot of french words. not sure ill ever really understand whats going on but again, maybe once i learn some more kreyol it'll get better. paul started a bible lesson with kids in the bigger tent city yesterday. he said it didn't go well but those kids don't sit still and take directions very well haha but they're so cute.
everyone was so lazy yesterday. i took a nap after church for a while. i figured i would wake up and lunch would be ready but it wasn't. paul and i sat on the upstairs veranda just waiting for sunday lunch. yesterday we had chicken, rice and beans, that spicy stuff, macaroni, fried plantains, and some potato fries. so good. then i took another nap until the girls were done with theirs. we played all evening until they wanted to watch Matilda. at that point we came upstairs and sat on the roof all night until shara made tuna cakes out of canned tuna.
in church yesterday morning, Amalie's mom sat right in front of us. she kept turning around and reaching for her but Amelie had no idea who she was and wasn't interested in figuring it out. for anyone reading who doesn't know, Amelie was abandoned at church one morning a while back. I'm not for sure how old she was when her mom left her here but she was several months old and weighed 4 pounds she was so malnourished. when her mom showed up yesterday, she had on nice clothes and long, braided hair that had two different colors in it. she looks young, no older than 25. i think she just made bad decisions and just wasn't ready to take responsibility for her actions. as sad as it has to be to give up your child, i think she did the right thing. its not that she couldn't take care of her daughter, she just isn't ready to be an adult. shara and i were talking about what it will be like when she asks someday why her mother didn't want her or was never around? but shara made the point, and i think she is so right, it takes more than giving birth to be a real mother. Amelie has Shara, the nannies, and all the girls that love her and care for her as their family. although its not a biological parent, they love her all the same. but someday that will make her sad and it
on the last sunday of every month, the girls family members are allowed to come and visit for the afternoon. i have mixed emotions about this. the girls love it, i think, and thats what is really important. however, I'm sure it causes a lot of confusion at the same time. especially for the girls who don't have anyone come visit them for whatever reason. i guess as i sit here and write about it, i think its a good thing. even though most of the girls here have parents or families out there, they couldn't provide for their daughters so they gave up their rights as parents so that their children would be cared for. why shouldn't they visit? its not that they don't love the girls or don't want them. they just don't have the means.
paul has an english club that meets on sunday afternoons for an hour. they talk for 30 minutes about a topic paul choses and 30 minutes about whatever they want to talk about. yesterday, paul wanted to talk about how they treat women. women here are objectified by probably about 95% of the male population. of course there are the really great men who are exceptions but for the most part, women are here solely for pleasure. this is also a pretty sexually promiscuous country so its just kind of accepted as the norm. prostitution and rape are so real here. its such a danger that young girls have to watch out for. hopefully with this generation, we will be able to educate the children in our neighborhood that women are so much more than sexual objects and that girls should value themselves and guard their hearts. we won't change that about the culture, i know that. but if we can prevent just a handful of girls from falling into that, we will have changed someones life and that is so encouraging.
i have got to make coffee and get this storage room cleaned! I've had a lot of people tell me they have a lot of questions. comment and ask! i can't answer everything but i can try! orevwa!
Friday, January 27, 2012
tent city project
friday is fish day!
its pretty easy going here during the day while the girls are in school. they woke me up this morning around 6 by running around the house laughing and playing. it was early but they're kids &their laughs are so precious. shara told me they run out there every morning to grab the mangos that fell off the tree last night. whoever gets there first gets all the mangos. it causes little spats so we decided this morning that we would start going out there at ridiculous hours in the morning to collect them all &serve them for breakfast so everyone can have some. probably won't happen. 6:30 is early enough!
im a step closer to getting all my stuff organized &put away. I had paul help me bring about 8 more tubs of craft stuff over to sort. thats the last of the boxes and half of them are just colored paper. theres a TON of stuff in there. its a mess right now but I have everything sorted into piles all over the room. now i just have to figure out then best way to pack it all up.
