Day 3
(revision 6/30 for Sunday, but it relates - No pics, but I forgot to mention Joe's encounter with a large sea urchin. We had some relaxation time after returning back to Kaliko from lunch at the site, so we decided to hit the beautiful beach.
Joe thought that he stepped on a broken bottle when it happened, since the pain was pretty sharp. No glass bottle, just a sea urchin. So glad I brought my sport/water sandals! It wasn't a fun way to start the week. Andrew, being an RN, tried to soak his foot with citrus juice (the acid from citrus or vinegar usually helps to open up the pores to be able to pull out the splinters). Nothing really worked, though. He left to begin prep work shortly thereafter. There are many still left imbedded in his foot, but thankfully, they did not bother him too much during the work week. Another memory! He says that he wants to go out for sushi and try sea urchin as payback. ha! )
Joe & some of the other men actually began prep work on Sunday afternoon. "We'll just be there an hour or so to get some things started." mmmhmmm. They were there until evening, past our 6pm dinner hour. What a bunch of great & dedicated guys!
Here are some of them. This photo was actually taken on Sunday, when we broke up into groups after church. On the left photo, you can see Kathleen in the hat. Kathleen was the main "water girl". She did a tremendous job (along with helpers) of making sure everyone on the work site (construction, agriculture, and VBS) had full water bottles and that we were actually drinking! Antonio and many others helped to be her runners to aid with this super, important duty. Everyone worked so hard and no job was too small. I am still amazed at the team unity. You could just feel the energy!
Constructions workers were greatly needed, due to the lofty goals for completion for week 1. Joe & Antonio worked their part on this team for the remainder of the week, ALL day. Antonio did help with VBS one afternoon, since it was on the property. This is one of the rare pics I was able to get of Antonio. On day 1, he mainly helped by loading and unloading materials from the trailers. The materials needed to be loaded and unloaded everyday, to be sure that they remained secure for the next working day.
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| Steve & Albert |
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| Antonio - we need to work on this boy's posture! :) |
In-between the two large trailers (photo on upper right), a port-o-potty was stationed. Not sure which was the better choice, the potty or dear Marselle's toilet.
Below was one of the few shady spots for the work crews. VBS also did have use of the tents from church day. It's hard to describe the intensity of the heat.
I did very little with agriculture. Unfortunately, their work, along with construction, was too physical for me. Ag team was really awesome, though, and were such hard workers! Everything in the pics was built from scratch. No kits here!
Below, Deena (sorry if I misspelled it!) worked so hard that they
named her MVP of Ag Team.
She really was. I so admire her dedication.
Tash & I worked VBS on day 1. We had already met some faces from church the day prior, so it was nice to have a tiny bit of familiarity. I had learned some hand motions to go along with a few songs, so a group of us opened with that & fun music. Our translator was fantastic and helped to really get the kids energized. By the second song, they were getting into it and following along. This was really fun. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces. Even the big kids, translators, and some of the moms were entertained.
VBS was organized into 5 different groups. We had Bible story time, snack, coloring, and two different game/activity sections that we cycled the kids through. Overall, the kids really seemed to enjoy it. I only worked VBS today, but Tash began connecting to some of the kids right away and felt led to continue with them daily to form relationships. Miss Jody loved having her be part of her team.
We are so proud of Tash for how she took ownership of her ministry areas and how she connected with the kids. They asked for her whenever she wasn't around in the afternoons.
There is Miss Jody in the hat - our VBS Queen.
This cutie wouldn't let me take her picture, until she saw the photo of her two friends above. Then she insisted. :)
Tash with one of her new friends, Simsa (in blue shirt).
The kids LOVED scrolling through our photos.
Olivia had a fancy camera, so I can't wait to see her shots.
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| Megan |
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| Haley |
Below is Daphne with Tash. She was quite a little ham. She loved the camera, posing, & taking pics.
Daphne with Almondo (who stole my heart, along with several others). Almondo is a 16yr old boy who has never had the luxury of going to school. He has really wanted an education, but he was never allowed because his family could not afford the tuition, books, and uniform. His mother, Geselia, is blind because she probably needs cataract surgery (like so many locals). His father left the family to practice voodoo (which one of his brothers blames as the cause for their mother's blindness). Currently, Almondo only lives with his mother, not too far from the PR job site. Almondo came along with us and helped with tours through the fields & community during evangelism walks. After this first day, our evangelism team was honored to help lead him to a decision for Christ. It was an awesome moment. This young man's life will forever be changed & we got to be a small part of it.
