Final days in the Kenscoff Mountains

Well, tomorrow morning I leave GLA & move to H2H. This last week at GLA has been great!! I've had some of my favorite moments with the kids & I've gotten to do a few new things too!

A few days ago, with broken Creole, I tried to explain to Ronaldo (one of the older boys) why the kids at H2H need me. I told him that he has Molly, Joyce, Danielle, Brittany & the other volunteers and the kids in Grande Goave don't have anyone right now. I didn't think he understood but I underestimated him... so far I have heard him explain it to 2 other kids :)

I have had an amazing time at GLA and I feel very blessed to work with these kids & meet the community. While I am sad to leave it is a happy ending for me... I have gotten to see the kids I've worked with grow & improve in amazing ways and I know their future is bright. They will all be placed with great "forever families" and in the meantime they have a home where they are loved immensely!

Though many of you don't know Joyce & Molly (the girls who run the Toddler House) I want to quickly tell them that they are doing an amazing job & they are personally changing the lives of hundreds of kids! Their love for the kids is inspiring and their commitment to their roles (despite constant challenges) is an example I will strive to follow while at H2H. Thank you so much for being courageous enough to follow your heart.

Molly, Joyce & Timothy (Molly's brother who visited a few weeks ago... HI Timothy!!!)



To the "forever families" who are following this blog, there is so much I want to say to you... the kids that are coming home to you (soon!!!) are so excited to join your family. Those of them who can talk, speak of you with pride and those who can't talk, beam when they see pictures of you. It was truly an honor to care for your children & I will continue to pray for them, and for their new families.

Now for a some new pictures of the kids:

Thamar... at least she matches :)



Cindy Love... Taylor, I think she's your Haitian twin :)



Kenley & his new toy.... which he LOVES!!



My final adventures in the Kenscoff Mountains...

Saturday I went on the Feeding again and another volunteer, Brittany came with me. We decided to do a bit of shopping & go for lunch before meeting up with the group so we left early & took a tap-tap up to the Baptist Mission. About half way up the tap-tap ran out of gas!! The driver was definetely a pro... he left just enough gas to turn around so he could roll down the hill to the closest gas station. Everyone piled out of the truck & started to walk. We didn't last long walking up the moutain... but I'm happy to say that we lasted longer then most of the others!! We quickly came up with Plan B, which was called "Hitch Hiking in Haiti". Not something that I'd recommend but desperate times call for desperate meaures :) The Feeding was great again. We went to a place that I had been before so it was nice to be greeted by familar faces.

Sunday I went to Haitian church with the kids. I sat in the back with them on the floor b/c it was packed. A few minutes into the service one of the Pastors came over to me & asked me to follow him. I had no idea why but I wasn't going to argue... he wanted me to have a seat and unfortunately for me... the only seat available was in the front of the church with the choir!!

Today I was able to visit an orphanage in Port-au-Prince that was founded by Mother Theresa and still run by Nuns. It was an amazing experience & a great way to spend my last morning here.

And FINALLY, how could I end without giving you an update on the little premie who is pictured in the Before & After pictures below. She has returned home with her mother!!

I will still have access to internet while in Grande Goave so please continue to email me... it is a great source of encouragement for me!

Grande Savande

Well, if it's possible to slow down time & jam a week into 3 days... I just did it!

We left on Saturday morning at 6:30am and made it to Bouva around 4:30pm. Bouva is a small mountain community 20 minutes (via truck) above Grande Savande (which is a small community by the ocean) & it's where we stay as there aren't facilities in Grande Savande. It is also a community full of friends & family of Pastor Luc.

