Syd and Beebs here. Day 1 of mission service.
We had a great day today starting the morning off by having half of the group go to Home for Sick and Dying Babies and the other half going to Dare's. We came together as a team in the afternoon to visit our first orphanage, and then we ended the day with a delicious meal of Chicken Yakisoba.
Here are our perspectives on the day:
10 of us went to the Home for Sick and Dying babies. We pulled up in the tap-tap to the outside of the home and there was a line of women and their children waiting to get help for their child. After giving them a hopeful smile, we walking into the home and were given the option of room 1 or room 2. Room 1 was filled with children who were a lot sicker and a lot younger, and room 2 was filled with children who were mostly all above the age of 9 months. Myself and a couple others were called to room 2 where we were welcomed by kids sitting on chairs, patiently waiting for our attention. In this room, although there were about 30 plus cribs, side by side, filled with more children wanting to be picked up and loved. Throughout our morning, we fed, changed diapers and provided as much joy as possible to these sick kids. Some of the children's parents were given the opportunity to spend the morning with their kids, and it was unbelievably heartwarming to see the amount of love and care they had for their kids. Last time I was in Haiti, the places I visited lacked the presence of a parent. Although being at the home was overwhelming by the amount of kids crying and wanting attention, the nuns were tirelessly working to keep and love as many babies as possible. It was a very emotional stop for all those who went, but we are beyond thankful for the opportunity to be there.
6 of us went to Dare's, which is home for orphaned children with special needs. We got there and jumped right into playing with the children. We sang songs, played with bubbles, and had a little snack of applesauce. The children ranged in age from infant to adolescents with a variety of disabilities. We had a lot of fun making them laugh with our broken creole and the children had a great time trying on our hats. We had a great time sharing the love of Jesus and bringing happiness to their day!
After grabbing some snacks for lunch, the whole group went to an orphanage run by La Pherre and his wife. There were 30 children there and we started off our visit with a little art project. We had the children make little angel necklaces made out of paper clips, string, and beads. They listened really well and loved wearing them.Then we brought out the bubbles and chalk and had a fun time blowing bubbles, arm wrestling, playing tic-tac-toe, coloring, and singing and dancing.
There was a wide variety of ages, some were swinging young children around while others were making connections with the teenagers. All together the morale was high after the visit and it was even higher after the wonderful Chicken Yakisoba that Phaunis and Ulta, a couple of the Haitian staff, made for us!
Ouvwa for now, looking forward to water truck day tomorrow!
Syd and Beebs.
