Monday, June 28th--Day 6

Plans for today:

We will finish our benches, buckets, and Love Bundles, and bring them to a local village.

We hope to visit another orphanage and school on the way home in the afternoon.

The days keep getting hotter and hotter! It doesn't take long before we are all sweating and tired...

The good news--after we load up the truck, we will actually walk to the village, and not have to ride in the back of the truck!!

What a great thing!

The walk to the village, after lunch, was great. Maybe a mile away, the walk took us over a river, and through forest and farmland. We passed another voodoo house along the way.

Don showed us a promising sight--one of the tent villages that was actually getting smaller--the people were finding housing!! What a joy...

They were beginning construction of new homes on the sight, which was such a great thing to see!

We visited a school--the 2nd main location for the Mission Lifelong organization. It was clean and neat, and we found out it had been used as a make-shift hospital after the earthquake. It's wonderful how Haitians make the best of anything and everything they have and encounter!

After school, the children line up to be fed. We helped the cooks with this process--and wondered how they could possibly do this themselves every day...

One awesome experience we had--when we unloaded the benches for the kids--we set them down, and immediately they were occupied by children who, for weeks before, had to sit on the floor to eat. It was such amazing instant gratification, and the smiles on the kids faces was so nice to see!!

Another great moment in Haiti...

As we passed out buckets and Love Bundles, we could see and hear some unrest from the walls outside the village. During such times, there is apparently always a huge rush from people who want/need food and supplies. The walls must be shut at times like this, or complete chaos and violence will occur inside the village. It is painful to know that, although we are feeding and helping many people, there are many, many more who need help that are not receiving it.

This is one of the most difficult things to realize and deal with while we are here in Haiti...

On the way home, we stopped by another orphanage--this one in pretty bad shape. The buildings were still in shambles from the earthquake, and the conditions were dirty, hot, and smelly. One of the children was very sick, and his mother was told to bring him to the clinic the next day, before he became dangerously ill.

Nearby, we stopped at a school--this one also in shambles. The director seemed a bit odd--clearly they had been through very difficult times there.

His mother, who lived with him, was away from the house, crouching near the end of the yard. As we asked about her, we were told she had been like that since the earthquake--outside, never in the house, crouching and not communicating. She was so shocked and pained by the experience that her trauma had kept her like that...

What a deeply sad thing to see.

As we prayed for her, we were all moved and feeling another mix of emotions. All of these struggles, day-by-day, moment-by-moment, are powerful and painful to see and hear about.

Another sad moment in Haiti...