One Week ago and closing things out for a while...

Two weeks ago I updated last. It's been a little busy. So I'll split this into two parts so the weeks don't get terribly confusing.

WEEK 1:

On that next day Soles for Souls arrived. They are a group that distributes shoes. This meant that John Chew was with them. John is one of those people whose presence is peaceful. It's always a blessing to learn from him. The next few days were involved with helping with the shoe distribution. Then on Friday our friends over at Mission of Hope sent us 30ish people to help us get the new classes in the school painted before school starts. I went to talk to the group some and found out they were from the Niagara Falls. We got to talking and found out some of the group is planning on going to the Mumford and Sons concert in mid November. So if I can get some tickets now I'm going to have some friends up there to meet at the concert. After they were finished they invited me back to the compound for the night. So I went and checked out MOH's digs. They had a sweet set up. lots of stuff we could build off of. And I played a lot of Euchre with my new friends.

The next day Nathan and Soles for Souls picked me up on their way to the beach. We went to Indigo Beach (everybody we'd talked to said it was the best but we'd never been there). It didn't disappoint. Afterwards we headed back to visit an orphanage that John had friends at. It's amazing how many people John knows in PAP. It was a good day.

Sunday was a big day. Sorta. More for me. I went with John to talk to a friend of his who has taking in 74 children who were orphaned by the earthquake. She's trying to buy some property that has a house on it that would be perfect for her and the kids and helpers. Problem is she doesn't have $105,000. Neither do I or John. But she was hopeful that something would come along. John told me how property values have become so inflated since the earthquake. John has hope for a better tomorrow. In spite of everything he has seen for so long he still has the hope. Maybe that's why he is so wonderful to be around.

Monday was spent preparing for Tuesday. The crew minus Stephen, Autumn, and her dad went to the flower market in Paitianville and haggled out a price for flowers and told them how we'd like if they could run out and stop Stephen's truck and give them lots of flowers. Then we went further up the mountain found another spot where we wanted to give them flowers. At that very spot we found the best pizza we've found in Haiti. It was excellent.

Then Tuesday the big day happened. Suffice to say Autumn said yes! Then we all went to La Reserve to celebrate. It was a grand last evening in Haiti.

The next morning Byambison and I went with Wilma out to Croix de bucets (sp?) where some amazing metal work is done. After that we rushed back to Terre Noir for me to pack up my bags and head to the airport. My Canadian friends were all at the airport waiting for me. We chatted and then we got on the plan. We left at 12:05. I arrived back in Cincinnati at 11:45pm. there was a mason jar full of real skim milk that was cold. It was a good way to return.

I'll be back someday. Sooner rather than later. I'd love to talk more than I have in this blog about what I saw and what I felt throughout the experience.

"Fatra Pa Gan Pieds"
"Trash has no feet"