Merry Christmas!

It was a different Christmas for our family. We started our day with opening our stockings, which were my sports socks since we had no stockings. The kids were excited to receive the small treats and candy inside.

After breakfast, a normal workday in Haiti began. Christmas is not a big holiday in Haiti, so the construction carried on at the school and Karen and Luckner continued working on several different ongoing projects. I typed some french letters, did laundry, and got ready for the afternoon's party.

I took the kids swimming this afternoon which was fun. We are getting to be experts at riding the motorcycles. I take Tevan and Ariane with me and Josiah and Mariah ride together, up the bumpy road known as Corridon which leads to the hospital.

At 5pm the children from the home came up, as well as Luckner and the children that live with him. We shared juice, popcorn, birthday cake for Jesus and gave them the gifts we had brought and that had been sent by another Canadian work team. We all had fun and the children enjoyed opening their gifts, although it was hard on Tevan to see everyone get a gift and he not get one because they are waiting for him back in Canada.

Mirlande at the party.

Alex helped Ariane and Josiah hand out gifts. They told him the name, he called the child and then handed them the gift with his feet. He was very happy to be helping out.

Alex handing Maladette her gift.

Josie enjoying juice

Ricardo and Cabano in their new hats, looking as cool as they can.

Tonight, Mariah and Josiah are having a sleepover at Luckner's house with Valerie, Ricardo and Cabano. They were pretty excited.

Tomorrow, we are off to the beach, my Christmas gift to my mom. We won't be back until Sunday evening so no updates until then!

Thank you to everyone who has wrote comments and wished us a Merry Christmas.

Love to you and I hope your day was a wonderful one.

Liette

Christmas Eve

Today started early with our alarms going off at 5:30 am. Why an alarm you ask? With all of the crows, goats, cows, trucks etc? Well, to tell the truth I'm getting used to it and have been sleeping until 7 every day.

Mariah, Karen, Odner and I headed out at 6:15 am, arriving in Lachappelle just before 7 am. Jean-Pierre was in his garden and came hurrying back at 7:05. By 7:15 we were on our way up the mountain. Odner came along for the hike, being very curious about everything. He wasn't expecting it to be quite so steep, nor quite so fast a pace. He made the comment that mountain people must be stronger than valley people because of all of the climbing. Jean-Pierre just walked along at a pretty good clip (I like to hike fast) and never once got out of breath. We hiked up the hill you see below and this picture was taken about halfway up. After 90 minutes of challenging hiking, we arrived. All the way we saw ladies coming down the mountain barefoot with huge baskets on their heads for market in the town of Lachapelle.

Once up in Belon (where Mariah was born and lived the first two years of her life, Jean-Pierre showed her where the house used to be and all of his land. He also showed us the place where he was attacked in a land dispute. We are very grateful that he is healthy and strong again now, except the very sad loss of his eye in the attack.

Mariah and Jean-Pierre standing where her house was.

The views on the hike down were beautiful as the mist was just clearing in the valley. Several times on the trip back to his house in Lachapelle, Jean-Pierre held Mariah's hand, seeming very proud of her. We stopped a dozen times or more for introductions, to meet aunts and cousins and for people to take a look at Mariah.

In Lachapelle, we had the opportunit to meet Mariah's three little half-siblings with Jean-Pierre's new wife. The little girl is 6, the two boys 4 and 1.

The four year old boy looks so much like Mariah did at about 2-3 years, that it is uncanny. He had lots of big smiles for her.

Jean-Pierre was so happy we had come, that he wanted to give us a present. He showed up at the tiny little Suzuki we were driving with a huge sac of oranges, sweet potatoes and manioc from his garden. Then he brought a turkey!

In all, it was a very good day and I am so grateful to Karen and to Luckner for making the arrangements to make it happen and for Karen for playing chauffeur for us.

The rest of the day was spent making cake and brownies for Christmas tomorrow, then spending some time at Luckner's Christmas party. I came home early, being exhausted from a long day and having two tired and hungry kids. Mom drove us home, put Alex to bed and is down now again for a little visit. We left Mariah and Josiah and some of the orphanage kids down there and they'll come back with mom.

