Building in Haiti

The Nashville crew didn't exactly spend the first day in Pignon as we had expected. Pretty much immediately upon arrival at the orphanage property, we were recruited to help in the building of the trusses for the roof of the future orphanage dining hall. Here's what it looked like when we first got there. (And we were told it's been sitting unfinished for about 18 months!)

We quickly got to work with the help of Mr. Joe and his "truss template". We were short on hammers but I went into the tool shed and found this sledge. It worked great for me and all the men got a chuckle out of me using it. I'm proud to say that I hammered for 2 days and never once hit my finger. That alone is one visible miracle that Jesus sent us on this trip!
Even though Pastor and "Boss" (the Haitian hired worker) tried to take our hammers and do our jobs for us, we were resolute.....we were on the job for the duration! We hammered, climbed, carried, handed, measured, hammered some more, tossed nails and laughed. We did a lot of that!
By the end of the next day we had gotten a few of the trusses set and ready to be put up.
It was a lot of teamwork as we had to keep the trusses from flipping over before they were secure and we also had to keep Sam from falling over with the ladder given the crazy terrain of the floor of the dining hall. We attempted to start leveling it with shovels and elbow grease but quickly found that an hours work had barely made a dent. We quietly scrapped that job and moved onto something else.
We all took turns being the truss holder.
Making progress.....

Despite the look of this picture, Steve actually WAS doing a lot of hard work.

What would we have done without Sam's muscles to hold Dave up??
It was a lot of fun getting to know Dave, our "stowaway" over these couple of working days. He's a contractor by trade and came along with Steve last minute to work on the roof. It was obvious that these two (and three, counting Joe) men were the real deal. God loving, people serving, hardworking Christian men.
When you dig around in the dirt in Haiti you'll do doubt find some interesting, harry critters. I'll be honest, I'm glad we found him in an open area where we had room to run and scream. Much better than meeting up while I was unclothed and vulnerable in the shower!
Amanda, who is deathly afraid of any type of spider, put on her big girl panties and decided to face her fear and hold the tarantula.....safely inside the jar.

We were all much more relaxed and playful with the thing when it was trapped and it's hairy legs couldn't crawl on us.
After the screaming was over it was back to work. We worked until the sun went down and we were forced to quit.

By the time we left on Friday morning all the trusses were up and secure and half of the roof had the tin. We left the other half in the capable hands of Boss and it will be a couple day's work, which means a couple day's pay, which means provision for his family. There is still some work to be done but this place is well on it's way to being the main dining hall for lots of deserving kiddos. I'm so glad to have been a part of building it!

The Second Leg

We got all of our stuff packed up at the guesthouse and headed back to the airport for the second leg of our trip. It was the part that most of us had been anxious about ever since we heard the words, "cessna" and "goat field" in the same sentence over a conference call some weeks earlier. After each and every piece of our luggage was weighed, each body weighed and written down, and prayers were said, our half of the team headed out the door to our plane.

There were definitely some nerves going haywire on this flight!
Gaelleson was on our flight and I LOVED watching him. It was his first time ever to fly and he took video of the entire 22 minute flight. His smile was ear to ear the whole time.
Samantha and I were keeping it together but we had obviously not seen a mirror in a few days :/
I was surprised at how smooth the take off was and once I looked out the window I had completely forgotten that I was in a tiny plane flying over Haiti. The view was unbelievable!
Just as quickly as the plane took off it was time to land. I could see over the pilots shoulder and the newly burned off goat field was in view. Surprisingly the landing was smoother than any large plane I've flown in, goatfield strip and all!
After a quick introduction to Bill, one of the missionaries we'd be working with, we hopped into the back of his pick up and headed down the mostly dirt road to Haiti Home of Hope. As we were passing over the bridge we could look down and see that today was wash day for lots of families in the river.
Later in the week, on the way to church, we were able to get a closer look at all of the women washing. I'll add to the list one more thing I'm so blessed to have: a washer and dryer.
Just a short drive and we were there!
We quickly got aquatinted with our lodging for the rest of the week. Up the stairs was the bedroom we shared.
And below was the bath house that would be the source of much dread and stress each night. Just upon arrival we had seen several VERY large, very fast spiders and we know now that Freida the tarantula calls this place her home. Add in some freezing cold water and breezy cool Haitian countryside nights and you've got a recipe for some screaming women :)
Much to my dismay, this creature was a member of the Haiti Home of Hope family and he was no better at telling time than his kin in Port Au Prince. There's no rest for the weary while in Haiti!
We were so happy that all of our formula was able to make it on the small plane and we were anxious to get it all unpacked. We headed down to the clinic area with all of our formula bags.
Jennifer let us know that the clinic had ZERO formula to hand out for Wednesday's Mother's Milk program. Praise the Lord that, because of friends and family, we were able to show up with more than 300 lbs of powdered milk! Her empty shelves were now stacked 3 and 4 rows deep! It even overflowed to other shelves and we were even finished unpacking! Our team was able to supply Bill and Jennifer with a good 4-5 month supply of formula for babies that would otherwise have no chance of food for survival. Such a small thing to do but such a huge impact for the families of this village.
This may or may not have also been the scene of one of the loudest screams from my innermost being that caused 6 women to literally dive out the door onto the ground. There was a gigantic tarantula crawling on my neck. Or it could've been some stray hair out of my loose pony/bun. One can never be sure. What I am sure of is that my stomach cramped from laughter with my new friends and that, folks, is priceless!

