Day 4: June 21st, 2018
So there’s this Spanish magician right? He is about to do
his final act and says he is going to make himself disappear for the grand
finale. He says “Uno, dos…” and POOF he is gone without a tres.
That was Barry Gerst’s joke tonight at dinner and Nelson
though it was the funniest thing he had ever heard!
Welcome back to another blog extravaganza with your boy
Mizzle Nizzle. (It’s Max guys don’t worry and no one has ever called me that…
like ever.) (No for real like never in my entire life) Tonight I am joined by
the gals from the most West of the Virginias, Brae and Maria! It is Maria’s
first trip to Haiti and Brae’s fourth trip. Nelson and I got up with the boys
nice and early for a quick ab circuit and “morning yoke sesh” because we are
such superb athletes. Our lesson from this morning: take something ordinary and
do just a little bit extra, and you get something extraordinary – Abraham
Lincoln (Probably) – Nelson Linscott. Here’s another quote Nelson shared with
us this morning: “Those were really good tacos” – Martin Luther King Jr.
(Probably said that at some point, he seemed like a taco guy).
Let me just pause for a moment to address the fact that as I
am trying to write this blog, Nelson is making a “strombony of himself” by
attempting to do a british accent that really just sounds like an Italian
Borat. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.
After our morning workout we had a pancake breakfast and
loaded up on the TapTaps to head north to visit Grace Village and the elders in
Titanyen. On our way, we stopped at the 2010 earthquake memorial and mass
graves which serve as the final resting place for an estimated 300,000 Haitians
who lost their lives during the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that changed the lives
of Haitians forever. One of our Haitian guides shared his brief recap of the
events on that fateful day and it was a great experience for everyone. We then
headed to Grace Village where we got to play and spend time with all of the
kids. I met a little boy last year when I came down to Haiti and I we had a
great reunion this morning when I saw him for the first time in a year. Brae
also had a similar experience when she saw a girl that she hadn’t seen in five
years! We all had a fun time getting to interact with the kids with games like
tag, thumb wars, soccer, and dance offs.
After our morning stint at Grace Village we had the
opportunity to do 8 different elder visits split between the two halves of our
team. I was back at it learning more creole phrases with the kids, but I also
got to put lotion on a few of the elders which really took me out of my comfort
zone. There aren’t many things that are more intimate than putting lotion on
another person and it is one of the few opportunities we can truly be the hands
and feet of God when we are down here. Brae and Maria had another valuable
experience working with the elders by washing their feet and painting nails. We
also ended up bringing picture bibles for the elders who are illiterate and
other household supplies that they were in need of.
After our elder visits we got a tour of Fleri Bakery and
Restuarant in Titanyen. This was a super cool experience for us to see how much
work goes into making the bread for a community. Fleri has 26 independent
clients who the sell wholesale to, who then resell the bread into the community
in Titanyen. Fleri goes through 110 pounds of flour an hour and crank out bread
everyday of the week. Business has been booming and they directly put $10,000
back into the community of Titanyen just from buying the supplies needed to make
the bread last year. After Fleri, we spent more time at Grace Village watching
Croatia upset Argentina 3-0 in world cup group play while the staff fixed a
flat tire on one of the TapTaps. On our way home from Grace Village it started
pouring rain. And when I say pouring I mean raining cats and dogs with a 40 mph
crosswind that was blowing sheets of rain into the back of the open air TapTap.
Luckily for Cameron and I, we had chosen to sit up front and were nice and dry
while the rest of the team looked like they had gone to a water park. (Sorry
guys love you).
After we had dried off, we had Haitian food for dinner and
then grouped up with the other team to have one large super-group meeting where
we got to sing worship songs and our nightly devotional. You will be pleased to
hear that “Servant Leader” made another appearance at tonight’s meeting. Tomorrow,
half of our group will be heading out on a second water truck day and the other
half will be visiting the Haitian History museum and a orphanage called
LaPharre. Thank you all once again for keeping up to date on the blogs and we
will catch ya on the flipside tomorrow.
They always say yee-haw, but never haw-yee. – Nelson Linscott
Max Nelson
