This is going to be a post full of randomness :) 

We’ll start with Sunday. Each week the kids who got good grades get to do a special activity or go on a special outing. This week we did an outing and took 11 kids to a clear water river up in the mountain. Words can’t really describe it but I guess I’ll try… after a drive a little ways on these rocky roads, greenery everywhere, shacks and then random nice houses, people all along the way (you have to see and experience it yourself), we park, have a picnic lunch and then hike a little ways up the mountain before hiking down the river.

There were big rocks you could “slide” down, and there was one “pool” that we stopped at for about an hour and swam, jumped off rocks, did cannonballs, played catch, slid down rocks. It was nice cold, salt-free, water. It was amazing! SO much fun!

This was at the "bottom" (where we parked before hiking). Couldn't really take the camera along.

Yesterday evening we had a coloring party on the girls galri and I had my hair done by Georgina who is a speedy braider, and quite good at that. I was overwhelmed with thankfulness for HAF and what they are doing in Haiti as I sat getting my hair done, coloring and overlooking the compound from the second floor galri. I saw two girls take each others hand and run down the stairs giggling; it was a perfect picture to me of kids being kids and I’m so grateful these kids are now able to have a childhood and simply be kids.

 Gerlande at our coloring party

 After having my hair did by Georgina (L), Claire helped by handing her hair bands

 Fou fas!

Today we took most of the kids and some of the nannies, in two trips, to a farmer’s market on the beach. There were just a bunch of booths mostly people selling artwork, jewelry and some food. There were also some agricultural booths. Cam and I hop in the front of the and he tells me to look behind me… in our little 15 passenger van we have nearly 30 people packed in! It was crazy! Wish I’d had a camera. It was fun to be able to take the kids and nannies out though, they were all dressed up in  nice dresses, pants, shirts, shoes and Cam and I have on everyday shorts, t-shirts and tank tops…

We walked over to the docks, looked at the water and a boat that was docked, they were posing and taking pictures by everything. Lots of fun to be a part of.

Matt just headed off to PAP with Stephen and Carrie who will be flying to LA tomorrow, along with three of our missionaries from the Grand Goave site, for an orphan care conference and board meetings. Pray for safe travels to PAP this evening (road blocks and riots continue to go on in the PAP area), travels tomorrow and as they fly to Iowa later next week and then back to Jacmel May 11.

Matt will be making another trip to PAP this weekend to take a little boy for his second surgery for a cleft palate. Pray all goes well and also the situation with his mom. We kept him a while back before and after his first surgery but she’s had him the past few months. She brought him back a couple weeks ago in anticipation of this surgery and when she left him she asked if we could keep him until he walks. We obviously can’t do that and we want her to keep him so after the surgery Matt has to sit down with her and lay it all out. Either she leaves him abandoning all her rights and doesn’t get him back, or she takes him and cares for him. Tough situation.

Pray for a smooth week for the three (two of us a lot of the time since Matt will be in PAP a lot in the next five days) of us here over the next week.

Faster Internet = Pictures!

Many times today I thought, I should blog this, now I can't remember what half those things were and I'm too tired to write anything so this going to be a picture post. I  know that's what everyone wants to see anyway :) Enjoy these random shots from the past three weeks. 

It’s been over a week and I can’t remember all that has happened in order to sum it up…We were talking about how living in Haiti is a weird time warp. So many things can go on in a 24 hour period that it feels like you’ve lived two days worth of events, yet the weeks fly by and May is nearly here!A moment that I loved last week was during our Saturday trip to the beach with some of the girls. One of the younger girls will not go out deeper than her ankles if someone isn’t holding her. She won’t even walk out if you’re holding her hand, if you carry her out and then say you’re going to put her down she freaks out.Anyway, Matt and I had been swinging some of the girls by their arms and legs and throwing them into the water. Well Matt brought Loveda out (little girl afraid of the water) and passed her to me so I grab her hands and he grabs her legs and tells her we’re just going to swing her. We do and he lets go of her legs but I keep a hold of her arms so she “lands” standing up and Loveda says, “again, again” so we do it again and Loveda says, “again, again.” So Matt tells her if we do it a third time we’re both letting go… we swing her again and both let go (gently and close by of course :) ), she kind of lands in a wave, her face is down in the water and we’re just waiting for her reaction (I was ready for the freaking out to begin) when she pops up her head and with an expression I can’t describe or replicate she gives up a double thumbs up and says, “again, again!” It was the best thing ever. We were smiling and laughing as we kept throwing her and had to drag her out of the water. Love that little girl.I might mention that was the second water fear we overcame last week, although the one still needs some work but we’ll have him out and swimming before the summers over.I’ve personally struggled with feeling a little useless at times with not knowing the language and not being able to drive a stick. It really limits the things I can do and ways I’m able to help out.Trying not to focus on my limitations and let them keep God from using me in other ways.
side note: uploading a picture can take 10+ minutes and drains the internet but I will try to post at least one sometime soon since I know that's what people really want to see :) 

Quiet Time...

It can be difficult to find a time and place for quiet time when you have 100+ people (kids and staff) on the campus daily but I think I've found my new time and spot for quiet time. Early (6:30ish) on the roof. Beautiful view and the kids can't get on the roof!

This morning after reading in 1 Corinthians I was reading Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot and read this... "When there is a deep restlessness for which we find no explanation, it may be due to the greed of being - what our loving Father never meant for us to be. Peace lies in the acceptance of His design, His gifts, His appointment of place, position, capacity."

I have been restless over the past year God. Thought I've grown in relationship with You I realize I was also focusing on the greediness of being what I wanted, doing what I thought would make me happy, what would make me feel good. I was trying on my own, taking me eyes off of Your will. (Notes from my journal, cut off due to the fact it was time for morning staff meeting...)

