Haiti...Day 2

After a great night's sleep and breakfast with the team, we were picked up in what was probably a flatbed pickup at one time.  Back inside the cage that protects us from the outside and thank goodness keeps us from falling out, we made our way to church.  It was full and by American standards over full as people packed in tight against each other for the service.  The youngest children from the boys and girls homes sat on the edge of the low stage and looked our direction as we watched them.  The worship time was great and the message about having an attitude that reflects God's promises and ability, was encouraging.  We had time to play with some children in the yard, pushing them on swings and playing hand games.  The language barrier gets to me.  I want to talk to them and hear from them.  A few speak English, but they are the minority.  We came back to the guest house for a quick refill of water bottles and change of clothes and left for the home of the family that had the vision to begin this program and orphanage.  We were served lunch and had time to connect with our team and make some plans for the week.  Then, it was off to the boys home to help them with a craft for their house mom as today is the Haitian Mother's day.  There were some basketball games, soccer games and some pretty crazy monkey bar tricks!  About 5 or so, the women headed back to cook dinner.  We wanted to give the staff the night off and all went well until we were told we had served some dessert bar that was intended for the boys home.  Question:   What could make a girl feel worse than to eat some dessert intended for boys who don't have a mother on Mother's Day?   Answer:  NOTHING.  Tonight we will be planning for tomorrow and what is needed.   I feel so much more prepared this trip.  The degree of poverty here is tragic but somehow I felt more prepared.  The children though, never prepared to see a child 1/2 naked or asking for food.  This morning after the church service Dann went back inside to talk to someone and a man brought in an 8 day old baby, just hoping someone could help him get medical attention.  Another man said his sister has a 4 month old baby girl that his sister couldn't take care of.  Its so much to think about and try to understand. 

Tomorrow we head to the transition program building to paint, organize and build some shelves, then at 2pm we'll head to the boys house for the community feeding program.  Off to the shower and then headed for bed, night all.