Goat & Paint update, Roosters, Haiti Stats

Roosters. Contrary to popular belief Roosters don’t just crow at dawn, unless dawn is from 11pm to 8am. You know how in a movie one dog will bark and then all the other dogs in the city chime in and it’s utter chaos? Roosters are just like that, except they do it in the dead of night! It’s very interesting that laying in bed I pick out the different ‘voices’. Last night, by rough count, there were about 18 roosters involved. There’s the deep ‘cock of the walk’ COCK A DOODLE DOOO, there’s the ‘higher pitched adolescent’ cock a doodle doo and even the chain smoking grandfather ‘Cock a ack doodle ac d’. Every time he starts I lay in bed totally cracking up cause he actually sounds frustrated that he can’t finish it without his ‘voice’ cracking. Since I can’t sleep I may as well be amused!

Kabrit (Goat) Update. So far 30 have been delivered to HATS compound and 23 have gone home with their new families. We’re expecting more on Friday. We need another 17 goats to come and go before I leave on Monday since it will be too much for Mom to do without me here.

* It’s not so much the handing out of papers, it’s the moving them around, the feeding, the watering, getting their horns freed from the fence, keeping the kids out of the area. The goats spend a few hours during the day at the school field where there is lots of vegetation and then back to the side of the house for safety, water, etc. Today was the first day I wasn’t involved in the moving of the goats and left it to the kids. When I ventured out late this evening to make sure they all had water I discovered that 3 of the 7 weren’t asleep. That’s weird! Then I realized that 3 of the ones delivered today had ropes too short (this is new!) to allow them to lay down once tied to the fence and 1 wasn’t tied on at all (if we don’t tie them on they eat mom’s garden). So there I was in the mosquito infested dark with some wire that was on my painting tarp (can’t find any rope) trudging through the goat poop to fix up my poor babies. Two peed immediately upon my fixing their ropes (they couldn’t get into squat position with the short rope) and they all immediately started eating since their heads could now touch the ground. Goats take up about 3-4 hours of my day and mom doesn’t have 10 extra minutes!

* Okay, after that rambling missive about housing the goats… after we get them, then we need to find the families the goats are going to. It’s not like you can just pick up the phone and call them! You need to ‘send word’ through people who know people (that is Luckners job) and then hope they show up quickly although they won’t own a vehicle so will grab a tap tap to come pick up their goats. Coming home from Market today, sitting in the back of the truck of course, I hear this extremely load goat crying (I finally know the difference between children and goats) and realize it’s a whole bunch of goats tied onto the side of a tap tap. They’re dangling by their ankles and every time the tap tap goes over a ‘Police Kouche’ the goats would get jarred and start crying. Police Kouche is a sleeping policeman, which is actually a speed bump.

* Once the people come we get their name, take a photo, rename the photo with the receivers name, match that to a gifters name and then email the photos. The first goat photo emails for goats requested up to Dec 13th are being emailed out Thursday. The rest will follow as soon as we can source the goats.

Goats on a tap tap

Paint Update. Despite popular expectation from those of you reading the blog... I haven’t been fired. I guess when you’re desperate for good help you take what you can get! Jessie doesn't come back for 3 weeks so in the meantime I'm all mom has. I need to redeem myself after my painting fiasco’s, so I hope to have at least 6 benches done before I go! I painted a lovely bench today. Here is my one complete bench. I better step up the action!!

One bench done

Stats about Haiti.

