Day 3

Brooks here (with an assist from David - which also describes our soccer match). We asked first timer Tina to blog, but she said, "There's too much to see, too much to take in, too much to talk about and think about." I guess that means she's loving it here but we have to blog.

The day started with wonderful news for the two of us. Once again, we were reunited with a bucket of Aqua Chintz, our favorite Haitian color, with orders from the red-headed general to go paint at the school. We happily obeyed (and considering the story we heard from DG at dinner, we're certainly glad we obeyed).

Brooks happily playing with Aqua Chintz paint again

Julie and Tina opened their own Haitian branch of Merry Maids and cleaned out Karen's school office.

Tina & Julie helping with major cleanup of school office

The love birds Jake and Jen finished the touch up of Kay Margo, or at least that's what they claimed they were doing while the rest of us were at the school. All we know is that Jake returned with a red face (see yesterday's blog for reference)

Jake & Jennifer putting final touches on Kay Margo

After lunch, we were "forced" to play with the kids. You'd think they'd leave us alone so we could get back to work. But we sacrificed slaving away in the hot sun with paint rollers to run and laugh and play. Such is the life here at HATS.

Karena - Look Mama I really am a big girl now.

Kids greeting Julie's husband on 'facetime'

We also had special guests here for lunch. Marie and her beautiful daughter Niesa visited us from PAP. David met Marie and her husband on his first trip here in 2008. Her husband, Pastor Alberoi, lost his life in the 2009 earthquake. Since that time, David has stayed in touch with and looked out for Marie and her children. It was great to spend a little time with them over lunch. She is doing well and her kids are growing up and performing great in school, at least according to Niesa.

After play and lunch, we got back to work, and Tina had the privilege of painting with Aqua Chintz for the first time. It was obviously a powerful moment for her, and her hair still carries a streak of Aqua Chintz as I type this.

Brooks' favourite colour Aqua Chintz is looking good now - thanks to Jennifer

At 4pm, we were given red uniforms and a challenge from Pierre Jean Jacque, also know around these parts as JJ, He wanted an IFF rematch and predicted a 20-3 victory for the HATS team. The Canadian-red uniforms magically transformed a rag-tag team of Texans, a Canadian goalie, and Djemima, Leica, and Ti Luc into champions. As impressive as "the Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid was in 1980, "the Miracle on Rocks of 2014" will live on in infamy as the greatest upset in Haitian soccer history. Final score - NANSA 5, HATS 4 (Though Brooks is convinced he scored 2 more goals that JJ of course overturned).

Pre-game photo

Go Djemima & Ti Luc Go

Playing under a beautiful Haitian sky

Our Djemima is an athlete

We then celebrated over dinner as Brooks attempted to change everyone's lives by telling the true tales of the Sasquatch, which no one else here believes for some reason. To quote Keith, "Your American education system is lacking." For shame, Keith. For shame. I'll have the last laugh when Sasquatch are proven to exist.

Time to rest up our bodies so we can enjoy the most energetic and fun church service we know of.  Can't wait for tomorrow!  

Texas Team Day 2(David here back in the saddle)

After a glorious nights rest under the star filled Haitian sky and rooster filled sound waves, the Texas Team awoke ready to display the skill set that we bring every year.

That’s right….painting - walls, ground, shoes, rocks, hand and face (Jennifer only).

The painting has started

I suppose we all have our specific callings in life. Ours just happens to be closely tied to names like fencepost white, dignity purple and aqua chintz. Such is the call on the few, the proud, the Texas Team.

Kay Margo getting a face lift

Key Margo has only looked this good one other time and that is when the Ritchies and Hubers were among the few and the proud.

Kay Margo looking better already

Speaking of the few and the proud, Brooks did his annual magic show and some of his tricks worked. Evidently the humidity either caused Karena to pick the 3 of hearts instead of the 10 of diamonds like she was supposed to or Brooks didn’t bring that skill set like he was supposed to.

