Home is where the heart is.

A couple of days ago, a girl from my group was talking about being homesick.  She said, “It’s not really that I miss America, or even specific people.  It’s more like I miss the feeling of being home.”  Then she turned to me and asked, “Do you ever feel like that?”  And I simply replied, “St. Louis is my home.”

Tomorrow I’m hopping on a plane to go visit America.  I’m going to visit the people I love and stay for awhile to finish up my education.  And I’ll be homesick then.  But soon, I don’t know when, I’ll come back home to Haiti.

I feel like I have so much to say to wrap up this amazing trip, but no real way to say it.  So I guess I’ll just thank you all for taking the time to come alongside me on this journey.  For reading my ramblings and caring about what I’m doing and what God’s doing.  For praying for me and the Haitian people that I have so deeply fallen in love with.  I honestly can’t thank you enough for all your love and support and thoughts and prayers and even letters.

Even though I know the second my plane leaves Port-au-Prince I’ll be homesick… I still so stoked about seeing everyone!  I can’t wait to share my heart with you guys when I return.  I love you, and I’ll see you soon.

Things I will miss

1. all my new Haitian and American friends
2. practicing Creole and having Haitians laugh at my accent
3. plantains
4. Haitian kids and Haitian old people (same/difference…)
5. teaching English class
6. Wencha on Tortuga
7. being around people that understand my passion

Things I can’t wait for

1. seeing people I love
2. a milkshake (and a big glass of milk with dinner)
3. the Harry Potter movie
4. camp
5. having my own room
6. not living out of a suitcase
7. getting people to understand my passion

Creole Lesson:

“Se mwen sèl ki konnen sam gen nan tèt mwen pou ou.” -Bondye

Roughly:

“My plan for your future has always been filled with hope.” -God

Paint By Numbers

8 Pampered Women

Once again, my group got together to “pamper the workers.”  On Monday, they focused on the cooking and cleaning ladies: foot washing, nail painting, and back massages.  If anyone deserves treatment like that, it’s these women.  They work so hard, and they’re awesome.  It was great.  As they walked back into the kitchen, they were smiling and strutting their stuff like they were walking down the red carpet.  Cute!  (I think they gave us bigger portions for dinner that night…)

5 Prisoners

My group visited the local jail Tuesday afternoon.  There were five prisoners there, and we brought them water, peanut butter sandwiches, and cookies—they don’t get fed unless someone brings them food.  One of my group members Jackie started talking to them and asked them if they knew Jesus.  They did, but they didn’t really understand the whole story.  So she told them the story of Jesus from beginning to end.  And there they were, five full-grown men behind bars, listening intently as if they were kids at storytime at the library.  I gave them each a little book—they call it a “Ti Bib” or “Little Bible”—that answers a bunch of questions about Jesus in Creole.  The men decided that they wanted to accept Jesus into their lives, so Jackie led a salvation prayer with them.  Then she led to give them real Bibles, so half the team ran back to the mission and got some.  When we came back, we stayed and talked with them for awhile about their lives and families until the guards told us we had to leave.

Haiti has a pretty messed up justice system.  Most of the men put in this jail are there for stupid reasons like owing money or getting in a fight.  Sometimes, if the police can't find the person they want to arrest, they will take a member of the family instead.  The men in that cell are all different.  They are not five carbon copies of the "Prisoner Stereotype."  Some had families, some didn't.  Some wanted to change their lives around, some didn't care.  Some may have been guilty, some innocent.  In the end, they need what we all need: love.  Please be praying for them.  We are planning on seeing them again today, if they are still there.

1 Beautiful Girl

Last year when I came here, I met a girl at Tortuga.  She remembered me when I came back this year, and every time I would go to Tortuga, she would come and find me.  Well, yesterday was my last Tortuga trip of the summer.  I brought her a picture of us with a note on the back and told her that I was leaving for America soon, but I would come back someday.  When we were about to leave, I wanted to say goodbye, but I couldn’t find her.  Her mother told me she was at the house, so as the rest of the team started walking toward the boat, I stalled.  Finally Wencha came running down and handed me two beautiful shells.  Her mother had gone to get her for me.  I told her I would miss her and gave her a huge hug.  I’m going to be homesick when I get home...

