Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Haiti - Day 3

By: Blake Gillian and Grace O'Connell


Arriving at the camp today, many of us were still unsure of how to interact with the kids, but after they greeted us with open arms it felt much easier to talk to them. We quickly got into our lessons and began to teach the kids English using chalk, vocabulary, and pictures of various animals and shapes. They quickly absorbed the material and began to teach us what they knew. 




After the lessons many groups went on to other games such as, duck-duck goose, soccer, and skipping rocks on the ocean. It wasn’t long until the nail polish and hair chalk came out, sending the kids into a frenzy. Kids were running around with streaks of different colors going through their hair. By the time lunch hit both girls and boys were covered in different colors. 






A little bit later in the day a couple of us went with Mme. Scott and friend, Mackenzie, who runs a nearby orphanage, to meet some of the kids. On the way we stopped at a bakery to see how they make the bread for the kids and we got to try to use the crank for the dough, which required a lot of manual labor. 




We then arrived at the orphanage where we got to see the condition in which the orphans were living. We got to see the sleeping quarters for the boys which was essentially one mattress for 12 boys. We met a boy at the orphanage who had a condition called a cleft leg, which made it so he can’t walk on one of his feet, leaving him having to walk on his knee all the time. We wanted to help him so we measured his height in hopes that we would be able to get him crutches to make things easier for him. 



After the visit at the orphanage, we went back to the seminary where we played sports for the last hour. Exhausted, we walked back to the van for our emotional goodbye. We got into the van and closed the door only to look out the window and see that the kids had the van surrounded not wanting us to leave. 




We are excited to see what tomorrow brings, and hope to make more lasting relationships with the kids.

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