Hello From Haiti

Hello!

First of all, it wasw great to hear how fun your Saturday was. The walk sounds so cool and the Railway Museum sounds neat, too! Tim, I'm so proud of your football game; I am sorry I missed it but glad that Aunt Linda and Uncle Tom could see you. Julia, it sounds like you did very well on the walk. Mike, I miss you very much! Nick...please post and say hi. How was your Panera dinner Saturday night?>?

On to our adventures., WOW! Kait and I don't know where to begin. We went to an ?English church on Sunday that the Livesay family attends. We had an hour long of real good worship and the serman was a Creole man speaking. All in English,. Then we got a tour of the grou;nds. They run an American school on their property. Very nice and impressive. We spent the afternoon at the orphanage holding babies. That is what I pictured myself doing and I've done a lot it. Kait has made a lot of new friends, All the kids love her so much. Jonathan gives her breaks so she can hold and spend time with other kids.

Monday we did projects in the morning, I cleaned/scrubbed the bathroom upstairs from top to bottom. Some other ladies cleaned the employee hallway and back room. /wow! Honestly, it didn't even look clean when we were done. Kait spent time at the school on the grounds. They put her in a first grade class. They were 9 years old. The classroom were very small each with aproximately 30 students. It was a small building separated by partitions. The girls in the class loved having kait in there.

I have made a new friend (don't worry Mike....he's only 2 and already adopted). His name is Alixson and he is so precious. He won't let me put him down (much like kait was as a bby) and just holds onto me and lays his head on my right shoulder. The first day I was up there, I was holding him and he started singing "eieio." So I sang The Farmer in the Dell to him and he knew all the right places to insert the words. Alixson cries whenever I leave, He just clings on to me. Michelle (the trip leader) said that his parents were here last week and he had a hard time when they left,. I asked her if I look like his mom,...she said aside from the fact that she has long hair, yes, there are similarities,

Kait hasn't felt well today. Stomach issues with waves that come and go,. She has not eaten much. Please say a prayer that she feels better tomorrow. She was happy to see her friend, the nanny Lourdes-mula (Lood-mia). She was so happy to see Kait. They have spent time talking in French to each other and she helps Kait learn Creole. Kait is so good at communicating to the people. She knows enough and it helps., She can remember all the kids names, too!

This morning we went to Mother Theresa Hospital and Orphanage. The first floor had three rooms lined with cribs (small) with sick babies. These babies are not orphans. Just sick. One woman on the trip said it was like walking into a World Vision commercial. We could hold any of the babies. Some were extremely skinny. We were there for a short time and then a bell rang,. Visiting hours were over for the parents. The parents are not allowed to stay with their children and only allowed to visit one time a week. When they are there, they sit on the concrete floor and hold their children. The babies cried when they had to leave. So sad, but a good sign that they are so attached to their parents. I held many sick babies there. Upstairs are the sick orphans. We were told many have aids or are handicapped. The ones upstairs were mostly the handicapped children. I sat with a boy around 7 who was crippled (legs and arms) and I was told blind, too. I held his hand and imitated his noises and he began to smile. Pretty soon he grabbed my hand and banged his chest with it and made louder noises (like Nando). I was so happy when he laughed. When it was time for me to leave, I could see him reaching out to find my hand again,. I ended our time there holding a baby boy who was a year old but the size of a 4 mo old. He fell asleep in my arms and then I was able to feed him his cereal before we had to leave. Kait made friends with a boy around 4 that cried when she had to leave. He was dressed in pink shorts and t-shirt. He cried when Kait had to leave to load the Tap-tap. Oh yeah, we travel by tap-tap.....a large one with cushioned seats. Sometimes if the hill is too steep, some people have to get off and walk up the hill. Today, we had 22 people in the back. Some standing and some on laps. Good thing no one got sick.

We spent the afternoon in the baby room. Alixson saw me walk in and cried for me immediately. Kait held many babies. Jonathon isn't as posessive of her this time. He is so happy and all the mission ladies think he's adorable. Colleen....if you are reading this, I can't wait for you to meet your son. He is precious. Even cuter than his pictures.

Tomorrow is an orphanage day. We are hoping to do some painting in the morning. The men folk in this group have been working on the medical clinic.

We love you all and thanks for your prayers. We can feel them. Sorry for the typos....I'm not used to this laptop,.

Love,
Karen/'Mom