• The country of Haiti is on an Island in the Caribbean called Hispaniola. It’s south of East Miami, and just to the east of Cube and Jamaica
• The island was claimed by Christopher Columbus in 1492 and became the base for the conquest of the Caribbean
• In the 1700’s the French formed a plantation colony in the West. The French plantation owners brought in slaves from Africa and in 1804 the slaves revolted, the French fled, and the country became Haiti
• The remaining 2/3 of the island is known as the Dominican Republic. The Haiti side has no tourism like the DR has. The DR side of the island is still Spanish
• Haiti has a very small, very wealthy elite. They have walled residences along the water and large plantations. Haiti also a very large very poor majority population
• Haiti is about the size of 2/3 of Vancouver Island or 2x the size of PEI. There are 10 Million people here and it is considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
• Haiti has been ruled by Dictators for years, which is one reason the country is in such bad shape
• The main language spoken is Kreyol (Creole) although the language of official documents and the language spoken at University is French. The slaves learned the language phonetically and mixed the French in with some Africans and Spanish, so Kreyol is shorter and more efficient than French. Sil vous plait is soupla. Sou Play. Merci Beaucoup is Mesi bokou (or Mesi anpil). I can cobble together a sentence in French although often it’s understood only by the older children who learn French at school.

After that little history lesson I'm going to end this blog with some random photos!

Judel, Jared's little buddy

Mirlande with her favorite goat

Vladimy & Ronel catching thrown food

Karena with backpack

100 Gifts, Market, More

The kids project today is to prepare 100 small gifts for the children that attend church. We had about 50 children last week and mom told them there would be a gift this Sunday (Christmas day) so we may have a whole lot more than normal! Each child is getting 2 hotel sized body cream, a cahier (school notebook), a pencil with a cute Christmas mouse, mini toothpaste, toothbrush, a stuffy, an ornament and a small toy. For many of them this may be the only present they get this Christmas. It’s taken us 2 days of 10 minutes here and 5 minutes there to collect all the items and get them up onto the second floor deck. I helped this morning and in about 1.5hrs we are about ½ way done. I’m supposed to be finishing the bench painting today although unfortunately my kids are acting toward each other like they do at home so I need to be there to run interference!

Germaine asked mom (as she was going in 5 directions at once), how many people are you? She definitely needs more help here of a full time variety!

Market Day: The market in Verrettes is held Wed and Sat. It’s very strange being a white face in a sea of black, they stare at you, surround you and many try to touch you, simply because we’re so different. Many Haitians are also afraid of having their picture taken and taking one, even of a stall, without permission can cause major drama. They also don’t smile in photos (unless they’re used to Mom and have learned that it’s ok). All Haitians will be laughing and smiling one minute and then in the photo look like it’s a passport photo. At one stall I bought a hat and asked the hat vendor if I could have a photo of him and he said yes, with him. I showed him the picture on the camera after and he asked for a copy saying he was so excited to have a photo of him with a beautiful woman. When I get home I’ll print the photo and mail it down and Martha will find him at market and get it to him. Being larger is considered more attractive here (Jamaica, etc as well) and it’s a sign of wealth as well. If they can afford it ladies here even take injections to help them get more meat on their bones.

Me with hat vendor

People were constantly talking to us, calling out ‘Blanc’ and then a bunch of things I couldn’t understand. Mom said it’s often better not to know and didn’t translate any of it. LOL So one lady, as we’re leaving, grabs at my arm and says a bunch of stuff and all I caught was ‘blanc’ and ‘gros’. White and Big. My mom burst out laughing and translated: ‘that white lady took the injections she could get so big’. Ya, that’s the one she chose to translate. LOL If only the people here knew what lengths people in Canada go to, in order to not be big!

On the way out of the market I bought a small clay pot and it was only $10 Haitian so Mom didn’t dicker, which I love. I’d have been willing to pay more although that was considered a fair price! Mom got lucky and got a bunch of dresses for the girls and then we left Martha (mom’s cook) and Antoinette (the house mother) there to do the shopping for the week. They didn’t come back with us as it will be hours before they find everything they need. Antoinette had her favourite shopping tote, an Epicure Hostess Bag! She was so excited when we got to Market and my mom told her the bag came from my business. You know those totes are strong when she’s buying food for 21 people with it!