My eyes were just opened to the fact that over the past year I've pursued, or thought about pursing, different things, things that I thought I'd love or would make me happy. The times I feel most at peace are here, in Haiti, times when I'm serving. I struggled a little with leaving the U.S. and thinking of all the things I'd be leaving and/or giving up by coming to Haiti (especially when I thought of the possibility of being here longer-term), but those things aren't the things that would bring peace.

It's a new "re-discovering" of the love God has placed in me for Haiti, for service, another confirmation I guess you could say.

I've written this as I think it so hopefully it all makes sense...

Days Off...

I didn't expect to be on here writing as often as I am but I'm sure that will change as the summer rolls along. So don't get used to it :)

We each have a day of during the week to do whatever we want. Stay in your room all day, take a trip to the beach, hike, anything to "get away" and have some "alone" time. Fridays are my day off (in two weeks I will have a roommate and someone to share my days off with. yay!), so on my first day off I spent the morning getting the group house ready for a small group that stopped in for the day/night, sweeping the rooms since the cleaning lady isn't here on Fridays, discussing weekly "check-ups" with Carrie, a job a will start next week, and doing dishes. Sounds like a great day off, huh? I'm sure this is something I'll get better at as I'm here longer and have someone to hang out with on days off.

Stephen and Cameron took the group to the beach but I stayed behind to talk medical with Carrie with turned into about 3.5 hours of talking which was really good. It was the first time we'd really had the chance to sit down and talk. It was also nice for her as she's been the only female American staff here pretty much since they came down in October.

We ended up taking a girls night out to Cyvadier Plage for dinner (we brought along Carrie's daughter and the lone female group member), and just came in from a couple hours on the porch with Katie, Cameron, Matt, Carrie and Stephen.

So although I ended up working on my day off it was a good relaxing day for the most part.

This post is far from exciting but it's a small glimpse into a "day in the life."

For those of you interested in the specifics of what I'm doing, I am in charge of he group house, so I'm basically a group host. It's my jobs to have the rooms ready for groups (beds made, towels out, laundry, etc.), being the go to person for any needs groups have when it comes to the house. There is a cleaning lady four days a week but it's my job to make sure things are in order overall, and get after people when they leave their junk laying around :) as well as evening dishes and making sure evening meals are cleaned up after.

On Mondays I will be spending the afternoons in the kitchen teaching the cooks new dishes, hopefully this goes well and they'll be able to expand their somewhat limited menu.

Tuesday is weekly order day so I'll be helping Matt fill and deliver the weekly orders.

Wednesdays I will be doing weekly check-ups on all the kids.

Thursdays all the kids school books have to be checked so I'll me helping Matt with that as well.

I will be helping Matt do monthly depot inventory, as well as inventorying all donations brought in by groups, and just keeping the depot organized in general.

I'm also the shoe lady. The kids are constantly saying the need shoes so we (I) have to evaluate if it's legit or if a shoe was broken on purpose in order to get new shoes, if a nanny told the child to break the shoes in order to get new ones, if they're just hiding their shoes to get new ones... yeah, it's gonna be fun :) I already have multiple kids a day coming up to me with sad puppy dog faces saying "sandal, sandal" in their cute Haitian accent. I feel like I'm doing pretty good at saying no. I've only handed out one pair of shoes so far.

So, yeah, I think that's basically all of my "official" responsibilities aside from the general playing with, caring for, loving on, hanging out with, watching, etc. of kids.

And now this is long and it's 12:30 a.m. and I'm definitely just babbling. Not to mention the fact that I'm suppose to be making a grocery list for Stephen and Carrie since they're going to Port tomorrow.

I'll try to have something more exciting to share next time ;)

Making Kids Cry...

I managed to make a few kids cry today… hanging out on Emilia’s porch this evening with “her” boys I picked up Beckington so of course Mackinley wanted to be picked up too. I might note that Mackinley really is too big to be picked up, especially when you’re already holding one. So I pick up Mackinley and then Giovanny wanted to be held too... Well that was not happening so he wasn’t too happy. I put down Mackinley and he starts to whine, I put down Beckington and he starts to whine. I pick up Emanuel and Beckington starts crying… What do you do? 67 kids and only 2 arms.

So as I have three to four little boys grabbing at my legs begging to be picked up I start to say, “don’t worry I’ll be here all month and the three after.” I caught myself before I said this as I realized these four months are going to go by waaay too quickly and I have NO idea how I’m going to leave in four months.

I’m going to savor every day and take advantage of every moment to love these kids.

And so Begins a New Chapter...

Saturday morning I was suppose to meet up with a group going to Grand Goave at Miami airport. What were the chances that out of all the hotels in Miami we’d stay at hotels right next to each other?!? They were part of the same hotel chain so as my shuttle pulls up to the hotel next door there stand two ladies wearing Hands and Feet Shirts! It was a nice blessing as we kept each other company through our various airport issues.

My arrival in Haiti was uneventful aside from the chaos that is Port au Prince airport. From there I met up with Matt in Grand Goave and was able to briefly see the site there before heading over the mountain.

I’ve, of course, loved being back with the kids here in Jacmel!

I don’t know if it’s because there’s not a group here at the moment or because they’ve had more time to adjust to all the changes, but the girls have been out and about more (friendlier) than usual. “Little” Clara especially is no being her usual “act like I’m shy” little self. Excited for the next four months and getting to know the kids better!

Continue to pray for me and the team here. Pray for me specifically as I settle in to my role and find my “groove” as part of the team already established here.