SO MANY QUESTIONS.

What’s a school bus? Is a cucumber a fruit or a vegetable? Who teaches at the school? Is it toilet paper or a paper toilet?! And how do you save the tatas? ….Wear a sports bra!! (all quotes provided by…anonymous).

Yep, today was pretty awesome. We all took a van with Father (and our new friend Jeff!) and drove first to the SIFE/Davis School to visit and check up on things. Everything looks awesome there and the school is clearly a huge asset to the kids and the entire Rivierre Froide community. We got to see all the kids while they were in school, talk to some of the sisters and all the kids sang to us which is always so cute and fun and endearing…they have it pretty rough but they all seem so happy.

We went to the Sisters of Charity after that, which is always really hard. The kids are so tiny and fragile and sick. Some of them are on IVs, some of them are clearly in pain. But both of the infants I held were smiling and laughing and playing with me. One of them was even strong enough to grab onto my finger, which was encouraging…she seemed to be getting better which was good to see. The hardest part is at the end, when you have to leave. Every one of them hates to see you go, they will burst into tears and reach for you with their little arms…it feels awful. I love being there and think it’s so important because you can see how much the kids love and need people there to hold them..but what you see stays with you and how it feels to leave can be pretty hard to take.

We also stopped by a huge grocery store (complete with armed guards at the door who check you out before you can go in..yep, imagine that at wal-mart) and picked up staples…like ragaman and coffee and paper toilet and haitian rum. everything we needed!

we were headed back through the city to go home when suddenly…

THIS happened:

the brakes in the van went out!! what the WHAAAAT!!!

they stopped working just as we were driving on a slight downhill and straight into a pretty busy intersection. after it happened we all talked about what we thought we were about to hit and we all had a different fear..if that helps explain exactly how many obstacles there actually were (people, a pole, another car, a giant wall…) but Toto, our driver, was AWESOME (haitian drivers are seriously crazy..in a good way!) and he pulled this shouldve-been-impossible miracle maneuver which was basically a 90 degree turn of the entire van in about 2 seconds into a tiny space and we were good to go!! we switched out vans and all was well.

When we got back we found the kids and created a scavenger hunt for them which was a  ton of fun. They loved it! One of the things on the list was a lizard, which we put on the list as something to be more difficult..but they found one in literally under 3 minutes! It was so much fun and I really feel like we’re getting to know the village a little bit, even without being able to speak Kreyol, so  that’s a pretty cool feeling.

I wish I could add more pics but it takes forever and I need to go back to eating my mango on the roof!

Au revoir!!

Best Quotes of the Day:

“It’s positive..in a good way!” – chelsie

“what’s a school bus?” – pancha

“sometimes i’m just really thankful for that fluid in your brain that keeps it from banging around everywhere” – chelsie

Kreyol:

mwen ap eseye apren kreyol **I am trying to learn Kreyol

si Bondye vle, mwen ap tounen anko **Godwilling, I will be back soon