Antoinette with Epicure tote

Jared brought out his iPhone today to play a game and show the kids. They were enthralled! Right now he is sitting on the sofa swing teaching Judel ‘phone’ English and the names of fancy cars. Each icon on Jared’s phone Judel will point to it, Jared will say it in English and Judel will repeat it. When Jared isn't with Judel he's either playing soccer with Vladimy or he's taking care of Ti Luc. Dressing him, helping him go see Papa at the school, etc. After seeing how he treats his sister I'm pleasantly surprised and quite glad to know it's only a 'sibling' thing!

Jared with iPhone game

Today was haircut day for the boys. Every 6 weeks they get shaved. If anyone showed up to school with hair like Ronel's they'd be sent home to get it shaved. That's just the way it is in Haiti! Check out the razor that Jofky was getting shaved with!

Jofky Shave

Canal Walk, More Goats, Creatures

Walking the Canal. Finally, today we had our Canal walk. One stroller wheel is flat and we’ve been waiting to get it fixed. Today we decided to go anyway and tilt the stroller so that the flat wheel was in the air and away we went. This was only Ti Luc’s 3rd walk on the Canal and right off the bat he fell right onto some big rocks. He kept going and a little later fell again quite hard and gamely kept going. We stopped enroute and enjoyed a banana cake I had cooked yesterday and then started our trek back home. Poor Ti Luc took a 3rd tumble although what a trooper! He only started walking at all 7 months ago and now going on long walks and climbing stairs! Amazing what the love of a great Mama (my mom) can do! To read more about her story and Ti Luc you can find that here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=391394120905

Kids on their walk

Tonight I had the great pleasure of gifting Leica, my meeting sponsor child, two new dresses. One was a dress I wore as a child over 30+ years ago and is very bright and Haitian colored (we got it in Hawaii) and the other was spring dress with lots of soft layers. She was so excited she buried her face in the dress and went immediately to put it on and model for us. She came back to Mom’s house twice in the next hour to hug me again and say thank-you. She’s very excited to have a new church dress!

Leica and her new dress

More little things that can also be big things:

• Jared is living proof it’s possible to get Mosquito bites on your Mosquito bites.
• The house either smells amazing from Martha’s cooking or smells like burning garbage or burning crops depending on how the wind is blowing.
• Cooking 2 meals a day & cleaning up after takes Martha all day. Can you imagine that??
• Mom's house is not her own. She always has people in here, from Martha and Germaine, to people looking for tools, to photocopying, to finding tools etc. Her bedroom is her own place just for her. :(
• Despite 'North American' brooms the ladies much prefer the straw brooms whereas I can't understand how a straw broom cleans up anything. For a visual, Mom is posing with the Straw broom in the 'mom's hair reenactment photo' from 2 blogs ago.

Goats: 10 more goats arrived today. We were expecting them to come to the house so a) they wouldn’t die from the plastic and b) it would be quicker and easier to distribute them when people arrived and c) they’d not be stolen by Machete wielding children who will scale the 8ft concrete block walls at sundown. We’re in the office eating lunch at our desks (again) and we hear they’ve arrived and have been let into the school compound. We both go tearing out of our chairs to get there before they can eat the plastic. We get there to discover the goats tied onto the trees in the school yard, just outside the entrance of the soccer field. I look at this and with the feeling of being a complete dimwit ask my mom ‘how come we didn’t think of that the first time?’ and she replies that Luckner asked her the same thing when she explained to him our goat dramas from 2 days before… There was some definite ribbing about the smarts of the ‘blancs’. In my defense a) I’m new here. b) I thought they HAD to go on the Soccer Field and didn’t know they could go on the school yard. Not sure what mom's defense was. I think all the bleating of the goats and chaos of the Petite Petite Mwen (Grandkids) being here had her all confused.

How smart are those Blancs?

