Thursday - our first full day!

Today was our first full day in Haiti and it was definately full! We awoke to turkeys gobbling outside our bedroom windows and then had a very yummy breakfast of Haitian baked oatmeal. Very tasty! It took quite a while to find a tap-tap to take all of us to Faith in Action's home base where we worked today, but we were finally successful! We spent the day bending and cutting rebar, building steel corner supports for Faith in Actions mission home.  We also had the opportunity for some fun jump roping with the local kids. We ended our afternoon with a little bit of singing with our makeshift band and then headed back to our guest house to clean up for dinner.  Dinner - most of the group's first time eating goat!  And it was good!!! After a game of soccer, we gathered to talk about our day and what we experienced.

During our scripture reading tonight, "For this reason, I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God^* that you have through the imposition of my hands." 2 Timothy 1:6, we talked about how important the work we were doing is.  We realized in our interacting with eachother, that we are all equal and that the Haitian people are very open about themselves and willing to give us their trust and respect.  We talked about the fact that it is a gift to have been born in our country and we should appreciate that.  We also noticed how little the Haitians wasted and how resourceful they are.  They are very creative in using what they have. 

We also noticed how easy it was to make them happy when we were playing games.  It seems like nowadays, we need so much more for entertainment all the time, but these simple Haitian kids enjoyed our simple games and laughter so much it was contagious!  They just enjoyed being around us and watching us work.  We realized how important it is to have a smile on your face and a willingness to open our hearts to this culture that we do not know much about.  Today, we were not seperate.  There were not two cultures apart, but two cultures melded together.  Working, playing, singing, laughing.  Friendships forming.

We had a good day today!!  We are looking forward to our day tomorrow!!  God bless and good night.

Team March 2012