Haiti Mission Trip, Day 3

Monday morning started Vacation Bible School at the church in Port au Prince!

Our lesson on Monday was focused on FAITH. I had trouble planning a lesson and activities for such a large group of kids and the fact that few of them get to go to school. In Haiti, if the family can't afford the child's education, they don't get an education. :( It was easy to tell which ones did go to school....the could speak a bit of English and they seemed to go with the flow of the morning better than those who didn't go to school.

I had the 6-11 year old age group, which turned out to be the largest group each day! On Monday, we had around 150 kids! I had around 55-60 in my group that day.

The ones who did know English loved to practice it! There were a couple of boys who each day would say "Good morning Katie! How are you?" in their cute little accents. :)

Jared planned the recreation each day for the kids. He taught them Rock, Paper, Scissors on Monday. :)

The older girls always enjoyed jumping rope.

Music was their FAVORITE part!

This is Caleb. He was my interpreter for Tue-Fri. He was 13 yrs old and going to 8th grade. He was SO smart and sweet! 


He also really kept the kids in line during class. One thing I was impressed with was the children's ability to memorize the Bible Verses. Apparently they do a lot of repetition in the schools because Caleb had them repeat probably 10 times, then most of them could recite it back!

I wanted to bring him back home with us. :)

The 0-5 yr olds during recreation.

The church there is one big room, so it was a bit difficult to coordinate Bible study time, music, recreation, snack, and craft, but we learned a lot on Monday! The rest of the week it went a little more smoothly.

Teaching on Monday:

We were all worn out by noon! Pastor Accilien's wife prepared another great lunch for us, then we went back to the guest house to rest and prep for Tuesday!

One good thing was we went to bed early each night. I don't think we stayed up past 9:30 any of the nights. One night we went to bed at 8:15! ;)

Haiti Mission Trip, Day 2

We were up pretty early each day. Breakfast was served at 7, so we got on up and dressed for the day. Breakfast was....interesting each day. One day we had hot dogs and there was some kind of scrambled eggs each day, with different things in them (onions, tomatoes, ham, etc.).

It would have been fine, but we saw the hot dogs and eggs for sale on the street each day (no refrigeration). ;)

Pastor Accilien picked us up and took us to his church for worship service. It was a bumpy ride through the city. I can't even accurately describe what the roads and traffic were like! There were some paved roads and some were just rock roads. If they want to pass, they just beep the horn and go for it. I tried not to look out the front of the truck. Safer that way!

We were greeted with a sign they made for us!

Front of the church.

Pastor Accilien

Sunday School. On the right, the ladies were up front and men in the back. On the left, the kids were up front and youth in the back.

They called each of us up to greet the congregation. Wasn't planning on that!

Church choir

View from the back of the church

There were 2 babies dedicated that day. Look at this sweet face!

Pastor praying for the babies and their families

After church, we walked around the corner and up the hill to the Pastor's house. His wife had cooked a great meal for us!

Banana and coconut trees in their yard:

Coconut:

 Pastor's wife:

Yummy Lunch: Haitian coleslaw, rice, tomato, pasta dish, fried plantains, potato casserole, and fried goat. 

After lunch, we went back to the church to start decorating for VBS! There were several kids around 'helping' us decorate. These were 2 of the girls.

After decorating, we sat outside and visited. Evening services began at 5:30.

Children's choir:

Children's class before evening services:

We got back to the guest house, ate supper, showered and went right to sleep! Monday started VBS!

Haiti Mission Trip, Day 1

Here goes the mission trip wrap up! I'm going to pace myself and do a day at a time.

Saturday, we got up at 3:45 to head to the airport! We flew out of Jacksonville at 6:10 am, heading to Miami! We flew on a propeller plane to Miami. It was loud and a tight fit, so getting on the plane from Miami to Haiti in FIRST CLASS was nice! We lucked out and got the tickets for the same price as coach class!

Ready for take-off!

They served us lunch on the flight, which left at 10:45. It was GOOD!

First view of Port-au-prince.

Pastor Accilien and his friend picked us up at the airport. It wasn't quite as chaotic as I was planning on. We made it out to the trucks and to the guest house just fine!

This was the girls' room for the week. Small, but plenty of room.

We had a low key afternoon and and crashed early. :)

Home!

We made it home last night around 10:30! It was a great trip, especially up into the mountains. We went to the middle of no where, then went farther. ;)

I'll be doing some detailed postings later in the week, once I can get my pictures organized.

Ready to get my hands on Arabelle and Bo this morning!!!

Lake Peligre, on our way to the mountain village:

Our group!

VBS Friday morning in the mountains, just past the town of Maissade.

Looking forward to sharing more of our trip!

Haiti Update

We've been having a great time! We had 238 children at VBS today, 90 in my age group (6-11 yrs)!

Jared has been teaching them some American games, like thumb war and paper, rock, scissors.

This is probably my last blog post before we're back on American soil (we leave here Sat. at 1pm). :)

VBS, Day 1

Just a quick update! We started VBS today! By the end of the morning, we had over 150 children there! 

It was a bit chaotic, as we didn't know what to expect. I think we'll be a little better prepared tomorrow.

Riding from the house to the church:

Here are the children at the beginning. Many more trickled in as the morning went on.

Missing the kids, but I got to hug on some little kids today, so I'm making it. There is one little boy, around Bo's age that walks around and will let you hold him for a few minutes. :)

We're Here!

We made it safely to Haiti yesterday! We had a longer day today due to night service at church, so I don't have as much time to blog as I thought I might! I will plan to share all the details after we return home.

First view of Haiti:

 Most of the houses have cinder block walls and tin roofs or tent houses.

Welcome sign at the church this morning. It was a great day of worship here! I'll share more details later.

This was the Children's Choir singing for us tonight. They sang 2 songs. The 2nd one was "This Little Light of Mine".

Will share more later!