Creatures big and small: Still haven’t found a Tarantula although did find 2 great bugs. The cockroach found by Alexa in the office and was dead since Martha does a great job of spraying in here. Seldom do you ever see a live cockroach around mom’s house. If it wasn’t dead I’d not have been taking a photo, I’d have been running looking for Martha or Germaine to come kill it. LOL. The body of the cockroach was at least 2inches long (yes, just the body!). The beetle was stuck upside down which allowed me to get close enough to place a dime for sizing (learned that after the cockroach). It was outside so allowed to live. The poor horses and cows tied along the side of the canal were very malnourished and the horse had a oozing sore open on it’s back. Most are ridden bareback here or packed with goods without a proper soft padding (people lay on the dirt floors to sleep so a blanket for a horse isn’t a likelyhood)

A sizeable beetle, stuck upside down

Cockroach, body alone was 2 inches long!

skinny horse

Little mother Alexa has learned to mix formula & change diapers. Tonight she’s napping in Mom’s room (waiting for me to go up with her into the scary darkness of the second floor) and as she sees my mom she rolls over in her sleep and tells my mom ‘it’s time to change her’. She even changing Sandra’s diaper in her sleep!

Alexa and Sandra

More Painting (didn't go so well), Weather, Accommodations

Weather. It’s been quite cool by Haiti standards and not as humid as I remember. The day temps are in the mid-high 20’s. At night the temp is cool and a few nights now we’ve been so chilled we needed a blanket (typically you sleep with just a sheet). It’s cloudy today and the temp this morning was 22. The Haitians are wearing light jackets and sweaters and that is VERY rare! The cloudy day not only means it’s not hot, it also means that the Mosquito’s are out in full force all day long. Normally you have a reprieve from the mosquito’s until about 4-5pm. Due to the bugs and Mosquito’s here all doors snap closed automatically. Luckily by 11am the sun was out, the jackets came off the and high was 33.

Accommodations. On the second floor of Mom's house/the offices, there are two bedrooms, a bathroom and a covered open area. The boys are sleeping in the mosquito tents in the open area and loving it. Alexa is a bit scared so we've slept inside each night so far. It's quite comfy! These mosquito tents are very hard to find, if you ever see any anywhere please let us know!

Our Room

Mosquito, and other bug, tents

Internet. It’s PAINFUL! It’s not supposed to be painful, it’s technically high speed satellite internet… it’s actually worse than the worst dial up I experienced. Checking email takes a long time and when needing to open a website I start it and then write a paragraph of the blog before I even check to see if it's loaded, often it’s still working on it. I cannot comprehend how Mom gets any of her online work done! Once I write a blog and go online to send it, it’s at least 10 minutes for it to send. Mom thought it was her computer until I got here and told her it was painful on my new laptop too. I wish I understood more about internet down here so I could send down a new modem or router! I’m sure a good hour a day is wasted here by me ‘waiting’. I’m not good at waiting! I’m actually ready to toss my laptop into the concrete wall. Clearly I’m meant to develop patience. Mom says the Haitian's are very patient people since their whole life is waiting for people. Two ladies showed up for goats today and we hadn't been given the goat receipts, so they'll sit here and wait until the someone can run off in their moto to find the men who brought the goats. NOTE: I sent this Blog 8hrs ago and only when it wasn't showing up did we realize the internet had timed out and it didn't send. Will now check after sending to be sure things go out!

