To tell you all that coming home was easy would be a complete lie.

It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Leaving Haiti and the children at Mason Fortune Orphanage was heart wrenching and emotional. Yes, I was excited to come home and see all of my loved ones but I could not grasp the thought of leaving behind the relationships I had just started in Haiti.

Overall the trip was more than I could have asked for and more than I was prepared for. I joked before leaving about coming home with 5 kids but I never thought it would be so hard to actually not come home with any. All of the children there, whether they were 4 or 20, deserve the best. No one works as hard and loves as much as the Haitian people and they deserve the same love and hard work from all of us.

I went into this with the questions, What can I do to help these people? Is there really anything I can do ? … . little did I know the Haitian people would be helping me and giving me more than I think I could ever do for them.

They reminded me of the importance of love, hard work, and faith. You can definitely see God doing amazing things through these people. There is no way that with out God they could be as self motivating, loving and happy with the conditions they have to live in. They come together and work as one when things get rough. (Such as during the very intense storm and then the clean up the next day.) They look after one another. (Such as the boys making sure every single person at the orphanage got the candy we were handing out before getting more for themselves.) They looked after us. ( helping us with Creole, watching out for us in the market, trying to give us the little they have for them selves) and they love to be loved. (something as simple as holding their hands makes them more than happy)

My family and I were going through the pictures from my trip last night and I became frustrated. You can not capture in a picture the devastation they live in, their beautiful smiles, their faith, or their big hearts. This is something you have to experience in person for the real effect.

Being home has been interesting. I never thought I would appreciate a shower so much while at the same time being frustrated that I have the ability to shower. We take advantage of everything in our lives. Everything I have done or seen since being home all flashes back to the people in Haiti. I can not stop thinking about how much we have compared to them. It makes me grateful, sad, and angry all at once.

I miss them all more than you can imagine. I will think about them and pray for them every day until I return. I encourage all of you who read this to do the same. Say some prayers for the people of Haiti and the children at Mason Fortune Orphanage. Think about and be grateful for all that God has provided you with in your every day lives.

Xoxo

Christielee

“Here I am Lord, Is it I lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my Heart.”

Wow I can’t beleive that it is Friday already. So much has happened since we have been here that I havnt had any time to blog here about it. We have been spending alot of time with the kids here at the orphanage.

Music lessons went very well and everyone was extremely enthusiastic to learn even a simple instrument like the recorder. Everyone has a good sense of music and a group of students really picked up the instrument. It turns out that the orphanage is already host to its own little band with makeshift instruments and music in a traditional Haitian style.

We have also been helping many of the older boys with their english in lieu of lessons that they would normally receive from the Xavieren brothers that reside on the compound. It was funny to hear some of the common phrases we use that they were curious about like: “You have the right to remain silent” “goofy” “Playboy” “innertube” “beach vs. swimming pool” and a few others. I think we really made some progress on helping them really understand the language, and its humbling to experience their enthusiasm for OUR language, when we are visitors in their country and struggle so much with Creole. They are still extremely happy to share Creole with us, no matter how much we might butcher it along the way.

Some of the local people of Hinche have confused me with someone from Haiti, because they are taken aback by my ability to try and speak French and Creole with them. One of the people at the orphanage even insisted that looked like president Obama haha.

Today (Friday) we started our day with some painting of one of the boys dorms. We were a little swamped with some of the younger boys that wanted to “help” and we had to kick some of them out to control the crowd. After lunch, we left to visit the Sisters of Charity compound and spend some time with the infirmed children and babies. That was a hard experience, knowing how sick and lonely the children there were, but I hope that we brightened up their day even a little bit, and it was sad to leave them. Tonight we rang in the wet season with a giant storm, complete with flooding and hail. Our building was becoming swamped with rainwater but with some teamwork, we managed to turn back the tide and make everything relatively dry.

Its crazy to think that we’ll be leaving soon and I thank God for the ability to come down here, experience this adventure and do His work.

