130 Gifts are Complete! We did ~130 gifts, we may need up to 100 although with extra’s Mom will be all set and have gifts she can give out for other occasions as needed. We’ll be handing them out on Sunday at church. Today Alexa is combing, cleaning and dressing all her Barbie’s so she can wrap them up for the kids here. Christmas is celebrated on the 24th so we’re in full prep mode today! Mom had a turkey given to her by the UN for thanksgiving and she saved it for tomorrow. Gotta get that in the brine soon, Mom is SOOO excited about having a traditional Cdn feast instead of Christmas rice and beans

Our Assembly Line

Sample Gift

Report Card Day. It’s SO different than in Canada. School got out a week ago and today the kids (or parent) were to come back to pick up their report card. Many of the kids are away with their other parent so there were a lot of parents in the room. Everyone was in one room and it started with a speech by Luckner, the Director, who would be our version of the Principal. He talked to the parents about being responsible and getting their kids to school on time and talked to the kids about working hard since people are paying for their education. This part took about ½ an hour and they room was VERY quiet with little shuffling or movement. It was so amazing to watch. Then, in front of the entire room, their average is read out for everyone to hear. The process took about 2hours.

Waiting for Report Cards

Ti Luc was dressed and ready to head over to the school until Luckner showed up at the house. Luckner, as Director, was in dress slacks and a crisp white top so Ti Luc insisted on changing. He picked out his new outfit himself and insisted on being changed into it.

Ti Luc and Mom

Biting Ants: Lex has a bad case of Stomach upset and is spending much of her day in the bathroom so last night we slept in the room. Tonight we are definitely sleeping in the tents. As I awoke I discovered something had marched through my bed in the middle of the night and in their path was my right hand and face. 14 bites on my hand and 9 on my face and another half dozen random spots. Germaine inspected me and says it’s ants. She found a red ant nest in the bathroom yesterday (when cleaning up after the spider episode) although it’s not those. It’s the teeny tiny spec ants that were in my underwear drawer looking for Candy Canes (prior blog). Last night I was eating ‘can’ (Sugar Cane) and although I washed up before bed I must have had a little on my hand and face and the ants were eating me to get the ‘can’. She’s in my room spraying right now although I loved sleeping out in the tent and now have a really good excuse to get Lex to sleep out there too! A teeny bit of can must have fallen from my clothes onto the floor and that was swarming with ants when Germaine did her inspection. For perspective the red thing that looks like a hot dog is actually one of those mini advils. Lesson of the day, Sugar is evil AND it’s my own fault so suck it up princess!

For the record my Mom’s house is Extremely clean, it’s just that we live around bugs here and it simply can’t be avoided.

Ants on Sugar Cane with a mini advil for perspective

As I was chasing a Gecko for a photo I discovered a dead rat so asked mom what to do. She yelled to Jacques I had a gift for him. When I showed him the spot he burst out laughing and said ‘Mesi pou bel kado sa’ (thanks for that nice gift) and since he has seen me taking photos of all kinds of people and wildlife he asked me if I wanted to take a photo of him with his bel kado (en francais: belle cadeau), so I did, lol

Jacques with his ‘gift’

A few nights ago I was trying to get a lovely family portrait of my children with their uncle Ti Luc. They were quite the group of fools and this is the best shot I could get. It really speaks to their personalities! Ti Luc has today changed his name to Jared and Jared is Ti Luc. Jared has even mastered dressing Ti Luc! I’ll share more about Ti Luc as soon as I have more time

My kds with Uncle Ti Luk

I have 3 more benches to paint today so I best get at it. By Haiti time I’ve wasted a lot of the day cause it’s already 8:50am and I’m not moving and shaking yet!

~Dana