Haiti Day Three & Four

Hey everyone!  I tried to update yesterday but we could not get the internet to work.  Thankfully it's working tonight!  The past two days have not been very eventful, but still pretty fun!  Yesterday morning we discovered ants in our cereal, which may or may not have been discovered after taking a few bites.  Gross.  We had to make another trip to the store to get more that afternoon so we could have breakfast the rest of the week.  The most exciting thing that happened yesterday was watching the Lion King with Sha Sha and chasing a moth around our room last night.  We wanted Sha Sha to learn where their dog, Nala's, name came from.  He enjoyed the movie although he was a bit confused because he would get distracted during the important parts!  We also had a gigantic moth in our room and watching Cassie try to get it out was quite entertaining.  When it stopped moving in the light for a good few minutes we thought for sure it was dead/fried.  However we woke up this morning to it sitting on our curtain, only to discover later this afternoon that it died on the window instead of in the light.  Pretty exciting things happening around here I tell ya! Ha!

Today we were able to sleep in, while Dorothy and Samuel went to the hardware store to get paint for us to use on the mural outside.  We hope to get that started tomorrow and finish it before the week is up.  We also spent a good amount of time loving on the babies and took some quiet time to ourselves to play a few rounds of phase 10.  This afternoon before dinner we were able to ride with Dorothy to stop by Sherri's place.  I visited Sherri's house when I came in 2009 and our team helped get her school in better condition.  I haven't visited since then, and boy has that place taken off! She's now living at the school because her house fell in the earthquake. It has three stories instead of one, there are living quarters upstairs for guest, and a wing off of it for more room.  It's amazing to see the progress, see her kids all grown up, and be reminded of how good and faithful God is to His people!  Visiting her place today brought up a lot of old memories from my first trip in 2009.  I was able to think back on our team, all the people we met, the places we went, and the memories we will all share forever.  I got to see Herode again, the little boy I fell in love with here at Dorothy's in 2009 who is now living with Sherri.  He is growing up, running around, talking, and as happy as could be!  I don't think he remembered me at all but it was awesome to see him again.

We also got to spend more time with the younger kids today here at Dorothy's.  Over the last few days, since everyone is still in school, we haven't gotten to spend a lot of time with all of the kids.  Our daily routine is completely different from last time, and Cassie and I were really missing our outside time with them.  To fix that problem, we went downstairs this afternoon and asked to take the kids outside.  I think the nannies get a bit frustrated with the chaos we cause, but the kids love it and that is what matters!  A few of the nannies are really good at understanding what we're trying to get the kids to do and they'll help us out. The best part of hanging out with the kids though is that they remember us from last time. It warms my heart every time they chant for us: "CassieAllyson!!! CassieAllyson!!!"  Only a few of them know that we are in fact two different people and our name isn't one combined word, but it's still amazing that they remember us. It makes me oh so happy every. single. time!  I love these kids so much!  I love to watch their personalities grow and change.  I love to see them learning more English, developing intellectually, and truly growing up. I got to sit and read with Johnny today and I can't even express how incredible that was.  He read his school book to me in Creole and then I sat and read an English book to him while he traced along the words and repeated after me.  I love to see their passion for learning coming out.  These kids are amazing and I love them all so very much!

The next couple of days are going to be pretty interesting for us.  Tomorrow a lady is bringing a 9 month old that will be joining Dorothy's kids.  We are all excited to meet him or her and love on this child as much as possible.  I've never been here when a child has come in for the first time, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that process works.  We also have a physical therapist coming in tomorrow that is going to do a class for the nannies on how to treat minor injuries like sprains as well as how to work with the kids who need specialized physical therapy assistance.  Jess and I are hoping to sit in on the class, learn for ourselves, and enjoy spending some time with the ladies.  We also plan to do a pizza night with one group of the kids tomorrow!  They enjoyed it so much last time that we just had to fit it in again.  On Saturday, Dorothy will be leaving for the day to take a team to Gonaives.  We will be at the house on our own that day, which will be fun to see how it plays out! We'll do the second round of pizza Saturday night with the younger kids.  The most exciting part of our next few days however, is that we were able to fit in a beach day on Sunday!! Last time we spend a day sight seeing in the mountains, and after seeing Katie's pictures of the beach, we were all dying to do that as our day off this time!  Katie is kind enough to drive us there on Sunday and spend the day with us at the beach.  We will be relaxing on a Caribbean Island beach on Sunday, not feeling guilty about it one bit!  It's going to be great!  Pray that I don't get sunburned!!

Next week we hope to do a little bit of souvenir shopping, but really the rest of our time will be spent loving on the kids as much as possible.  I truly do love these children and love every minute I get to spend with them!  Well that's about all I have for you tonight.  I'll try to post some more pictures soon, but the internet doesn't have a strong connection so it takes forever.  Goodnight everyone!