Haiti day 11...

Finally finishing up my Haiti trip!
A few random things I found that struck my funny bone:
{These are real names of places}
*The Jehovah Jirah Bar
*Baby Jesus Complex ~which looked like a hardware store
*St. Michael's Night club
*Holy Autoparts

We sang this song every morning, it was a great reminder each day as to what we were there for.  In fact, it's a great reminder for me every day!

Packed up and ready to go.

 We went up and enjoyed one last time on the rooftop.

The mountain below is the one we went up on our sightseeing day.

Soaking up a few last rays of sunshine!

We saw lots of U.N. vehicles

Oh my word.  So, we got ready to board the plane and we hear this loud sobbing noise, we looked and there was a very large man crying and rolling around on the ground, we all thought maybe he had special needs, but it turned out, he was  incredibly drunk.  He had lost his ticket and was very belligerent.  He was loud, stumbling around and spitting on the floor.  He made a bee line right to where we were and I, not wanting to get spit upon, let him go ahead of me, and therefore got behind the rest of the team.  Someone found his ticket and they gave it to him!  I was secretly hoping they wouldn't, I didn't want this guy on my plane!  Well, for some reason, they let him thorough, and he was right in front of me, when we had to go upstairs, he choose the escalator, so I took the stairs.  He took 2 steps up and fell over, but since it was an escalator, he didn't fall down, but he was like a big blob rolling and tumbling in place.  I couldn't look away, it was awful.  The sides of the escalator were glass so I could see every last ugly bit of it!  They finally stopped the escalator, and got him up the stairs, and all that he was complaining about was his finger!  If he was not drunk, he could have been hurt so bad, but he kinda rolled with it, and came out relatively unscathed.  He was swearing up a blue steak, and we realized, swear words must be somewhat universal!  I was a little nervous as I had an empty seat next to me on the plane, but found out that they didn't let him on!  YAY!  I have this problem of laughing when people fall, and this was no exception, I will have this memory etched in my mind for a long time.

We flew into Newark N.J. and I got to see {from a distance} the Statue of Liberty.  Ryan said "Good, now we don't have to go there!" Umm no. That doesn't count!  We had to spend the night in Newark and fly out the next morning, we were so tempted to skip sleeping and head to New York City all night!  But, we were pretty exhausted, so we ordered pizza, took a HOT shower and hit the hay!

New York City skyline...

It was a great trip and I am so thankful that I was able to go, but I was very excited to see my family again.   They were all there {except Dylan who was in school}to greet me at the airport.

Haiti day 10...

This is Pastor Serimi, we went to his church on our 2nd Sunday in Haiti.  There was a guest preacher and he spoke English!  Bonus!

 My kids asked if I was on my knees in this picture, nope, he is just that big!  He had the cutest laugh and he would pump his fists when singing, reminded me of a big ol' teddy bear!

 There was rerod sticking up on many buildings including Pastor Serimi's church.  They said that they leave it when they run out of money and finish it later when they have the money.  Somehow I don't think this would fly here!

 This little guy was walking around bawling, until he got some chips, that made him a tad bit better!

 This KILLED me, that precious woman is sweeping the dirt!  Ugggh, why do people have to live like this?so.sad.lifes.not.fair...

 Our amazing driver Bob showed his mad parking skills when he eeked into this tight spot at Pastor Jorel's house!  Even he was amazed!

 The lovely little Grace...So cute!

 And the dapper Pastor Jorel!

 Inside Pastor Jorel's house he has boxes of books that his wife sells at the market.

 Praying over several of the guys and their wives.

 Love this little guy Estelle.  Such a sweetie and adorable too.

 Dinner at Pastors house was very good, we were allowed to eat everything this time, not just the beans & rice.  Beans & rice dinner #8!

Estelle came to me with a 3D puzzle, I HATE puzzles, but patiently tried to put the dumb thing together, {look at that sweet face!} finally Sylvia came over and figured it out for me!  Thanks Sylv!

 One of the girls gave Wilkenson a hymnal, and of course lots of singing ensued!

Once home, Jessica was helping Katool to learn some English grammar.  I noticed that he always carried a children's book in English with him and would read it any time he could.
Our last full day in Haiti was once again a great one.  I didn't get pictures so I almost forgot about all the people that would hear we were in town and stop by the house.  They usually had some sort of ailment that required attention so we would offer them a sandwich and glass of water and Bev would check them out.  We would always scurry around and make up a goody bag of things for them to take home and pray with them.  It was great when we could help in some small way, and they always were so thankful and sweet.  Just another memory I want to jot down from our trip.

Haiti day 9...

This was our sight seeing day. 

 We went up the mountain in a direction we had never gone before, we were excited to see another area of Haiti.

 Our first stop was this cute little touristy artisans market, and a beautiful look out area.

 Everyone is pointing to the huge mass grave site that was made after the earthquake, it is right next to a large stadium and was much bigger.  So.sad.

 You can see it below right in the middle of the picture there is a large area that is a little bit blueish, the stadium is on the right.

 the mountains on the left side of the picture beyond the water is where we were all of our big driving days.

We loaded up on the truck and the guys were still trying to sell us stuff!

 Funny story about that walking stick that the beautiful Masalee is holding...I bought 3 of these pod shaker thingys  {she has one in her other hand,} and was waiting for my change back when the guy gives me this stick instead.  Well, since I was only waiting for less than $2, I thought it was a good enough deal so I took it.  However, it occurred to me AFTER I bought it, that it was not going to fit in my carry on on the way home, and quite possibly not in any luggage we were bringing back! Oops!  I was greatly relieved to find that a few others fell for the stick change thing and we were in the same situation!  We got a laugh out of it and they did fit into our bag on the way home.

 We went up to the Baptist mission and ate lunch and shopped around there a bit too.

The scenery up there was amazing. You could see where they terrace farm on the mountainside.

 I found it funny that every time we ate with the Haitians they had chicken,{along with the beans and rice,} and guess what they ordered when we took them out to lunch?  Chicken!  They must really love it.

 Our group at the famous Hotel Montana.  We were there on the anniversary of the earthquake and there were lots of people there having a special memorial service.

 On the way home we saw this tree on fire.

We stopped at a market to buy food for the dinner we were hosting for the guys who helped us all week.  By the time we got home, it was time for them to arrive, and we hadn't one thing ready!  Here I am peeling carrots for the soup as the people are arriving!  We pulled it all off just fine and had a great night fellowshipping, and of course singing with everyone.