Today’s Projects: So while I’ve been fired from building painting I was still allowed to do bench painting once Jacques sets up the tarp... I think I could set up a tarp… Maybe not, lol, based on yesterday. I think since the boys had another project today Mom felt safe to allow me to paint since it would be just Alexa and I.  I decided to use up the small bits of paint so that it would help empty out the Depot. I grabbed 3 cans and popped the lids. Within minutes I was surrounded by little people. Mom had the Generator turned off as she was heading out to copy papers for school reports (it gets turned off right after the laundry is done) and the kids that were watching a video had the movie come to a screeching halt so all were all there anxious to help. I allowed the 3 oldest boys, Vladimy, JJ and Moise to help (and tell them they have to share a brush while I'm getting organized) and got them started on Yellow while I stirred the blue. It had a thick ½ skin on the top so I plunged my hands in and squeezde the extra paint off the skin (can’t waste anything here) and then jumped up to wash my hands. Wait, I can’t open the door. Okay, nobody is listening to me. They’re all swarming around the paint. Finally I catch Leica’s eye and she helps me into the house and turns on the tap for me. I scrub and nothing comes off. Oh Shoot, are you kidding me? The small cans aren’t water based like the paint I used yesterday? Okay, think clearly. If they have oil based paints they must have paint thinner! I walk back outside calling to Alexa to come to the depot, undo the lock, go inside and look at the jugs. We find paint thinner, I get cleaned up. By this time I’ve been gone at least 10-15mins... I go back to the front and now instead of 3 boys helping with one brush ALL the brushes I brought out, plus more they’ve helped themselves to, are dipping into the yellow and dipping ½ way up the handle. There is paint everywhere, a little is on the benches, more is on the tarp (yay for Jacques) and most is on the children. Oh man, where is Mom, she’ll be THRILLED with me when she gets back! Mom comes and restores order. Actually at the sounds of her honk at the gate (to alert the security guard to open the gate) many little heads snap up and they say ‘Mama’ and scurry over to sit down like they’ve been quietly watching the entire time. The children are informed by Mama they are done painting for the day as soon as their benches are done. Mom asks them how come they weren’t more careful and why do they have paint everywhere. Mirlande informs Mom that JJ painted his new sneaks so if he can do that they can all be covered in paint… As we look at JJ’s shoe we realize he was trying to make his new sneaks look like Jared’s Pumas. The kids are all sent off to see the security guard to get cleaned up with Gas. I’ll fix up the paint later. I sheepishly came in to eat lunch and blog. 10 more goats are arriving soon so I need to get my lunch (2pm) eaten quick!

Oil Paint hands

Kids painting

Painted Sneaks

Painting, Baking, B-day Parties

Hurry up and Wait: Raced out the door after a quick breakfast of Rice and Beans to get going on the paint. Run over to the Depot. Wait, need the key. Find mom, get the key. Go back over. Get into the Depot. Find paint and rollers. Paint is in giant buckets and it needs to go to the other compound, find mom to ask Jacques to bring the wheelbarrow (My pantomime skills are improving although they aren’t that good). Wheelbarrow is broken. Jacques has to fix it (it’s a marvel of wire holding together). It’s like that a lot here. Mom starts a project and then people come to the gate so security comes up to inform her. She either goes down to the gate or invites them up. Mom’s working at her desk and there’s a broken pipe or the cooks need to know something or Ti Luc need her or there’s something happening at the kids home or or or.

Painting: I get there with my kids and JJ and our first project is the doorway added to the preschool building. We’re sure we have the right paint since the school records say it’s painted in Aqua . We put on the first roller of paint. Oh no. Will it dry lighter maybe? Okay, let’s hope… keep painting troops. 10 minutes later it’s dry. Ummmm, ya, that has not dried lighter… Oh boy. So now instead of a small doorway we have to do the entire building. Mistake #1. Yikes. So, we keep painting and I love it. No walls to wash, to taping, just put it on as good as you can. I figure I’ve painted a lot my kids have been there, they know what they’re doing. Mistake #2. The paint rollers are poorly loaded, paint is dripping everywhere and being forced out of the tray onto the deck. Mom comments that it looks like the Judel and Dieunel were the painters (they are 4 and 5). After that building is done and I’m about to tackle the next one mom tells me that she really wants some baking done and that the painting can wait for Jesse. I know how to take a ‘not so subtle’ hint! They kids are quite relieved at this information and quickly disappear and I start to wonder if they didn’t make a big mess on purpose…

