Another Update on the Travelers

I was so excited to finally get another e-mail from Glynne.  It feels like they have been gone so long and it's only been 4 days.  If you are like me and want lots of details about what's been going on, you're gonna like this post. 

Here is Glynne's email and it is full of information!  Enjoy.

Mom - 

     Today was quite the adventure. We start off everyday by waking up at 5:30ish. Ouch. We gather our stuff for the day and eat breakfast from 5:45 to 6:15. After that we head off to the bus/truck (We like to call it the Scrambler after the ride at the fair that squishes people into each other.) that takes us to the Mission of Hope compound. Once there, we wait an hour or so until VBS begins. I wish they would just let us sleep an hour longer instead of waiting. Anyway... VBS begins around 9:00 in the morning. Dad heads off as well to the clinic. We help as much as we can by just hanging out with the kids and trying to keep them in line. It's really confusing because everything they say is in Creole - the native language. It's a mixture of French, English, and Spanish... sort of. (Dad found it extremely entertaining that their word for urine is pee-pee.) Lunch was a hard thing to help with. We're supposed to pass out food first and then water. At first I didn't understand why, but once we started passing it out I saw. Kids scrambled to get their share. Some even hid one bag under their shirts and then claimed they had never gotten theirs. I felt so helpless because I couldn't tell which kids were just trying to get more and which were genuinely asking for their first bag. I couldn't even speak their language to ask them questions. All I could do was hand the bags to a Haitian worker and let her handle it. 

     Funny story: Emma was hanging out with some boys during VBS (she always seems to be with boys...) and one of them asked her if he could kiss her! She just kindly told him he was supposed to get in line and then ignored him. 

     After lunch, we herded the kids down the hill and got them to their activity station. Then we headed back up the hill - one killer of a hill - to eat our own lunch at 12:00 p.m.. I was expecting to have trouble finding something I want to eat, but the food is really good! One thing we had today that I found yummy were fried plantains with peanut butter. Once lunch is finished we either head out to a work project (we painted a house yesterday) or we go to a village to talk with people. Today was a little different because we went to a soccer game. There is a village that the mission is building to bring deaf people out of Cite Solei - one of the top 3 worst slums in the world - into much better housing. Deaf people here are treated as worse than nothing and the mission is trying very hard to change that. One of their ways is to bring both hearing and deaf people together through weekly soccer games! Many people said that this was the best game they've had yet. A really cool thing happened while we were there. A few people from our big group had gone around to talk and pray with people in their homes. As they were about to leave one house, they asked a lady if she had prayer requests for them. She had a few, but she said that her biggest prayer request was for rain. As soon as the person finished praying for rain, it began to downpour. Amazing. All of us out on the soccer field (a big open area with dirt) were so relieved! It had been really hot with no shade and the rain felt wonderful. Someone pulled up a car on the side of the field, opened the doors, and began to play music. Emma and I were holding two little kids, so we started to dance with them. Soon, everyone was dancing. The soccer game became so much fun to watch because all the mud made the players slide around in the mud like they were ice skating. Eventually, people were having mud fights and tackling each other, Haitians and Americans alike. 

    The ride back to the mission was wet, muddy, and slightly scary. We had to go over a trench, through a stream, and up a really steep incline straight into a hairpin turn. All in a pretty good sized bus/truck. We were shaken up a lot, but made it through eventually! 

     We arrived at the mission earlier than usual - 4:15 p.m.. They had people waiting with hoses to give us spray downs before heading back to the resort. All of us kids were excited that we would have extra time before dinner to swim in the ocean! Our little bungalows are only 100 feet or so from the beach. No joke. After we swam, we showered, ate dinner (pizza, rice, shrimp, fresh fruit, veggies, and bread), had an evening meeting, and headed off to prepare for tomorrow! 

    I still have some things to do before bed like wash my tennis shoes and skirt free of mud. So, I better get started on that. 

LOVE YOU! - Glynne

P.S. I saw on the blog Jonah is crawling. I'm so sad I'm missing it! :( Tell him I love him. And the other kids too.

To me, it looks and sounds like they are having a ball.  Praise God!

Until the next email arrives!  Julie