Day 2: Teach Me How to Dougie

Day 2 of our Haiti trip and Dfresh is checking in with you'all! It has been an exhausting, yet rewarding day here in Port Au Prince.

So today we headed over to Zanfan Lakay, which is the street kids' pad for the morning. We had lots of things to do with the boys. When we got there, we were given yet another "red carpet treatment" from the boys. Lots of hugging, smiles and warm hospitality from our new Haitian friends.

First, we hung out for a while, played some musical chairs, soccer, dominoes, whatever they thought was a form of recreation or entertainment. As you probably already knew, they are just happy for a team of us to be there to hang! Bringing out the guitar and playing music with Jimmy's (the head of Zanfan Lakay) son, Ali, was super fun. I showed him my tuner and he tuned his beat-up, out of tune tiny guitar. He and his buddies had their own little thing going on playing beats, strumming the same note and singing... and oh yes lots of flow- these boys can rap! Being from the streets it was kind of their thing to do. Sing and talk about being tough, and having hope that there would be better days ahead. Ali sang his song and talked about Jesus and his father Jimmy and how much he was blessed. I seriously love this sixth grade -13 year old lil boy! SO much heart, so much passion and so much love for others- not to mention he knew a decent amount of English so it was nice to be able to talk with him. Even though he was not the oldest, because he was Jimmy's son, he was treated with lots of respect! We sang for a few hours...Today is the Day, Sing Sing Sing or Chante, Chante, Chante, Every Move I Make, King Jesus is All, Ha La La La... but what I remember the most was when Ali asked if I'd play and sing I Can Only Imagine... Singing this song, stopping right in the middle to have our translator Franz, explain Carrie's words about "no pain, no hunger, no worry... and that we'd all be together one day in heaven for those who loved Jesus... was super powerful- just one of the moments!

After singing for a while, Jen set up a little skit that involved brother and sister duo, Kristan and Doug demonstrating in a comical way how to properly take care of yourself.

We called it "Teach me how to Dougie"- deodorant, soap, teeth brushing, floss and a little dancing to top it off- it was super funny.... to us Americans who understood it! I think the boys enjoyed it too but it is hard to tell with the translator and 56 boys and 7 girls sitting and "trying" to pay attention to us. Pictures will explain it better!!! After we handed out the assembled hygiene kits to all of the kids. They were so grateful for a little toiletry bag full of goodies.

Then it was time for the 7 or so girls in the house to have some fun and hang with the ladies. Jen, Kristan, Carrie and Dani (one of the girls that is accompanying our team from Ohio). There was lots of bling, bracelet making and nails being done... both toes and fingers with sparkly colors and cool designs... ok you get the idea. I was actually hobbling around on my semi good leg playing some basketball with the boys while this little "girls' hangout" was taking place. That lasted for a couple hours and we soon learned that the kids, especially the boys who soon invaded, could out- craft us any day of the week. There were some incredible bracelets and necklaces being made and yes... we have pics to prove it.

Lunch was around 2:30... fried chicken, brown rice, mac and stuff (not cheese- more like peas, corn and carrots), meatballs, and of course the ever so popular syrupy refreshing goodness of Coca Cola- def better than the states.

A short little story came following that... the girls, Jen and Kristan, came to find me outside where I was happily playing with the boys... they wanted me to do the "flushing of the toilet"... which is no big deal. It involves getting some water from their well- a hole in the ground, where city water was awaiting at the bottom of a 15-20 foot drop. Needless to say, Naja, one of the ladies there insisted she would do it, and on the second lowering down, the rope broke from the bucket being lowered... Uh oh. I spent a good 15 minutes watching her to try to use some "jimmy rigged wire contraption" to hook the bucket back on. I eventually was escorted to the van because we were leaving to pass out food on the street where Jimmy and the boys use to live -less than a year ago. Stay tuned to find out if Naja and her crew retrieved the bucket from the bottom of the well. There was definite mention of having one of the boys be lowered by his feet or even better yet climbing down a thin PVC pipe to get it... who knows. I was told later by Naja they got it. I didn't ask how because I cannot speak Creole anyways. The mystery remains!

Passing out the food down at the place where Jimmy and nearly 100 boys used to do life was pretty incredible. Mike Gibson said a BLESSING, prayed for the food and Jimmy told his "street friends" that this food was from God and that there was plenty for all. We had a huge team of people, mixed in from our Cali group to the Texas team and our other friends Christian and Dani from Ohio. All in all, nearly 200 styrofoam to-go containers were filled with rice, chicken, mac and stuff (leftovers) and fish sauce along with ice cold orange concocted punch they had made at the home prior to coming. Most people were patient, grateful, and mellow at first, but as the crowd grew bigger the older street people started getting a little impatient and even angry. How can you blame them... these people are STARVING. One thing was for sure, when Jimmy spoke in a loud voice reprimanding them they listened. Good thing we had our stud body guards on site and nobody, not even this one crazy drunk guy who was yelling at me and the ladies to give him food and drink, was going to do anything about it. This was another special hour or so that i will not forget.

The other five members of our team, Monica, Lloyd, Jessi, Nicky, and Carolyn were at Pierre's church all day prepping and training over 100 leaders for the supposed 750 kids we will be ministering to Wed- Friday this week. They reported that things went smoothly and they were already anticipating a special moment later in the week when we would all be singing Chante, Chante, Chante...Sing, sing, sing and make music with the heavens!!!

I think I have been long-winded enough so I will wrap it up. The rest of the evening consisted of a swim in our pool to cool off, cheeseburger and fries for dinner and a sweet and moving devotional time with our team led by Mike. I will leave you with the verse he shared with us tonight and thank you all for reading our adventures. Don't forget to write us a quick comment so we know who is following along. Thanks for all your prayers. Tomorrow, we are leaving at 7 am for the beach with the street boys for the whole day. It should be fun... not sure all the details but I am sure that Jen will fill you in with more tomorrow night!

"Listen my brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?"
James 2:5

Nighty- night!

Dfresh and Jhizzle