Magic tricks for the kids

Karena assisting Brooks

Now onto the Annual International Football Friendly between the Haitian All Stars and the North American Not So All Stars. We’ll briefly mention the final score of HAS 11 and NANSAS 6.

Let's go Jennifer

Good soccer with a good ball

Soccer at its best

Kick it JJ

But now the more important IFF Awards:

Volleyball Award - Julie as she displayed tremendous volleyball form passing the ball to Leica with her forearms.

Patrick Roy Goalie Award- Keith didn’t leave his hockey skills in Canada. Oh no, he had more than a dozen kick saves and at one point checked JJ over the boards.

AP Photojournalism Award- Staff Photog Tina did an excellent job documenting the Friendly with her camera.

Red Face Award- Evidently Jake gets a red face when he plays football in Haiti.

Gray Sweatshirt Award- Evidently Brooks sweats profusely when he plays football in Haiti. (Go with the dry fit next time Brooks)

Scream Award- Evidently Jennifer screams every time a football comes near her.

MVP- Stephen (Team HAS) displayed such style and grace by holding the HAS score only to 11.

As always, it is a honor to visit HATS and see the wonderful work the Lord continues to do here. Karen is always such a gracious host even when she is a “ditz” (her words not ours) and doesn’t charge the batteries.

What joy it is to just visit with the kids or push them on the swings or play basketball or play the drums or take a walk along a canal hand in hand. The Lord does good work here and for this Texas Team and those that have gone before it provides just a small glimpse into our Saviour’s loving eyes when he gave the command in Luke 18:16 “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God”.

Texas Team Day 1

Brooks here on behalf of our Texas team, composed of our fearless leader David, HATS veteran Julie, lovebirds Jake and Jennifer, and newbie Tina. Last year when we came, our trip was full of adventure - late flights with mechanical problems, missed flights, lost luggage, broken down van in the middle of Haiti at night, Jake and Jen making out in front of us, etc.

Putting finishing touches on the Hilton accomodations befroe team arrives

This year, all the flights went smoothly, All our luggage arrived with us. The trip from Port Au Prince to Deschapples went smoothly and took record time. In other words, nothing fun happened. I was rather disappointed.

Immediately after arrival Jofky is in arms of his godfather, Brooks

Regardless of the trip, we are so excited to be here. It feels like home. It's so fun to come year after year and see how the kids have grown. Once arriving yesterday around lunchtime, we jumped right in to playing and visiting and loving on the kids like we hadn't been gone for a year.

Jonathan with his godfather, David

Ti Fi had a lot of fun with Jake

Good to be together again

We got to do one of my favorite things yesterday before dinner: take a walk with all the kids down the canal.

Afternoon walk along the canal

It's fun to run, climb trees, dodge motorcycles, and enjoy just how beautiful this country is.

Brooks in our kid's climbing tree with them.

Our day ended shortly after dinner. We had to be up at 4am yesterday for our flights, so we were all rather exhausted. Some of us may or may not have fallen asleep while eating dinner. The red-headed chief has lots of work planned for us over the next several days, so we thought it was best to get to bed and get our energy back. Now we're awake and ready to paint some buildings and play with kids and enjoy one of the most wonderful places on earth. It's good to be back!

January 8th – 2014

It was a relatively quiet day here at HATS.  Today a few of the Haitian schools started back after the Christmas break but, like many others, the HATS school doesn’t open till Monday. The kids spent the day playing around the compound and at one point this afternoon I heard singing as they practiced some songs for Sunday Church.

Singing

Drum section

These girls looked like they wanted to go tobogganing on the mattress. It doesn’t work on the snow, I know 2 girls in Montreal who tried that over Christmas.

Toboggan

Some of the kids played school and of course there were cars and trucks for others.

School

Trucks

Last Saturday I was freezing cold taking down my outside Christmas lights. Today was a piece of cake. No mitts, no tuque, no ice, no snow. I had a helper and it was balmy warm. Karen and the team had considerably more lights up than I did too; 33 sets, more than 3000 lights. What a display!

