Today was pretty adventurous, we have to say… this is Ayla, Megan and Denise reporting in from Haiti!! We woke up this morning with a few tummy aches with the team… that passed quickly so to speak. After a scrumptious breakfast of French toast and scrambled eggs we were ready to tackle the day and with that all the bags in the depot. The plan was to bless three orphanages with supplies, food and clothing. After packing the bus, we were on our way! Driving through the streets of Port Au Prince was and excursion in and of itself. Loud with honking horns and miles of street vendors, motor scooters and pedestrians to navigate…. Our bus driver was AWESOME!! We reached our first orphanage and we heard the children’s voices singing to welcome us! The home of 30 some children was a cement structure with 2 rooms. One for sleeping and one common room. The gravel yard provided some shade and seating area for the kids but overall it was very desolate. Though they didn’t have much, they seemed grateful for the little that they had. We were as delighted to be there as they were to have us. We started with craft bracelets, bubbles and coloring as well as goodie bags for all the children. The guys on the team initiated play with the soccer ball and the gals were busy outfitting each girl with a new dress. We gave the boys soccer uniforms which were sooooo adorably big and thusly very cute!! After play we fed them lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, a drink and what amounted to cheese puffs (called chicos). The children’s faces and fingers were all orange! J Before leaving we prayed over their pastor which caused some tears among our group. We left them with supplies and smiles. We moved onto the next orphanage further down the road. We started this time with lunch during which we all sang and prayed together. It was particularly moving when one of the children came up and sang by themselves a song they wished to share. A couple others followed suit! How beautiful it was!! Once they were finished eating we brought in their brand new clothes and watched as faces lit up across the room! Before we left we noted that their supplies were all but gone, so we ended up leaving them a bulk our remaining supplies. Last but not least, we left them with the mission ball, the one world ball and the New Testament book. At that point we were getting a little hungry and headed back to New Life for lunch … yum, yum. We boarded the bus to take our longest journey of the day to an orphanage an hour away. We were excited and happy given our first two experiences of the morning. Pouring rain accompanied our journey, which at first we thought a blessing to cool us down. After the hour trip, we were about a mile away and realized after some debate and deliberation by pastor Bob that we could not continue on our way in fear of getting stuck in the mud with a big bus and lots of people!! Yikes… not expected!!! We then worked and worked and worked to get the bus turned around on the muddy road!! It almost seemed impossible given the conditions, but after a half an hour we were on our way!! We dropped the orphanage supplies off at a local law enforcement office to be delivered when the roads were better. We created quite a scene and attracted many locals, so on the way out we tossed a new soccer ball out the window in their direction which they fought over but we quickly moved away as not to cause a riot! From there, we stopped at Metal Works – a Haitian art which is garbage tins turned into art work. This area was a village of shops. We bought many items and supported the Haitian community. We made our way back to New Life to spend the remainder of the day with the kids.
