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.