what we planned to paint

Color Difference, ugh

Martha & Germaine: Martha is my mom’s cook, Germaine is laundry, housekeeping and sous chef. Both of them have some rudimentary English and are very good and understanding pantomime. Martha is a great Haitian cook and her juices are famous among all who have done mission work here. I thought I’d gone to heaven drinking her Papaya juice today and she made some funky Sour Sop juice too. Since Martha doesn’t read she cannot bake anything that isn’t Haitian and Haitian baking is dried out and awkward. This afternoon we had a number of perfect 'Banana Bread' bananas given to us so I made a triple batch of muffins, a cake, etc. I kept popping back from the B-day party to check the oven and when it was perfectly cooked I took it out to cool on the top of the freezer. Perfectly cooked in Haiti is different than in Canada. When I came back from the party 30 minutes later the pan was scalding hot… Martha figured she’d help me out by putting it back in… YUM! So then I made a double batch of pumpkin date loaf for my mother. Martha was on her way out so mom turned on the oven for me to 150 (325 since Mom’s oven runs hot). Before 20 minutes were up we smelled burnt muffins… Martha had helped me out again by turning the heat up to 200 before she left (that’s about 410)… We cannot even get the muffins out of the pan to use for baseballs. Mom has saved them for Martha…

Korosol - known as a Sour Sop in English

Visitors. I had just laid down on the sofa swing with Jonathon (poor baby was tired from those 7:30am devotions so I was gallantly rocking him to sleep) when Security informed us a guest had arrived. My niece Mariah’s birth father was at the gate. He lives quite far away. They travelled up there a few years ago and it was a few hours of walking down the mountain followed by a long tap tap ride to get here. Despite being very poor he arrived with a HUGE pot of fresh fruit, cabbage and papaya, 3 brooms and about a 20lb sack of melons, juice oranges etc. That how it’s done in Haiti! You have nothing and still you arrive bearing gifts for others. Liette (my sister) had donated 2 goats and low and behold we had 2 here so the timing was excellent. His wife is in hospital for 3 months with pregnancy complications and he’s trying to make ends meet with his 4 children. I asked mom if I could give him some money. She took my US and converted it to Haitian Goudes and I went out and handed it to him. MAJOR FAUX PAS! Here you never give anyone a cash donation unless it’s rolled up super small and wrapped in white paper.

My baby with the baby

Mariah's Dad with his goats

Birthdays at HATS. The birthdays here at HATS are so exciting for the kids even though by Cdn standards they would be very simple. Everyone gathers together in a circle and sings to the birthday person sitting at the head of the group. Then everyone hugs the B-day person. The person then gets ONE present and everyone gets a small pkg of cookies and a glass of juice or pop. Alexa’s favourite part of the party was that her brothers had to hug her. You can see the joy on her face as Ronel is hugging her. You can also see the 'oh crap, I have to do that too' look on Jared's face in the background.

B-day Party circle

Lots of Hugs

Lex Hugging Ronel

Sugar Cane, My mother the Diva, Straw Hair

Last night Mom, Lex and I spent hours sorting through the donated items to figure out what was going to the kids and staff here and what was going to bless others off site. At 9:30pm we were mentally and physically done so we poked the rest into the storage room so we could have the room ready for 7:30am devotions.

I missed a great photo op last evening! I heard TARANTULA and before I can get there with the camera it’s been killed. They've been informed that photo ops must happen before killing! I sure hope they find one for me before I go. This one was running across the lawn during the soccer match. Now I’m super freaked out that the kids often don’t have shoes on. The orphanage kids were not fazed in the least!

White Powder… At church today a few gals showed up with thick white circles of baby powder on their necks. It’s a status thing, it’s their way of showing they have enough money to buy powder. They use it on their underarms etc although the circle on the neck is not for sweating.

My Mom the Diva – so yesterday Alexa said ‘isn’t it amazing that your mom used to be a Diva and look at her now!’. Yes, my Mom the diva. That’s not the word I’d ever have used although it’s pretty accurate. When I grew up I remember my mom didn’t even own runners or jeans and even in the house wore high-heeled feather or fluff topped slippers. I remember coming home late as a teenager and she’d sit angrily rocking in her gold velour chair (throne), wearing her turquoise velour robe with the high ruffled collar. She’d scream when she saw the tiniest bug or spider. We had thick pile carpet that she vacuumed many x a day so there were no footsteps in it. Now she lives among bugs regularly and there are no high heels or carpets anywhere.

