2 Weeks in Haiti

As of today we have been back down in Haiti for 2 weeks.  We always get back down here and have very little time to get settled.  We get right back into the swing of things and often on our first day back have several knocks at the door with people welcoming us back, problems to solve, and kids to hug.  I got to thinking about all that we have gotten done here in these last 2 weeks and had to just laugh.  I wrote down as much as I could remember and decided to type them up in a blog.

So here goes:

• Met with 3 of our older boys who got in a fight while we were gone. Discussed what happened, what the punishments were, and made sure all was good with each other.
• Met with one of those same boys to talk about the girl he likes
• Met with one of our older girls to talk about her new boyfriend (which culturally is not acceptable here)
• Met with the new boyfriend (made him come knock on our door) to let him know we are aware of the situation, how much we love the girl, and informed him that any message he sends to her through her phone we would see

*Are you seeing a theme yet? We have 12 kids living with us above the age 13….

• Celebrated December birthdays since we missed them
• Discovered rats are in our house and the kids house and are eating the kid’s feet at night (have put the word out we need cats!)
• Met with an employee to discuss some issues
• Killed 25 mosquitos in our house in one day (I think it was more but we lost count at 25)
• Met with Christianville secondary school director to discuss one of our girls who is being bullied by some mean girls.
• Found out one of our trucks is completely broken and the other is leaking oil at a pretty fast rate
• Had our trash pit and the kids trash pit (holes in backyard that we burn) cleaned out and will now deliver all trash to a secondary location for a monthly fee
• Had one of our security guards tell us he would be moving to Chile. This is our second employee in the last few months.  You don’t need paperwork to get into Chile right now and they are leaving Haiti for what they think will be a better life.
• Wake up at 5:15 every morning to close Sophie and Elijah’s windows because the sun starts coming up, the roosters start crowing, this morning a woman was yelling and they have yet to sleep past 6am.
• Brought in Tilene, the newest addition to the All Things New Family. To read about her click here.
• Met with a woman whose sister died in child birth on January 6 leaving 8 children behind including the new born. She wants us to take in 5 of the kids.
• Hired a cook and planned meals for our 3 teams coming in March.
• Dealt with Elijah’s first real fever. (he seems much better today thankfully)

Just typing it out makes me tired! Amidst all of that there was the normal day to day of caring for our kids, Sophie and Elijah, and employees.  Needless to say, we are pretty tired at the end of a day.