-Dustin

I can not believe it is Thursday already. Where has the time gone ? We are becoming closer and closer with the kids, it will be hard to leave them.

So yesterday was quite the adventure. We took a nice LONG walk through Hinche. It was a necessary experience. Driving through you did not get to see as much. But walking on feet like they do here really showed you the devestation and poverty here. Every time we passed children on the streets they would get so excited to see us or just kind of stare. The hardest part for me during the walk was visiting the main hospital in Hinche. Which happens to be right on the “runway” for the Hinche airport. The runway consisted of dirt, rocks, goats, and people. There must be a lot of running when a plane is coming in. :) But anyways the hospital was big but very run down. There were people waiting out front to be served and there were old equiptment just laying around the building. They had a special building for TB and HIV and AIDS. Since HIV/AIDS is something I want to focus on it was hard for me to see the seperation. Jean Louis told me that they do not really know how many people are HIV  positive because it is so secret. A lot of people will not even get tested. I have been trying to get certified to test for HIV. When I come back next year my goal is to have that done and have the equiptment to do the swab tests on all of the children here. I asked about the kids and there are a few who are HIV positive but I have not been able to find out if they have all been tested.

Late afternoon yesterday the group from Seton Hall University arrived. There are 16 of them. They are the catholic campus ministry on their campus so a priest came along with them. It has been a little different with them here but the more the merrier ! The kids need and want the attention.

Yesterday I sat with one of the children named Wesly for about an hour and he helped me with my Creole and I helped him with his english. He wrote it all in my journal. :) Sooooo cute

ahhh shutting the generator off haha ! got to go xoxoxo

Christielee

Bonjour, This is the first time this week I have been able to get on the blog because usually the kids are using tthe computers. All the kids are in school so we are able to spend more time in the computer lab right now. Although there are about 20 computers in the lab only 4 work- and they don’t work that well. The connection is VERY slow. I am having an amazing time and loving getting to know the kids. They are so full of love and joy, despite their circumstances… which for me have been a little jarring at points…. especially the ride through Port au Prince when we arrived. There is so much destruction and so many people are still living in tent cities or rubble. It is also so crowded there. The kids are very good teachers and already have me speaking more creyole than I thought I would be able to. They also really love music and are very good at picking it up quickly. We have been giving recorder lessons and they are picking it up quickly. We also have brought some other instruments for them to play around with. After one of the lessons they broke out instruments that they already had… a homemade drum set… made out of aluminum cans, a ukelae, and bongo drums. The concert they gave us was amazing traditional Haitian music. They also LOVE to listen to our iPods and their favorite is Justin Bieber…. in fact they know him better than Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson… which is crazy to me. Apparently Bieber fever has reached them.   We toured the city of Hinche yesterday and got to see the market, the UN compound, the hospital, the High School, and the airport.  There were goats grazing on the runway.  The food is different and the best thing we have had so far is Pumpkin soup…. it is a special dish for them and we have been lucky enough to have it twice!  It is delicious and I want the recipe!

Can’t wait to share more later! Love you all! xoxoxoxo, Sara

Alo,

 I learned today that smiles, laughter and music are three universal forms of communication and a way we can really relate to the children. I already love them all. They are the hardest workers and the most eager to learn people I have ever met. We got to give them all the donated recorders today and do a music lesson. WOW. They caught on quick. (Mom they played hot cross buns and dont worry I video taped it for you) There was a lot of smiles and a lot of laughter through out this session. After wards they wanted to perform for us so some of the kids who had a little band played and man were they amazing. I could have listened to them all day.

Like I said before they are all so eager to learn. The are constantly teaching us Creole or trying to better their english. It impresses me how quickly they pick up words and phrases. A lot of them are studying math, english, social sciences all day. They told us they get up at 4 am to study. Lots of self motivation. Some of them want to be doctors.

