Beate

So, Thursday night the local Disco blared music (rap) into the wee hours of the night…and Friday night, we were blessed with a church service that also lasted well into the night…just when I got used to the dogs, the roosters, the truck horns!

It was very humid yesterday, but the sewing club continued, and the kids will soon be ready for the big fashion show. It is amazing how well they have taken to this. I so want to thank the ladies for their generous time and energy. What troopers they are, even when they were melting in the devotion room. Today, we are putting some fans on in the room…whew…we should have thought about that earlier.

We spent Friday afternoon pretty low key by resting…

siesta in the afternoon

… or colouring with the kids. They love colouring and everyone was super quiet for at least an hour. I spent some time with Ti Luc as well working on a new blog. We come up with a sentence, and he sounds it out, types it…I teach some spelling and grammar rules and explain to Ti Luc that English is a silly language and if we al wrot it ot foneticly we wud al stil be abel to red it dont u thik?

colouring fun

Ti-Fi and Beate love to colour together

Ti Luc’s Friday blog

Heather and I set up a punching bag style contraption for Ti Luc to practice using his arms. Man does he have a great right hook..watch out! Of course he fell  over laughing when it was my turn.

One of the families that we help to support is yet to pick up their box of food (cornmeal and rice), and Karen is worried that something has happened. There is no way for many people to communicate. Only the lucky ones have cell phones (which are about 5 to 10 years behind what we have) , and minutes are purchased by cards or by texting the phone company. I do hope that everything is okay with the family.

NEWS FLASH…you won’t believe this. We popped over to the market this morning and quickly drove through the hospital grounds. Karen sees a young man, and asks him to join us in the truck. Then she explains that he is the one who was getting the box of food. Halleluiah! What a message from above.

Food for Josue

As you know, Ti Luc is a very independent boy; however, he does need help with many things. It may be hard for visitors to jump right in and help because there are certain ways to help Ti Luc (boy oh boy, he let’s you know too … hee hee). I came into the kitchen last night, and saw Heather giving Ti Luc a drink. The first attempt wasn’t too successful, but water does dry fast around here. Ti Luc got Germaine to demonstrate how it’s really done. Then he said “now you do. “ Such a smart cookie he is, and la voila, Heather managed beautifully. Way to go!

Heather learning how to give  Ti Luc a drink

This morning we woke up around 6:30 and since it’s Saturday, we don’t have devotions. Germaine made us her famous oatmeal again…YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY…Then we started sorting through the wonderful gifts people blessed HATS with.  Karen chooses things for our kids, and the rest is distributed to the community.

sorting the blessings

~Beate

Ronaele

What a day today was!  What I thought a would be a simple trip to the market was…A HAITIAN ADVENTURE!  White girls at the market…hmm…who would have thought we would be so INTERESTING!  The fact that we stuck out is an understatement.  I will never again complain when Walmart is crowded, let me tell you!!  And the variety of things to see & buy…from cosmetics, soaps, rice, cilantro & spices, fresh veggies…goat, chickens, roosters, pop, more goats…I said to my mom, who is my travel companion on this trip…”we’re not in Kansas (CANADA) anymore!”

looking for our car in the parking lot

two blancs, 3 machetes are we safe

When we got back home we ate & then got to work on the last leg of the sewing projects with the 5 kids.  Smiles of pride on their finished projects.  Gemima is the natural seamstress…so patient & perfection is her goal…no job is too tedious.  Had we more time, she would be taken under mothers’ wing & taught further…she is simply an amazing sewer.  At the end, we used scraps of fabric to make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle masks…the little ones were absolutely thrilled with this!  Little Jonathan came over to give me a huge hug with his mask on…this was obviously right up his alley.  Soon we had 16 ninja’s running around laughing in their game of make believe.  This trip has been wonderful.  I soon begin a course on Haitian Creole which I hope will allow me to at least get by for my next time in Haiti without someone having to interpret it lol.  The sun is setting now in the Haitian sky & the kids are winding down for the day.  Tomorrow is sure to bring a whole new set of good times as we spend our last full day with the children before heading back to Canada.

~Ronaele

Heather

Sew, sew good! You can’t imagine the sheer joy on the children’s faces when they finished sewing the legs on their shorts…eyes were wide, and so were the smile! Tomorrow…waistbands!

Under Laree’s guidance, we taught the kids to thread bobbins, as well as the machines. We had been doing it for them when we started, but the children need to be able to sustain the machines and learn to do it for themselves after we’re gone. They are SO focused and eager to learn that it took them no time to “get ‘er done”! But because we are teaching more children than there are machines, they have had to be very patient waiting their turns. That’s when we noticed one of the boys hand sewing on a piece of paper–no pattern–but there were just holes in the paper, and he delicately wove the needle and thread through the lines he made. It wasn’t long before the rest of the children had needle, thread, and paper, and they were sewing their names on their scribblers. Their joy at such simplicity was a little tap on the shoulder that it’s not about the bells and whistles for these children.

Once the machines were away, I had some time to hang out in the yard, but I wasn’t alone for long. Three beautiful little faces came to squish themselves on the green bench beside me. Before I knew it, they turned into a little team of hairdressers braiding my hair. Three tiny twigs broken off the tree beside us turned into combs for separating my hair into pieces. There was much twisting and tugging, but braids eventually made an appearance in my hair, and the girls were so proud of their work.

Then, with 16 kids in tow, we took a walk along the canal outside the orphanage, all the way to the mango tree, which really isn’t that far, but when you have that many children, from 3-13 years, it makes for a pretty significant family outing.

After some tree climbing and rock throwing, 4 year old Sandra in her little green dress, grabbed my hand and wanted to ‘kouri’ (Creole for ‘run’) as fast as we could, which was no easy task for me in this heat. I tried to interest her in stopping to ‘talk’ to the billy goats grazing at the side of  the canal, but she would have no part of that, so I ‘kouried’ as fast as I could. I hate to admit that I was counting the hours until I could put my head down and zip up my tent, but there were computer lessons to be done first.

Moise, Djemima, Leica, and J.J. come to the main house every night around 7 for at least an hour to learn computer basics on their laptops. They have made great progress in only 3 evenings of work, but I will never forget the look of pride on Moise’s face and in his voice when he read me the 4 sentences he had written in English. The teacher in me was just as excited for him and very proud of him.

With laptops finally put away and crickets out in full force, it was time to make the trek up the concrete stairs and put another day to bed, and all I can say is it was ‘sew’…’sew’ good! :). One thing we all quickly come to realize, that this glorious place would not ever be possible without Karen’s hard work and dedication. She’s an angel on earth!

what an angel…wait is that halo a bit crooked

~Heather