First things first, we had breakfast as always. We then took off to buy the kids some school supplies at the market. The walk was fairly short. We climbed up a hill and at the top, Emily said, “You’re about to see the most beautiful view.” That it was. We all just stood there taking it all in. The views all over Haiti were breathtaking. I kept catching myself saying, “Wow…” as I took everything in.
Once we got a grip of ourselves, we proceeded on to the market. When we got there, we bought the kids a whole lot of notebooks for school. We had to have been the only white people within 20 miles. Needless to say, people were staring. We trekked back to Kay Mari for lunch before heading out to work on the school. Johnna had to convince the driver that it wasn’t raining in Dandann, where the school is being built. After lunch we immediately piled into the truck and headed off.
We were getting close when it began to rain, but we pressed on thinking it would soon pass. About 2 hills away from where we were going it began to pour like I’ve never experienced before, but we kept going. Joe, our driver, then made everyone in the back of the truck so he could turn around. He knew we would not make it to Dandann and that he couldn’t make it back up the hills with people weighing the truck down. We watched as Joe, with Fr Thomas in the cab with him, climb up the hill. There were a few times when I thought the truck was going to come sliding down. Once Joe was at the top of the worst parts of the hill, we walked to catch up. I could have wrung out my clothes because they were drenched! Luckily I had put a plastic bag in my backpack so my electronics were safe. We all piled back into the truck and headed back to Kay Mari. Joe parked the truck at the bottom of our hill and we then had to walk the rest of the way back up to the orphanage.
When we got back, all the Haitians laughed at us because they all knew that it would be raining in Dandann, but Johnna was persistent. Walking into the orphanage, drenched, was the most hilarious walk of shame ever. Catherine stayed behind because she hurt her ankle the day before. She said we were laughing but simultaneously looked like we were going to cry. That experience is something that will always be with me. We all went to the roof to dry off then we changed into dry clothes and headed downstairs to play with the kids outside.
We had dinner then prepared for mass. I got to hold Sonson for most of mass. What a blessing that child has been to my life! He saw me taking pictures and then wanted to push the button. I have about 15 pictures that he took of the altar because he didn’t move the camera, just pushed the button. After communion, I let Nick hold him. Nick has a special place in his heart for Sonson. At one point, Sonson wasn’t feeling well and Nick took him aside and sang to him. It was probably the most precious thing I’ve ever seen.
We started getting the kids ready for bed and the missionaries made us go upstairs so the kids would calm down. We were a little bit let down because we thought they were going to have night prayer again. Brother said they wouldn’t because we had just had mass and mass is everything. He then changed his mind and all the children gathered and began singing. I recorded most of their night prayer. I then converted the video to audio and it is now on my ipod. Probably the most played song on my itunes right now. Once they were done, we put them to bed and went back up to the roof for bonding and star gazing. Every night you would find us up there. This was the best way to close another day of beauty.
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