Celebrating Haiti’s National Holiday

Hello all, Holly and Alycia here – the youngins of the group! Today is a national holiday in Haiti; it is basically similar to Labor Day in Canada. Therefore, we were able to play with the children all day as they didn’t have to attend school! Yay!

First of all, we should recap the events of last night as they were quite interesting to say the least. As we all settled down for the night upstairs in our tents, we heard a big crash followed by a door slam and a shriek from Karen “GET OUT OF HERE NOW”. Needless to say, we were in a panic as we did not know what was happening downstairs. Holly quickly changed into a sergeant, ordering one-armed Don out of his tent and down over the stairs to check out the commotion while also demanding Cavell to calm down and stay put!  When Don returned in a laughing fit, he explained that Karen had accidently knocked down a glass picture frame in her room causing the big crash.

Then she was bombarded by some unwanted critters causing her to yell andrun into her bathroom and slam her door! HAHA! Holly quickly
turned off sergeant mode while we all had a laugh. This morning we had a great laugh over breakfast with Lois, Brad and Kaeli and last night’s events have been the running joke of the day. Our day was relaxing, due to the holiday and the boss lady being away for the day with Ti Luc.(Karen and Ti Luc were overnighting in Port au Prince and attending a lovely party hosted by the Vice-Consul of the Canadian Embassy for a Volunteer Newfoundland Medical Team and others from the Embassy.)

After breakfast, Brad led us on a tour of the entire compound. After lunch, Doreen, Kaeli and Lois sat down with the older girls to continue their cross-stitch project. Moise and JJ wanted to join and learned quickly. Everyone is fully enjoying this new craft!

The afternoon brought us a vibrant game of soccer in the school courtyard. The players included Brad, Steven, Moise, JJ, Sarah, Peter, and Vlademy. They had a great bunch of spectators/cheerleaders who loved watching them play!

While the soccer game was taking place, the little ones were occupied by parachute games with Cavell, Doreen and Lois.

Then, the children had a great time playing with a brand new hoola hoop that Cavell had given them.

After another wonderful supper prepared by the lovely staff here at HATS, we were put to work for a short while portioning cooking oil. These will be included in the food packages that will be distributed to families in the community.

When 6:30 p.m. hit, we all gathered outside for devotions. It is always wonderful to hear the children sing, especially the wee little ones Jonathan and Sandra! It
melts our hearts every time!Before bed time, everyone had barrels of fun goofing around and playing little games with the children. Peter and Moise teamed up on Holly in a water fight, ending in Holly walking back to the house soaking wet. Haha! She’s already planning her attack for tomorrow!Our heads are soon hitting the pillows as we are exhausted from a relaxing, yet fun filled day! We are excited for Karen and Ti Luc to return tomorrow as we have missed them a lot today!

~Holly & Alycia