Tash & Almondo. He looked for us everyday. :)
After VBS, while waiting for lunchtime, I was able to meet & chat a tiny bit with some of the local older girls and some of their mothers. I just wish I could have gotten past the "hello, how are you, what is your name, my name is Mirka, Natasha is my daughter, etc." I hope that they at least appreciated my small effort. I thought that Estella, below, was so very beautiful. I asked her if I could take a picture of her to show my friends. Her skin was like porcelain! I should have asked her what she used! :)
Not far from where Estella sat, was a dear man that I spoke to at length (with Oliby <oh lee beh>, one of PR's fabulous translators). I struck up a conversation with him when I asked what he was doing walking around with a machete. He was going to use it out in the field to cut things down with & I told him that I was afraid that he might need it to kill some big snake (thankfully, I saw no snakes all week). He laughed. I wish I could remember his name because he was so loveable, but it was really long & I couldn't exactly understand it. I was thrilled to know that he was a Jesus follower. His children live in South Carolina (or North?). He sweetly declined a photo request, because he thought that it would be inappropriate because we were both Christians and a male and female. He was even concerned that my husband might be a jealous man (I tried not to giggle. I think he was in his 70's or so). I told him that I would look forward to meeting him in Glory-land some day. :)
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| Here is Oliby, such a handsome & kind young man. I think we need to find him a girlfriend! ;) |
Orphanage team returned to the work site daily for lunch. Kids of all ages were anxious to be helpers!
Lunchtime, as the locals observed.
We had a coconut vendor every day, starting Tuesday, a friend of Marselle's.
Wish I had one right now!
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| Stefanie - one of our loyal Orphanage Team leaders |
Lunch was also a good time to get water refills (with cold ice!).
After lunch, Matt & Andrew thought it would be a grand idea to put up a bouncy station for the neighboring kids. This would help keep them away from the work sites & stay out of trouble. Wow, they were SO excited! I don't think any of them had ever seen anything like this before. Sadly, it only lasted until Tuesday. The kids began bringing nails & other things into it, so it was becoming a bit of a danger. It was fun while it lasted, though!
While the bouncy station successfully took off, Tash & I joined some of the evangelism team this afternoon. I was a little nervous, but God took the lead and it was an amazing experience. We walked through the surrounding community (& beyond). We introduced ourselves and told them a little bit about PR. We asked them if they knew Jesus and shared with those who did not understand what it meant to have a real relationship with Him. Knowing about Christ is one thing (even Satan & his demons know who He is). Acknowledging and believing in Him and what he did for us is another. It was nice to come across several Believers. We asked the people if there was anything that we could pray with them about. Below is a mom and her daughters who we met this day. She wanted prayer for work. She is a seamstress, but is really struggling to provide for her family. She also wanted prayer for her older daughter to be able to go to school. She has only been able to complete second grade.
Overall, the people were really receptive and appreciative of the work that PR is doing in their community. Amazing things happened with the evangelism teams. About 70 people gave their lives to Christ and about 17 physical healings took place. The lord is moving in this village! It will a wonderful thing when PR will be able to provide a place of worship near them one day.
Tuessday - June 23, 2015
Day 4
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| Jackie (Matt's wife) with Jacob - such a cute, happy baby |
After breakfast, we were scheduled for a daily am quiet time with the Lord with a focus on Galations. We then walked the long driveway up to catch our buses. One bus went to the work site, while a second went to the orphanage. I really enjoyed meeting some of our fabulous team members & getting to know so many new Keystone faces!
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| Michelle (her husband Ryan was one of the construction leaders), and Jessica (one of the orphanage team leaders) |
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| Matt Jones, making sure we got the ice! Laura in the background. |
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| On the way to the orphanage |
This was pretty fascinating. Some locals built concrete walls with broken bottles inserted at the top as a security measure. Pretty clever.
Tash remained with Miss Jody & her VBS buddies and I would spend mornings at the orphanage for the rest of our work week. It was fun being with Jessica, Stefanie, Crystal, Alicia, & the rest of the orphanage team members. Their enthusiasm, energy, & organization was fantastic. Tash would remain with this team for afternoons at the orphanage.
I added photos to the following. Below is a majority portion of Jessica Flack's blog for Tuesday. I was with her & her fabulous crew. This is a great reflection of our day.
( https://jesshappyloveshaiti.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/day-4-last-day-at-miss-phyllis-orphanage/?fb_action_ids=10101118201991307&fb_action_types=news.publishes )
June 23rd, 2015Day 4: Last Day at Miss Phyllis’ Orphanage
...we met our orphanage volunteers in the lobby at 8:15am (after assigned quiet time) to fill water balloons. The water balloons are part of our Field Day today. We made an assembly line and filled them as a team, the kids will love this!