Many of you are asking about her hair. For those of you that missed it read back a couple blogs to catch up. Mom wouldn’t let me take a photo of the ‘interesting’ post perm results so we did a re-enactment photo with an item that looks as close to the actual hair that evening.

Re-enactment of hair post perm

Hair after she fixed it

Basic Stuff. I brought the kids 5 soccer balls, getting them from a Soccer supply store rather than the cheap walmart ones. Walmart ones work find at home although here I knew the surface would be a lot rougher. Today in the storage room I came across one of their balls.

Soccer Ball

Soccer Field

Sugar Cane. My kids have been wanting it since they got here. We’ve checked outside the gate a few times and the vendor wasn’t there. Mom told Luckner she was looking for some and the next thing we know a moto shows up at the gate with 2 long sugarcane pieces! My kids were very happy! It took me A LONG TIME to clean up a 4” piece of the sugar cane so they could eat it. Today Jacques, who is the Jack of all trades around her, cleaned up 12 feet of sugar cane (for all the kids) in the same amount of time that I cleaned 1.5 feet… The lesson here is that if someone else is better than you and it’s not an immediate necessity leave it for them to do!

Cane on Moto

cane with kids

Sugar Cane Machete

Devotions. Today we did devotions at 7:30am. It doesn’t matter who you are, how tired you are or how late you’ve worked, EVERYONE is at Devotions at 7:30 M-F, including all staff before work starts at 8am. Everyone is in a big circle singing and clapping. Today was the first time I was able to see all the kids face on, in one place, in the light, without them moving around. It’s also the first time it’s not been 10+ huddled around our legs, or chasing a soccer ball or waving at you or running up for a hug as you’re on your way through the compound to do some work somewhere. As a result of this circle of non-moving children, I have now worked out a number of their names! Jofky is another of the babies, although since he’s not hanging onto Alexa and is chasing after the big boys I didn’t even know who he was until this morning. Now seeing the other girls faces I will no longer have to look for Leica’s hair band to know it’s her. I have also identified Josie, who at a quick glance is very similar to Leica. Then there is JJ (pronounced gg since it’s french) and Moise. Both boys are similar in size with shaved heads, one is 9 and the other is 10. The easiest way to see who is who is to check to see which one is being helpful and running around being a right hand. That’s JJ. He also lead devotions this morning. The one causing dezod (mischief/trouble) is Moise. Yesterday hitting Ti Luc with a big stick, today throwing rocks at a water pipe and breaking it. That leaves about 3 girls for me to identify. I think. Just asked my mom to write me out a list. She’s missing 2 on her list. Now I don’t feel so bad.

Sponsoring. I found out today that the kids in the Childrens home have 2 sponsors. 1 for schooling (which is what I sponsor Leica for) and 1 for their support in the home. The school is from Preschool to Grade 9 and has 248 kids. Today I am painting the school.

Sorting the packing, Who's who, Goats on a Moto

I have many wonderful family and friends that brought me bags and boxes of new and used clothes, school supplies and toys as soon as I said I was coming here, plus I made the kids purge their clothes and Alexa purged her toys. My basement was overrun for months. As I packed up the 8 bags to come here I remember thinking it would be much easier on the other end to unpack it. No wrapping, stuffing, weighing, etc. Just unpack it. Easy Peasy. Again I was wrong. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this wrong before, lol. This afternoon I unpacked 6 of the 8 bags. Two were food and supplies Mom requested (paintbrushes, nuts, chocolate, gifts for staff, protein powder, etc) so that was unpacked the first day.

I got all 6 unpacked and thought, ok, yup, that’s good, it’s all spread out and organized into groups (clothes for adults, boys, girls, shoes, toys, household goods, etc). Now what?

