A Week's Gone By...

And I'm still covered in bruises and scabs and rashes from Haiti. I love it though because I won't be back for a while and I feel like I left it all there on this last trip. It has been a little easier to process everything and readjust back to the US again this time, since we'd done it before but being in Walmart still freaks me out a little bit, and when I woke up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night the other day, it hit me how much easier even something as simple as that is in America - I didn't have to crawl out from under my mosquito net, find a flashlight, take toilet paper with me, or reapply horrendous amounts of Deet. I didn't have to live by the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" law (hooray for flushing!) and I could wash my hands with warm, clean water and soap. And then hop back into my giant, amazing king-sized bed.

Anyways, here are some highlights from the trip (in no particular order):

1. We (and by "we" I mean people that can do construction. Not me.) built 12 bunk beds for the base we stayed at in Gonaives. Hopefully other teams will come down now that they won't have to sleep on the floor.

2. I saw a goat be slaughtered in the backyard. And then I saw every part of him served for dinner. I'm a pretty adventurous eater but I was also once a vegetarian, so I went without meat for the week.

3. We had to walk through a waist-deep river to deliver Bibles to a mountainside community. The family we talked to was pretty intense too - they said they don't practice Vodou but they also said that they like the idea of Jesus but are scared of him because they have made a pact with the Devil. V-O-D-O-U. They let us pray for them though, and we're continuing to do so now.

This amazingly fat, awesome chunk of a baby was at the clinic we set up in the mountains. He has got to be the fattest baby in Haiti and I wanted to stuff every ounce of him into my suitcase to bring home.

4. I hiked to the top of a mountain....twice. The first time was awesome - people were standing on the sides of the mountain singing and praying. The second time those same awesome people laughed at me when I fell and landed hard on my buttbone.

5. We got to hang out with the kids from the same orphanage we visited in May. We gave each one of them a new pair of shoes and prayed for them. They are the sweetest, most thoughtful, appreciate kids I've ever seen.

6. We had Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids. There were a few sweet ones but most of them were the exact opposite of the orphanage kids. They can sing a mean "Papa Abraham" in Creole though.

7. Baptized Hector at the beach! Hector was one of our translators on the May trip and while we were there, he said he wanted to accept Christ. There was no time to baptize him last time, so John and Maula decided to do it the Sunday we were there. Maula packed his whole church into tap-taps and took everyone down to watch.

8. Went back to the same Vodou compound (Souvenance) we visited in May. This time, though, the head hauncho (?) wasn't there, so someone let us walk around. They weren't cool with us taking pictures there and kicked us out when we tried to discreetly pray. I stole a rock. If you're interested in learning more about Souvenance and the annual festival held there, check out this website. The pictures are awesome.

These "punishment trees" are in the compound so people can roll around on the roots to punish themselves.

Main vodou sanctuary.

9. Gave new shoes to some of the neighborhood kids.

Jessica, Ricardo & Sabrina with their new kicks.

Cristupher's new shoes. He sat on my bed and farted in my face one morning.

10. Rode on the top of a school bus again! Actually, unless someone puts cushioned seats up there, it may have been my last time riding on the top of a school bus.

All in all, it was an awesome trip. Thanks to everyone who kept us in their thoughts and prayers while we were gone. Next adventure: Switzerland!