Jofky and the Christmas Lights

Before I could take the Christmas lights down I had to fix Dickie’s favorite step ladder. It had 2 broken legs! It got repaired with wooden splints and is now as good as new. Only problems are it weighs a ton and is susceptible to termites.

Ladder

There is a volunteer team coming tomorrow from Texas.  Germaine was busy getting fresh vegetables to feed the gang. We also ordered the paint as they will be painting the boys’ dormitory. Unfortunately I threw a wrinkle in the mix. Karen asked me to write out the check in French for $2749. Easy – NOT! I wrote TWO MILLE sept cent quarante neuf not DEUX MILLE sept cent quarante neuf deux cent. So the check was rejected. How many Newfies does it take to write a check? Obviously more than two/deux!! The business in PAP, where HATS buys all their paint, decided Karen and Luckner could be trusted to send in a properly filled out cheque tomorrow morning, and so it all worked out, we have the paint and we are ready for the team.

Vegetables

Paint

At 4 PM the generator miraculously started up and the kids headed inside to watch one of their favorite videos. Mr. Bean – a classic in any or no language.

Mr. Bean

The volunteer team will blog for the next week and I'll start again when they leave.

- Keith

January 7th – 2014

Yup, it’s Keith; I’m back at the HATS Hilton for some much needed relaxation and sun after the -25C and snowy weather in Montreal over Christmas. Joan gave me a one way ticket to Haiti for my Christmas gift and hopefully in about 5 weeks with good behavior, I’ll get the return portion.

Karen, Luckner and Daniel met me in Port au Prince and first stop was to see Vladimy. He has been in hospital since mid-December in the city, see blogs for Dec 18^th, 2013.

http://hatshaiti.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-12-19T00:21:00-05:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false

He is doing better and is obviously missing his Mama and the other kids. The doctors are still adjusting his medications and that needs to be stabilized before he returns to HATS. Karen said he is eating well but very anxious. The hospital is privately run with good doctors but not really up to Canadian standards for care and cleanliness. Karen was given a prescription for him which the hospital pharmacy couldn’t fill. So off we go to find a drugstore for the meds and then return with them to the hospital for Vladimy.

Vladimy’s Hospital in Port au Prince

Port au Prince is a thriving, chaotic, traffic snarled, busy and polluted city. It is still showing the effects of the 2010 earthquake including the Presidential Palace which is now just a pile of rubble. It was destroyed by the quake and had to be pan-caked to the ground and demolished with no immediate plans to rebuild.

The traffic is horrendous at best. We had to negotiate around a truck which lost its drive-shaft in the middle of the road which didn’t help progress. The driver and 2 other men were under the truck trying to fix it as we passed. Where’s CAA? All the markets are set up on the sidewalks so pedestrians have walk in the street and dodge the trucks and motorcycles.

Truck

Traffic

Market

Houses

A couple of stops on the way north got us a fruit plate for lunch and some mangoes for breakfast.

Mango stall

The kids were delighted to see me, lots of hugs and my bags were delivered to my room. The staff were also pleased that I was back and Germaine (the cook) had a fresh mango smoothie waiting for me. Life is good.

Keith’s back

Gotta go, the boss lady has some jobs for me to do…. So much for my vacation!!

Happy 2014.

May the Lord bless, keep you, and make his face shine upon each and every one of you, throughout this new year.

I want to thank all of our HATS family and friends for all your help and support during the past year.  Some of you I have not yet had the privilege of meeting, other than by email, or I have seen your names on our donors list.  I do know about you and more importantly God knows your heart and your kindness towards the Haitian people through this mission.  THANK YOU. 

Being able to celebrate Christmas together with my two daughters, and my seven grandchildren from Canada, here with my Haitian children, was a tremendous blessing this year.  Seeing Dana, Jared, Ronel and Alexa leave for Canada on December 27th was difficult .  Then yesterday seeing Liette, Mariah, Josiah, Ariane and Tevan off at the airport was again difficult.  I am missing them all but thanking God for the time we had together.  While here Dana and Liette were a tremendous help to me.  Sooooo thankful!!!  Our children were thrilled to have them here too.  A lot of fun and laughter was had by all.  The bonding continues to strengthen between my Canadian and my Haitian family members. 

