Everyone keeps asking so yes we got the missing bags!!

Sorry I forgot to post about this earlier! We did get the two missing boxes  two days later  !

Vision trip successful!

From Elaine, one of our leaders from Open Hearts Open Homes. This is her recap of the trip and our plan:

We had a trip where God was obviously present.  We enjoyed Three Angels and the people that make up 3 Angels immensely!  It is truly God's work in Haiti.  I am thrilled that we will be partnering with them.  I believe that all the team benefited from seeing the work there as Eric (the director) said that all their efforts are really orphan care - farming for food to feed the orphans, making jewelry to prevent orphans, educating children to break the cycle of poverty and give them Jesus which may prevent someone from giving up their child to adoption later, supporting families so that they can raise their kids. 

Home !

We are home!! 

No problems coming back except for team leader had his pliers seized and this blogger got a little sick. 

Except for freezing temps we are glad to be back. 

He's got the whole world in his hands....

The P theme of the trip

We noticed a theme of 'p' words this trip.

Day 1: planes and problems

Day 2: painting

Day 3: planting

Day 4: passing ( passing out food, passing the towns in the car) and praying 

Day 5: playing and peace (relaxing )

Day 6: preparing (for home ) and planes

And of course Patience!! I see my name around Haiti! 

- from patience , team photographer / blogger/ communications 

Day5: playing with kids

Today we finally got to play with the kids in the orphanage!! (To not upset the matched adoptive parents I can't post any pics of kids online especially Facebook. If you want to see some pics I can email to you, let me know)

We spent alot of time relaxing today. We also helped put some food away for the school lunch program. We finished painting the roof. And we made a video (raw footage) of a tour of the three angels compound. I even learned a little creole from a haitian man who teaches English to high school students and tutors our house manager in creole. We learned that orphanage = orfalina. And orphan = orfen but you don't pronounce the n. So orfe. 

We finished buying jewelry. Here is one team member modeling  bijou jewelry :)

This is the three angels intern we worked with.

We set up the tents and tunnels for the kids and tried to get them to go inside. They were soon shy!! Probably confused since we don't speak creole and a little scared since we're all white foreigners ! We had fun tho! I was happy to get a little smile from one little girl who was expressionless and seemed nonresponsive but may have just been super shy. 

We also taught the babies bowling ! ( the kids are about 1 year old to 2 1/2 years old). I don't know if they got it or not! 

We had a lot of fun! 

Now we have to pack up , debrief, and get ready for freezing weather tomorrow when we get home!

Link to video of pismo the goat !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uenwq2HvrI&feature=em-upload_owner#action=share

Richard C. Mears, III M.O.L. – Director - Haiti

(P) US: 215-253-8890

(P) Haiti: 011-509-3150-8700

www.afhaiti.info

www.ambassadorsfootball.org

Day 4 Travel and visiting

Today we went to Archaie - the area where one team member has been involved and where our church raised money to build their school . 

 

We met the pastor and toured the half built church and the Christian school. 

 

The children swarmed around us asking us to take their picture ! It was a mob scene ! 

 

One little girl named Juliette kept following us around shyly smiling at us and grabbing our arms. 

 

We had snack and lunch with the pastor across the street at his house. we also met with Alix the Three Angels school director, the Archaie school director, the school church committee and pastor, and discussed ways to improve their school. Since the Three Angels school is so successful, the director, Alix, will help Wilson the director at Archaie work on improving their school. 

 

We saw the shore which is lined with debris and pigs and very skinny sheep/ goats? 

 

We had a very long drive back due to traffic and then went to  Child Hope, which is an agency that has a orphanage, school, feeding program for poor neighboring kids, and a transition program that teaches job and life skills to teenagers like making jewelry, printing t shirts, weaving, sewing, pottery, etc.

 

We got to help feed the kids in the feeding program. 

 

One little girl was extremely malnourished and was hand fed a bowl and rice mixture. I saw her eat another plateful and was glad for that. 

 

The little girl and her brother walked some of the way with us outside as we made our way over to the Apparent Project which helps people make crafts jewelry etc and sell them to Americans and here too! 

 

They had an amazing store and we wished we brought some money! 

We had a very bumpy eventful ride home having to keep turning around and finding another street due to road construction and traffic ! It's crazy scary driving here!

 

We finally made it home to the guesthouse and had dinner and got to relax - we had breadfruit sausage and cornbread

 

 

Below is a picture of a book I bought about an orphan's experience in Haiti. I can't wait to share it with some of you when I get home ! 

 

Day 3 Planting Trees

Today we planted trees!

Well first we viewed the school here to watch their morning ceremonies . They sang in creole and English  , recited psalm 23 in creole and raised the Haitian flag. 

I took some videos but I don't think I can upload to this blog. 

Then we went to the three angels nursery  where they are growing many fruit trees and vegetables and plan to sell them to make money for the orphanage and other programs plus sell the fruits here in Haiti since they would be the only people with these fruits. 

Here are pictures of some of the plants . I can't remember which is which an I'm only going to upload a few. 

This is Eric the director of three angels explaining the process of the nursery . He used to run a successful nursery in California . These are dragon fruit plants

This is our team leader with breadfruit plants. Breadfruit is an amazing (non native) fruit that tastes like potato and can be made into flour and other things. 

We got to try fresh fig!

This is merenga - we ate this and it tastes like salad greens

Bananas 

Papaya

This carrot isn't ready to be harvested yet!

These are the merenga seeds we planted!

We packed the seeds in little pots and bags with dirt

We filled about 14 trays and planted about 700 trees!!

Also we met one team members friend Richard who works for ambassadors football Haiti which teaches Haitian kids how to play soccer and raise goats. They showed us a video of the program and are trying to get people to 'give a kid a kid'! Check out their website www.afhaiti. Info - I think the video about pismo the surfing goat is on there !

We also had a chocolate treat for dessert !!