💖 Team 1 = Texasabetes - Day 6 😍
Before we get started on todays log.. I want to tell a funny story from yesterday. Lets talk about soccer. Soccer is not just a fun sport in Haiti. Soccer is THE SPORT in Haiti. Every evening, children and adults line the street outside the Healing Haiti gate. There may be a league playing or just neighborhood kids playing for fun. These kids are good! Some are playing barefoot. Other are playing with slide shoes on. You know the ones... Nike Wide Band slide ons... I can hardly walk in those much less run and play soccer. We have a team member this year and I won't call him out (Kevin) who plays soccer. Energetically he grabbed a soccer ball from the HH guest house and a few of us took to the streets to watch. He was ready to "teach" these guys about soccer. Hmmm.... I'm not sure if he was ready to play or be played but it was fun to watch. Now Kevin is a good soccer player... these kids were good too! Unfortunately time was not on the side of our team mate. I don't think he realized we were about to be called for dinner when he started playing. His team 0-2, we were called to go. He had to grab his ball and go home. Now we know it was legitimate but I'm pretty sure the Haitians have a different perspective. They GROANED as he took the ball and said he had to go home! Way to be a sore loser! :)
Usually it's a year between trips to the same location but we were lucky enough to get to go back to Hope Center today. It is like a Boy's and Girl's Club in Haiti, investing in kids to get them off the streets and taken care of by loving adults. The excitement on the kid's faces when they saw us was heartwarming. To say the least, they were VERY excited to see us again. They ran out of the building and jumped on us, giving high-fives and hugs and smiles all around. It makes you feel good when you are welcomed like this. We got to play games like soccer, paper folding cootie catchers and of course, dancing. These kids have skills that we could never even dream of. It's like every kid is a professional dancer here in Haiti.
We left Hope Center for a little while to go deliver water just around the corner. I'm not sure if it was because we were tired from doing water truck three days in a row OR if it really was a never ending supply of water BUT the truck never seemed to run out of water. Was Jesus there turning trash into water? Probably not, but it did feel like a 5 fish and 3 loaves kind of thing. It should be noted that delivering water is not an easy task, you have to control the high powered hose, fill up as many buckets as possible, waste as little water as possible and deal with people cutting the line. In the past few days we have worked out a pretty good system. It became more like an assembly line.. moving buckets up, filling buckets and pushing buckets out the side. Small children would try to cut in line or be sent to cut in line by an adult... everyonce in a while instead of a bucket flying out... a child would fly. Of course we did not throw them out, but I think the kids thought it was fun to be picked up and set out with the buckets....quite a site if you were watching from the sidelines. It was exhausting and our Haitian members put us in time out for a break. After a quick lunch on the Tap Tap, we were back to Hope Center.
Once back at Hope Center, we played some more, passed out juices and crackers to the kids. There were no complaints about having such a plain snack as crackers. Many said "Merci" or "thank you", and many more helped younger siblings or children in the program eat their snacks and open their drinks. It seems to be an unspoken rule that older kids need to help out the younger kids when in large groups. There is no room for selfishness in Haiti.
Next we were off to the airport for our mandatory COVID testing to return home. Has it been a week already? The time has gone quickly here. We paid our money, got things stuck up our nose, then got the results a little too quickly. While we were waiting, a preacher was speaking to the people awaiting their test results. He was quite entertaining and we sang a little song together though some of the team didn't understand his accent and the words he was saying. He was singing Jesus is for Haiti and Haiti is Jesus.. Amanda heard... Jesus is for the A Team and the A Team is for Jesus. LOL! I heard 80 is for Jesus and Jesus is for 80.... we finally caught on! Turns out when you are waiting for a CoVid test in a foreign country, there is just a little fear inside it may be positive keeping you from returning home... everyone was able to breath a sigh of relief... We are all "negatif" and will be able to return home to the States. Now it's just up to the airlines and Jesus, and all the other things that might happen between now and then.
Our plans have changed many times since we have been here. There are days that we wake up and the plan changes 3 or 4 times before we leave. But that's OK, it reminds us that we are just a part of God's plan, NOT the Planner.
Words of the Day: cooperation, flying kids, "negatif", aggravation, arm wrestle, negative COVID test results, "Haiti for Jesus and Jesus for Haiti", "A-Team for Jesus and Jesus for the A-Team", reflect, Snoopy, fun, goat nuts, Captain Jean, welcome
