Day 1: With Open Arms

We left Sat night out of LAX on a red eye to Haiti.  It is now 8:00pm Sunday night and we are exhausted!!  Just a quick note to update you on our first day.

We were thrilled to get through customs and collect our bags with out a problem.  Packing them up on the tap-tap (back of truck bed with a camper shell over and open sides) was another story. :)  Jessie and I watched on pins and needles in the van behind our baggage as we bumped along the dirt roads, our bags the ones on the end, ready to escape at any moment. :)  Even though I had been prepared by others for what we would see in Haiti I am still shocked by the level of poverty.  Trash is piled up everywhere with animals such as chickens, dogs, goats and wild pigs shuffling through it. 

We checked into our hotel, Habitation Hatt first thing.  We were able to get apartments for our team to share!!  Doug and I and Jessie and Kristan are sharing our very own spacious 2 story pad and Monica, Lloyd, Niki and  Carolyn have the other and Mike and Carrie in a separate room.

We were all eager to get to the orphanage, Maison to see the kids.  As we toured the compound children approached us, wanting to see who we were and holding out their arms to be held.  The orphanage has a fun, happy vibe to it and it was buzzing with excitement.  So many children all together hanging out and just begging for you to give them some attention.  After lunch many of us took the opportunity to hang out with the kids and hold them and love on them.  We could have stayed all day.  It was so heartbreaking to put down one of the little ones after spending time with them and seeing their sad face as you left.  We are all excited to get back later this week.

Next we moved on to the boys home, Zanfan Lakay.  We felt like celebrities as we pulled up, we could barely get out of the van as they wanted to greet us with a hug!  Many of the boys remembered some of the team who had been before and it was so sweet to see them excited to see their friends again.  We spent time dancing and chilling out to the local reggae type music with the boys.  So many different ages and personalities!  I had fun showing them how to have thumb wars and we also played slap hands, they loved all the interaction.  We enjoyed a delicious meal made by Katia.  Afterwards we had a blast helping the boys make tie dye shirts.  They were all SO excited and wanting the shirt to be just right.  Monica, Lloyd and I were in charge of the dye and oh were we popular.  By the end we were covered in dye and exhausted from all the chattering and specific color requests from everyone. :)

We arrived back at the hotel, just after dark and Doug and I took a refreshing dip in the pool and then shared a cheeseburger and fries in the restaurant.  Later on our team met up in the other apartment to unpack and organize all the bags with our supplies.  WOW, so many cool things we have set up for this week!  It's going to be so fun to share everything with the children of Haiti.  We had a group prayer time asking God to direct our path and watch over us during this trip.

Tomorrow our team splits up.  Half of us will be going to the boys home to conduct a hygiene seminar and the other will be training volunteers for VBS.  Later on in the afternoon we will all meet up together and prepare food and distribute at Zakat.

Exhausted so that's all for today.  Pictures are not uploading so I will have to try again tomorrow.