...we met our orphanage volunteers in the lobby at 8:15am (after assigned quiet time) to fill water balloons. The water balloons are part of our Field Day today. We made an assembly line and filled them as a team, the kids will love this!
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| Stefanie, Michelle, & Jessica - preparing water balloons |
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| Jessica, Crystal, & Stefanie - Orphanage leaders |
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| Alicia |
We boarded the bus and headed to the orphanage. The kids were excited to see us and this time we recognized their smiling faces. We started with organized dance as the kids arrived. It ended up being mainly us but some ventured out to learn the dances as well. Vanessa was good and we made her join us! Today Stef introduced a new dance to “Bang Bang” by Arianna Grande.
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| I love the heart design on the wall. Great for an orphanage! |
Medical clinic next to orphanage. People walk for days & line up for hours to get medical assistance.
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| Hannah, Stefanie, & Jess |
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| Some of the kids joined in! |
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| Stefanie got Albert to join in too. :) |
Once most of the kids arrived, we set up the Field Day event. There was wheelbarrow races where the kids held each other’s ankles, soccer dribbling, dizzy bat relay, running whiffle balls between their knees, passing goldfish from spoon to spoon using only your mouth and no hands, a three-legged race, and a race to the middle when your number is called to grab the ball before your component. We organized it by ages because we felt that would be better here. The kids had a BLAST moving from station to station and participating in these events. It took pretty much the entire time. We had our 3 translators with us the whole time and they were amazing as always… Especially Vanessa. At the end we lined them up and showed them our water balloons we had prepared. They were thrilled and listened so nicely when we gave them one and told them not to throw it yet. One line threw it to the other and then took a step further away. We did this continuously until they all popped. It was SO hot that it felt amazing and I think we all secretly hoped it would pop on us. The kids had the biggest smiles on their faces!! That is, after all, our ultimate goal :)
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| Crystal & Alicia |
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| Alicia & Ruthie |
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| Wheelbarrow race |
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| Abigail with one of the kids |
This was a favorite activity.
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| 3 of our translators, Jackson, Vanessa, & Duma, join the fun. |
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| Some of the games were organized under the trees. Shade, such a precious commodity! |
Some of our younger friends were entertained with coloring.
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| Hailey with Ruthie |
Ale, ale, ale! (Go, go, go!)
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| Vanessa |
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| Jackson |
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| Look at that sweet face! |
We then started to clean up and pack up. This is when Lucian asked us to be quiet so he could make a speech (he is a teen who is mature beyond his years). In his speech he thanked us for our kindness and generosity. He said that he cannot even find in his heart the right words to show us how much they appreciated us coming and caring for them. He said he blessed our travels home and hope we would come again and share our love with others. Wow! It brought me right to tears of course. How well spoken and kind-hearted!! Lucian then told me that he has What’s App and Facebook!!!! Woo hoo! That was never the case in Africa and won’t be at our second orphanage. I wished him luck and told him he will move on to do great things in this world! We hugged and waved goodbye and left for the PR site.
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| Miss Phyllis & Lucien A little bit about Miss Phyllis. I found out that she is from Jamaica & has run this orphanage for about 40 years (!!!). She runs a tight ship, but these kids are well-cared for. In reality, most children are probably better off in orphanages in Haiti than they are with their families. It is a sad reality, but they are given consistency, food, clothing, sometimes shoes, & sometimes an education. Miss Phyllis' orphanage has a "closed" rule for adoptions. Her goal is to raise up kids to be responsible, loving adults, who also know the Lord & can give back to their community. A wonderful goal! |
We also went to check out the progress of the construction team and they had all four walls of the building up!!! They are doing amazing things in this super hot sun.
We have officially raised the first wall for our second story!
Our team has been working so hard to make awesome progress on our building-- and we are so thankful!
Stay tuned for more progress as this week and next week go by. #PovertyResolutions #POVRES #Haiti#trips #comewithus #building #construction #contractors #volunteers
#workhard#raisethemup #HaitiTrips2015 #Haiti2015 #bethedifference #awarenessactionimpact
This was pretty exciting on Tuesday:
We have officially raised the first wall for our second story!
Our team has been working so hard to make awesome progress on our building-- and we are so thankful!
Stay tuned for more progress as this week and next week go by. #PovertyResolutions #POVRES #Haiti#trips #comewithus #building #construction #contractors #volunteers
#workhard#raisethemup #HaitiTrips2015 #Haiti2015 #bethedifference #awarenessactionimpact
I wish that I could have witnessed this in person. The busload spontaneously erupted into applause as they pulled up to witness this event, just in time!
