We awoke Wednesday morning and headed back to the original creche to continue working. We were greeted with the same smiling faces-happy to see us yet again.
Paul and Shane quickly got to work on the playhouse, hoping to finish it up today.
I had the pleasure of observing Emily, the preschool teacher/missionary, as she led preschool. It was very different from what we are used to here in the states. That being said, Emily did a beautiful job leading these children through songs, counting, ABC's, and site words. She then took small groups of children aside to work on a more individualized level. (Pictured above). When small group time was over, I joyously watched all the preschool kids play simple structured games that helped them exercise their gross motor skills (jumping, crouching, stretching, etc) while also practicing standing in line and waiting their turn. While these sound like very simple things, these children will need to know these skills in order to survive when they enter US schools.
The goal of Giving Hope Rescue Mission and creche is to prepare these children for life in the US. This is difficult to do while in Haiti, but they do an EXCELLENT job with the resources they have!
While the preschoolers where working on their schooling, the toddlers had the privilege of playing with some toys that are kept for "special times". Many of the toys that we bring are put out for the kids to enjoy daily. This means they get broken and become trash very quickly. (It's only natural for that to happen when so many kids are playing with them.) Other toys are kept under lock and key for special times. While I wasn't told this, I can only assume these toys were brought out because of our visit. :)
Lego Fun
Nurse Perlienne with the children in the play yard.
Cheese!
Tillia is my personal favorite of all the nannies. She beams with the love of Christ! She is always thrilled to see us and vice versa. I love how she knows each and every child in her care. She goes out of her way to make them feel special. She can discipline when needed and the children know she means business. However, the next minute she is smiling ear to ear while tickling the belly of another child. There is something about her-she is special!
We always try to bring her special treats and sneak them when the other nannies aren't around.
The big kids just couldn't stand it.
They had to get in on the fun too!
After lunch, I was taken to Ryan and Sheena's house. They are the lead missionaries for the ministry. We had a much needed informal meeting about the future vision for Giving Hope and how we can help and what we can do in the future.
A brief overview of what we discussed:
- What to bring on future visits
- Diapers and wipes are NOT the best items to send
- While formula is better in the states, it is still able to be bought in Haiti. Appreciated but not an absolute need to send.
- TOYS, TOYS, TOYS!!!!! Toys are hard to come by in Haiti-especially well made ones. Toys should be basic and durable and WASHABLE (plastic baby dolls).
- Protein powder
- No more peanut butter. The kids prefer Haitian peanut butter.
- Clothing. GHRM is attempting to switch to uniforms just for ease of dressing the kids. The boys will be in khaki shorts with polo shirts (solid or stripe). The girls will be in basic knit dresses (t-shirt style or polo style).
- Shoes! While a more durable sandal is preferred by the adults, the kids tend to just go for the flip flops. Therefore both are appreciated.
- The future vision for GHRM:
- We hope to soon purchase a chunk of land that is just outside of Montrious.
- The building plans are amazing! They want houses for boys/girls in different age categories. They are planning on having an "enrichment center" for the toddlers and preschoolers similar to an American daycare center. They will have a great playground area, a school building, and a cafeteria.
- They will need many more missionaries willing to stay long-term (a year or more) to lead the programs with the help of the Haitian staff.
We also had a chance to discuss our visiting of the Justice Rescue Project. Paul and I greatly desired to visit these children since we had seen them in their "Before" situation. Read about it here.
There had been some miscommunication about this throughout our previous emails. Evidently the driver expected to be paid $900 each way to Cap Haitian. We were not prepared financially for that. We didn't know what other options we had. This place was NOT close and NOT easy to find. (There really is no mapquest in Haiti!)
If you want to see what this treck looks like on a map, Click here. Montrious is near Saint-Marc on the western coast. Cap Haitian is on the Northern coast.
After passionately expressing my desire to see these kids, Ryan did a bit of investigate work and found out there was a bus that could take us there.
This created our plans for the remainder of our trip:
- Travel, by Haitian bus, to Cap Haitian
- Visit the Justice Rescue Home
- Bring toys and supplies to Justice
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