(in no particular order)
– taking the kids from Anne’s to the beach— Lucie (my super cool squad leader), my teammate and good friend Katie, and I took 4 special needs children from Anne’s Children’s Home to the beach. It was some of the most fun i had all month. Lucie went in fully clothed with two of the kiddos, i sat on the shore with one kid with our bottom halves in the water and Katie sat up above the shore with one child who was in a stroller. Lucie said that at one moment, for a split second, she just saw us all as moms having a play date with our kids and forgot we were on the World Race in a foreign country. what a time to be alive.
– halloween night-watch and worship— contrary to what most people do on Halloween, eating candy and going out with friends and dressing up as someone or something else, the Ladies of Haiti were worshipping our heads off. We stayed up all night worshipping. yes, all night. we took turns praying in 45 minute shifts throughout the night, but a few of us decided to just stay up the whole night. In Haiti, Halloween is a real holiday where they invite in evil spirits and have different voodoo traditions, so we decided to counteract that by inviting in the Holy Spirit. we also made pancakes at 2:30 am.
– tacky prom— Hephzibah, one of the other all-girls teams on the race, threw a tacky prom for the all-girls teams (there’s 3 of us). we dressed weird and danced even weirder. we were sweaty and sparkling and jazzed and living life to its FULLEST. it was fun and Lillabea insisted on a kiss to the floor to mark the night. that’s when you know it was a good one.
– debrief the week— my team was supposed to do women’s group at the church we went to every Monday for 3 weeks and it got cancelled every. time. one night that it was cancelled, our team time was debrief the week so we decided to plan a big thing for the girls. we had a game shows that Lillabea and i hosted. “i’m big momma and i’m lil momma and momma’s hosting a game show tonight!!!!”
– becoming the best of friends with Leemani— y’all. this little boy was the sweetest to me. to everyone else he wasn’t that nice and was borderline a little punk but he LOVED me. the love affair started when i let him crawl on my shoulders at the beach and he was splashing water at another kid and the other splashed water at us. but sweet Leemani shielded my eyes from the torturous salt water and wiped it away when salt did get in. He would also wait for me every time we came out of the gates of our house, so eagerly excited to hold my hand as long as the translators let him follow us. He knew almost no English, so he would try to teach me Creole and it was a sweet relationship. i loved it so much.
– Jopatnik— you are probably wondering what the heck this is BUT it’s not a what but a who. the CUTEST little boy who i got to hold all VBS one Saturday. he was cute and tiny and timid and just latched onto me the whole entire time. next Saturday rolled around and he remembered me and i said his name, he gave me the biggest smile and ran into my arms. ahhh i adore him. and once again he just latched onto me the whole time and he loves the banana song.
– Kaicool— i don’t know how to spell his name, but it’s pronounced k-cool. anything he does is funny. i wish you could all see him and the way he was posing outside the gates at 6:30 one morning.
– skits (stage directing the pigs)— if there is one thing that semper fortis, my team, got really good at this month was making up skits from Bible studies at a moment’s notice. anywhere from the prodigal son to David and Goliath, hit us up for some child-friendly, Biblical skits!
– a new sister in Christ!!!!!— i mentioned it a little bit in my last blog post, but one day during evangelism we went to this woman’s house to tell her about Jesus. this woman was not a believer but let us talk for 30 minutes. she eventually went in and got her daughter to come be in on the conversation as well. the mother got tired of the conversation and left to go wash herself of this interaction… yikes. but the daughter stayed. she stayed for another 30 minutes and listened, to Bible verse after Bible verse, some of our personal testimonies, and answered questions we asked and asked her own. after a long time, she proclaimed with her mouth Jesus Christ as Lord (Romans 10:9-10. we literally heard her say with her own mouth that Jesus Christ was her Lord. we heard her claim her forever. i’ll never forget that.
– becoming friends with some girls our age and hanging out with them— another time during evangelism, we went up to this group of women and we started talking to them about Jesus, and they asked pressing questions, about materialism and eternity and external appearance other big, important things. i was very moved by their boldness in asking these questions but we ended up making friends with these girls! we stayed and talked a lot longer than we should’ve, they did our hair and we sat and laughed. we then got to hang out with them a few days later where they came over and we shared about our lives and ate cookies and drank juice. it was sweet.
– the 6 hour hike with spring at the top— well, one day we thought we were going to evangelism, the normal 3 mile hike up the mountain. but nope. Alex and Shamah, two of our translators took us on a 6-hour, insanely difficult and beautiful hike to this natural spring at the top. it was so hard and borderline miserable on the way to the top because it felt like it was never going to end, but it ended up being one of my favorite moments of Haiti. thank you, Alex and Shamah for torturing us on this hike, for not believing in us and letting us prove you wrong.
