We’ll laugh about this some day…

 

Joe, Ben, and I traveled to Comcast Arena in Everett this afternoon to see Cirque du Soleil.

Look at the date on our tickets:

Need I say more?

My Adventures at Grandma and Grandpa’s House (Or What I Did While Mommy and Daddy Were Away) -by Isla

 

           

I looked at lots of books:

I colored:

…with Ducky, of course!

I played with a bin of split peas while Grandma cooked dinner:

I played with the farm:

I took care of a doll:

I played records:

I got dressed:

I asked to go outside:

I went swinging at the park, twice:

(I asked Grandma to swing beside me):

I climbed up on the toys, but I didn’t really find that very interesting:

Here’s a picture of me at the top, anyway:

I spent quite a bit of time trying to get the rocks back where they belonged:

I hung out with my Uncle Ben:

I especially loved playing hide and seek with him:

I had snacks. (Sorry, Mom and Dad, but I forgot to keep my string cheese in the kitchen):

I did lots of other things that I don’t have pictures of, like hanging out with Grandpa. Fitting shapes into the right holes. Playing with pull and push toys. Playing with a toy parking garage. Eating. Cuddling (I only did this because I was feeling sort of sick. Don’t expect me to do it again very soon!). And I didn’t nap much. There was just too much other fun stuff to do!

Grandma would say that I spent most of my time just being cute:

Ugh! Stop taking my picture, Grandma!

Some Things You Probably Shouldn’t Do in Haiti

 

1) Don’t drink water unless you are 100% sure it’s bottled and sealed or that it’s been purified! I was tempted to try the water at the orphanage this time. (After all, it’s filtered now.) But, I’m so glad I didn’t! The kids had gotten mixed up, and they were drinking water from the wrong side of the filter (the back flow!)! Big oops!

2) Don’t eat seafood! Some people would disagree with me on this one, insisting they feel more secure eating seafood in Haiti than they do eating meat. But I’ve never gotten sick on the meat. The beef, chicken, and goat are always cooked to DEATH. But, the seafood?? Against my better judgment, I ordered shrimp Creole this time in a restaurant in St. Marc. (A little respite from the monotony of spaghetti with chicken or chicken with spaghetti at Hotel Jeffel). That night…well, I won’t go into the details. Let’s just say that I learned my lesson!

3) Never, ever, ever, ever eat Milano cookies from the grocery store in St. Marc! (Lesson learned the hard way last year.)

4) Don’t take the short cut to the airport without asking the locals first. We used to have a contact who lived at an orphanage right next to the airport, so we always had access to news of current road conditions. Not any more. Thankfully, we spent our last 2 nights of this trip at our old standby hotel, the Kaliko Beach Club.

This place is pretty nice by Haitian standards, so I sometimes feel really guilty staying there, but it’s a great way to end the week, and it’s also nice as a break in the middle of a trip. One huge blessing of finishing our trip at Kaliko this time was that we ran into several missionaries there who were aware of some recent events on the road we would have taken to the airport the next morning. “Ambush Alley” saves an hour of travel time, but it seems it was living up to its nickname right about then. Best to fight traffic in the city rather than take an unnecessary risk.

5) And finally, don’t ever go anywhere alone in Haiti without a cell phone! On our last morning, Joe dropped the rest of us off at the airport terminal and then went alone to return the rental car. In the process, he almost got himself arrested for a traffic violation. Joe went to heroic efforts to prevent the police from confiscating his driver’s license, but made them pretty mad in the process. They threatened to put him in jail. And the rest of us might never have known what happened to him, because he didn’t have a phone! What finally saved him was his Heart for Haiti calling card, evidence that he was with a Christian missions organization.

Oh yeah. And one more thing: In Mexico the police might be hoping you’ll give them a little cash. Not not necessarily true in Haiti!

Haiti 2011: The Kids!

Although most of our time was spent in meetings, we did get to spend some time with the kids, as well.

During meetings, the kids know they have to stay out of the pavilion. So these two little girls fell asleep outside during one of our meetings because they couldn’t get to their mattresses in their tent.

