Oh the fun

Oh the fun that was had today trying to write the letters with the Preschool One class! The children in Preschool One are 3 and 4 years old. Defnitely cute, but impossible to get a straight answer out of. The single biggest challenge came from getting their names sorted out. Sounds like it might be an easy task, right? You simply ask them their name and they tell you, right? Wrong!

Writing sponsor letters

Mariah asking preschooler's name

In Haiti most young children have a name that their family calls them, say Tilo. All their lives they've learned that their name is Tilo. Little do they know that their legal name (the name on their class list for example) is Lorestema Jeannette Philistin. So we ask them their name and they say "Tilo". There is NO Tilo on any list anywhere at HATS. So we go through the list again asking them each name one by one. Each time you ask them, "Is your name ---?" They say "Oui". For each of the 15 names on the list! In the photo below, you can see Mariah trying to figure out the name of one particularly cute little boy. After he said "oui" to each name on the list, she started asking him, "Is your name crocodile? Is your name Liette? etc" and of course he answered in the affirmative every time. I was laughing so hard that I could barely catch my breath. After that gong show, the grade 6 and 7's were a piece of cake!

Yvette hugging Dieunel, Ismyis and Judel

Once school was out, we were back to scanning and downloading photos. The internet is amazingly slow here, so please be patient if you're waiting for your sponsor letter and photo.

This afternoon included a trip to Pont Sonde to pay the electric bill. Seems like an awful lot of money for a couple of hours of power per day if we're lucky!!

I had a chance to teach English to a great group of young people at Luckner's trade school. Energetic and eager to learn we enjoyed our time together.

Magalie and Sandra

The day was rounded out by a lovely walk along the canal and then a soccer game where Vladimy beat Yvette and I playing together against him! And he had bare feet. But he only beat us by one point, so our self image is still somewhat intact.

Canal walk at sunset

Mariah with Sandra and Karena

Karena and Sandra both sleeping

This evening we are busy scanning, scanning, scanning. Tomorrow we have the fun of letters and photos with the other two preschool classes.

Dieumima and Isymis

Yvette has her more normal hairstyle today, but unfortunately her feet are swollen and she's not enjoying having "fat feet"!

Thanks for reading!

Liette for Karen, Yvette and the rest of the HATS gang

Sunday

Today started with church. The congregation consists of mostly children and they do a lot of singing, clapping and keeping rhythm with tambourines. Even though the kids were singing songs I was familiar with, I couldn't think of the english words because the singing was so beautifully loud. I didn't do so badly with the clapping. For those who are thinking of coming in the future, Karen will put you on the spot and make you sing. I told Karen I would throw up if she made me sing and she told me she would bring me a bucket. She has no time for nonsense! We ended up sing "Jesus loves the little children" with the kids joining in. Apparently that wasn't good enough so we brought Mariah up and the 3 of us sang "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart". The message of the morning was to love one another. Oh, and I never threw up but I felt my lip quivering a little....

Mariah's birth dad Jean Pierre joined us at church and then came back to Karen's for a visit. He brought a bunch of fruit and vegetables as a gift, as he often does.

I got my hair done again. I think they have pulled half of it out. And of course it looks beautiful as always.

Later in the afternoon Liette, Mariah, Vladimy and I went to visit Liette's friend Rigaud and his family. We took a mototaxi half the way there. I didn't know you could fit three people on a motorbike comfortably. I was in the middle so I have no idea if the back person is comfortable. Our driver had the craziest braided hair that stuck straight up like spikes. We sat outside Rigaud's home and chatted. We were treated to fresh coconut. We watch a guy walk up the palm tree, throw a dozen coconuts down and then slide down the tree like it was a fire pole. Very cool.


When we walked back we took all the kids to the field beside the church for a little game of soccer. It was amazing to see dozens of neighbor kids come out of the woodwork just because a soccer ball was there. Later Vladimy took on Liette and I and of course us girls won. But not by much.

In the evening we went through some items that had been donated. It's a lot like opening presents that aren't for you personally. We had fun picking out outfits that each of the kids will get for Christmas this year.

Finally, there is a photo of Sandra and a photo of Jonathan that we have to add because they're so incredibly adorable.

Until next time....adios!


Yvette, for Karen, Liette and the whole HATS gang

HATS Family

Today we'd like to take a moment to introduce each of the kids to those of you reading the blog who don't know them. And to thank everyone who donated a Christmas present for the kids. The presents are all safely tucked away until Christmas day when they'll bring joy to the kids.

We'll go from oldest to youngest.

 

This is Vladimy (16). A sensitive, helpful boy, he loves soccer and listening to the radio.

TiFi (11). She loves people and is learning more words every day. TiFi is mentally challenged.

This is Mirlande (10). She is inquisitive, intelligent and bossy.

This is JJ (10). JJ is energetic, loves to learn and loves sports.

This is Moise (9). Sweet-natured and helpful, he loves to play with Ti Luc.

This is Dieumima (9). Intelligent and kind, she loves to walk along the river.

This is Leica (7). Affectionate and fun-loving, she loves to laugh.

This is Ti Luc (6). Smart and determined, he loves to interact and play jokes on people.

This is Karma (6). She loves people and has the biggest smile you've ever seen.

This is Josie (6). Laid-back and cute, she likes to braid visitors' hair.

