August 31: Transformation

As we started our last full day here, we ate some delicious cinnamon rolls that we had purchased from Fleuri Bakery. The table—like always—was filled with excitement, laughter, and squinty eyes from the young fellas unprepared for the morning sunlight. After praying for the day, we hopped on the tap-tap and were ready for whatever was going to come at us on our last day. The traffic to our first place to serve was brutal. While we couldn’t see what was going on peering through the slats of the tap-tap cage, we did see the police squeeze through the traffic with riot cops in the back. After that bit of excitement, we turned directly off the main road to our destination.

 Our first stop was at an orphanage whose kids had disabilities. Lots of smiles and laughter instantly hit the orphanage from the very moment we stepped foot in the building. Soccer has been a main theme this week, so of course we had to bring one, but this time we made sure to bring it back to the guest house. While kicking it around for a while, we all noticed that Isaac H has improved to being able to juggle the ball more than two times. Anyways, everyone there had one goal and that goal was to make each and every kid there feel loved and supported no matter what circumstance they were going through. After playing with the kids we were given a tour of the orphanage. The kids were so proud to show off all of their rooms. In the last room we found one of the kids we were blowing bubbles with. They took him away and put him in his room early because he had an accident. The kid was crying because he wasn’t able to play with all of us and get the snack at the end. Steve came to the rescue and brought him some goldfish and we all gave him a hug, and by the time we left he was smiling. After a fun filled adventure at the orphanage for disabled children, we took a stop at the local grocery store which was a new thing for everyone in our group including the returners. There was a lot of eyes on the only 10 white people in the store as you can imagine. It was a good break in the day to get some AC before moving on to the next orphanage.

 The group then went to the next orphanage which was in a very cool part of Haiti. At the orphanage, we were welcomed with many smiling kids who wanted love spread to them by us. We made use of the building itself where a circular window became a target to throw a ball though. This place was not too much to look at, but it made us realize that people who have little are even helping the people who are worse off than them. We played soccer and jump rope with the kids for around an hour before turning to the bracelet making which was a big hit for the kids of all ages. Finally, Tamara had her mind set that we were going to play Bingo so she rallied the troops and we had an exciting game of bingo. Overall, the second orphanage of the day was obviously different than the first but everybody was treated the same way because we are all walking in God’s footsteps and everyone is equal.

The full day of serving started off like all the others, but the emotional debrief had us realizing the growth and change that we all have been undergoing this week. Even harder was wondering how we will be strangers to the environment back home that we think we will know, but we will see in a completely different light.

Our time in Haiti is coming to an end but our days serving will transform us forever.