Haiti Trip, Part 5

Sunday

Sunday morning, the plan was to get up, as with the past few days, have breakfast at the hotel, and then head to the orphanage between 7 and 8 am. I was feeling better, so we all 4 went up to have breakfast together. However, after eating breakfast, I started feeling a tad bit nauseous like I’d felt Saturday morning. I didn’t want them to have to spend the gas money making a special trip to bring me back to the hotel if I wasn’t truly feeling better, so I made the tough decision to stay back at the hotel another day. Jock then asked me, “Which of the kids do you want to keep with you today?” I hadn’t even thought about it, being that I was not feeling very well, but it’s not like I was sick enough to have not been able to take care of them. I decided to keep Josephine with me that day, as she’s less mobile, and sleeps more, given her age, so I wouldn’t have as much work caring for her as I would for Elijah. We had a wonderful day together. She took about an hour nap in the morning, and then another couple hours in the afternoon, had lunch and bottles, and we had a great day together.


It wasn’t going to be another full day of work at the orphanage though. There was to be a church service in the morning, followed by some work in the afternoon. Jock said it was awesome – I’ll have to have him write more about it, but I’ll try to describe from what I’ve heard, and from a few videos I’ve seen. One of the older teens at the orphanage gave a message for the church service. Jock said he did a great job, and that he should become a pastor. Apparently Pierre had told him this as well. One of the men with our group also shared a ventriloquist ministry with the group that I heard was great. Several small groups of the older children sang songs for everyone. From the videos, there were a couple songs that I didn’t recognize, that I knew were in Creole, but a few they sang in English, like “Lord I Lift Your Name on High”, “Open the Eyes of My Heart”, "All of My Days", and “He’s got the whole world in his hands”. It’s amazing to me how on fire for the Lord these kids are. Like I learned from the girls’ meeting, it’s so wonderful that, as little as they have physically, how much more they have inside themselves – their hope and faith put mine to shame! That’s what they’re living on – God’s strength within them – it’s central to their existence. What a wonderful way to live, and what an inspiration that is to me to continue to grow in my faith. I’m sad that I missed this day at the orphanage.

Jock brought Elijah back with him to the orphanage that evening, and told me all about that day’s events, including the church service that morning. Apparently that afternoon, someone came to the orphanage and was harassing one of our group, and threatened her family who’d traveled with her. This man had apparently done this before on her previous trips to Haiti, but this time it became quite a tense situation. Later that evening, apparently this man arrived at the hotel to continue his harassment. When it was determined that the situation was not going to be easily diffused, the US embassy was contacted, who then contacted Haiti’s police. I think both Haiti’s police and the orphanage security detail were working overtime the next few days to protect her and her children. Their safety was paramount, and they were well protected, by the police/security, and through our prayers for the remainder of the trip.

Also that day at the hotel, I heard talking right outside our room window, and peeked out our curtains to see two UN troops right outside our room. There were patio doors in our room that lead to a little grassy patio, surrounded by tall shrubs, and beyond the shrubs is the sidewalk. The men (in fatigues, with large guns visible) were between our room and the shrubs visiting with each other. The sight startled me at first, with them so close to our room and me being by myself with a baby in our hotel room. However, after thinking about it more, I suppose they did make the hotel grounds more secure (not that I felt insecure there anyway). We did learn later, that there was a UN official (a finance minister?) staying at our hotel, so that’s why there were several guards on the grounds. They were polite when we were out walking to and from the restaurant to our room – a little intimidating with their weapons, but they said, “Bonjou” or “Bonswa” to us, and stepped off the sidewalk for us to pass by them.

That evening at dinner, we were just about to be served our club sandwich and garlic shrimp (very yummy – almost like shrimp scampi) that we’d ordered earlier in the day, when one of the children who was back at the hotel with his adoptive parents was injured. He was being lifted into his chair, when he was struck in the head by a metal fan blade. (The hotel restaurant chairs have very high backs, and in the area where they were sitting, the ceiling fans were very low – obviously dangerously so.) The doctor who had traveled on the trip with us had luckily already returned from visiting her family in the country over the weekend, and was quickly summoned from her room. There was also another group of missionaries (working at another orphanage) staying at our hotel and eating dinner at the same time as we were. A doctor with this group quickly came over to assist. I’m not certain about the details of his injuries, nor do I feel that it’s appropriate for me to share them, but I will share that he was taken to the hospital right away, and a day or two later, was transferred to a Doctors-Without-Borders hospital, where later in the week he had surgery. Last I heard he was doing very well and his injuries appeared not to have affected his brain functioning. He was recovering well from surgery, and was to be released back to the orphanage to complete his recovery. Please continue to pray for this little boy’s healing, and for peace for his birth and adoptive families.