Time was up and we headed back onto the bus. This time we went to the orphanage that we will be at for the rest of this week and all of next week… Odeebwa. This orphanage was not as fortunate as the other. It was A LOT smaller and there was no grass. The land was all rocks and pebbles. The kids were all barefoot and dirty. It broke my heart until I saw the smiles on their faces when we arrived. We exited the bus and they ran to us, giving us hugs. Regina was my new sidekick and I got immediate hugs from her. She then never left my side. We were told to take these two hours just to meet the kids and play with them… No lessons. We decided to take out coloring materials and draw a while. They loved this of course. Then we decided to teach them some of the organized dances. After that we danced in a big circle and held hands. These kids melt my heart!! Once the dancing was over, I got a tour of the orphanage in a small group. We started at their church. It was cute and what I expected of a church in Haiti (pictures on Facebook). We then got a tour of their school. It was three classrooms that served grades 1-8. These classrooms were all separate rooms and you had to go outside to exit one and enter another. We were told they had paper and pencils but ran out. They need more very badly along with any books for any age in French, Creole, or English. The room had a blackboard and benches (similar to a one room schoolhouse… pictures also online). I took an adorable photo of a handsome young boy sitting in his classroom. I kept thinking through this whole tour about how the elementary school I work at just gave away or got rid of so many books When we need paper or pencils we literally order them that day and they show up the next, as many as we need. I complained last week that I was only getting 8 new Math textbooks for my 50 Math students. Now I am kicking myself for even saying that… How lucky I am to have 8!! I want to collect bags and boxes full of paper, writing utensils, and books to send them!!!!
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| Entering the orphanage. |
 They have their own chapel.  | ||
This gazebo was our refuge for shade and our main playing area.
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| Our first day was more of a meet-n-greet with some music & coloring (even if it wasn't only on paper :) ) |
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| More puppies! There were 4 adorable ones at this orphanage. So weak & little, though. :( |
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| I love this! Don't know who drew it, but stole pic from Jess. |
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| Tash with Kiki (this tiny boy was a hoot!) |
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| Bob, Alicia, Duma, Crystal, Jackson, Vanessa, birthday boy (can't remember his name), DiPapa' (sp? - one of our main bus drivers, Vanessa's uncle) |
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| The school building |
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One of 2 school rooms. This boy is so proud & happy (though the school is currently out of books, writing utensils & all supplies. :( )
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One of the rooms. There are 2 rooms - one for the girls & the other for the boys. The housing will soon be for girls only, after completion of a new boy's dormitory on the premises.
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| The orphanage is led by a local pastor & his wife. This is their precious baby girl. Such a little doll! |
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| To the right of the dorms is the pastor & his family's home. |
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| Stefanie, Jessica, & Crystal |
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| This is my little friend, Nathalène. She literally clung to me from the moment we met. It was hard to say goodbye on Thursday. |
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| This is Natalíe, I'm pretty sure she's Natahlène's sister, my other buddy. |
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| Afternoon time was sleepy time (just like it is for me!). Some of the kids fell asleep under the gazebo or on our laps. |
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| Picture time. They too loved looking through photos. |
We left the orphanage and will be returning tomorrow. The bus brought us back, sweaty and dirty, yet happy to have the breeze from the window.
Yesterday at dinner they grilled steaks and chicken. Today they grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. It was Emma’s 14th birthday so we sang to her and they brought her a birthday cake made of fruit and a present from the staff. It was adorable! She is adorable! Honestly, the teens here with us are amazing!! I would hope my future kids are similar to these well-rounded and beautiful teens.
Next we moved onto our daily night meeting at Kay Bay hall. Matt Jones spoke and we agreed that we can listen to him speak forever. He spoke about Galatians and how life can get so busy running from one event to the other. We need to take the time to remember that we are enjoying these moments because of Him and we sometimes get too wrapped up in a busy life. This is so true and I am guilty of this many times over!
After the meeting I saw that I already had a message from Lucian (the teen at the orphanage). He messaged me that he missed me so much already! Aw, melts my heart! I wrote him back and told him I missed him more. I also sent him the photos of us and him in a group. What a great kid!!! So glad we can keep in touch so easily For about two hours after dinner I sat in the lobby with Alicia, Stefanie, Larry, Albert, and John. We shared stories.....
Dinner at Kaliko! We had a little entertainment every night.
Was I the only one that wanted to dance?
We had nightly meetings, just after dinner. I missed most of the sunsets, but the ones I caught were spectacular! Glorious ocean views.
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