Now the little ones. They have the biggest hearts ever. I want to bring them all home but do not worry I won’t. All they want is to be loved and I am so excited to be a part of that. I broke out the starbursts today. BIG HIT! They loved them.

Most of our time thus far has been with the boys. I am hoping tomorrow to be able to put time aside for the girls. It is harder because their space is smaller and they have to be seperate for the most part from the boys.

The food. Tonight we had pumpkin soup. It was great, it is a very special meal they only serve to special guests and eat on January 1st. (Their independence day) It pretty much consisted of pumpkin, cabbage, carrots, potatos, noodels and some goat. Yes Goat. For lunch we had rice and beans and legumes.

Tomorrow is flag day so the children are off from school again. We are getting to go into the market! Hopefully we will find some cool things to bring home to you all.

Anyways I should probably go but I have soooo much more to tell you all! Dont worry we are all taking a million pictures and videos.

Xoxo

Christielee

ps: These children are teaching me more about life than you can imagine <3

Hello,

Wow there is so much to tell everyone. Mom and Dad I love and miss you so much already but I am having a BLAST!!!! We all are. I am keeping a journal of everything so we can go over everything when I get home Mom and Dad I will email you any chance I get. The ids get to use the computers now so I wont be on here long. Gotta Go!!!

Love ya

xoxoxo

Lori

Ok so I wrote a nice long post for everyone and then the power went out so I lost it. I do not want to take the computer up too long because the kids get to use them right now. So tomorrow I will try and re-write what I was saying. Just know we got here safe and quickly.

Xoxo

Christielee

     So after a several hours of flying and driving we finally made it to Hinche. The most interesting part was definitely the car ride from Port au Prince to Hinche. The ride took us through downtown where we saw so many people thriving on the streets selling things that they have made or practicing their craft right on the main road. Our car ride took a couple of hours, with a wild driver that apparently was just driving in the fashion of Haiti (aggressive, fast and chaotic). We were happily received at the orphanage where we took a short tour then shared a meal cooked just for us called Boullion. Its looking like it is going to be an exciting week! 

-Dustin

BONSWA !  (good evening in Creole)

Tonight was the groups start to our amazing week together. We all gathered with our families at my house for a nice farewell dinner. Father came over and did a blessing on us and our trip and then chowed down with us. Mrs.Thomas (Dustin’s Mom) was nice enough to bring us awesome Caribbean food. Jamaican Jerk Chicken, rice and beans, cabbage, fried plantains (spell check) followed by carrot cake (shout out to Maddie Sumser) and rainbow cake. We got to talk about all the last minute things we needed to get and talking about all the logistics of getting everything there we need to. Turns out I am carrying a violin on the plane, Lori is carrying bells and Dustin is carrying a drum… . pretty stoked everyone is going to think we are in a band. 

I am pretty sure I had a minor anxiety attack earlier in the day about everything but the nerves have calmed now and I can not wait for 5:45 am. The plane takes off from Norfolk at 7:25 am we land in Miami at 9:50 and then leave Miami at noon and arrive in Haiti at 1pm (2pm our time because they are an hour behind us). This took mom a few tries to explain to me because I did not understand why the plane ride was only an hour there but 3 hours on the way back. But now I get it  … .  haha.

The orphanage we are working at has around 250 children and only started housing girls two years ago. They now have 75 girls! I am really excited about this and today I bought 25 things of nail polish and 10 jump ropes for them. Below is the link to the orphanage.

http://www.mfofoundation.org/home/ 

If you click on the link “The Orphanage” on the left hand side and then choose photo tour you will be able to see an overview of the facilities. We will be living in the administrative building towards the center.

But anyways I am really excited for our 3 hour ride in the back of a pick up truck (yes all 7 of us and all of our bags in the back of one truck) to the facilities and I am even more excited to meet all of the children!!!

Keep all of us in your prayers through our travel tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to update everyone sometime tomorrow night.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Christielee <3