The Orphanage, and A birthday to remember

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So it’s been less than 24 hours since my last post but so much has happened today. I want to break this post into a couple sections. First I was able to sneak to my room mid day and upload a few random pictures, so I’ll explain them.

The first picture is of a make shift b-day party Karla and I threw together on the fly. As you’ll read we have become close to a family, two boys Addison who has deeply touched me, and his younger brother Alex. Today was Addisons b-day. I found this out around 2 o’clock. He’s never had a party, presents, or a cake. One factor is there is no kitchen in his house, so no oven to bake, no money=no presents. I don’t know if you have ever tried to find a cake in Haiti, but it is nearly impossible being a luxury item. We luckily found some brownie mix from the hosts that Karla put together.   We asked him to come to the geust house and sit down, he was so surprised when we sang to him, and gave him his brownies, he has never had brownies in his life, he ate extra.

The second picture is Alex and Addison, Alex is wearing yellow, and Addison is wearing black, we’ll hear more of them in a few paragraphs.

The next picture is of the orphans, these kids got most of what we had donated. There was eleven, 5 girls 6 boys of varying ages. They are amazing kids, so excited and greatful for their gifts, and our time. We gave goodie bags, Barbies and silly bands, with crayons, markers and books for the girls, and Soccer or American footballs with cars, silly bands and coloring material for the boys. God is working in that orphanage, one boy Ti Luc was unable to walk a month ago, now he walks freely by himself, although his control of arms and legs is sporatic, he is leaps and bounds further than 30 days ago.

The next photo is of the church we attended Sunday.

The next two are of the beach, one is all of the boys, with our mission hosts, the other is of Me, Lama (the taller one) and Rolland, a fifteen year old working machine.

The next photo is of the roof we repaired day one. The house is Alex and Addisons. The tarp is temporary, but provides some protection from the rain. A newly constructed concrete Haitian house is only about $1000 American Dollars. Our goal is to build them a house within a year. It’s a small step but for the price this family will have a safe, secure and dry home.

The next photo is of the shoe distribution at Addison and Alex’s house, you can see how quickly we are overrun, so strategic planning is important, we need to act quickly. The last photo is of their inside of their house.

So Karla and I decided to adopt Addison and Alex……kind of. Addison is forced to drop out of school due to lack of money, Alex will have to soon. We agreed to pay for them to continue their education with a couple of stipulations……1) no bebes (babies) if they have a kid they need to work to support it. 2) they need to pass their classes.  The next step was to convince their mother to allow it, which we were able to do easily. They were greatful, Addison said we answered  his prayer of school. He doesn’t know it but we will continue to send money, and clothes to make sure they succeed, I can’t give him fish, but I can help to teach him how to fish.

After their house we went to the orphanage, the children are amazing, it was like christmas.

We came home and had the B-Day party where Addison said, he is having a sad b-day because we are leaving. I have connected with him and hope I had an impact, at least one block to the foundation.

The kids have been trying to talk me out of my clothes, literally, they want my shorts, shirts ect. I may give some clothes to them tomorrow. Lama, another boy I like alot told us he will bring us bracelts that he made before we leave, to remember him. I’ve been here less than a week, but I feel like they adopted me, I’ll miss them greatly.

Other notes:

I was told I’m grol (fat or big) by Haitian standards, they associate big belly with wealth since that means you are eating. They have a way of making me feel like crap