the house runs kind of like summer camp in the kitchen. each day of the week the girls eat something different for lunch but its the same every week. on fridays, we have fish (I'm pretty sure its salmon but who really knows?) thats cooked in a really runny red sauce with whatever vegetables are here (today it was onions, tomatoes, and green bell peppers. you eat it on top of rice thats been cooked in the same oil the fish is cooked. so delicious! paul won't eat fish though so we walked down the street a little way so he could buy food from a lady with a stand. you can choose white or dirty rice, usually chicken, and whatever vegetables she has. but she wasn't there today! she's been gone for about a week now. i hope she hasn't moved or shut down her stand because i really want to try her food! we need to go to deli mart so bad. haitians only eat one really big meal a day (an insane amount of food that i could never finish) at lunch time. they eat a small snack for breakfast &dinner so for those meals we have to fend for ourselves. there are 52 cans of tuna in the kitchen cabinet that are starting to look pretty good haha
i cleaned my bathroom today. it was pretty filthy from where I've tracked so much dust in and out from cleaning in the storage depots. i think that bathroom doesn't get cleaned often because the only people who use it are work teams &they haven't been here in a while. lots of dust, cobwebs, and weird looking spiders. not anymore! i also finally washed my hair. haitians are so incredibly clean and i don't know how. its dusty and hot so I'm constantly sweaty. i gave up on trying to be so clean about 5 days ago. haha its a never ending battle, especially when i spend the morning cleaning! so i haven't washed my hair in a few days. oops. &since its the middle of the afternoon, the water was really warm (for about 15 seconds). i think i miss american showers more than anything else. and pizza &cheeseburgers haha
I'm going to take a nap for a little bit and play with the girls this afternoon. friday night is movie night for the girls so i think ill sit &watch with them. I'm going to try to FaceTime with my best friend taylor tonight, too. i haven't talked to her since i left &i miss her a lot. i think thats one of the things that makes me a little homesick when i think about it. I've talked to her practically everyday since i was eleven and its weird to not be able to text her whenever i want. I'm excited to hear from her! I'm not much for technology but i have loved FaceTime with different people this week. its cool to actually see peoples faces when i get a chance to talk to them.
i need to plan my next project as well. shara has the girls split into groups for different things so ill be able to use the groups they are already in to make it a little easier. we also talked this morning about shara doing a bible study with the older girls, middles girls, and younger girls. while she has one group on the upstairs veranda doing that, i will be in the play area shara has cleared up with another group doing a project. its just hard to find the time while they're in school because they're schedules are so full. it'll be nice to have shara there to help me out if i need her. can't wait to work that out &get that started!
orevwa!
im a step closer to getting all my stuff organized &put away. I had paul help me bring about 8 more tubs of craft stuff over to sort. thats the last of the boxes and half of them are just colored paper. theres a TON of stuff in there. its a mess right now but I have everything sorted into piles all over the room. now i just have to figure out then best way to pack it all up.
the house runs kind of like summer camp in the kitchen. each day of the week the girls eat something different for lunch but its the same every week. on fridays, we have fish (I'm pretty sure its salmon but who really knows?) thats cooked in a really runny red sauce with whatever vegetables are here (today it was onions, tomatoes, and green bell peppers. you eat it on top of rice thats been cooked in the same oil the fish is cooked. so delicious! paul won't eat fish though so we walked down the street a little way so he could buy food from a lady with a stand. you can choose white or dirty rice, usually chicken, and whatever vegetables she has. but she wasn't there today! she's been gone for about a week now. i hope she hasn't moved or shut down her stand because i really want to try her food! we need to go to deli mart so bad. haitians only eat one really big meal a day (an insane amount of food that i could never finish) at lunch time. they eat a small snack for breakfast &dinner so for those meals we have to fend for ourselves. there are 52 cans of tuna in the kitchen cabinet that are starting to look pretty good haha
i cleaned my bathroom today. it was pretty filthy from where I've tracked so much dust in and out from cleaning in the storage depots. i think that bathroom doesn't get cleaned often because the only people who use it are work teams &they haven't been here in a while. lots of dust, cobwebs, and weird looking spiders. not anymore! i also finally washed my hair. haitians are so incredibly clean and i don't know how. its dusty and hot so I'm constantly sweaty. i gave up on trying to be so clean about 5 days ago. haha its a never ending battle, especially when i spend the morning cleaning! so i haven't washed my hair in a few days. oops. &since its the middle of the afternoon, the water was really warm (for about 15 seconds). i think i miss american showers more than anything else. and pizza &cheeseburgers haha
I'm going to take a nap for a little bit and play with the girls this afternoon. friday night is movie night for the girls so i think ill sit &watch with them. I'm going to try to FaceTime with my best friend taylor tonight, too. i haven't talked to her since i left &i miss her a lot. i think thats one of the things that makes me a little homesick when i think about it. I've talked to her practically everyday since i was eleven and its weird to not be able to text her whenever i want. I'm excited to hear from her! I'm not much for technology but i have loved FaceTime with different people this week. its cool to actually see peoples faces when i get a chance to talk to them.
i need to plan my next project as well. shara has the girls split into groups for different things so ill be able to use the groups they are already in to make it a little easier. we also talked this morning about shara doing a bible study with the older girls, middles girls, and younger girls. while she has one group on the upstairs veranda doing that, i will be in the play area shara has cleared up with another group doing a project. its just hard to find the time while they're in school because they're schedules are so full. it'll be nice to have shara there to help me out if i need her. can't wait to work that out &get that started!