Once the meetings were over each day, the little kids would flock to our laps. Joe and I sponsor two of the orphans, a boy named Yves, and a girl named Junette. Both are very aware now that we are their sponsors. Junette is fairly shy. But Yves is not, and he has become quite possessive of us. He has come up with some devious ways of getting the other kids off my lap so he can take their places, should they get there first. So it was a challenge to keep him from dominating my time. Thankfully, there were other board members present to cuddle the other young kids!

Junette:

Yves:

I tried to make an effort, also, to interact with the older orphans. They want our attention just as much as the younger ones do. It’s harder to find ways to relate to them, but I find it fun, because it forces me to use my kreyòl. Most of these kids were eager to share with me what they’d been learning in school. Jacob even showed me his report card. He had a good reason to be proud of his grades!

Joe and I also sponsor a boy who lives in Bertrand but who attends the school at Terre Noire. His name is Yvetho. We didn’t get to see him much this time, but I did get to have a couple minutes of conversation with him after school one day:

 

Here are some photos of a few of the other kids at the orphanage:

This is Cemille.                            And this is Querene.

 

This is Marielle                                    

And this is Ronaldo, being held by Jeff.

Here we have Olsen and Rose Dalin with Dave V.

Here are some school kids whose names I don’t know:

This boy begged me to sponsor him. Maybe some day?

Haiti 2011 Part 3: The Schools

Esther Orelien has a really tough job. Not only is she the director of the orphanage, but she’s also the “superintendent” of the Maranatha Schools in the area. She oversees four primary schools, a secondary school, and a professional school, with a current total enrollment of around 700 kids.

Here are some of the primary school students at Terre Noire:

Here are some secondary school students at Terre Noiret: (Notice the different uniform.)

A peek at classes in session at the primary school in Pont Sonde:

And at Bertrand’s primary school:

And, finally, at the primary school at Timonet:

One of the things that’s very hard for Esther to do without a vehicle is to make sure that meals are being served in all four of our locations each school day, as our sponsors expect.It’s even harder for us, back in Bellingham. But, on this visit, we were happy to find the cooks hard at work at every school, cooking rice and beans.

Kids eating lunch at Terre Noire:

 

Lunch being cooked at Pont Sonde:

Rice and beans cooking in the kitchen at Bertrand:

Passing out the bowls:

Cooking at Timonet:

Our dream has always been to help Maranatha reach out to the community with the gospel, and we’ve pictured that being done through the churches, with the church at Terre Noire at the hub.

On Sunday morning of our trip, we attended worship services at two of the churches. First we visited Pont Sonde. Held in their modest little dirt-floored, mud school/church building, the service was alive and vibrant, in spite of the lack of musical instruments.The pastor was engaging, and the singing was beautiful. I felt humbled when the entire congregation began to pray fervently for us “missionaries” in the Haitian way: individual prayers, out loud, all spoken at the same time.

This is the church/school building at Pont Sonde:

The service at Terre Noire, on the other hand, was disappointing. Cornwall erected a new, larger building for this church several years ago to replace one that was dangerously close to collapsing. But this church at Terre Noire, a church that once planted 28 others, is obviously struggling. We’ve agonized for quite some time over the decrease in attendance and have wondered what we might be able to do to help.

On this trip, however, Pastor Dave helped us to redirect our efforts. Why not focus, instead, on what’s working? The school system is thriving and growing. Some of the schools are practically bursting at the seams. So, why not equip Maranatha to reach out into the community through the school kids? Food for thought, and definitely something to consider. One immediate result of this fresh insight is that the April mission team is now planning to do a Vacation Bible School in all four of “our” communities. Not the kind that uses a lot of “stuff.” But rather, one that uses games and stories and songs and techniques that can be reproduced by the teachers as they do daily devotions with the kids in their classrooms. Another result of this discussion was a renewed determination to get Bibles into the homes of all 700 of these school kids. We had begun this process when the earthquake hit. But in the aftermath of that tragedy, Creole Bibles become unavailable, and our plans had to be put one hold.

Another school-related task we’d hoped to accomplish while we were in Haiti this time was to gather information that might help us to develop a plan to provide post-high school education for those orphans graduating this spring, as well as one who has already completed high school. But, as with many things in Haiti, planning ahead for this turned out to be next to impossible. We discovered that a government exam taken after graduation determines one’s university choices. And because each college major costs a different amount, and each university offers a very limited choice of majors…Well, we gave up on this one, at least for this trip. So much for our idea of raising money in advance!