Hello Everyone! This is Tessa from our Healing Haiti Team!
It was another great day here in Haiti! We started off our day going to a mini Artisan Shop that Haitians set up in a small outdoor space specifically for Healing Haiti teams to shop at. It was a quick walk up the street to get there. It was fun to leave the Healing Haiti gates by foot! They had lots of metal signs and sayings, paintings, jewelry, wooden items, and painted rocks. We all got some really cool things and even got to practice some bargaining/haggling skills! :)
Next, we toured a place called Peace Cycle. They are doing awesome things over there with some simple recycling. In Haiti, people drink out of mini plastic water bags instead of water bottles. These plastic bags are left all over the street so what Peace Cycle does is retrieves those mini bags, cuts them, washes them, irons them to make them more durable, and then sews them together to make the coolest bags, totes, pouches, etc. A lot of us bought some of those products to bring home! We also got to introduce and share a little bit about ourselves to the workers while they did the same in return. It was fun to interact with them and learn about their lives. Places like these gives tremendous hope for the future of Haiti and it clearly showed through the workers happy, optimistic personalities.
Next, was a community center for kids in Cite Soleil called Sakala. There were around 200 kids who ranged from toddlers to 18 years old. As soon as we got out of the tap tap (the vehicle we travel in), we were greeted by kids who would pull us right into play time. Team members played things like jump rope, doing handshakes, playing with a parachute, soccer, catch, and tag with the kids. A lot of the team members even got their hair done by the Haitian girls. They were all amazed with our long and light hair. What I did for the majority of the time alongside some other team members, as well as Pastor Erik, was played a very competitive game of volleyball with a couple of the older Haitian boys. They had a full volleyball court and net! That was super fun! Then, Karenna, Jenna, and I had the chance to talk to those older Haitian boys, one of which spoke fairly good English. We probably talked for a solid hour. It was very interesting and fun to be able to learn about their lives with more details instead of just their name and age. Even though our situations are so different, we all are so similar! It shows how God created us all the same on the inside. We have the same hopes and dreams and enjoy chatting about the same topics like sports, jobs, school, family, and even gossip. :) There were lots of smiles and laughter there today!
Our final stop of the day was the POOL! We walked up the street to the pool of a Hotel nearby. It was very pretty and had a "jungle" feel to it. And of course it felt AMAZING to jump in after a very sweaty day in the blazing hot sun. Today was by far the hottest day; the temperature reached to 100 degrees! But, of course, that did not stop us from having a blast!
We just finished a good dinner of Mac n' Cheese and are about to have our group reflection/chat for the day. Later we will play our nightly game of Mafia, which is always too much fun!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's update!
Tessa
