Team Haiti 2011: First Days

One day never seems to be like the last.  Every day is different and you never know how things will turn out.  That has been our experience of the first two days of Vacation Bible School in Plenn Mapou.  One day was sunny; the next was rainy.  One day the building was crowded with kids; the next we had a smaller, quieter group.  It has all been good.

On Wednesday we journeyed the two hours up to Plenn Mapou.  About 75 kids showed up for VBS and the team did a great job of communicating the gospel truths while keeping the active kids in check.  We are working on Children’s Catechism questions 28-24.  It is amazing that many of them know and can recite the first 27 even as we teach the others.  Games and snacks rounded out the day.

After arriving back at the guest house the team quickly got to work painting, sewing, cleaning and putting up curtain rods.  While the guest house is more than livable there are always odd jobs to be done to make it more like a home.  White paint brightens it up and curtains make it feel lived in.  Everyone is sleeping well because of our overhead fans and slightly cooler nights after days in the high 80’s.

Day two of VBS was a little different.  We did get a few sprinkles on our drive up into the mountains.  We are thankful for God’s providence in holding the rains back until we were safely under the metal roof at Plenn Mapou.  And it really poured.  It is unusual to have heavy rains during the day.  Many of the children from the first day could not come because of the rain.  We still enjoyed our time with the group and were even able to play the games under the roof.  The rain stopped about an hour before our departure and though wet the roads were good for our drive home.

In other news, Lagonav has not been quiet the last week or so.  The election story is still ongoing as about 18 results continue to be contested.  The Depite race for Lagonav was a close one, but the Provisional Electoral Council switched the winner between the preliminary and final results.  Most people are convinced there is fraud involved.  Oness, one of our drivers, got caught in the crossfire here in Ansagale.  He happened to have his truck parked on the main street when a demonstration broke out.  He got his window smashed.  But despite this setback he is still driving for us.