Haiti Adventures 2016: A Week with the Ladies!

This past week was super special because my mom, my aunt (Debbie), and my friend (Dani) were here with an all women's group led by Audra Hodges (Scott's wife). I truly enjoyed serving alongside them and spending time with them in our crazy room each night, laughing until it hurt. We were going to stay at the Heartline Guest House as usual, but the large generator broke and we had to make a last minute decision to stay there with limited shower/fan use or stay at the Visa Lodge with AC. I can't say I was disappointed in Frank's decision to stay at the Visa...and neither was anyone else! :)

There were some really neat opportunities that this group of ladies was able to be a part of...

Sunday we went out to church in the village of Chambon as usual. During the church service a pregnant woman decided to accept Jesus! Praise the Lord! She is the second woman I've witnessed accept Jesus this summer. So encouraging! After church we went up to Principal Evins' office and showed some of the ladies his library. I'm including a picture. As a teacher, this broke my heart the first time I saw it. Lori, a teacher at my school, was able to order some picture books from Amazon that are in Creole. In addition to giving those to Evins, my mom and my aunt brought even more picture books in Creole - they even found a world map in Creole! Evins and Pastor Maxeau were SO excited. All the books they currently have are in either French or English and have been translated into Creole by taping the typed translation in near the words on each page.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom translated from English to Creole

Little Critter book by Mercer Mayer translated from English to Creole

Here Mom & Debbie are giving some of the new books to Principal Evins.

The complete "library" that is available to the entire village of Chambon. They even have it set up using the Dewey Decimal System for people to check out books!

Checking out the awesome world map in Creole!

Tuesday morning we left the Visa Lodge bright and early, at 7 am to head to Rebuild Globally. We loaded up the canter with tires and the bus with 42 people including the entire team of Rebuild (US staff & Haitian staff) plus some friends and our team of women. We headed out to the border with Frank following in the canter full of tires. In response to the Dominican Republic deporting anyone with Haitian descent, leaving thousands of refugees at the border, Rebuild Globally has opened a workshop, employing 35 refugees. They brought the workshop to the border, where these amazing people live. (Read more here: https://medium.com/@REBUILDglobally/refugeesinhaiti-2bed8a1e57fa#.x5sajrlg6) The whole experience at the border was amazing. We got to be a part of the ribbon cutting ceremony and hear testimony after testimony. What an amazing thing Julie & Sarah are doing by providing dignified, living-wage employment!

Our bus we packed with 42 people!

My dad would be proud of our tire hauling abilities!

The inside of our bus.

Julie & Sarah opening the ceremony.

Ribbon cutting!

The following pictures show the different parts of the sandal making process. It starts with cutting the walls out of the tires, then stamping out the soles of the shoes, thinning down the rubber, sanding the edges, and finally washing the soles in the baby pool and laying them out to dry. These soles will then be transported to Rebuild's main workshop location in Port au Prince for further manufacturing!

Cutting out the tire walls.

Thinning down the rubber.

Stamping out the soles.

Sanding down the edges.

Washing the soles.

Thursday we went to a school on the outskirts of Cite Soleil. Heartline has 50 students in their sponsorship program that attend this school. These students used to attend school inside of Cite Soleil, but for various reasons needed to be pulled out of that community and now attend school along with about 700 other students. We went there to do sponsorship updates for the fall. We met Ashley Leonard (the sponsorship coordinator on the states side) at the school and were assigned jobs. We all met the kids in the "activity room" where Ashley and Vanessa (the sponsorship cooridnator on the in-country side) explained the activity they students would be doing for their sponsors - a simple drawing of their favorite part of school. Four women interviewed students, two women helped with the portaits, and four women controlled the chaos of the other room! Once students finished, we would take them to the "interview room" where they would wait at a desk, get their interview form, and file through the four different interview stations. There were a few scripted questions to ask and record answers to, but then the interviewers were also able to connect with them on a personal level and ask more questions. The interview room was very organized and calm...the activity room...was a little more chaotic. My mom brought some cute crafts for the kids to do...but soon balloon-pooping started happening. After a few hours spent there, everyone seemed to be exhausted and ready for a yummy Haitian meal at the OK! It was such a fun experience and I am so thankful for the way Heartline runs their sponsorship program, with 3-4 updates per year. Not all sponsorship programs are quite so generous with their communication updates!