Hanging with Haitians and Babies.... LOTS of babies!

Sak pase! Where to begin?! Today has been filled with so many new experiences. The day started out as a follow up to yesterdays painting. We painted a classroom with the help of the students at Good Shepherd. The interesting part about the painting was that they still held class while we painted! In the midst of making brush strokes, the geography teacher taught students the differences between the essential needs of Canada, the United States, and Mexico.  We really didn’t know what he was saying, but we could tell what he was teaching from the pictures that he was drawing on the board and a little help from Jean Enock.  Chalk and talk! That’s education in Haiti. In the mean time Marcelin, Junior (students that lived in the first two homes we visited on Sunday) and the video team were more than excited to work with cameras again, so excited in fact that they planned a special interview for later in the day. As the day carried on, they documented the painting and everything else that happened around the school through video. At around 10am, we and the students took a break for recess! Holly, Sarah, and Courtney took a few girls to go paint nails; Mr. Weiss, Zack, and John organized an intense game of soccer in the courtyard. Mrs. Weiss and Nicole floated around taking tons of pictures and videos which we can’t wait to share with you! Mrs. Isbell spent the entire morning catching up on the situation in Haiti and Good Shepherd with Pastor Bernard. Following recess, Zack and Mr. Weiss went with Marcelin and Junior to go film their special interview where they asked each other questions like: “what would you do if you were rich and what does Jesus mean to you? ” Their answers to all the questions were very profound. They give credit to God for everything and if they were to get rich, they would build an orphanage or figure out a way to help their friends, very selfless.  While the interview was happening, the rest of the crew finished painting a classroom and hung out upstairs in the church with some other students to sing songs. John has become quite the worship leader!  An hour later we left the school to spend a wonderful lunch at Leonard’s house.  He invited us in to eat a meal consisting of chicken, fried plantains, beans and rice, and potato salad with red beats!  It was SOOO good. After the meal, he showed us his animals, 10 goats, 21 baby ducks, 15 adult ducks, and several baby chickens and pigeons WHOA! Once we finished seeing the animals (don’t worry we didn’t touch them… customs forms in mind) Leonard busted out his accordion and played us a bit of music with his friends before we left for Mother Theresa’s Orphanage.  On the way to the orphanage, Nicole and John taught us some songs in Creole.  Some bystanders on the street thought we were pretty hilarious when they saw us singing and dancing in the land cruiser. Upon arrival at the orphanage, Leonard let us out of the car and we walked inside not really knowing what to expect besides babies and lots of them.  We walked inside and were greeted by rows of beautiful Haitian babies, some contently staring at us with big white eyes, some crying for attention, some with IV’s on the verge of death, and some sleeping.  The interesting thing about this place is that when you walk in the door, it’s assumed that you’re there to help so without asking, you’re put to work.  Before some of us knew it, we were holding babies, feeding babies, changing babies, and playing with you guessed it… BABIES! We carried on with this for about an hour and a half until it was time to go. Some people come here for a month and do this 8 hours a day. It’s truly a selfless act of service to work at this orphanage. Leaving there was an incredibly emotional experience. Something about putting them back down in the cribs just rips your heart out as they cry to be back in your arms.  We left Mother Theresa’s orphanage very somber.  With tired legs and hearts, we drove back to Walls Guest House for another great night of devotions, discussion, and planning for the next day’s adventure. Tomorrow, we travel to Montrouis to visit Nicole’s friend Jude and the ministry he’s doing there.  We’ll take a little time out tomorrow to worship with them and go to the beach, a much needed break after the whirlwind of emotions we experienced today.  Since we’ll be staying in Montrouis tomorrow night, we may not be able to blog tomorrow.  We’ll blog if we can, but if not you’ll hear from us again Thursday evening. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! Spread the word about the blog and the Facebook pictures for others to enjoy. There are so many good things happening here this week.  Au revoir!