About half way through the drive Pastor Luc gave our driver instructions to pull into a house where he knew some blancs lived. I asked why & he said it was time for me to have a pee break. As thoughtful as that may sound to those of you who haven't been to Haiti... what's wrong with the bush that everyone else uses? I didn't want everyone in the truck to think that I needed a toilet when the rest didn't. After a typical father/daughter argument I caved & we pulled off the road... amazingly, the "blanc lady" that lived in that house was Leslie, a girl I went to Prairie Bible College with for 2 years. It was crazy! Her & her husband moved to Haiti a year ago and run Clean Water for Haiti. I had no idea she was in Haiti!! It was great to have a quick visit and she laughed that I was being forced to use her bathroom. The rest of the weekend Luc kept reminding me how important it is to "always obey Pappa Luc" because even if he doesn't know what he's talking about God still tells him what to say... I have a feeling that reminder will continue to come LONG past this weekend :)

The drive through the mountains to Bouva is beautiful. You overlook the ocean and you pass mud huts tucked under huge cactus trees. The kids up there see very few blancs so they are excited when we pass and they run to the truck hoping for candy or presents... which we are always eager to give :) I was sitting in the cab for most of the ride (we had 10 of us jammed in the cab & the back) but Paul, a friend from PCC, was sitting in the back. He laughed as we rolled into Bouva and said, "Maybe the sun is getting to me but I'm not sure what I heard more of... "blanc, blanc" or "Rebecca, Rebecca". Haha. My 5 minutes of fame :)

While in Bouva we sleep in the church & small guest house beside it. There is no electicity there so our teams bring a generator with us. As this was just a quick visit with no team we did it the Haitian way without a generator. We cooked over an open fire, had torches for the evening church service and played cards by candle lite.

Bouva Church:





Our neighbors & our dinner:






Our kitchen:







The BEST coffee:





After a quick meal we had a lively church service, which left me dripping in sweat from dancing. There is no water or plumbing for washing so I headed down the the creek with one of the Haitian ladies to wash up. My idea of "washing up" was much different then her idea of "bathing" but I didn't want to make her uncomfortable so I followed her lead... I became a little more Haitian everyday :)



Samantha in her Sunday best... a dress the team gave her last year:



I woke on Sunday morning with crack of dawn... about 5:30am... to a little voice wispering my name in the window. When I stumbled to the window (I am very clumpsy when I'm tired) I saw a small herd of kids waiting. They had been at the creek getting water & news had spread that we were there. Just like gossiping at the water cooler I guess :)



We had another great church service and then headed down to Grande Savande to look at the progress on the new church, visit with Pastor Jean Francois, meet with the builders and of course play with the kids. The kids waited patiently for the meeting to be over and they swarmed me as soon as the men left. They were shocked that I was able to talk to them. The swarm was growing and a girl fought her way to the middle to see why everyone was gathering... when she poked her head through and saw me she started to hyperventilate!! The kids all laughed at her shock but it was actually a little scary. I had to sit her down & put her head between her legs & it took her awhile to calm down. She had been one of my favorites on previous trips & I had brought a picture I had taken of her last year. I was a little nervous to give it to her because she was still breathing so hard :) She was my tour guide for the rest of the afternoon. We drove back to Bouva as it got dark and spent the evening playing the famous Haitian card game "Casino". Canada VS Haiti... you can guess who won.

The community of Grande Savande:






The new Church:






The hiperventilator:

Some of the other kids:

We woke just after 5am and got an early start home.

It was a great weekend with the gang from H2H and while I will be sad to leave GLA, I am excited to get back to Grande Goave. I will be transfering to Grande Goave next Thursday. My tenative plans at the moment is to return to Canada on June 1st (with the team from PCC) and spend a few weeks gathering supplies & raising money and then return to Grande Goave until next summer.

As my days here at GLA are counting down I am taking advantage of every moment! As my weekends have been filled with travelling I haven't gotten much R&R so I am feeling a bit weary. Hopefully I'll be able to recharge my batteries this weekend!

