Haiti At Last

After a long day of flying and racing to make connecting flights, my mom and I arrived in Port Au Prince last night with all of our luggage! Thank you God! The director of Marantha Children's Ministries, Byron met us and we headed to the Children's home to pick up a generator before heading to the Preschool where I will be living.

Walking in to the home we were met with six eager children all calling for "Mr. Byrons" attention. A little girl in pink pajamas came walking up and hugged my legs, bending down to pick her up she buried her head in my shoulder, she was SO cute and reminded me a lot of my little shy niece Maya. I learned that her name was Rose as a little boy grabbed my hand and dragged me into the kitchen where the kids were just finishing dinner. I was greeted with "bonswa" from the little kids sitting around a wooden table. The little boy began talking to me in Creole, I didn't understand what he was saying but I figured he was asking me to come sit with him at the table, "Non messi" I replied spinning him around with the my hand that he had firmly grasped, a giggle erupted from his little mouth and it quickly became a game twirling him around and around as Rose lifted her head to watch.
   We didn't want to keep them from cleaning up and bedtime so we headed back to the truck with smiles on our faces as the kids called goodnight to us.

We arrived at the Tlucek's where pizza was on the menu but they had had a generator go out so dinner would be delayed which ended up being perfect because we had had a late lunch. While waiting on dinner a woman who mom had done prenatals on when she was at the Maternity center in April came over with her son who had been born just a couple days after mom came home. He had the biggest chocolate eyes and softest cherub cheeks. I got to play with him for awhile and he held my hands as he attempted to walk; he'd tried earlier that week but had only succeeded in cutting his chin, that didn't stop him though.

After a delicious dinner I headed to bed. I'm rooming at the moment with one of the Tlucek's daughters but tomorrow she heads back to college in the states. There are fans pointed at the beds which they explained are to keep the mosquitoes off. The mosquitoes here are little and can't compete with a fan which works rather perfectly.

The power went off around 3am this morning but thankfully this is the coolest month in Haiti and a nice cold breeze was blowing in through the window. Little mercies are a blessing. The preschool is on Christmas break till Tuesday so I have a couple days to settle in which is rather lovely.

This morning I woke up to beautiful singing; a church group somewhere in the little compound had gathered and were lifting their angelic voices to the Heavens, I swayed along with the music catching little words that I knew as I went to work re-organizing a large bookshelf I'd volunteered to clean/re-organize the night before. Everything is dusty in Haiti, whether you wiped it yesterday or a couple hours earlier.

There was a graduation ceremony over at the Maternity center and I got to walk over and see where my mom is staying and join in the graduation festivities. Four women police officers came and talked to the girls about self defense, staying in school, getting successful jobs and each of them played a different instrument for us. Some of the girls performed a skit, another sang, there was a fashion show and another girl did a dance for us. It was fun to get to see her dance, it reminded me a lot Zumba :)

The other intern Alex and I got to ride with Bryon and Shelley as they dropped their daughter off at the airport, we rode in the bed of the truck to keep an eye on the luggage, it was fun bouncing around and Alex who has been to Haiti a couple times and been working at Maranatha for the past semester was able to point out some interesting things about Port Au Prince and her perspective.

Bella is the Tluceks Haitian daughter and since the moment I stepped in the door has been talking about wanting to do Ballet, so tonight I pulled her aside and taught her a small combination at the "barre" (a wooden chair) she is a very fast learner and Alex assures me the children that attend the Pre-School are too. I'm excited!!!

Tonight for worship the boys led us in singing Came to My Rescue by: Hillsong. Language barrier is my biggest frustration at the moment, I know that it is my first day & God continues to try and teach me patience. I loved singing this song tonight, all I am is His, all I want to do is to seek and glorify Him. And for Him; it's enough even though I have yet to learn the language & being a bit of a perfectionist; I feel like I'm failing but He will always answer me and walk beside me and that's enough for me :)

"Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek your face
Lord all I am is yours

My whole life
I place in your hands
God of Mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at your throne

I called you answered
And you came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where you are" ~ Hillsong