 Creole Lesson:
"Mwen te grangou, nou te ban m' manje.  Mwen te swaf, nou te ban m' bwe.  Mwen te etranje, nou te resevwa mwen byen lakay nou.  Mwen te tourni, nou te ban m' rad.  Mwen te malad, nou te pran swen m'.  Mwen te nan prizon, nou te visite m'.... Sa m'ap di nou la a, se vre wi: chak fwa nou te fe sa pou yonnnan pi piti pami fre m yo, se pou mwen nou te fe li." -Matye 25:35-36, 40


"I was hungry, you gave me food.  I was thirsty, you gave me drink.  I was a stranger, you let me into your home.  I was naked, you gave me clothes.  I was sick, you took care of me.  I was in prison, you visited me.... What I'm saying to you is true: every time you did that for the least of my brothers, it was for me you did it." -Matthew 25:35-36, 40
Matthew 25:35-36, 40

The Timeline and the End of Time

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

10:34 AM

I did grocery ministries with Hannah, Caitlin, Emily, and Evaline.  We have several really awesome cooks here in St. Louis that make food for all the Americans and Haitians on campus.  They eat.  They get paid.  They go home to their families who have no food to eat.  All of our leftover food goes to feed the pigs because we just can’t afford to feed everyone’s families.  That’s just how it is.  So Hannah and Caitlin wanted to bring some food to one of the cook’s families, and the rest of us came to help.  We told her husband and kids who were at her house not to tell that it was us… but we think she might have caught on…

11:48 AM

Some Haitians are really mean me.  And that makes it really hard for me to love them.

“But I say to you, love your enemies.  Pray for those to hurt you….If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward.  Even the tax collectors do that.  And if you are only nice to your friends, you are no better than other people.  Even those who don’t know God are nice to their friends.” –Matthew 5:44,46-47

Thursday, July 21, 2011

5:36 AM

Headache Day #3

4:56 PM

My new group came in!  And they’re from Ormond Beach!  The end.

Friday, July 22, 2011

2:17 PM

We arrived at La Baie.  A little late.  In fact, due to a lot of miscommunication problems, everything seemed to be going wrong today.  At least we got to play with the kids a little bit.

3:24 PM

Still grumpy about time issues.

4:47 PM

My group has felt called to “pamper the workers” here at the mission.  In other words, all of the Haitian women that work so hard and never seem to get noticed are getting their feet and hands washed and massaged and their nails painted.  So my group rounded up the women at La Baie and started their own little Haitian salon.  It was awesome.  Many of the women had never had a massage before, and they loved it.

8:28 PM

I prayed that God would help me die to my need for a schedule and staying on time.

Friday, July 22, 2011

(sometime in the middle of the night)

I got up to go to the bathroom.  My watch ran out of batteries.  Be careful what you pray for…

Very funny, God.  Seeing as I have no watch anymore, I’ll drop the timeline act.  Grant took us all out fishing after breakfast.  Well, he was going out to get the fish from his nets and we tagged along.  We got to jump in the middle of the Caribbean and swim around.  It was pretty fantastic.

After that, we headed out to Salines Mayette to visit the orphanage.  The women went off to pamper some workers while I stayed behind to help set up the soccer nets and play with the boys.  Well, as many of you probably guessed, I got hurt.  (Why can I not play sports without getting hurt?)  Basically a leg smashed into the top of my foot, which caused a lot of limp-tastic soccer playing until I finally swallowed my pride and sat down.

Soon after I sat down, a little girl came and sat right on my lap and put her head against me.  And that’s when I realized how much I’m going to miss when I leave here.  I’ve been getting so excited about going home lately that I haven’t realized how much I’m going to miss Haiti.  I teared up a little… not gonna lie.  :(

My group also did a short VBS for the kids.  They did a skit on the Good Samaritan and handed out these little books written in Creole.  Basically, it’s a father telling the story of Jesus from birth to resurrection to his two kids.  I sat down with some of the girls and had them read to me, and they made me read to them also.  I am by no means an expert at reading in Creole, but they cheered for me nonetheless.  Plus, the group let me have one of the books, so I’ll be able to practice.  :)

We stayed in Beauchamp and went to church there this morning.  It didn’t seem like we were away from campus for very long, but when we came back… everything seemed different.  Cholera broke out in La Point today.  There are about 400 patients pouring out of the hospital right now… please be praying for the Haitian people as they go through another horrible outbreak of this disease.  Guys were sent out today and will be sent out tomorrow to set up tents for the patients to stay in.  The rest of us feel pretty much useless.

