Last Day

 We went to the girls village this morning and spent time with them painting their faces.  Lots of happy little girls for sure.  The second group went for the Les Cayes tour to the marketplace, sisters of Charity and the elderly home while the rest went to the boys village to play soccer.  Many of the boys tell you their name over and over so you will remember...so I met Evans, Mackinson, JB, Ebemson, Schneider, among many others.  The thing is, they know why we are here and they get it, and love us for it.   Game of soccer until I couldn't because of the sweat stinging my eyes.

We retreated for lunch and rested for a bit. Then back at it for More

Everyone smiles at you!  "Bonswa!"  

Meaning good afternoon.  And a good one it was, but hot!  Very hot!

Kids put on a Spectac to entertain us.  Great show of dancing, the we ended with a dance party and said our goodbyes...

Espwa got a new baby today...Job.  Malnourished and small, his parents dropped him off because they can't feed him.  Pray for him, first day was rough, he threw up all his food.  He will thrive here though.  In time.  They all do.

We sat on the roof tonite and reflected on a great week.  Some tears, some laughs.  Tomorrow we go home.

Bon nwi Ayiti!

Ken

We ended with a big dance party!

We ended with a big dance party!

"Dance Spectac". Kids put on a show for us!

Ladies prepping the rice flour.

This is the boys village.

Ladies cooking lunch for Espwa kids.

Lemsa, sweetie!

Today

We began with Mass with the whole community.  It was beautiful to see everyone together.  The babies all ran to the girls to be held.  The choir sang and we had church.  The boys were fidgety, but very well behaved.  After mass we got ready for our beach day.

Tough to remember you are on a Caribbean island in the midst of the impoverished areas in Haiti.  But this is likely one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen.  Port Salut.  We cooled off and had a big lunch then headed back to Espwa.  

More Lacrosse the the older boys wanted to know ALL ABOUT THE GIRLS!  They surrounded them asking questions in Creole or broken English, singing and dancing to impress and the girls were eating it up!  A bunch of teens being teens together...pretty cool.

Long day and everyone is tired.  Last day tomorrow.  

Ken

At Mass, Em had company

Finally relief from the heat!!! Love beach day!!

Nobody likes sitting still in church...me neither!

Heading to Church

Fini!

There is a matriarch of Espwa and her name is Denise. She is called Matante which means matriarch or mother of Espwa.  Father Marc says that she never asks for anything and serves the community with great love. However she loved the color of the house that we painted so much that she asked if we would paint her house that color. How could we say no? 

A letter from a man who helped us paint today.  Donations we got from St Joes went to help his feed his children.  Oh and I'm Mr Cane (Ken)

It's already Saturday. Wow. This week has been amazing, not just physically but spiritually and mentally. I find myself feeling joy, not just happiness. We aren't always doing things, sometimes the heat gets to us and we all just rest in the quad and either take a nap or have a conversation. I've gotten to know my group a lot better since we've been here, and everyone here fills me with joy. We're all here because God wanted us here whether we believe it or not. Today we painted Matant's house(she's the matriarch of Espwa, a sweet old woman who attends every mass, and all the boys adore her). It's bright pink now, and she loves it. We took a walk to the end of the Espwa property, which was incredibly beautiful as well. We saw all sorts of animals, even a piglet that had escaped. Now we're heading to yet another lacrosse game...they can't get enough. OH, and I taught some Haitian boys the wobble today...they LOVED it! Loving every minute here, and I can't wait for the beach tomorrow! 

Peace and blessings - Tay 

On their way to watch Frozen!

Just a quick one here.  Week is going great.  Half the crew went to downtown Les Cayes yesterday.  Bustling city with lots of different sounds and smells.  Feast of Mary's Assumption is a major deal and they were preparing for their 3 day celebration.  We walked through the marketplace jammed with vendors, low hanging tarps and raw foods...the smells went from raw hot meat on a stump to fresh fried dough!  We also went to the Sisters of Charity.  Difficult to see but awesome that these nuns care for the ones the poorest of the poor throw away.

Went to the elderly home to finish the trip.

When we got back, epic water balloon fight with the boys.  Kathy z jumped right into their bag of balloons and went hand to hand combat on the ground.  The didn't expect this...it was perfect!

We went over to the boys village, played some games and then had a lacrosse game again after dinner.  They love this game because it's like soccer...and they score a lot!

Finished the night showing Frozen to them for the first time!  All in French!! Another great day!

Ken

Girls are learning Haitian hip hop dancing!!  Maybe not so much...lol

No stoplights!  

Visit to busy Les Cayes

Rematch

Our visit today to the elderly home and the Sisters of Charity home for the dying.  Smiles in spite of circumstance.

Another great day.  We worked hard with a few boys painting the long term visitor housing.  It's salmon color...kind of pink, the girls picked it.  The girls got their hair braided...oh and so did Matt!  

It's interesting...the heat is so thick, it literally slows you down physically.  Locals move at a slow pace...we are learning why...quickly.  Sometimes the town shuts the power off randomly...so the battery back up kicks on and you have to use water and power sparingly...slows you even more...

But Haiti's people are so wonderful...the smile at you and when you speak to them...they listen...closely.  Funny...even when they don't understand, they care enough about you to listen.  

We had a water balloon fight today as well with the little ones.  They LOVE this.  Fair fight, they get some, we get some...but they know this place so they were pretty accurate...and had a ton of balloons!!!  

Haiti is warm in so any ways.

Ken

Exhausted!

Today was great. I went to mass in the morning and was excited that it's St Maximilian Kolbes feast day (he's my confirmation saint and all time favorite saint). Breakfast was great as usual, and after breakfast my roommates and I ended up falling back asleep for a half hour. The heat is so heavy and stifling that sometimes it's hard to stay awake. And then after your nap you wake up in a puddle of your own sweat, so just picture that for a little while and realize how hot it is! After we rested for a bit, we got to go over to one of the houses that they will soon be using as more guest housing, and painted it bright pink. I thought it was cool pink isn't associated with females here at all, males wear it a lot because it's bright and a couple other houses are also painted pink. After painting for a bit I walked over to the girls village and was greeted by babies that wanted to be picked up...all at the same time. At one point I was holding two at once and one was trying to sit on my lap. I'm telling you this is heaven for me!! Then before I knew it the older girls were braiding my hair. I came out with cornrows and I have to say I was feeling pretty confident. I strutted my stuff as I walked out of the village yelling "bonjou!" to all the farmers and painters nearby. They looked at me like I had five heads, but others smiled and waved. I feel very welcomed here especially by the children. We played lacrosse with the boys today and it was GREAT! They loved it , and from my brief experience playing in college I got to teach them some stuff. One little boy kept coming over for my approval, and when he did something right and I congratulated him, he smiled so big I thought his cheeks would fall off. We ended the night with a performance by babtime, a rap group featuring some boys from the village. They're so talented! Also wicked adorable and are pretty good at English! Thank you all for your prayers, we're having a wonderful time. Peace and blessings! 

Tay