Home sweet Home

I had an amazing weekend at H2H in Grande Goave! When we drove through the gates I felt like I had arrived home. For those of you who are not familar with H2H, here's a quick glimpse...
My church, Pacific Community Church (PCC) in Cloverdale, BC (Canada) has partnered with an organization called Heart 2 Heart (H2H) who have a complex in Grande Goave (southern Haiti) which contains a Children's Home (~85 kids), a community school (~300 kids) and a church for the community. PCC sends short term missions teams to Haiti once a year and we spend 1 week in Grand Goave and 1 week in Grande Savande (Northern Haiti) where we are building a new Church for H2H. I have been on two missions trips with H2H/PCC and this weekend was my third time visiting them. My primary goal in coming to GLA was to learn creole so I can be more productive on future teams. I have a heart for Haiti in general but I have a soft spot for Grande Goave & Grande Savande in particular.

The ever welcoming gate... from the inside:

Here are some of the school kids:

Hmmm... I'm not sure how to summarize my weekend. It feels like we did a months worth of activities over 4 days. As the days all blur together anyways, I'll just give you some of my highlights.

- Being greeted by Wilkenson. We arrived at night & seconds after getting out of the truck I felt 2 arms wrap around me. I knew before I turned around that it was Wilkenson. He is the reason I am currently at GLA. He was my shadow on both of my mission trips to H2H and on the last trip he was devasted when we left... ok, I'll admit it, so was I. It broke my heart that I couldn't communicate with him to comfort him or to explain to him that he was just as important to me as I was to him. I promised myself that I would learn Creole, at least enough to communicate with Wilkenson, before I came back. GLA has been a great place for me to learn Creole, as the toddlers & Nannys are eager teachers. This weekend Wilkenson & I talked for hours & with a little help from my dictionary I was able to tell him what I needed to, it was amazing! And it wasn't a sad goodbye this time because I was able to tell him I'd see him in a couple of weeks - I wish I had a picture of the look on his face when I told him that.

This is Wilkenson:

- Visiting with Pastor Luc & Michelle. Luc & Michelle are a Haitian couple who run the Children's Home & the complex. Michelle has been battling cancer for the past few years and was recently in the hospital in FL as her cancer had relapsed. She was on life support and the doctors had gathered the family to say their goodbyes. When they turned off the life support she started battling back & she was well enough to return to her home in Haiti to spend her final days. Michelle is struggling with bouts of pain but overall she is lively & happy to visit with friends and family. She even made a guest appearance at church on Sunday and blessed us with some preaching. While I couldn't understand all she said, it was a special thing to see the Spirit speak through her... not something I have seen so evidently before.

- Taking 65 kids to Tyno Beach in a rented tap-tap... just carrying on Roger's tradition! As they boarded the tap-tap I noticed a bunch of them had brought water jugs. I was impressed... the kids were thinking ahead! As soon as we got to the beach they dumped the water & put the empty jug in the back of their shorts as a floatation devise. I should have given them a hard time about wasting water but I was laughing too hard as they waddled to the water.

- Making a new friend. There is a deaf girl at H2H that I hadn't met before, because she has attended a special school in PAP for the past few years, and she was estatic that I could sign with her. I was very rusty (it has been several years since I took the sign language course) but it didn't matter... when I surprised her by asking her if she thought the boy sitting beside her was cute, I made a friend for life :)

- Walking through the village of Grande Goave & being greeted by kids & adults that I had met on previous trips. I still got the typical "blanc, blanc" but I heard "Rebecca!" almost as often! With our whimpy stomachs we can't eat the same food as they eat at the Children's Home so we walked through the village to Pastor Luc's house for our meals. It was a great excuse to visit people along the way & I often had a pack of kids by the time I got there. Just a few sketchy moments... we walked through a rara one evening (although it was very peaceful) and we had a crazy guy follow us yelling "they're thiefs!", "tie them up", "send them away". LOL. Even that was a highlight because the little boy holding my hand kept repeating "monti!!" which means liar in Creole :)

- Pastor Herrod (pronounced A-wal) saying in broken english "Movies mean quiet, I like movies". Luc & Michelle haven't been living in the complex as Michelle needs some R&R so Pastor Herrod was moved in to care for the kids. Doesn't sound like a big task but imagine 85 kids from 6 years to 18 years... and then imagine looking after them when you're mid-twenties without any experience with kids! He's definitely earned my respect!

