Well, where do I even begin? Mwen rele Jessie. 🙂 (My name is Jessie) This is my first complete Creole sentence!
Wow, what a wonderful, wonderful place to dive in. Let me update you first for those of you who don’t know a lot about Seth and I. My husband, Seth, and I are the ones from Illinois, not Texas, that have come to help Karen for a year. We had originally planned to teach overseas and leave next August for the job. However, when we started to search for such a job, we ran across HATS ad on our college’s website and praise God that we did!! We contacted Karen in the middle of December and after several e-mails and phone calls we decided to come visit. We were suppose to come for a week in January to check it out. My passport didn’t come, so plans fell through. Karen contacted us later that week to ask if we would come for a whole year instead. We had been praying about a week and had a peace about that, but a WHOLE year! We finally decided in the middle of January to come and here we are a month and a half later. Thank God we are! We have had such a peace through the whole process and now we fit right in at home.
You’ve heard about what we’ve done the past few days, most of it being truth. 🙂 So, I will pick up on Monday night. The group said good bye to the children and came in for our last devotion time together. This was such an encouraging and sad time for Seth and I. We had really become family with the Texas group. They made our transition so easy and we bonded really well. Thank you Texas group for your hospitality and friendship. To end Monday night, the group discussed their week and what they had learned. We also laughed at the difference of the two experiences, (the one group at HATS and the other group at a different mission) but ultimately just praising God for the things and people we experienced this week. The group prayed over Seth, Karen, and I for next years work, our unity, Seth and I’s marriage, and the children’s growth. What an encouragement you all were to us! Thank you again.
Tuesday morning the group was up by 3:30 am. They were suppose to be off by 4:30, but as we all know in Haiti things don’t always go as planned. The bus was right on “Haitian” time and Brooks (the young man who did the illusionist show the previous afternoon) proceeded to try an illusion before getting on the bus. Both set back the group just a bit. The first resulted in the bus showing up around 5:00 and the second resulted in Brooks landing in a muddy creek (don’t tell him that it was actually a filthy, nasty, dirty, polluted, disgusting, sewage infested canal). He had to go up and get a quick shower before they took off to Port au Prince. Brooks, I hope you got the first class you wanted on the way back just so no one in the group had to sit next to you!
Seth and I got to get up that morning with Ti Luckner. Man, I know you guys have heard a ton about him, but he is everything they say he is! He is gorgeous, wonderful, handsome, and so, so intelligent. Seth and I have come to learn he loves to be tickled, to see his Papa and Mama, and most of all he loves his mamba= peanut butter. (not his mambo, which I accidentally said and got laughed at by Ti Luckner and his Mama because that means a Voodoo Priestess in Creole and they both did not want one of those with their bread) We got to dress him, feed him, and most importantly laugh at cartoons with him.
The rest of the day involved planting grass seed, watering the yard, and playing with the beautiful children. Man, what a good day of rest for Seth and I after the “leader” of the Texas team worked us to death. 🙂 But, truly, God has blessed this place and our lives by putting us here! These children, Karen, and this mission bring such joy to us.
In the evening, Seth, Karen, Ti Luc, and I went to visit Luckner’s home, business, trade school, and everything else he has there. That man has quite the brain! We sat and visited and just relaxed as the sun went down. Did I mention it is 85 degrees here almost everyday, so you have to really embrace the cool breeze in the evening.
Wednesday started off with devotion time with the children and the staff. I like this time a lot now, but I am really going to love having this time in the morning, as soon as I learn the words and meanings to the worship songs! 🙂 Karen went over to the school in the morning to help three girls from the school prepare a meal for the soccer boys. The boys had practice in the morning and the girls always make lunch for them to eat before they go home. Karen helped the girls round up the supplies needed.
As Karen did this, Seth added some more purple to the boys home and I packed up the mattresses, sheets, pillows, and tents from the Texas team.
After lunch, we went over to the school and had the best, I mean absolute best Creole teacher, Luckner. We spent a little under an hour in the classroom at the school, just the 4 of us, practicing and learning Creole. I also learned a little Canadian English. They do not have a Z (eee) . I don’t know if they know this or not, but it is a pretty important letter (I guess they all say “EH!” too and we don’t get on them about that).
The afternoon finished up with chasing down plumbing parts, fixing water lines, and playing with the children.
I have a couple of things for the Texas group.
1. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for the bag of M and M’s. Seth and I believe we have enough for one everyday and after Sunday lunch! 🙂 Totaling 832. We will let you know if our prediction is correct as soon as we count them.
2. David was a bit untruthful about the bluebell ice cream and Sonic, however, I just want to state officially who Karen must like better. The day the Texas group left, the exact same day!, she brought cookies and cream ice cream from St. Marc on their return from Port au Prince. She claims it is a rarity to find so she had to buy it, but we all know the real truth! I will say proudly that tonight we will be having ice cream! And if you don`t believe me I say to you come down and see for yourself!
Well, time to wrap it up. Seth is currently outside playing with the children and practicing soccer with Vladimy and my heart longs to be there! Goodbye for now!
~Jessie
