Yellow Backpack Adventures

 Our last day with Our Healing Haiti team. We all got ready for church and headed out at about 8:30. The singing was incredible. Some in English, Creole and French. The service was about an hour and a half. When we got back and loaded up our stuff and headed to Wahoo Bay. Swam in the beautiful blue water. It was so still and clear. One place we were jumping in off a water trampoline looked about 3 feet deep but I never hit the bottom. I’m guessing it was actually quite a bit deeper but it was just so clear. A guy offered to take us snorkeling for only 5 dollars. He had an old wooden rowboat that looked fairly shaky. Another guy later had a little boat with a motor and he took 12 of us out to snorkel. The boat was beyond loaded down. He said I sing for you and began singing I Have Decided To Follow Jesus at the top of his lungs. In English. Then he continued to sing while we were suppose to clap to the rhythm. When we had gotten out a ways we stopped. Then he told us we can’t use sn...

The plan for the day was to go to Grace church.  Healing Haiti has started a program having the kids come at certain times and they do a snack and craft. Sadly we got stuck in traffic so it took us a couple hours to get there. It was all over by the time we got there. Instead we went to Grace village and helped the kids living in the little homes there. We washed floors and dishes. And helped them to do their laundry. Each child is responsible for doing their own. We would fill a tub with water and scrub the clothes together with bar soap. Next rinse them and scrub every inch again with powder soap and rinse again. And they were super clean by the time they were done. They did a good job. No half hearted cleaning. Next we went to Haiti Deaf Academy. This is one of my favorite places yet. The kids were so sweet and respectful. They have ages 4-25. If the kids live close they stay for the school days and go home on the weekend. If they are from far away they just go home on school va...

Some of us got up 6 to get in a morning run.    I had signed up again to help the ladies make breakfast. It’s so much fun to work with them. They do not know much English but we can still find ways to communicate. We headed out to Grace village. Not exactly sure why we went there.    Today was a day to learn patience. A lot of waiting and not a lot of doing. We are on Haiti time. Eventually we left and headed up the mountain. We came to a beautiful overlook of the ocean at the top. Just gorgeous. We had devotions up there and sang Here I Am to Worship. After we went to Fleri restaurant to hang out so they could get some meals    for us to take to the elders. It would only be 15 minutes but ended up being at least an hour. We only had time to visit one elder place. I think it was 2 sisters and a husband. They said he was 88 years old which is amazing for Haiti. First they wanted to make us coffee so we took a 5 gallon bucket down the street to the pump to ge...

   This morning we went to Grace Village again. We had so much fun playing with the kids at their recess time. I think they start going to school at age 4. So when the littles came out we were mobbed and soon had a few on our laps and our arms around a few more. It was so cute to see them eating rice out of the tin bowls. We also made a craft with the children who are sponsored to send back to there sponsors. After we got some pate from the bakery we headed out to another community. This is one of the first times they have sent teams to this area. There is a family that just had triplets that Healing Haiti has kinda adopted... sponsored and given medical care to. We drove back into what looked like jungle. We walked back in between some houses surrounded by banana trees. Under a mango tree we started getting out the colors and pictures and jump ropes and soon children started running to us. It was right outside the triplets house so we got to take a peek at them. So adorable. ...

  Haiti day 3 This morning the ladies made French toast, eggs, and cherry and papaya juice for breakfast. After we went down and shopped at the Haitian artisan market... lots of tin art, paintings, and wood carvings. Next we loaded the tap taps with lots of snacks and water and headed to Grace Village in Titanyen.    They are doing amazing work there. It has a nice clinic, several houses that have about 10-12 kids each where they have a mammy and pappy to take care of them like a family setting instead of an orphanage. A school is also on the yard. The children came out at lunch time dressed up in nice uniforms. Slacks, black shoes, button down shirts and dresses. It’s impressive how all the people dress up. We peeked in on a group of kids about 15 years old were having a dance class.    I felt something touch my arm.... and a little hand was there wanting to hold mine. A very cute little girl.... so sweet.  We waited till they had fixed up some meals in th...

  Tuesday I’m sitting out on the patio as I write. The geckos are chirping and I hear a horn every once in awhile. A little rain came through and it is still sprinkling a bit. This morning I got up early and helped the Haitian ladies make breakfast. They have been making American food and it has been amazing but I can’t wait till they make Haitian food. We had pancakes, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and the best bananas and mangos. After breakfast we were gonna go to the grocery store to get supplies to make peanut butter sandwiches for the kids. But we are on Haiti time so it was much later than planned. The peanut butter was the cheap brand and it cost $9 a jar. Wow. Some of the other food is very cheap tho. After we got back we quickly made up 50 sandwiches and headed out to Smiths’s neighborhood. (Smith is the main guy around here. He is a Haitian and he make sure everything is coordinated between all people involved and is always with us.) They are trying to build a relationship wi...

Monday Left Dallas airport at 4am. Met up with the team in Miami. We are two teams but doing mostly everything together since ours is so small. We are about 15 plus 3 team leaders. Flew over the beautiful blue water. As we got closer we could see Haiti. All the tin roofs. I am actually here. This is a dream come true... 11 years ago when the Haiti earthquake happened, I wanted to go... and finally I am here. We touched down and taxi to the airport. The guy was like we don’t know what to tell you because we don’t know what’s going on but we can’t get to the gate. Apparently there hadn’t been some communication. After awhile I different plane left so we could pull up to the jet bridge. We get off the plane into a sweltering hot airport. We were welcomed by a band playing... singing.... drums.... so awesome. Got all our luggage and exited the airport. It actually wasn’t that simple at all but I’ll spare the details. Walked out and into HUMID air. We got to our tap tap and climbed in. Yes ...