Friday, June 16, 2017

Nokken Team # 3 Day 4 -Friday

Today we woke extra early – 5:45 – to attend a Haitian prayer service.  The church was huge, and the speaker was fantastic.  He preached and praised, alternating between Creole and English.  The whole time, Haitians prayed and praised along, pacing the aisles and raising their hands and voices in answer. One older woman had hugs for all of us, making us feel so welcome.  Afterwards, we were able to walk back to the guesthouse.  It was so cool to walk the streets as Haitians were heading to work and school.

We scored the white tap-tap today, which meant we could sit on benches along the wall rather than in comfortable coach seats.  That was actually awesome, because we got to face each other and talk (and practice our “surfing” in the middle.)  Armed with bubbles, dry-erase boards, and a bible story craft, we headed to a home for special needs children. They greeted us with excited smiles and LOVED the bubbles. The dry-erase boards and markers were a hit as well. Some of us got marker manicures, and the CUTEST little girl brushed Walter’s hair with her toothbrush J.  Walter read a bible story while Valorie gave an animated Creole translation, and then the kids created a colorful craft. Some boys happily played soccer – really inspiring to see so much joy at this special home. 

Afterward, we were off to the school for the deaf.  It’s a boarding school with a good-sized enrollment.  We brought the markers & boards as well as traditional paper & markers, which were a big help in communicating.  A new basketball also drew a crowd – but the Haitian sun got the best of our crew pretty quickly.  The kids loved writing their names and our names, showing off stunts and finally arm wrestling against our young men. And our youngest team member had a good-sized fan club – he handled that like a champ.

Tonight’s dinner was at Fleri Bakery & Restaurant in Grace Village (which we visited yesterday), where we enjoyed Haitian-inspired appetizers and the world’s greatest pizza and a mean game of Jumbo Jenga & bags.

After team time and word-of-the-day, Jean, the Healing Haiti Director, gave salsa lessons.  Our team won.  And we know salsa isn’t supposed to be a competition – but still.