Haiti Trip, Part 7

Tuesday

We got up, got the babies and ourselves ready for another full day, ate breakfast, and rode to the orphanage. For me, it was the first I’d been at the orphanage since noon Saturday. There wasn’t a lot to do that morning, so I helped out a bit with the laundry. The ladies that come to the orphanage to do laundry, are there every day, all day long. They wash all the children’s clothing daily, including the babies’ cloth diapers. The babies’ sheets get changed at least once per day, if not multiple times per day, and I think they change the babies’ clothes multiple times per day too, as could be expected.

For me, it really made me appreciate my washing machine – and there are only three of us in our household. Imagine doing laundry – by hand – for 130 children! When the tub of clothes I was working on was scrubbed clean and all placed into the first of several rinse tubs, the Haitian woman I’d been working with took my hands and rinsed them off, signaling that I was finished. I was glad to have the reprieve, but I hope she was happy to have had me help her out – even though I’m sure she was probably annoyed by my lack of skills.

After a while, I went back to my organizing of the children’s measurements and hand-print cards. The person who was going to be taking charge of printing the fronts of the cards, and addressing and sending them out to the families, asked that we actually write the measurements on the handprint cards, match them up to the envelopes, and write “To the parents of _____” on the envelopes. I had some help on these, and we had most of them finished before lunch, and the remainder shortly after lunch.

Lunch at the orphanage that day was bread (yes, sliced white bread like we can buy in our stores), with a really good stew. If I remember right, it had potatoes and vegetables of some sort, along with some beef (like meatballs). I don’t think there were many meatballs in it though – I didn’t get any in my bowl, so I had a granola-nut bar after lunch to get a little protein in me.

After lunch there wasn’t much else to do, and our trip coordinator had said that they’d probably take a van of women and children back to the hotel early while some of the men finished up the construction projects. We did stick around a bit longer, until most of the shelving was placed in the new storage room lean-to that was newly built. We then worked on placing the tubs of clothing, shoes, towels, and sheets onto the storage room shelves in as orderly a fashion as we could – although the room was very full! I’m sure the guys loved it, as we were doing that while they were finishing the last shelf, and working on putting the tin roof on the room – probably very much in their way. Once the tubs were all put in place, we collected our kids and gathered on the porch waiting for the van ride back. I think a few of the men stayed later at the orphanage to finish up last-minute work. Jock and I came back as soon as what he had been working on was finished, which wasn’t too late.

We were so fortunate to have one more night to spend with Elijah and Josephine. We initially weren’t sure if we’d be able to, with the timing of the van rides from the hotel to the orphanage and then to the airport, but it worked out well. After dinner, devotions went really long, as we had another meeting to talk through some of the happenings of the week. We then prayed together over the FHG/Maison leadership, and for the children, and all of us traveling home. Most of us left carrying sleeping babies back to our hotel room. We cherished this last night we had together with them. What more of a wonderful memory, than holding an innocent sleeping baby on your arms, and praying with new friends?!