Back to Well Being

After our mini tour of Port Au Prince we headed straight to the orphanage. The kids were excited to see us back and I felt like we had a slightly better plan than the day before....but only slightly.

Ashley quickly fell into her calling and was cuddling a baby that within minutes had gone to dreamy dream land in her arms. Sigh......I love a sleepy baby.
One of my favorite little faces at Well Being was this little girl, Fabiola. Her personality reminded me so much of a little girl we met in El Salvador that we called "chica fresa". She and Fabiola were both high energy, all smiles, and chatty chatty!
One thing I've learned on both of my mission trips is that the big kids are in as much need for some snuggling as the little ones. This gal sat down in my lap and then wrapped my arms tightly around her waist.
One thing the orphanage DID have was an almost never ending supply of mangos from their mango tree. It was huge and tall but that didn't stop the boys from climbing way, way up and snatching some for us. I didn't partake in the eating but others did!
This little gal was a sticky mess by the time she was finished!
Samantha was busy lovin' on these 2 girls.

I had my wrists full of silly bandz and I handed them out throughout the day. They were a hit with all of the kids! It was neat to see them react to what shape they got and to hear them say it in their language. I did find out via the translator that there is no word for dinosaur. They had NO idea what I was even talking about!

These girls loved the bandz. I thought it was so funny that the oldest one was wearing a Twillight shirt with Jacob on the front. I guess he's a total hottie even in an orphanage in Haiti :)
This little boy took a different approach with his silly band!
One of our team members, Joe, had brought an entire huge suitcase full of hats. We passed out lots of those, too, and got lots of smiles in return.
We sent some of the team out to get some additional supplies for us and had them pick up some paper plates. We ended up sitting on the porch coloring plates and letting the kids draw on them. We cut some of them into twirlygigs and others we just punched a hole in and strung them up above their eating area. The kids seemed to enjoy the last minute crafting. Note to self: next time you go to Haiti, spend some time in our gigantic resource center at church and cut out a gagillion die cuts. We could've been so much more creative!
Here's a picture of our team (minus Joe who was under the weather) with our Fearless Leader, Steve. He was our navigator, safety and security coordinator, and resident problem of any kind fixer. We all heart Steve.
We were able to provide Well Being with a water filter that will provide them with clean drinking water. That is going to make a huge difference in the health of all the children there! Steve did teaching with Jameson on how to use the filter. The best part of all is that it lasts forever. It NEVER needs to be changed!
It was nearing lunch and I was put in charge of making the pesto for the rice. A lady grabbed my arm, pulled me aside, handed me a plate of garlic and onions, a smasher thing and a butter knife. Thank goodness Gaelleson was there to tell me what to do! He said his mother had taught him how to cook, now he was teaching me!

It really took me about an hour to make approximately a cup full of pesto. I quickly understood why lunch preparation started at about 10 but the actual eating didn't start until 1 or so. So much preparation, so much time. There was nothing quick in Haiti.

It was finally time to sit for lunch. We had gotten all the kids special drinks. Once again, all were still and quiet until everyone was served and the blessing said.
This was a serious feast! Pasta, fruit, fried chicken, rice, fried plantains. Yum for them!
It was so sweet to see this older boy feeding the younger one. This particular little boy had cerebral palsy and needed a constant caregiver. He was so smiley though!
It didn't take long to realize that the ladies were making enough food to serve our entire team (which was NOT our intent!). I didn't want to offend any of them but I REALLY didn't want to be on my death bed with diarrhea and vomiting in a foreign country. So, I did the most reasonable thing: I hid. Some had stomachs of steel and dove right in!
We passed out pixie sticks after lunch. They had really never seen them before so eating them required a bit of education.
Sam had the right idea and was just dumping it into the mouths of the little ones. Nothing like a bunch of white people to come in your orphanage, hype up your kids on sugar, and then leave for the day. I'm sure mommy was stoked!
This little one was Mommy's grandbaby. She was a cute little thing, just learning to walk and still wobbly.
The plastic cup and spoon kept her entertained for quite a while!
After lunch I ended up with dish duty, too! Let me just say that I am SO thankful for my kitchen at home with it's dish soap, hot, clean water, and a dishwasher! There were SO many dishes to wash. My "rag" was a piece of string lace ( I had even said " I feel like I'm washing pots and pans with a pair of thong underwear!" Ha!). My hands felt like crunchy sand paper because my bucket was full of bleach water. At least I'm hoping it was bleach but it was poured out of a container that said "Liquid Draino". Eek. Surely not.
The men on our team also sturdied up the tarp over the eating area to make it more user friendly before we left and we set up someone to come and fix the well they use for water. Currently they were dipping a bucket on a string 80 feet down to catch water. A pump will make it so much easier!

So, that was our two days at Well Being. I did more loving on kids, got to accidentally witness a girl using the squatty, played soccer next to a cow, pounded out pesto, and cleaned out and bandaged a head wound. Sounds like a pretty productive day to me!

Tomorrow: tiny little airplane to the country. Yikes!