This is what 6 suitcases of donations looks like (plus a bench full of household things):

Donations - Girls Clothes

School Supplies

Donations - toys & shoes

So as I’m feeling all accomplished and ‘finished’ mom tells me the room I’ve unpacked everything into is used for morning devotions Mon-Fri at 7:30am. Today is Sunday. Oh boy! Mom left on a sugar cane run so I’m in here blogging as I rest up for the marathon of looking through everything with the 18 orphanage kids in mind trying to find things that can be wrapped for them for Christmas. This may sound easier than it is. I’ve played with them, I’ve hugged them, I’ve traded high fives, fist pumps and beaming smiles. I still have no idea who most of them are! The babies are pretty easy. There’s 4 of them – Jonathan who is teeny tiny and a boy (yes, my astuteness is astounding), Anne who looks at me terrified so I know who she is, Sandra who lights up any room she’s in and Karena who has a brilliant smile and loves to high five. I know who 4 others are with no confusion; Vladimy is 15 and can be seen wearing Jared’s Nike’s and kicking a Soccer Ball, 10yo Mirlande who has been blinded in one eye, always has shiny things in her hair and sticks to Alexa like super glue, Ti Fi who has mental challenges and looks unique and Ti Luc, who is my brother. I’ll post more about that another day. That still leaves 10… The rest of the beautiful dark chocolate children have the same hair. The boys are all shaved and the girls all have the same sticking up pigtails – there is probably a proper black hair term although since Ronel doesn’t go for that look I have no idea what it is. They move quickly and many are similar sized. I figure out who they are one day and then they have the gall to change clothes the next day and then I’m lost again feeling like an idiot. My ‘meeting sponsor child’* is here on site, an adorable little angel named Leica and she looks A LOT like 2 other girls. Today I studied the hair band colors in the front of her hair so I know that if it’s the adorable girl with the big smile AND the bright citrus colored hair band it’s Leica. If her hair band falls out I’m in big trouble!

Meeting Sponsor child: the gals who attend my Epicure meetings pay $2 at the door each time and it goes down here to HATS and helps towards paying the monthly support fees for Leica.

Leica

Jared and Judel. Jared loves this photo because not much of him is in it

Jared & Judel

Ronel & Dieunel. Ronel's new Facebook profile photo.

Ronel's new FB Profile Photo

It’s very embarrassing and frustrating to not know everyone when I see them. At church today we were leaving and I had a little boy by the hand and was heading over to the compound with him, him somewhat reluctantly. I figured he just didn’t want the fun singing to be over… then Alexa looked at me and asked me why I was taking home a random child. WHAT??? Oy Vey! I look back and he’s looking at me with these huge eyes and his siblings are trailing along behind wondering what to do…. They have no idea what I’m saying as I try to apologize and probably don’t know what blushing is although I hope by the shock on my face they realize I’m not actually loco (well I may be loco, although I’m not a loco child stealer)!


Many of you have asked what you can do. You can donate. I know my Epicure friends all got nice fat bonus chq’s for November (Yay Epicure) and probably need a tax deduction! You can make a one time donation or you can take on the annual support of a child. More info on the costs are on the website www.hatshaiti.org. One of my local consultants, Denise Krahn, sponsors 2 children down here and I had the privilege to bring down gifts for her two sponsor children and I hope to meet them to deliver those personally. Maybe your local consultants would love to be involved in supporting a Sponsor child as part of the meeting fees.


We still have 2 goats. Only 11 of the original 13 have gone home and we still have A LOT more to find and distribute (we’re up to 42 goats purchased by donors). In between other duties today I moved, untangled, fed, watered, stepped in poop (more x than I can count), moved again (every time the sun changed position) and took a ton of goat photos. Tonight we had goats going home on Moto (Motorbike). That’s apparently not unusual around here!

Goat on Moto

FYI – many of you are wondering about the perm. It came out OK! The photo in Blog #3, Crawling and Flying Things, Milking a goat, The Babies, of Mom and Jonathan, was the finished result.