Aug 7th and 8th
I've gotten a little behind so I am going to get two days in one entry if that's alright with you. Good? Good.
Yesterday we went to Ryan Epps home. We knew that the plan was to bag rice and beans. This was a large ordeal and we were ready and prepped for the challenge. However, the challenge didn't come. We spent a long time moseying around the compound and sitting in shade here and sitting in shade there. At some points in time a person would walk over to the water cooler and drink some water and retreat back into the shade. There was really only work for Butch and Donnie.
The rest of us in the shade had a thought. Where are the children? Why not go to them and greet them? Granted this was a different approach than Orphanage 46 where the children came to you, but it was worth a shot. Slowly we bridged the gap and children started to mingle. Finally after our third visit to Ryan Epps, we were talking to and playing with children. I actually had two girls come and speak to me one was named Jenny and the other Rodline. They were very meek, but soon we were talking and I shared my notebook with them. They drew pictures of flowers and houses. These children seemed pretty content. I also brought out a word search which I ended up leaving there. They will be pretty entertained for a while, I hope. Many of us also bonded with a little girl named Tracy who was obviously knew how cute she was because she had all of us picking her up and playing with her. We also went to view the community center. It wasn't open the day we went, but it was nice to see the production of a functioning Clinic and sewing shop.
After a time when it seemed like the rice and beans would never get there (there was some serious traffic), we heard the honk and everyone jumped to their feet. We quickly formed an assembly line and we started to pass off 55 lbs bags of rice and beans. During the line passing the boys got excited about flexing their muscles and they threw these bags to each other. The boy in front of me moved all of a sudden I saw a 55 lbs bag fly at my face. With a loud "oft" sound I caught the bag (cough cough just as good as any fella) and we decided to take it a little more easy on account of protecting my life from another unexpected incident.
The sorting process was really fun to me because I was being productive which helped to alleviate the heat, I like relay kind of projects, and because our good Haitian friend Claudelle was singing praise songs beside me. I would scoop up the rice and David would bag the rice and a Haitian friend, jimmy would tie the bag shut. In the end we had bagged around 223 bags of rice and beans! Hallelujah!
After the sorting it was time to go. We said farewell to our new friends and went home.
Today, was a hard day for me. In many ways. I woke up to a spider bite on my arm that we are still monitoring. I went out to see Madame CheepCheep, a kind old lady who sells souvenirs within Villa Momika. She is so sweet and asks about my family. We loaded up soon after and went to Ryan Epps to load up. Today we had to flex our muscles because we loaded 223 bags of rice and beans, plus some full 55lbs bags of rice and beans, plus some heavy oil boxes all on the truck. There was barely room for us to fit on the truck but we managed.
We rode on the truck longer than we had ever been before. There were many times we had to brace our bodies with all our strength against the sides of the truck to not spill the beans (haha). We drove into the country and I loved seeing the mountains grow bigger as we got closer to them. We arrived at Ganthier, an orphanage with 8 girls and one boy. (P.S. The boy was the sweetest boy I had ever met. His name is TeeTee. He has cerebral palsy and you should have seen his joy when he got his own soccer ball.) We brought them rice and beans, clothes, and soccer balls. I loved watching the girls carry around the dolls my boyfriend's mom had specially purchased for them. Carrie quickly scooped up the cutest baby and held her the whole time we were there. We barely had time to give them dresses and pump up the soccer balls (roughly 10 minutes) before it was time to go.
We drove again along rocky, bumpy roads knocking into each other. I have to say though, it was nice to get out of the city and feel an ease at looking at nature. It was about 30 minutes between Ganthier and Cotin. Cotin is a town we learned about from a man named Boaz. He was a young boy from Cotin who was adopted by Helen Little. She supported him through his college career and now he is going to use his contracting skills to help his home town (aka he is my hero). Butch, Donnie, and Donna had been there before, but it was everyone else's first time.
As we drove into town the population seemed to follow us to the church. We backed up the truck into the storage area and we unloaded as children and some adults collected. These children did not have
shoes so their feet were covered in ash and dust, they wore tattered clothes and they had the skinniest legs I have seen. There was a small boy who was only wearing an oversized shirt and his legs barely supported him from underneath. Just writing about this makes me cry. We assembled our line and we unloaded the bags as the children watched us in wonder. It was hard to not just place the food into their hands, but we know Boaz and the other Cotin men will do this much more efficiently.
The next part was the only time thus far that I haven't been able to control my emotions since we've been here. It was time for lunch for us and we went into the sanctuary of the new church. It was beautiful and just built by previous teams with Butch. It had large gated windows and a lovely metal ceiling. We all prepared for a PB and J...singular. We sat as they were being prepared and I watched as more and more kids gathered at the windows and looked in at us. I ate my sandwhich and saw that same boy in his t-shirt reached through the bars with an open hand and looked at me. I knew I needed to eat, so I wouldn't pass out, but I stared down for the rest of the time. I watch as other team members had a similar reaction. Thankfully, we decided to give them our cookies instead of eating them. They reached with all their might through the bars and when they got their cookie they ran away in excitement.
We walked out of the sanctuary and we waited under a shelter. As we waited, Boaz introduced some kids to me. I spoke some French. "Je m'apelle Abigail" "ca va?" "Tres bein!" And soon many children were telling me their names. I bent my knees to get on their level, but they all bent their knees too. Hm.... I stood up and they all stood up. I patted my head, they patted their head. I rubbed my tummy, they rubbed their tummy. Soon we had made the game of following the leader. Then it morphed into head and shoulders, knees and toes. Then we ended up making a large circle and Tom suggested the Hokie Pokie! That was a great moment for me! I love to sing and dance with kids.
Soon it was time to go. I had three kids holding my right arm and three holding my left and I was escorted to the truck. We loaded up and went down the road lined with the children racing after us. They met us at the place where Boaz plans to build a new kindergarten. It was a beautiful thought to see rubble and know it would soon be a bustling school for the children. We got back on the truck
after saying our final goodbyes and drove down the road. We decided to make a pit stop at the beach. We will have some beautiful pictures and I will have a beautiful scar from this experience.
We drove an hour to get back and I am sitting by the pool at Villa Momika. I look down at my cut and spider bite and I am worried. I think back to the unclothed child and the hungry child and I am
worried. I think of all the people in Haiti who will be voting tomorrow and I am anxious of unexpected issues regarding this event, but tonight I will be leading our devotional on worry and fear and how it is not something that should stop you from doing God's work. Today we may not have fixed all of Cotin's problems, but we did feed many who are hungry and clothed many who were naked. I am deciding to let go and let God. He has never failed me and I will trust in him.
That's it for now, folks. Hopefully I've painted a good picture for you.
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