orevwa!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
re-do
i had this huge rant typed out to post but it was so negative i erased it. I'm sad and homesick today so everything i type seems to turn out bitter and angry and thats not really how i feel. I'm trying to go through all the tubs of craft stuff becky uncovered in her cleaning before she left. there are some good things but theres also a ton of junk that just has to be thrown away. it makes my heart very heavy to have to throw away so much stuff in a country where people need so much.
im not a huge fan of christian music but theres this song called Hosanna we used to sing in chapel a lot. theres one line i hear on repeat in my head everyday:
"break my heart for what breaks yours"
today my heart is very broken for the things God' heart breaks for. there is a lot of hope in this country but i think God's heart doesn't just break for the people who have so little. it also breaks for the people who have so much and don't use it to help others. americans live such blinded, consumer driven lives. the majority are missing the whole "love they neighbor" thing. God's heart breaks for them, too. and so does mine.
the girls will be awake from their afternoon nap in a few minutes and i can't wait to see their pretty smiles. they make all the sadness so well worth it.
im not a huge fan of christian music but theres this song called Hosanna we used to sing in chapel a lot. theres one line i hear on repeat in my head everyday:
"break my heart for what breaks yours"
today my heart is very broken for the things God' heart breaks for. there is a lot of hope in this country but i think God's heart doesn't just break for the people who have so little. it also breaks for the people who have so much and don't use it to help others. americans live such blinded, consumer driven lives. the majority are missing the whole "love they neighbor" thing. God's heart breaks for them, too. and so does mine.
the girls will be awake from their afternoon nap in a few minutes and i can't wait to see their pretty smiles. they make all the sadness so well worth it.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
sponge painting with tent city kids
today, paul and kate brought 9 kids from the tent camp closest to the house (who can't afford to go to school) over to do an art project. i wanted to start with something simple so i cut sponges into squares, triangles, and circles to dip in paint and stamp on paper. well that held their attention for about 5 minutes! haha they were so cute though.
they came in quietly, not really sure about me (they know paul pretty well). most haitians are pretty shy at first, especially around "blancs" (whites). they generally will not speak unless spoken to. its just a cultural norm here. anyway, they sat down, listened to me while i explained the project &paul translated. i had one kid try out each shape to show the other kids. then we divided them into groups of three thinking they would rotate through the stations. that didn't work too well either haha. since they don't get to do things like that very often, its like fun overload. but they giggled and went back and forth making shapes on their papers. it was real fun.
in the future i think the neighborhood kids will benefit from projects that have several steps that take a little longer, maybe something a little more complicated or new. it didn't take them very long to figure out how to do it and then they were over it. i need to plan things for them that will hold their attention a little longer.
in the future i think the neighborhood kids will benefit from projects that have several steps that take a little longer, maybe something a little more complicated or new. it didn't take them very long to figure out how to do it and then they were over it. i need to plan things for them that will hold their attention a little longer.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
kaliko, charmed life
we went to kaliko today for becky's birthday. i paid a man to catch and cook me a lobster. rode two hours home in a tap tap (these pick up truck type vehicles with colorful paint) and my stomach does not feel right. but it was so worth it. paul &kate booked the place for their wedding. maybe ill get to enjoy kaliko yet again in the near future?
the girls are already in bed so we didn't see them at all today. except moya. we took her with us. she was just kickin' her legs in the ocean. what a water baby! since we were gone all day today, ill do my first project with the neighborhood kids tomorrow. it should be pretty interesting but mostly fun.
life is so strange. if you would have told me a year ago i would be where i am now, i wouldn't have believed you. but i couldn't ask for a better life than the one I've been given.
mom: i waited to open the card you sent with me at a perfect time. today while i was sitting quietly on the beach seemed like a good opportunity. i also couldn't ask for a better mother. love you and miss you.
the girls are already in bed so we didn't see them at all today. except moya. we took her with us. she was just kickin' her legs in the ocean. what a water baby! since we were gone all day today, ill do my first project with the neighborhood kids tomorrow. it should be pretty interesting but mostly fun.
life is so strange. if you would have told me a year ago i would be where i am now, i wouldn't have believed you. but i couldn't ask for a better life than the one I've been given.
mom: i waited to open the card you sent with me at a perfect time. today while i was sitting quietly on the beach seemed like a good opportunity. i also couldn't ask for a better mother. love you and miss you.
