It's been a long time since I last blogged. I like to blame that mostly on the fact that our internet was broken for several weeks, but I suppose procrastination could also be partially responsible. So much has happened in the last couple months that it's hard to know what is blog worthy. Because of this, I think I will just try to share a few little stories as they randomly come to mind...
-Awhile back, Sheila, a volunteer and I spent the day at a pool in town. It was nice to have some refreshing time away and to be able to enjoy the water. Sheila made me have swimming contests, which is a little comical considering my general lack of ability in that area, but it was a good day that we ended with a little grocery shopping.
-Since the end of August, we have added two new families to our staff. It has been fun getting to know them better!
-A couple of my babies from last summer have recently gotten their first haircuts. We don't cut our little boys' hair until they are at least a year old, so first haircuts are a pretty big deal. Their hair is often long enough to allow for little braids, so these need to be taken out or cut off before the official haircut can even occur. I love their little baby hair, so this is never my favorite time, but they do look really handsome when they're done. :)
-About a week and a half ago, I took one of our kids to Port-au-Prince for an appointment. Because we already had a staff member in Port with another child, I only had to make sure the child arrived safely. This involved an hour sitting in the Cap airport, a 5 minute bus ride, a 25 minute flight in a small plane, and then more waiting in the Port airport. It also involved 2 granola bars, 2 packs of crackers, 1 sippy cup of water, a dirty diaper and several amused airport staff members. Once our staff came to pick the baby up, my only remaining task was to wait for my flight a couple hours later. Fortunately, this wait was made more pleasant because Jamie, our director of operations from the States, was flying in that day. We were able to chat and catch up as we waited for the plane ride back to Cap.
-Every Thursday, we get mail from Agape flights. Boxes are mailed to Florida and then flown to us. Recently, I have been in charge of inventorying the mail we receive and making sure it gets to the appropriate people/places (diapers, formula, toys, etc to the babies, family gifts to certain kids, packages to staff members, etc). It is always fun to see the great things that people think of to send to us and our kids and we always appreciate it! A recent mail day was exceptionally fabulous for me because I received a box from a volunteer who had spent several weeks here. She made me make a list, but insisted that she "probably wouldn't send a box, and even if she did, it wouldn't have anything from the list," so I really didn't know what to believe. ;) And then, the box arrived! It was a beautiful thing, complete with pickles, pasta and chocolate. Thanks Veva!
-The boat room at COTP has some of our younger kids in it. A few are under a year, but most of them are our one year olds. It used to be pretty stressful to leave the room because several of the kids would cry consistently. But then, they learned to wave! Now leaving the room is fun because when you say "bye bye" and wave to them, there are almost always at least 5 little hands waving back and smiling. :)
These are just a few things that have been filling my days in Haiti. It's almost never what I expect, but I wouldn't choose to be anywhere else!
