Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

I got up at 6:30 and hung out at the table talking to Jennifer, Chris, Bailey and Dorene. (I don't remember if I mentioned Chris and Bailey already. They came with their dads and were going to stay for about a month. The cool thing was that they came from James River Baptist Church. It's a church in Mo about two hours from us! How ironic is that? We travel part way across the world to another country and meet there some people who live just a couple hours from us!) Marty made us pancakes for breakfast. (Jodi mixed them from scratch) Then we set up for clinic and our craft. We put our craft table by the boys dorm on the cement pad. Chris and his dad had put up a basketball hoop the night before, but Jesse accidentally pulled it down! Oops. After clinic Jennifer said we would feed the people: mothers, kids, siblings, some men, all told would be between 150-200 people. The people came about 8:00 and sat on benches by the clinic building. We washed everyone's feet. That was so cool! We used basins and actually washed with soap and then dried them. The guys were done by Logan and Marty. The callouses on some of the women's feet were unbelievably thick! A lot of them were so thick and dry that they were cracked at the heels. It was such a humbling and honoring experience. I can't explain why it was, but I was so blessed in such an amazing way by doing it. We loved doing the kids feet too. They babies' feet were soooo little and so soft. We had to dump the water after each set of feet 'cause they were so dirty. We used between 60-70 gallons of water. Pastor Clebert also did a devotion with our Haitian tracts and explained the foot washing. After the women had been through the clinic then they came to the craft table where we gave them a bag with two strips of cloth and them them weave the cloth through holes in the bag. I ended up with Friko's ballcap at one point so I just wore it at a cocked angle over my bandana. The kids found that amusing. After clinic we fed everybody. It was rice and beans with sauce and kool-aid to drink. Our team, the interns and Christ and Bailey handed out the food. Wesley joined us too. We probably almost wore a path from the kitchen to the benches by clinic, we walked it so many times! Jennifer was very pleased because we got all done with clinic and everything by noon. Apparently that is a record for them! After lunch, which was Haitian spaghetti w/ fried hot dogs, avocados, and juice, we spent the the early afternoon trying to hang out with as many kids as we could. I might have forgotten to mention earlier that Davenel made me a bracelet w/ my name on it. Only he accidentally left out the second 'h'. (because they usually said my name 'heder') It's big for a bracelet on me though, so I just wear it as an anklet. Wesley made me a black and green lanyard out of some thin plastic string stuff (I've seen kids weave it into different stuff back in the states too). Come afternoon Wesley, Davenel, Ronald, Chris, Jesse and some of the others went to watch a soccer game in Pignon. Logan got to play in the soccer game! The girls weren't allowed to go, but it was pretty easy to pick him out in the pictures! He really enjoyed it he said, but he did get a small black eye and got accidentally punched in the head or something. While the guys were gone Jennifer had scheduled for some of the workers to come with market goods so we could buy stuff. I got a necklace (w/ a dolphin on it), a grass woven pad and a stained wooden box. On each of the items I got I worked the guy down to half of what he first asked (which was, of course, still more expensive than they would spend, but that's ok) It was $5 for the necklace, $4 box, $4 mat. I didn't mind supporting the folks though. The boys got back some time after five and they said Pignon won the game. The one we had watched previously they lost 0-6. We hung out more and then ate sandwiches early for dinner. Then we got ready to go to a special evening service at Pastor Francois' church. Some of our team and the kids rode in the truck but I walked with the rest of the kids. We did have a large entourage tramping down the road. Once again we sat at the front of church, but it was the front pews so we didn't see everyone staring at us! His church was a big building, at least for Pignon. There was a bass guitar and the guy who played the keyboard at Pastor Clebert's on Sunday also played it there. There were four choirs there, three female and one male. I'd say my favorite was the male choir and then one of the female choirs where on one song they had a bunch of motions and then they danced back to their seats still singing! Pastor Francois preached, and I could pick out a word here or there but I have no idea what the sermon was about! Jimmy and Christiana fell asleep on Jodi's lap and Francois fell asleep on mine. Several of the other little kids fell asleep on the pews! They usually go to bed about 6:30. After the service was over I held Jimmy until he was awake enough to walk. It was dark heading back (the service went from 7:00-9:30, and it gets dark way earlier in Haiti than back home. It was dusk when we first set out from the orphanage.) It was fun walking back because everybody was kinda subdued, the weather was beautiful, the starts were out, and the moon was just coming over the mountain. It truly was glorious!!! I know a lot of people to whom it is just boring, but even something as simple as that night just thrills me! I love God's creation. I stood outside for awhile just staring into the sky and watching the moon come over the mountain. After coming back, instead of our regular devotion we did one with all the blanc (white =D) gang and the older kids. Hannah and Jesse both played the guitar, but it was hard to find songs that both we and the Haitians knew w/ music. Then Logan did the devotion. Afterward the girls played Lago Lago (hide-n-seek) but their version is very different from the boys'. Instead of staying out and hiding, waiting to be found, they come racing back to the patio as soon as the 'it' person moves away. While they played some of us girls put together the leftover craft bags so that Jennifer could use them in the clinic when she needs. Some of the gang ate leftover Haitian spaghetti when we got back from church...but I just ate fresh mango pieces!!!