Haiti Expedition: Le Soleil est Chaud (The Sun is Hot)

After a restless night sleep. There was no breeze. The air was heavy and hot. We had a fan but the electricity turned off and we roasted. I say we, I mean MacKenzie and I. We share a room since we're the only females in the group.

In the deepness of the night, I heard chanting, maybe some drumming off in the distance. I was told it may have been a voodoo ceremony. With no generator, fan or other electrical sounds, the silence allowed for many night time noises.

I worked with Rick today on measuring and cutting shelves. We were a good team. We didn't make too many mistakes. The group repaired a bed for one of the women who lives at the children's home. We started hanging shelves for the kids school supplies.

The best part of my day was playing with the kids. I sat down and just started rolling a ball back and forth with the littlest guy there (he's 1 or so). Next thing I knew, several kids, MacKenzie and I were playing a game where someone stands in the middle on one foot with their eyes closed, the ball gets passed around the circle, someone hides the ball behind their back. The person in the middle guesses who has the ball and the middle person changes places with the one who held the ball.

Then, one little girl was working on her homework. She was reading from a French book. She asked me through pantomime to sit next to her. I told her to read to me. So she did. I clarified some words I thought I knew. She was teaching me, it was really neat. Soleil (sun), terre (earth), nord (north), l'ouest (west).
She then asked me to read it to her. I discovered that I was helping her to study her homework. I read the question and she had to respond with the correct answer. It was really a fun opportunity.

I have learned over the last few days that this location where we are working is not called an orphanage, it's a Children's Home, some of the kids are orphans who lost their parents in the earthquake but others are children from single parent homes who can't afford to feed and properly take care of their children. They have twenty children on the wait list and are hoping to finish the large room to house at least 10 more of them in the next few months.

The second best part of my day was after our dinner of rice with peas, fried plantains, spicy coleslaw and goat...My wonderful father and Rick took the time to go out and get a mocha birthday cake to celebrate my birthday. I'm glad to be in Haiti to celebrate this birthday. We all just hope we don't get "Haitian happiness" after eating the cake. I'm sure you all can figure out what that is.

To my dear youngest daughter, I have for you some Haitian insects of Haitian size. Everyone thinks I'm slightly bufu (crazy) for being so ecstatic over large insects.