By the way, please don’t worry about me.  The water on campus is completely safe.  I promise.

Cranglish lesson:

During VBS at the orphanage, they gave little coloring sheets out to the kids with the books.  One girl wrote a sentence on hers in half Creole and half English and gave it to a member of my group.

Roughly:
"Mwem la paske Jesus love me toujou."
"I am here because Jesus loves me forever."

That's pretty dang insightful for a kid that can't even spell yet.  The girl gets it.

The Letter C

This episode of Haiti: The Musical is sponsored by the letter “C.”

Caves:

On Saturday, we got to do some exploring!  Basically, we found out about two places in Anse a Foleur (the Voodoo capital of Haiti) that we had never been to before: the Twin Basins and the Cave of Spirits.  The Twin Basins is where people go for holy cleansing.  It’s this deep dark hole filled with water that they bathe in.  When they leave, they don’t take anything they brought back with them because it is “dirty.”  They even ditch their clothes and put on some sort of ceremonial outfit.  It was crowded when we went so not much exploring happened there.

The Cave of Spirits… now that was cool.  We got to climb down into this weird opening.  I guess it was a cave—it had bats and everything—but the ceiling was mostly sticks so light came through making it pretty bright.  Around the base of the pseudo-cave were a bunch of real caves.  Supposedly a different spirit lives in each cave and the worshippers stop at each one to pray.  The main spirit of the caves is a rainbow colored serpent with two heads… glad we didn’t bump into him.  We did, however, get to explore all the mini caves, which was awesome.  After we satisfied our thirst for adventure, we all sat in the pseudo-cave for lunch and a Bible study on spiritual warfare. 

 The Cave of Wonders!

“We do live in the world, but we do not fight in the same way the world fights.  We fight with weapons that are different from those the world uses.  Our weapons have power from God that can destroy the enemy’s strong places.” 2 Corinthians 10”3-4a

Church:

On Sunday, I got to attend our deaf church for the first time.  Last week was our very first time offering a deaf church, which is really awesome because the deaf adults in the community didn’t have anywhere to go to worship before.  Unfortunately, only one person came this week.  A lot of them were sick and there was a sign language interpreter at La Point that day, so many of them went there.  Fortunately, the one person who came, Fedner, is a friend of mine.  Every time I see him, I attempt to sign with him even though I’m not great at it.  He has taught me a lot of new signs and even gave me a name sign.  Anyway, it was still really cool to listen to their sermon as it was being signed.  They also played a sign language video for kids for the Miriam Center kids that came.  It was adorable!

While I was at deaf church, Ifozya went to the mission church!  I was so excited that she went, but at the same time, I was upset that I wasn’t there to sit with her.  :(

Climbing:

After church, Ifozya came over to the mission, so she could take me to her house.

Tip: If you ever come to Haiti, when someone says, “It’s not far!” what they really mean is, “We have to walk a really long way in the heat and climb up rocky mountains to get there!”

Lucky for me, I knew that before we started, so I was prepared for a “not far” walk to her house.  Along the way, I joked with her that I was not tired or hot; I was full of energy!  She laughed at me.  I don’t think she believed me…

Anyway, after the climb, we finally reached her house.  It was a little house with a beautiful view.  Her sister wasn’t there, but I got to talk to her brother-in-law a little bit.  Communicating was a little bit difficult because the only translator I could find is still working on his English.  He does well, but there are certain ideas that were hard to get across.  Either way, though, she finally started opening up to me a little bit.  She told me about where she used to live and why she now lives with her sister and her hopes for the future.  It was awesome to be able to get to know her a little better.  Please keep praying for my friend.  :)

Ifozya and I at her house

Christmas:

Merry Christmas everyone!  On Monday, we celebrated Christmas in July.  A bunch of interns put on green and red, so I decided to go grab some Christmas socks.  I came back to the room with three pairs, toe socks for me and two pairs to share.  Here I am trying to spread Christmas cheer, and everyone stares and asks me, “Where did you find Christmas socks?”

“Um… in my suitcase?”

Apparently it’s weird to pack Christmas socks on a trip to Haiti.  Go figure.  Maybe someday I’ll at least be aware of my eccentricies.