Monday, January 23, 2012
i don't even know what day it is...
haitian time is so slow. everything is done at such a slow, relaxed pace. you tell people to show up at 7am and they come the next day around noon. we work really hard and then just decide to stop everything were doing to sit on the roof instead. its nice. today is monday, i think? i wear a watch i got for christmas but i hardly ever look at it and even when i do it doesn't matter much. i wake up when the sun barely shows through my window. I'm so tired at the end of the day that 9:30pm seems too late to be awake. i am literally forced to take every moment as it comes to me without making plans for the future. as an american, i feel like every moment of every day has to be spent doing something i "have" to do. but our time is borrowed and someday we have to give it back. in the mean time, the americans can keep they're busy lifestyles that don't make time for people. ill stick to haitian life.
today involved more cleaning. we finished organizing another room today. only two more to go. we ate this pasta today that had haitian hot dogs, onions, and some weird tomato-ish sauce. it was delicious but i put too much hot sauce on it and it ruined my afternoon. had to take a nap after that. while we were cleaning, becky stopped where she was and said "were missing the sun set again tonight." so i said, "we can do this tomorrow." so we took showers really fast (i miss real showers more than anything at this point), went to the roof, and talked about the art project I'm going to do tomorrow.
kate and paul had this brilliant idea today. tomorrow, while the girls are in school, we are going to walk to the tent camp thats just on the other side of our neighbors house and bring the kids who can't afford to go to school back to the church tent for a craft. I'm going to teach them shapes by cutting sponges, letting the kids dip them in paint, and print the shapes on one huge piece of sketch pad paper i found. this is the first time ill be doing something from my own lesson plans &the first time ill really be working with neighborhood kids. I'm excited but it takes so much planning. i have to think about every little detail because there really is no telling what these kids will do (or eat).
moya's birthday was today. she is now a 2 year old pretty princess. for anyone reading who doesn't know, moya was left here a while back with no birth certificate or information. she has cerebral palsy so she has no control of her muscle movements. she's getting much stronger and starting to use her hands and make facial expressions. she is so precious. becky and i found a couple boxes of cheap tiaras today so we gave one to each girl. they danced around the veranda in their princess attire to justin bieber. there was haitian cake and tampico, these fun colored fruity drinks. what a funny night.
also, we only just decided to go to calico (the beach resort) tomorrow. I'm going to get a tan instead of work in a dusty room sorting the girls clothes out. yesss! maybe ill even eat some crab/lobster and buy some coconut wood jewelry?
theres a mosquito in my net now so i gotta go!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
day 3
the internet hasn't been working for a few days but honestly, even if it had, i probably would have kept up with this like i should. i don't know how to explain it but when I'm here, my mind is so much more clear that i don't have much to say. i feel more at home here than i ever have.
bonjou! waiting on sunday lunch to be brought upstairs while the girls work on homework.
I've mostly been helping becky clean up the big depot to get it clean for the next crate coming in a few weeks. its been a pretty big project but we finished up that room today. tomorrow we will start on another store room thats just down the hall from my room. its FULL of craft stuff thats packed away in tubs left to be forgotten. I am so thrilled to not have to worry about buying and bringing a bunch of stuff down here. paul, kate, and carole helped me pick up glass today on the new property for a mosaic project i want to do with the girls.
i did my first activity with the girls yesterday. haha what a mess. sue sent a bag for each girl with the materials to make valentines cards to send to their sponsors. sounds easy enough until Kimberly cuts her hair with the scissors and makes a huge mess out of everything. but what can you do? 4 year old haitian girls just aren't meant to play with scissors for more than 10 minutes. the older girls were awesome. they sat quietly and finished up all of their cards (that the little girls hadn't destroyed).
honestly, the long wait i had before i came back down here only gave me the patience i was lacking to work with the girls. had i come back right away like i wanted, i would have been so irritated. but what can i really do other than laugh it off? the girls have so much fun and are hopefully learning something and thats the important part.
becky, carole, and i sat on the roof for a long time and talked last night while the sun was setting. i can't even explain how much i love that roof. carole wants to cover part of it but i think the great thing about it is that its so open. i could spend my whole life up there and love every moment.
this morning they gave away baby food to the moms who brought their babies to church. carole announced the plan half way through the 3 hour long service so in the middle of it a few young women got up, went home, got babies, and came back. theres a part of me that automatically says, "thats not fair. they can't do that." but then i remember how hungry and desperate they must be to be so deceitful and it breaks my heart. they're good people, the best i know. and they deserve so much more than what they have.
its cold here. well, not cold. but its only like 85 degrees and kinda breezy. everyone is wearing sweaters and pants and i have goose bumps. funny how quickly I've adjusted to the weather.
i have bug bites all over my neck and face from not using my net the first night i was here. i was too tired to do all the moving and hanging it involved to get it up. becky gets grossed out whenever i scratch at them so I've had to leave them alone. its an irritating feeling but i don't have malaria and i don't have dengue fever so as far as I'm concerned, I'm perfect.
i am so giddy to be here. i love this place and i feel so comfortable and at home here. this is exactly where i belong :) orevwa!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)