Dana and Liette, as well as doing lots of office and computer work, were goat herders, chicken chasers, and photographers for many who received goats and chickens from you.  Liette will soon be posting photos for you the donors to send to your family and friends.  She just arrived back in Calgary late last night so we need to give her a little time to be able to get this done. The people who came to the mission and picked them up were extremely thankful.  I pass this thankfulness on to you who sent in the funds to bless the people here.  My girls did lots besides office/computer work, goats and chickens work. 

Dana really knew how to take care of chickens

tying, retying, lengthening the strings on the chickens

JJ helping Liette with the chickens that tried to escape

They prepared and distributed, with the help of their children, approx 200 gifts for people who attended our Christmas service on Sunday 22nd.  Liette did the message on Sunday, 22nd and again on 29th which was a blessed break for me.

Our Christmas service Dec 22nd

Liette sharing a message with us at our Christmas service

On 26th we had a fun time of mummering here on the compound.  It did not take long for the children to relax and jump into it with us.  I don't think the two house mothers on duty were quite sure about it.  Jonathan kept his distance - standing close to or behind the housemothers.  My four older children are already looking forward to next Christmas.  They have asked to be allowed to dress up with Mama Karen and be the first ones mummering instead of joining in later on as they did this year.

Mummering at HATS

My girls have left and now I am looking forward to Keith returning to help.  He is always a huge help in many areas.  Every day something that needs doing/repaired (but is not an emergency) is reported to me.  I always respond "Keith is coming soon.  It needs to wait for Keith. "   Our blog followers know that Keith is also an excellent blogger, and while he is here I like for him to do it.

Too, this month we will be blessed with David, Brooks, and others from the Texas group returning again.  It is always good to have that part of our HATS family with us.  While here no doubt they will do blogging to keep you informed about their time here.  

The last time we saw Vladimy at the hospital in PAP we saw improvements.  It was obvious to both Luckner and I that he had been eating well as he had put on some needed weight.  We hope to be able to see him again next week.  Thank you for continuing to pray for Vladimy.

Thank you again one and all for all the support for the past year.  May we all pull together again this next year to help and to bless even more children who are in need. 

I T    I S     A L L     A B O U T    T H E     C H I L D R E N

Karen for all of us at HATS

Finally,

           during the last 2 days of our time in Haiti, everyone was well.  I'm still recovering, but happily, I feel almost myself again. 

Last canal walk

Canal tree

To celebrate Christmas and New Year's and to give mom a chance to relax for once, we spent a day at the beach yesterday.  There is photographic proof that Karen can lie down and relax with a book once in a while! 

Karen actually lying down!

Ti Luc, Ariane & Tevan

Todays's activities included running races with Jonathan vs. Sandra being the cutest match up, lots of work in the depot, trying to figure out what to do with the 15,000 photos on Karen's computer from 2010-2012, a walk along the canal and then a grand New Year's finale of one firework!  Just one, but it sure made an impression on the kids. 

Jonathan racing

Racing 2 year olds

It's never fun to say goodbye to those we love, but we are grateful for the time we've had here and look forward to our next visit. 

Last night's adventure was the great cockroach hunt in which Mariah played the starring role of mighty cockroach killer.  When we were putting groceries away that we'd bought in St. Marc, Karen opened a big black bin in the kitchen and saw one of her arch enemies.  She screamed, so I screamed, so Ariane screamed, so Tevan & Mariah screamed, so Josiah came running to see what was going on.  When Mariah learned it was "just a cockroach" she boldly opened the box, found the critter and stomped on it.  Mariah was having trouble understanding how Grammy could be so scared until I reminded her of her completely "logical" fear of seaweed! 

Everyone involved in the great cockroach kill!