Anyway, we threw on The Grinch in the background and started our White Elephant gift exchange.  To my family back home: don’t get too excited.  White Elephant in Haiti is nothing like it is at Aunt Margaret’s house…  Let me give you some examples:

^ The gift I wrapped. ^ 

Sock Puppet!

The first gift I unwrapped was a prosthetic foot.  That’s right.  A fake foot.  Merry Christmas, Melissa.  Other prize gifts included a remote controlled tarantella, a foam dart gun, weave (that’s what I ended up with…), and to top it off: a goat head.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  A goat head.  A real goat head.  Only in Haiti would this ever happen.  Needless to say, all the girls started screaming, Hickory (the mastermind) was laughing, and I got the whole ordeal on tape.  Life is good.  Weird and creepy.  But good.

One sneaky intern even had the audacity to steal Vanessa right off my bed and wrap her up.  Well, that wasn’t going to happen, so I guess I won weave and a teddy bear.

Christmas in July ended with Elf and a pretty hilarious video of one of the interns jamming out to the new black gospel CD he had just won.

Children:

This morning I went to For Jonathan’s Sake for the first time.  Basically, it’s part of the Miriam Center, except the children aren’t orphans.  Instead, the mothers bring their children once a week to the mission and learn about different ways to work with their children.  It also gives their kids a chance to make friends and have toys to play with that will benefit them.  I know there’s a lot more to it than that, but as I said, it was my first time going.  Mostly, I was just taking video and pictures, but I did play with them also.  It was a lot of fun.

One of the boys from For

Jonathan's Sake and his mother

Chapman:

FYI: I met Steven Curtis Chapman’s sons today.  One of them, Caleb Stevenson, sang a song he wrote for us.  I think it was called “Kingdom of Me,” and it was about knowing that there are problems out in the world but being too afraid to look.  Kind of like the “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” Theory.  If we don’t see it, we can pretend it’s not there.  But the fact is, those problems will always be there unless we get the courage to do something about them.  It was a really cool song.  You should try to find it online.  Seriously.

Creole:

Jwaye Nowel!

Merry Christmas!

C you soon, guys!  :)

I'll eat you up, I love you so!

So this week has been pretty chillax.  We don’t have any groups coming in so we’ve been having some training slash bonding time as staff.  Yesterday was the big volleyball tournament.  We split up into four teams and came up with team names.  My team was The Wild Things!  We all wore green shirts and facepaint and funny monkey hats—complete with tails and ears.  The Miriam Center kids were our mascots, and they had signs and shakers to cheer us on.  Pretty much, we were the best team ever.  Even though we only got third place.  Whatevs.  It was fun.  I have battle scars to prove it.  (UPDATE: WE GOT THE MOST SPIRITED AWARD!)  Today we went to the beach at Anse a Foleur.  It was awesome just to be able to chill and have fun with the interns.

For those of you wondering, I have been talking to Ifozya every morning and have been loving getting to know her.  Yesterday she invited me to visit her at her house on Sunday.  I'm going with my translator friend and another intern, so we can see her house and meet her sister.  I can't believe I'm leaving in two weeks... I'm going to miss my new friend.  :(

Honestly, that’s all I have to say, so I guess I’ll post some more pictures.  They seemed to be a hit last time…

 Joseph, from the Miriam Center

 This is a family we brought groceries to.

Ifozya's little girl

The teenage girls doing my hair...

They still haven't figured out that unless you put the hairtie at the end

of the braid rather than the beginning, it won't stay... 

TOMS Shoes! 

It's Laundry Day!

Old men playing cards...

Does this scene look familiar to you? 

Painting with the Miriam Center kids!

I think more paint got on me than the paper plates... 

The Wild Things! 

Yeah, we do. 

Epic monkey hat and sunglasses. 

Peek over the side of the sailboat at Anse a Foleur.

(PS Playing pirates on that boat reminded me of playing

pirates on the old bunk beds... I miss you, Nikita!)

