Wednesday in Haiti and more on Yooveline

Wednesday was one of those crazy days in this place when you set out to do one thing, and three hours later, you did different things. There's a saying for days like that: "TIH" (This is Haiti). In the morning, we expected to do projects. Half of the team succeeded in getting to their projects. The other half (the half I was in) got to do some things we didn't expect but were glad for.

We found out Yooveline was baking at Brittany Meadth's house, so Susette took us over there. We got to talk with Yooveline again and watch her bake some chocolate chip cookies. She is trying to build a business baking. Brittany says she catches on quickly, and she has a good chance to be successful. Since she is spending time with the Meadths and Manasseros, Yooveline is also learning some English. That will help her market baked goods to Americans in the Child Hope network. While we were talking with her, we placed an order for some treats for our team and the resident interns. We want to support her business while we are here. We believe she could sell baked goods to teams like ours on a regular basis. (Hint, hint to future teams)

Yooveline baking "bon-bons" (cookies)

In the afternoon, we participated in the feeding program again. We brought dozens of balloons and blew them up so the kids could play with them. It was really fun... for a few minutes. And then balloons started popping, and bigger kids started taking balloons from younger kids. It was a little more chaotic than we had planned. Not horrible but not as fun as we thought either. As the kids left the Ben's, we passed out toothbrushes, toothpaste, and soap bars to each of the kids.

After the feeding program, we got to visit the Ravine. This is something I try to do every time we come to Haiti. We prayed in the house of Widlina and Ismalen and her mother. This was a very sweet few minutes. The mother was truly thankful to have us there. All of us felt the closeness of God as we prayed. Widlina in particular said she is not going to school this year, and she asked for prayer to be able to return to school. Our hearts are heavy about that.

We then went to the connected houses of Mona and Mimos and their children. This is the extended family of my little friend Roseline, whom I met in February 2010. The moms (no dads) and their kids are so sweet. We stayed at their place for a while. It was really special to look around and see that each of us had at least one kid in our arms. We were commenting about how the kids here seem to want a lot of physical affection. They like to hold hands, hug, and play physical games. Even if we don't speak Creole, we know how to pick up a kid and love up on them for a few minutes, and they soak it up.

In the evening, we got to worship with the kids of MDL. One of the big donations we got to make on this trip was a 13" djembe hand drum, which the boys have been without for at least a year. They had been using an old bongo that had completely fallen apart. Now they have a djembe with a rich tone that brings out the character of Haitian worship. In addition to the djembe, we brought them a pair of conga drums. The boys made those drums sing!

Keso playing the congas

For me personally, just listening to Evans play the djembe was so magical that at times I worshiped by allowing the drum to be my voice. I simply lifted my hands and opened my heart to God. I flashed back in time. There were specific times of worship after the earthquake when Evans played, and his drumming gave voice to the Haitians' courage to worship in the midst of such intense sorrow. There was exuberant and undefeated joy in those drums. Last night we worshiped, those powerful experiences from early 2010 came flooding back as I listened to Evans play. Sweeter worship is very rare.

Evans on the djembe

Worshiping with the kids here is a tremendous treat. Some of the kids play and mess around. They are kids, after all. But others worship with tremendous reverence and passion. Many team members also enjoyed connecting with specific kids during the worship time. We sat with sponsor kids and held the little ones. We sang a mixture of American and Haitian songs. We expressed our thanks to God for bringing us here. Our hearts were full!