This is Ismyis (5). Energetic and super affectionate, she loves to swing in the kids' playground.

This is Dieumel (5). Sweet-tempered and athletic, he can be found climbing the monkey bars.

This is Judel (4). Impossible to ignore, Judel will hold your hand and steal your heart.

This is Karena (3). Smart as a whip and with an amazing smile, Karena loves to play house and tell the other young kids what to do.

This is Jofky (2). Karena's best friend, Jofky can be moody, but is sweet nonetheless.

This is Anne (1 1/2). Anne is quiet and sweet, watching the other kids run all around her.

This is Sandra (6 months). Calm and happy, Sandra has the best baby smile and laugh ever!

This is Jonathan (6 weeks). This tiny guy loves to be snuggled and held.

That's it for today! More tomorrow from Liette, Yvette and the HATS gang.

At 3:00 a.m our first alarm went off

…. actually it was a truck honking it’s horn and pretty much had Liette on the roof…she went back to sleep immediately (unfortunately I did not) until our 5:30 alarm clock went off to start our day. We took a truck full of kids to do a hike leaving behind a crowd of tiny kids looking thru the fence at us.

We saw lots of wild life on the way up…goats, chicken, pigs, horses, cows, dogs and even turkeys. The kids had no problem scrambling up the hill. I was amazed at the people coming down the mountain with huge loads on their head and of course, nothing on their feet. At the top Seth discovered if you move the right rocks you find brown scorpions. A few feet from the one we found another one with all her babies on her back. I thought that was pretty cool. The kids enjoyed climbing the tree at the top of the mountain. And we all enjoyed the beautiful view.

The high school kids were busy cutting grass with machetes (and killing three snakes) in the back field behind the school. They are trying to get it ready for soccer matches. A group of girls cooked a meal for the hard workers, and the boys hanging around in the shade just waiting for lunch...

The afternoon consisted of another beautiful hairdo, some badminton with Moise and JJ, and and a very quick dip in the private hospital pool. Liette, Mariah and I couldn’t have found a better way to cool off.

We took another nice walk along the canal. The two tired babies happily shared a stroller for a quick nap.

Yvette tried to cover up her amazing hairdo with her hat, but the kids all had to try it on. We've decided that Tifi really rocked the hat and we can now see what she'll look like at 55 years old.

This evening we had an awesome lightning show. The clouds were lit up from behind for lightning for well over an hour. Truly an awesome display of God’s creation.

Oh, and we did do a little tiny bit of work….
Yvette and Liette (for all of us at HATS)

Falling stars, fireflies, toads and bats

Falling stars, fireflies, toads and bats were what I got to think about as I went to bed last night. I didn’t realize that when you take one picture of a tree frog, you’re ok but when you take two, the frog leaps off the wall and pees all over you…interesting….. Today I found out that the HATS kids don’t like frogs because they pee in your eye and make you blind…

Yvette

A long beautiful walk along the canal to start and end the day - what could be better. Haiti is such a beautiful country and the walks along the canal can re-energize you to face the challenges that lie ahead. The kids love the canal walks and everyone had a wonderful time, besides Jofky, who was not happy at being forced to walk for a few minutes.

The day began with awesome singing in the school before classes began. Yvette, Jessie and I had a chance to get several classes of student photos and letters completed today. The majority of the letters are already translated so now we're scanning and prepping them to send out to the sponsors. Your letters/photos will soon be in your inbox!

I got to see Mariah teaching in action. Wow, with a class of 15 excited little people and very few supplies, she is doing a fantastic job. So proud of her :)

There was a rousing game of football late this afternoon with Yvette and Vladimy taking on Seth and Liette. Vladimy and Yvette won by one point, but Moise seemed like a biased referee if you ask me. That was followed by Yvette getting a new hairdo by three talented and determined young ladies. Not sure if the twisted dreads will every come out, but she sure looks cute!

Tomorrow is our hike up the mountain. The kids who are old enough to do the hike are beside themselves with excitement and I'm sure there will be lots of stories about how HIGH the mountain is and how they were unable to do anything but run full speed down the mountain because it's SO steep. We're heading out at 6am to beat the heat, so we'll be heading to bed soon.

Hugs to everyone back home!

Liette (and the HATS gang)

We’ve arrived safely

We’re happy to say that we’ve arrived safely in Deschapelles, Haiti. We flew into Port-au-Prince early this am and were already at Hands Across the Sea shortly after noon. We had a chance to peek into the classrooms at the school, including seeing Mariah teach her preschool class!

The kids were all so happy to see us, except for Jofky, who is reserving judgement for the moment.

Jofky's just not too sure yet

This afternoon was spent organizing the donated gifts into bins to await Christmas as well as organizing the diapers and formula for the babies. We had a chance to hold babies too! Late afternoon as an English pronunciation / speaking class at Luckner’s trade school with an enthusiastic group of students aged 12-27 years old. After games and hugs with the kids, it was soupe joumou for dinner.

Yvette hard at work

Tomorrow will be a big day as we start the process of getting all of the students photographed and their letters written to their sponsors in Canada or the U.S. We’re hoping to get a lot done tomorrow as the schools are closed Friday for a National holiday.

We’re hot, but happy to be here!

Liette and Yvette