And now for today's episode of:

Weird Injuries You Can Only Get In Haiti

hosted by Melissa Hernandez

Bruised butt AKA “Tap Tap Butt” (cause: riding in trucks on bumpy roads)*

Egg yolk in your ears (cause: egg fights)*

Sea urchins in your feet (cause: not wearing shoes at Tortuga)

Giant blisters (cause: too much sun)

Little rocks stuck in your hand like a splinter (cause: diving on gravel during volleyball)*

Burning hands (cause: getting hand sanitizer and/or salt water in your cuts)*

Burns on your feet (cause: walking barefoot outside)

Rips on your hands (cause: swinging on the ropes from a giant sailboat)

Mud in your eyes (cause: mudball fights)*

Rubbed raw knucles (cause: hand washing laundry... I wish I were kidding.)*

*Injuries that I have experienced personally throughout the summer.

Creole Lesson: St. Louis se lakay.

                        St. Louis is home.

Mwen renmen ou,

Melissa

PS Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who was in on The Great Package Surprise.  I had no idea it was coming, and it absolutely made my summer.  Thank you guys so much for thinking of me and praying for me this summer.  I read every single letter and card and sticky tacked the pictures up in my locker.  (A special thanks for the sunglasses and Band-Aids, both of which came in handy for the volleyball tournament.)

Number Three

Someone once told me that there are three ways to know if God is telling you to do something:

1)  It doesn’t conflict with God’s Word.

2)  Your church family confirms it.

3)  It scares you to death.

I always loved that but at the same time, it challenged me.  I mean, going to Haiti doesn’t conflict with God’s Word.  Everyone completely supported me and told me that I would do amazing things through God here.  But it never scared me.  I actually feel more at home here than I do in the States sometimes.  Simply coming to Haiti must not be enough.  So I asked God why He really wanted me here and to help show me ways that I could make a difference.

Well, ladies and gents, be careful what you pray for because you just might get it.

Last blog, I talked about a woman—her name is Ifozya—that I met down in the Nutritional Program who I invited to church.  Honestly, I wasn’t actually expecting her to come, so I wasn’t too disappointed when I didn’t see her.  Instead, I decided I wanted to talk to her again.  So yesterday I went down there again and a couple of the other interns were painting fingernails and doing a Bible study with the women.  I said hi to them as that same little girl, the woman’s daughter, ran up to me.  This is just about how it went down:

Me: This girl is so cute!

Intern: That’s her mother there behind her.

Me: Yeah, I know!  I came down specifically to talk to her.

Intern: She beats her daughter.  The girl doesn’t live with her anymore.

I’m sorry.  What?  This woman beats her child.  Beats her child so badly that she was taken away from her.  And that means something in Haiti.  Accepted discipline in Haiti might look like child abuse to Americans, so the fact that this girl was being beaten so badly that other Haitians took her away is a big deal.  And this is who God calls me to talk to?

Well, that takes care of Number Three, I guess.  You win, God.  I’m scared.

I was so scared that I literally ran.  I turned away and ran to try to find a place I could be alone and assess the situation.  (That’s code for cry.)  Did I cry because I found out a little girl was being abused?  Well, yes… partly.  But really I cried because I still felt completely called to talk to her mother but had no idea what to say anymore.  I mean, she’s the same person right?  But I’m not prepared for this.  I’m not equipped for this.  How do you minister to a woman who beats her child?

After I talked to a friend of mine about it and calmed down a little bit, I decided I needed to just go back down there and talk to her like I planned.  So in my terrible conversational Creole, I asked her if she remembered me, and she said yes.  I told her that I missed her at church on Sunday, so I wanted to come see her again.  I said that I’d really like to be friends with her and visit her in the mornings.  Ifozya smiled and said okay.

I decided that if I couldn’t get her to come to church, I would bring it to her.  So this morning, I visited her again, just like I promised.  This time I brought a translator and a Creole Bible.  When I came down, Ifozya came over right away.  I asked her if she wanted to do a Bible study with me, and she said yes.  Long story short: I have officially started a study on 1 John with Ifozya.

FYI: I’m still scared.  I don’t really know where this is going to lead, if anywhere.  She didn’t really open up much to me today, but that’s fine.  Mostly I’m just letting God take care of the hard part because I have no idea what I'm doing.

