Our weekend usually starts with a 6 am Saturday walk along the canal with the older children.  Just the older kids come as we walk much further than little legs could go.

a local on horseback passing us on our walk

We reserve our short walks to the mango trees for just before supper (and after the day has cooled off a little) with all of the children. This past Saturday we chose to go “anba” – down the canal to the little bridge and then back up the other side. As usual we saw locals doing their laundry in the canal and an assortment of animals grazing.

horses grazing by the canal

This is a great time for Mike and me to learn new Creole words and to help the kids learn some more English. I must admit, these kids know a LOT more English than we know Creole! Why do we walk so early, you ask? It is just the right temperature for a walk at 6am…maybe around 25 degrees (Celsius) and by the time we get back around 7 or 7:30, it is starting to get HOT. This past Saturday we learned that the name for a tarantula is “araigne”. (Thank goodness the kids just say tarantula, though. We don’t want that word lost in translation!) Yes, we have somehow found ourselves in Haiti during the season that new tarantulas are born.

baby tarantula – yes, it’s a blurry photo, but wouldn’t you be shaking this close to one?

But it is also the time that most other animals are being born. We enjoy seeing the baby chickens “ti poul”, as well as little goats, cows, horses and donkeys. We were playfully chased by a herd of goats (do goats form herds??) the other morning on our walk.

The morning walks give us time to reflect on our time in Haiti at HATS. We are so blessed by the local people we have met who have welcomed us to their country and their culture and especially by the children at HATS.

Being silly with Anne and Sandra

Mike with his friends, Dickieson (Sonson) and Magdela

~Mike and Nicki