– getting picked up by gary on the way back from Stopover— we decided to get a tap-tap (pretty much an open truck bed with a canopy over it and benched built in on the insides which is where you sit, and you tap the roof when you want them to stop) there, got our chocolate bars and pringles and gatorade, and decided to get one back. we got off the tap-tap, walked about 100 feet and ran into our ministry host, GARY! Gary was driving a 5-seat car and we stuffed 9 girls in it. Gary doesn’t really know English, so we just said “Saq pase?” (what’s up) and “Nap boule” (it’s lit) back and forth to each other. it was hilarious and i feel like my relationship with Gary grew significantly.
– translators— we had the best translators in the game. that is all.
– Manuel the Gardener— while Manuel and I were not very close, i thought he needed to make the cut. He did a great drop picking up the fallen leaves and watering the plants, all with the warmest smile on his face. he always spoke to us in Creole like we knew what he was saying and we just nodded and said ok. Same went for when we spoke English to him and he had not a clue of what was coming out of our mouths. Manuel, keep on tending to those bunnies and watering the rocks. sorry for taking your machete to cut the ice that one time.
– Haitian church performance— if you haven’t heard yet, my life peak might have been reached. singing in a Haitian church choir. we practiced for 3 weeks for this one, single moment. Ben always pushed back our performance to the next week because he settles for nothing less than perfection (exhibited by the sharp looks he gave to Shamah on drums when he played too fast or too slow), but we finally made the cut! we sang our hearts out and the congregation loved it! i bet if they chanted “encore!” in Creole, they would’ve done that for us.
– beach ministry— although there were naked kids climbing all over me for hours, i LOVED it. the little nuggets were always so excited to rip off their clothes and run into the water hand-in-hand with us. many great friendships were born during beach ministry and i’m forever thankful for that.
– the most beautiful beaches i’ve ever seen— the beach we lived closest to was beautiful, mountains surrounding it and the bluest water, and the sunsets on both! but we went to this one beach for an adventure day that was gorgeous. once again, mountains all around, but even clearer water and a big ole rainbow for most of the day. it was insanely beautiful and one of those mental pictures i’ll never forget type of thing. also, Dasia got stranded on a sea urchin infested rock. while it was painful for her, it was hilarious for us, especially now that she’s not in pain anymore.
– Guvens and i teaching each other our languages— Guvens was one of our host’s sons and he was really awesome, especially when we was being sweet to us. One day he came over after school and showed me the English he had learned that day. we spent hours teaching each other English and Creole through drawings. a tender moment.
– freaking Abigail— talk about a firecracker. any words i attempt to string together will not do this little girl any justice, so i will leave it up to your imagination. she’s crazy but the most fun, wild, insane little nugget. i think about her almost daily and miss her all the same.
– washing clothes with ladies on beach // Woman!!!!!!— one day we helped woman on the beach wash their clothes. their were very impressed with how good i was at it (you hear that, mom?), they told the women surrounding us and this one guy took a video of me doing it. it was the most enjoyable and Cat and I somehow had a very broken, charades-driven conversation with one woman we helped, shocking but super cool. Woman was like the ring leader of these women. yes, Woman was her name (or at least that’s what she told us). she was so funny and loved to get any help she could from us. she was missing a front tooth but her smile was the happiest. what a freaking woman was woman. everyone looked up to her and appreciated her, very understandably after we hung out with her.
– Elezion dancing— she’s one of the grandmoun, the old people, that the ministry we were with looked after. she was so funny and LOVED to dance. she had this little tune she sang with her mouth usually, but one time we caught her bumping to the Weeknd on the radio. She was so cute and loved having us around to dance with her and give her attention.
– stars the first night— sand on a blanket. another mental picture. insanity.
– Shamah’s bus rides— Shamah’s bus rides were always fun, somewhere we could debrief the telling of Jesus we just did, taking about challenges and celebrations as we all came back together. one time we were all in a great mood, had a great day of evangelizing and we were all singing. our choir director/translator, Ben, was with us so we broke out into our choir song and Shamah came in with the bus horn, honking along to the tune as we drove through the middle of town. it was hilarious and unifying and one of the best moments.
– being clung onto by children at every VBS and bible club— very broad, but oh so sweet. ever want to feel loved, go to bible club or VBS in Montrouis, Haiti. you’ll feel the love almost instantly.
