Loafers, Laptops, et les enfantes

Today is a National Holiday in Haiti - May Day. There was no school which means we did some things around Hope House. The morning started with sorting shoes to take to the school on Monday. There were about 1600 pairs to sort by size, while other team members updated 12 donated laptops to be used by university students and as part of a lab at the school. Pastor Campbell said he didn't know he'd come to Haiti to do tech support! We all have our gifts. We're glad he did - it was a huge help!

After lunch, we visited the lot where 3 houses are being built on land purchased by Pastor Larry and Margaret Bollinger. The houses were paid for Pastor Larry and Margaret, and Greer and Nilah Putnam. The construction is being overseen by Food for the Poor. The houses contained two rooms with exterior kitchens and bathrooms. Construction is all concrete and done inside of three weeks. The lot was about half the size of the St. John's playground - all for three houses. For those of you who like hard work, the concrete was made on site. They started with the rocks, split the rocks, sifted through them, and then used the powder, mixed with water, to make cement. This was used as a plaster-type material on the sides of the house.

We then went to visit Little Children of Jesus orphanage. It's an orphanage for 101 mentally and physically handicapped people. This was an amazing experience, emotionally. It was so neat to see the smiles on these children. We spent time hugging them, holding their hands, blowing bubbles, making balloon fish, and showing them love. A Haitian proverb says, "You'll never know that God is all you need, until God is all you have" which resonated with the our team today.

We returned to Hope House and visited with several neighborhood children. We played "soccer" and baseball with Stevie and Job. Job has a future in the MLB!

And we also learned today that Paul Swicord is "the most handsome, strongest, and nicest man we know," which we learned from him!

Until tomorrow...