Creole lesson: “Men nouvèl nou te tande nan bouch Jezikri a, nouvèl m’ap fè nou konnen an: Bondye se limyè.  Pa gen fènwa nan Bondye.” -1 Jan 1:5

“Here is the message we have heard from Christ and now announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.” -1 John 1:5

Please pray for me everyone!  And Ifozya, too.  :)

The Happy Crappy Edition

Recently, the staff has started doing boy and girl small groups twice a week.  It’s been a really great way for us to get together and talk about how we’ve been feeling and what we’ve been doing since we often go a long time without seeing each other.  One thing we do during girls small group has been what we lovingly refer to as “Happy Crappies.”  AKA: Our highs and lows for the week.  Thus, I will be giving you my Happy Crappies for the past few days.  (Crappies are first so I can end on a Happy note. J )

Crappies

1) So I totally got sick again.  Crappy.  I’ll spare you the details, but I was definitely quarantined for a day because everyone keeps getting sick so they didn’t want me to spread my germs.  Blah.

2) Remember that whole Neighbors Project in Mayette thing and “You have no idea how stoked I am!” comment?  Yeah, well, guess what days I was sick… Sigh.  Story of my life.

3) And for the cherry on top of my Crappies, whatever horrible antibiotic they gave me to fight the sickness was almost as bad as malaria pills.  Same gross taste.  Same chalky yuckness.  Just a little bit smaller (hence the “almost as bad.”)  Long story short, I was supposed to take them for three days… yeah.  I feel fit as a fiddle now, so forget that mess.

Happies

1) "I feel fit as a fiddle now” = Happy #1  It was so nice to finally be able to do something productive.  I also have two Sub-Happies.  The first was when someone (I didn’t find out until later who) randomly brought down Vanessa, my teddy bear, to where I was quarantined so I could have her to make me feel better.  The second was having some random short-term tripper be my temporary over-protective mother and take care of me while I was sick.

2) Sometime before I got sick, I had a chance to hang out with the Nutritional Program, where malnourished kids can come to eat.  I grabbed a friend of mine who translates, and we went down to talk to the moms of the children.  One little girl jumped in my arms and would not let go, so I ended up talking to her mother.  When I asked her if she went to church, she said she didn’t, so I asked why.  She told me that her and her kids didn’t have good shoes to wear.  Well, fancy that.  We had boxes of TOMS shoes that we were about to bring down in 15 minutes.  Seriously.  After I told her, I asked her if I would see her on Sunday and if I could sit with her.  She smiled and said yes.  It was pretty awesome.

3) A couple of weeks ago, I met a boy named Fridson.  We were walking to the waterfall and just talking—as much as we could with my limited Creole.  I asked him about his family, and he said that his parents dies in the earthquake and he was living with a friend.  I was so sad for him, but happy that he had someone who had taken him in.  A week or so later, I heard the interns talking about a 13-year-old boy living on the streets that they wanted to try and get into the orphanage in Salines Mayette.  I found out that Fridson was kicked out of the home he was living in—apparently they couldn’t afford to take care of him along with the rest of the family.  Well, after asking and calling and trying to figure out who to talk to, we found out this week that Fridson might possibly be able to enter our orphanage at La Baie!  It’s not for sure yet, but it’s a Happy anyway.  Please be praying for Fridson.  He’s an amazing kid.

4) Tonight we played soccer with Miriam Center kids.  Half of them walked or ran around and half of them were in wheelchairs, but ALL of them were laughing and kicking and having a blast.  Try to picture it, if you can.  It was too dark for video.

Creole lesson: “Se anpil dlo ki lave kay tè.”

      “It takes a lot of water to wash a mud hut.”

“We must not become tired of doing good.  We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9

Sometimes it’s overwhelming.  What can I do?  This is such a big country with so many big problems.  I’m just a young girl.  But I have great heart.  And I will not tire of doing good.

“God is big in the small things.” –Courtney Pierce

Hey Blogosphere!

I am blogging in the morning because I leave today for Beauchamp, and I won’t be back until Thursday.  I was just going to skip Tuesday, but I decided I’d miss you guys too much.  :P  I am happy to say that I am feeling 100% again—besides the slight cold I have…who would have thought you could get a cold in weather like this?  Sleeping for practically two days straight seemed to do the trick.

