Haiti Day 6

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 vacations. First all the children nicely sat on benches. They would ask questions in sign language and their administrator translated to creole and our translator translated to English. They asked us lots of questions and were so interested in our names and all about us. We split into two groups and half did a craft while the other half learned sign language with the kids. They were very good teachers and helped us make our fingers just right to sign the different words. Then we worked on the craft. Our team leader had brought a Polaroid camera. They took pictures of each kid and then we helped them put it on a craft foam with stickers. They were soooo excited to see their photos. I help a very cute boy who was about 10. He and his sister go to school there. If I understood right they had 4 more siblings who were deaf as well. The couple who ran it were amazing. Very nice people. She is deaf and they have a little boy about 3 years old. Even though he can hear and talk he could sign so fast. I loved how happy and secure these children were. Also very respectful. Later we came back and it began raining. Our tile patio floor got about 3 inches of water on it cuz it was raining so hard. A bunch of us had a great time running and penguin sliding across the floor. And contests of who could slide the farthest. Supper and hung out together in the evening. It’s sad that my time of serving is almost done here with Healing Haiti .... I loved it so much. One place we did not go was Citesolel. Healing Haiti has built a village similar to Grace village called Hope village on a dump on 10 feet of trash. Now it has a clinic, school, and church. This city has 800,000 people per square mile and they live in extreme poverty. Usually teams take a water truck there and help the people fill their jugs and haul them to their houses. Sadly we could not go there due to gang violence in that area right now. Even the missionaries and clinic workers are not working there now until things settle down a bit.  Keep praying for Haiti....

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