- Getting ring worm. Yup, you read that right. Why a highlight? Why not. The first one appeared on Thursday as we were waiting to be picked up & my friend was eager to point out new ones each day. As I didn't have any medicine with me they were pretty bad by the end of my stay but now that I'm back at GLA the meds are working great.

- Driving back through Port-au-Prince. In typical Haitian style, we travelled with 5 guys in the back of the truck & a live chicken (kind of like packing a brown bag lunch except you light a fire instead of using a microwave) between us in the back seat. Our driver, a "big boss" in the Police (aka Pastor Luc's brother & my new self proclaimed Uncle Hoslais) drove us & he was tired of the traffic so he crossed over the center barrier and drove on the wrong side of the road!! Man, I thought our drive home from the West Coast Trail was scary!

Here we are playing chicken with the taptaps... I put my hand out the window to take these pictures & almost lost it a few times!






While I had a great time there this weekend (maybe even my best ever in Haiti so far), I was also overwhelmed with the need the kids have for a role model. With Luc & Michelle residing in the town, instead of in the complex, the kids are missing having someone to show them affection, play with them, teach them how to care for the younger ones or the sick ones, & give them a boot when they get lazy.

When I came to Haiti in February, my plan was to stay at GLA until May 15th and then meet a team from PCC at H2H and spend 2 weeks there before returning to Canada with them. I still may stick with that plan but I'm also considering heading to H2H (Grande Groave) a few weeks early to help where I can. I would then return to Canada with the team from PCC, raise the necessary support, gather additional supplies and return to H2H for a year (or as needed). This would be a big step for me & there are still details that would need to be worked out before I could commit to it.

I am traveling with leaders from H2H to Grande Savande this weekend to check on the progress of the church we are building and to visit with the community surrounding it. I expect that I'll solidify my transition date from GLA to H2H after this weekend.

Thanks for reading this novel and thanks for all the emails & comments you leave, they are a great encouragement.

Just a few pictures to end off with..............

The famous twins... Wood & Woody:

Craft time with some of the boys:

Road trip!

Just a quick note to let you know that I'll be travelling to Grande Goave (southern Haiti) this afternoon to spend the weekend at H2H with Pastor Luc, Michelle & their many kids :) For those of you who don't know about H2H... it's an orphanage for 85 kids, a school for ~300 and a community church. My church in Surrey (PCC) has worked with H2H for the past 5 years at their location in Grande Goave and we are currently building a new location in Grande Savande (northern Haiti). My experience with H2H initiated my stay at GLA because I feel I need to learn Creole to assist with the building in Grande Savande as they speak very little Engligh there. I am very excited for this weekend!!!! I'll be back at GLA Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

A new skill for the resume

Since I'm teaching the Nannys to knit they figure they should teach me somthing that they find easy & I find difficult.... yup, I'm learning to braid hair! Sounds easy doesn't it? Ha, think again. Courtney.... you better get ready because I'm going to need to practice when I get home!

Here' my first attempt. The preparation....



The end result... which lasted about 3 hours... at which time it was "redone properly". Talk about a piece of humble pie :)



A team from Miami was here for 2 days last week and we had a music party at the Toddler House. Each of the kids got a musical instrument - so fun! Here are some shots.

Party started outside:















Then the rain started...



We toughed it out for awhile, then moved the party inside, when the Nannys took over the dance floor.



And finally, since I feel like I don't talk about my morning time with the toddlers much, here is a shot of our pipe cleaner fun! NO, that's not a voodoo doll on the left!! It's Ronaldo's self portrait and Clifford the Dog is on the right.