5.24.2009

SATURDAY, MAY 23










PICTURED: Dr. Sandra Abraham-Hebert at the beach enjoying coconut with the girls / Lidia & friends


We made it to church just in time for the service to end, finding out that they had started earlier due to the heat (it is HAITI HOT here!). So instead, we hung out with the kids and then saw about 15 more E.G.O. kids that we hadn't seen the day before and re-checked others from the day before.

After lunch, we loaded all the E.G.O. kids into the vehicles and drove over to a piece of property that Charles owns on the water. It is a special treat for the E.G.O. kids that only happens a few times a year, so they were so excited! When we arrived there, they put on their bathing suits (which consisted mostly of old, ratty underwear) and we all enjoyed an hour or two in the water, with 2 or 3 kids hanging on to us at all times.

Some of the older boys climbed the coconut trees and we had a coconut feast, first drinking the milk and then scooping out the soft meat of the young, green coconuts. The guys played baseball (using a coconut as a ball, and a machete as a bat) and the little girls gave massages, braided hair, picked grey hairs, etc.

We had light fruit supper at the orphanage and a little dance show by John Lee, one of our favorites who is blind but full of personality and knows English very well. He uses touch to discover and recognize people and then gives them names. JD Brutus, (the dentist on the trip) who is 6+ feet tall was given the name "Big Man" after John Lee felt one of his tree trunk legs. He calls Scott Kramer "Big Momma" (for reasons we're not sure of!) and he calls Dave Wooster "Bare Head" and recognizes him by rubbing his head! We have fallen in love with all of these beautiful children and wish we could bring all of them home with us!