Haiti day 2 by Tyler Green

Hey y'all! Its been a long day for sure… I am so glad we are finally here in Pastor Moise's guesthouse.  It has already been such a crazy experience and I am so excited because I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Yesterday when we arrived and walked out of the Haitian airport there were loud sounds; shouting, honking, chickens, street gamblers and many other noises were all vying for our attention. It felt chaotic. Some tap tap (taxi) wanting to take our bags, for money of course, and one man would not take no for an answer. Our team of translators, led by one named Jonas, quickly swooped in. In a matter of seconds, what felt like could have been a chaotic situation was calm. Jonas came up to the man and gently moved him away from us. I know that it made all of us newbies feel safe to see our translators completely take control of a situation in a matter of seconds.

The drive back was filled with sights of poverty. Seeing people living on a street corner, in door-less sea containers, after coming through a VERY hectic marketplace that smelled like rotten meat was very saddening. Shortly after that we arrived at the guesthouse and quickly got t bed since all of us were pooped. It was a bit of a culture shock to take a freezing shower out of a water-filled bucket.

Today, we started our morning with some breakfast, that Francois and Christine so kindly got up early to make. We continued on to the Church, Source de le Grace, where what we thought would be us doing a tiling job turned out to be us hauling gravel and wet cement so that some local workers could actually do the tiling. This was one of the moments that John had told us about; hurry up and wait.

After the cement hauling was finished, we walked to the orphanage that was attatched to the back of the church. All of the children were shy at first with the people they hadn't seen before, but they quickly warmed up to us. The kids are amazing! They don't care if you are paying attention to them or even looking at them. You can be talking to someone else completely, as long as they can hold your hand, or play with your hair, or even just touch your skin (The hair on my legs was a big attraction for the kids apparently).  There is such a casual sense of love with the orphans that is refreshing, coming from a society where councilors cant hug children at Christian VBS camp, or a job at a daycare center. One little girl would not let go of me and stayed with me the whole time. She asked me to bring her some candy tomorrow. Haha. It was strange but sweet to have five kids trying to love you at once.

When we arrived back at the bunkhouse, we played 'Ultimate Foursquare' before a delicious dinner, also very graciously prepared by Francois and Christine. Our devotional for the day was about what we are chasing after; are we chasing after vain temporary things or eternal and joyful things.

I am now sitting here blogging so that we can share our adventures with all of you. I hope this blog does this experience justice. Everyone is having a great time; we are all laughing and joking as I type, whilst trying to live stream the spurs game on John's iPad… it's a struggle. Love you all. God Bless.

                                                                                                Much Love, Tyler Green