Monday, September 10, 2007

I woke up still feeling under the weather and an hour late due to forgetting to set my alarm. Oops. I got to catch the tail end of the going to school process and as it turns out some of the kids did not go today because their uniforms are not done being made yet. I also found out that in Haiti the schools are not full days until like Wednesday or Thursday of the first week. After the kids that went to school were gone and breakfast was over, I spent some time listening to some Creole CDs that one of the interpreters made to help people learn. It is a very hard language and should be quite difficult to learn. I spent about an hour doing that and then decided to take a run to try and feel better. I got outside and was stopped by Roland who said I was not allowed to do that without an escort so he went and changed and we walked (he wouldn’t run) the 8 miles to St. Louis. It was quite the long hot walk; it is amazing how differently you feel here when doing something like that. In the states an 8 mile run/walk makes me feel better, but today it only made things worse. We arrived at the mission 2 hours and 40 minutes later, and just in time for lunch, which I did not participate in. I fellowshipped with everyone who was eating but after they all went their separate ways I escaped to the dorm and took like a 2 hour nap. I was awoke by Maureen who was concerned about my health and thinks that I am not eating enough and am getting dehydrated. I told her, I would try and eat more often but less quantity because all they do here is eat and I am sick of eating. After our medical discussion Roland found me and was ready to go. I ran into Larry Owens (the former president of the mission) and we chatted for a couple of minutes about what is going on and what is to come. I liked getting to chat with him and look forward to Wednesday because he and his wife are spending a few days at the Orphanage. I saw Erin take the Heavens waiting room children for a ride in their train today, at some point I will video tape that for you so you can see it, it was really cool. We decided to catch a tap tap home because it looked like it was going to rain and we did not want to walk in the rain. Back at the Orphanage, I played some soccer with the boys and chatted with Tigens until dinner and then it started POURING. We had an interesting incident tonight with two of the older boys. They got into a fight and one of them hit the other in the head with a rock, so the victim found a 3 and a half foot lead pipe and was going to beat the other with it. Roland was not having any of that though and quickly counseled both of the boys. After that while we were hanging out under cover from the rain Roland and I found out a disturbing fact. The children only eat two meals a day, which is not that big of a deal, except their second meal is at noon. Some of them are up until 11 or 1130 and that is a long time to go without food. I emailed Heather to ask her about this. In the mean time though, I made them all popcorn for a bed time snack. You would have thought it was Christmas, the way they were going on about it. I myself don’t really like popcorn, so I just watched them enjoy it. After that I was ready for bed so I called it a night. Peace