The Great Ice Cream Adventure

On Friday, we packed the bus full of Americans and Haitians alike to go on a road trip for ice cream!  When you’ve been living in a microwave for a month and haven’t had any dairy products besides goat milk (bleck), you start to crave ice cream like crazy.  AKA: We were all pretty darn excited.  The ice cream place was about an hour away in Port du Paix.  When we got there… they had no ice cream.  No.  Ice cream.  Let’s just say we were disappointed ß the Understatement of the Year Award.  On the way back, Anna said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if we passed an ice cream man!?”  We laughed a little, but were still a little bit on the depressed side.  All of a sudden, I heard everyone start getting excited.  I thought, “The only reason anyone should be getting excited is if we found ice cream…” I looked out the window, and as sure as God loves us, there was an ice cream man.  Seriously.  A street vendor with a little machine on wheels that made soft serve strawberry ice cream.  Ice cream is even more delicious when you have given up hope and suddenly it is given to you.

The Big Fish and Other Unbelievable Stories

On Saturday, all the interns drove around two hours to La Baie to visit Grant and Natasha, the two missionaries who live there.  Apparently Grant is quite the fisherman and he caught a gigantic fish for us to have a fish fry.  (There are pictures and a huge lunch with leftover fish to prove his Big Fish Story, for the non-believers).  Anyway, we also got to take a little motorboat to the private beach a little ways from the mission site.  It was a lot of fun.  Mostly I built a sandcastle with some of the Haitian boys that were with us and buried them in the sand, but I did go in the water for a little bit.  Grant had brought goggles, so I took a pair and went underwater.  Wow!  You would never know how many fish are swimming around your feet that close to shore.  It was beautiful.

A New Group, A New Adventure

On Sunday, new groups arrived!  I am with a church called FCC who has partnered with another church in the city to do the Neighbors Project in Mayette.  You have no idea how stoked I am!  We leave today for Salines Mayette to visit the orphanage and then will stay in Beauchamp.  Tomorrow we will start going hut to hut giving surveys.  I can’t wait to tell you more in detail about what we will be doing on Friday after we get back!

Creole lesson:

“Gade zwazo k'ap vole nan syèl la: yo pa plante, yo pa fè rekòt, yo pa sere anyen nan galata. Men, Papa nou ki nan syèl la ba yo manje. Eske nou pa vo pi plis pase zwazo yo?” -Matye 6:26

^“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” –Matthew 6:26

Yesterday, my part of my group wanted to do Grocery Ministries.  Basically, if I haven’t written about it before, we go into the market and fill up bags with a week’s worth of groceries and a Creole Bible.  Then we go to random houses and give them the gift of food and God’s Word.  We talk to each family and get to know them a little bit and then pray with them.  One woman wanted us to pray for her because she didn’t have enough “things.”  Emily, the intern that joined us, thought of this passage immediately and asked the interpreter to read it for her in Creole.  So now I’m sharing it with you.

Love you guys,

Ti Blanc

Photo Special!

Well, as I said, it’s been a pretty uneventful couple of days (lots of sleeping and feeling pukey), so there’s not much for me to blog about… Therefore, I decided to post pictures instead!  If you’re reading this, then it worked and the Haitian Internet gets 10 points!  Let’s just say that posting pictures is not an easy feat, so enjoy them!

 "Melissa and Dwivay Blan are friends."

PS Cutest old man ever.  Wait in anticipation for the video of him dancing with me...

 Shaving Cream Party!

 Brittany with the cutest boy in Tortuga.  He is also the Duck Duck Goose champion.

Face paint! 

This is the famous Wensha.  Yes, I painted her nails.

Thank you WWW campers for teaching me how.  :) 

Wensha with Jordan and a starfish!

 Beautiful Haiti.

Miriam Center kids.  :) 

Jeff would write words like "clap," "high five," or "hug" and

when he pointed at the word, Johnathan would do it.

 Fingerpainting!

Hailey communicating with Fedner, our deaf security guard. 

Making balloon animals. :) 

I made this hat.  :)

PS This is the girl that made me feel better while I was sick. 

Creole Lesson:  “Viv san pé.”

                         “Live without fear.”

For some reason, Haitians are fascinated by the word “reckless” written on my foot.  They also want to know what it means, but I can’t even seem to explain it.  At first my excuse was, “Well, it’s really hard to explain in my broken Creole.”  But even when I tried to explain it to the interpreters in English, I stumbled.  What exactly does it mean?  Why in the world have I been writing “reckless” on my foot for the past year?  I felt challenged.  So after thinking about it for awhile, I used my handy dandy Creole-English Dictionary to construct this phrase: Viv san pé.  Live without fear.  I guess that’s what reckless means to me.

Be reckless, guys!  I miss you!