Diversity

Today was quite the adventure with many diverse activities all packed into one day. We started the day with a sunrise service up on the mountain. It was a very charismatic event. The people here are very sole-full in their worship. There must have been over 500 people at this outside service. It is held every Mon - Friday and is always very crowded. The people pretty much sing, pray and sway to the music for at least an hour. There was one very old woman who greeted us with a big toothless grin and gave us all a hug. She danced her way around the tent greeting all that she met. After breakfast we did a quick walk down the street to a wood carving craftsman and I bought a small bowl. We then headed out to Grace Village for a tour. The campus has a breath taking 360 view with the ocean on one side and mountains on the other three. They were almost done with the feeding center and were putting the bathrooms in the kids buildings. It is amazing how nice this place will be compared to the tiny little buildings they have today. To think they don't even have a couch to sit on let alone a family room to lounge in. All they have are 2 rooms for sleeping and a tent for their kitchen and dining area. Once the kids move to Grace Village, new team members will never have the experience of how bad it had been.

After Grace village we quickly stopped at a little hut where we prayed over a young crippled man that Healing Haiti has been supporting. He was dropped on his head as a baby and suffered an epileptic seizure that has left him crippled. Following this we went over to the mass grave. This is the site that they buried many of the 300,000 victims of the 1/12/10 earthquake. It was very powerful to see all of the hundreds of black crosses where the bodies were thrown into a pit and buried under layers of rock with out their families every knowing where they were laid to rest. There we met three young men who were in unbelievably tattered clothes. Evidently the poorest of the poor in Haiti actually live in the mountains where they have no access to basic resources. We shared our food with them and then went into town to walk through the market. It is the largest famers market/garage sale I have ever seen with hundreds of people milling about. Some of the vegetables and fruit looked amazing where others were rotting under the hot sun.

Following the market we stopped at a small school to deliver school supplies. The teacher proudly gave us a tour of his 3 room, 1 office (in a closet) complex that holds 340 students. Healing Haiti pays the salaries for the teachers. Even though school was out for the season, we all got a lesson in cutting and eating a coconut. He quickly climbed a wall and dropped down 6 coconuts, shaved down the sides and made a small hole for us to drink the milk. It was surprisingly sweet compared to the ones shipped in to Minnesota. From the school we went over to Guilliame's orphanage. It was slightly larger than the first orphanage. Here we did three different crafts with the kids. Young or old, did not matter they were all very engaged with the projects. (One of them was the CD fish G-pa had made at the cabin. I think this was their favorite!! Some little boys opted to keep the CD's rather than make the fish. They thought they were very valuable.) It was also fun to see some of the neighbor kids along with a mom or two sneak into the chaos and participate as well. The love letters the little boys slipped into your had was heartbreaking, the letter said "I love you mom!"

Tomorrow is another repeat day. We will spend the morning doing two water truck runs and then spend the afternoon at the home for the sick and the dying children. I am hoping my two babies are still there and getting better so that I can hold them again. We will see if Kristina and Fan Fan are up to another top of their lung concerts for the toddlers. Should be a fun day as these were two of my three favorite activities. (The third being the beach day!)