We'll I'd better get ready for Santa's arrival! Love you all and Merry Christmas!

Liette

December 23, 2008

The Christmas pageant was a great success. Many people worked very hard to make it all happen. There was a large crowd and some kids started arriving as early as 4:30 for a show that started at 6 pm. The teenagers who were in the play did a pretty good job with the acting and the singing was beautiful. Ariane did a gymnastics routine which inspired awe! She even had the whole crowd chanting her name afterwards. Mariah had a chance to dance and Josiah helped to MC. All of the children got a sack of candy and balloons and the kids in the program and all of the employees and families got a meal of rice and beans, chicken and watercress salad. It was a ton of work and there will be lots of clean up tomorrow in the field and putting the benches back at the school etc, but it seemed like everyone had a great time.

Kids helping make the flag decorations



The manger scene under construction.

Pouring sauce over the rice and beans.

Some of the 80 boxed meals prepared

by Martha and Germaine.

Some of the crowd enjoying the show.

I'm up early tomorrow to drive to Lachapelle and hike a mountain with Mariah and her biological father, so it's time to get some rest.

Liette

The Show must go on!

Today is the big Christmas concert and everyone is running around like crazy.

Josiah and Vladimy have been making popcorn for 150 people in a tiny little popcorn maker for the past 90 minutes. Ariane and Tevan are making decorations. Mariah is helping the school kids decorate for the concert. Martha and Germaine are cooking food for 80 people so the concert kids and employees can take it home with them after the party. I've been measuring rice and beans, helping Timili and getting ready to go to Verrettes on motorbike to buy some last minute things.

So much for coming to Haiti to get away from the Christmas craziness!

December 22, 2008

The Christmas concert is tomorrow, so today was a day of preparation. In the morning, my mom went to St Marc with Mariah, TiMili, and and Valerie to stop at a ton of stores, according to Mariah. They were finding tissue paper for decorations, lights, etc etc.

A group of young people from the school came to make decorations. They made crowns out of cardboard that they painted and made tiny flag decorations. A fruitless hour of searching for the balloons bought in Port-au-Prince before we gave up, hoping that they'll come and find us tomorrow.

I spent 2 hours at the hospital doing a job that mom hasn't had time to do. The kids at the orphanage had all mistakenly been classified "Out-district", which means they are not from this region and thus have to pay $200 instead of the $12 for people who live In District. The crazy thing is, half of the kids in the orphange were either born in the hospital or abandoned at the hospital which then transfered guardianship to HATS. But no matter how much mom tried to explain that, the computer said something different so she was stuck in the bureaucracy. Today, I shook hands, visited with people and waited around .... finally the head of the department came, I explained the problem and we found the computer guy who is going to make the change. I've got my fingers crossed but he did promise.

Today we also had a visit from Jean-Pierre, Mariah's biological father. We had sent messages for him a few days ago and he finally came this afternoon, after not hearing from him for almost 4 years. We had a nice visit with him and we made plans to go out there on Wednesday (24th) to visit the area where Mariah was born and lived with her mom. We made the trek up the mountain when she was 3 years old and it was a real adventure. This time, we are leaving at 6 am from Deshapelles, and with the two hour hike (Mariah can hike a lot faster now than when she was 3), we'll make it up there by 10 am. A short visit and we'll come back down the mountain. Our plan is to make it back to Deschapelles by 3 pm. One of the security from HATS (and friend) is coming with us and is excited to hike the mountain with us. Luckner is working on finding a vehicle we can borrow as the HATS truck is still not working. Some guy is gone to the Dominican Republic to try and find a part that is needed. If anyone has an extra $30 000 US, a new vehicle for this mission is SOOOOO needed!

This evening we had some fun dancing in the Kay Devosyon (the building they use for morning signing and grade 3). But it's getting late and I must get my kids to bed before the roosters start crowing to wake us up.

Hugs!
Liette

December 21, 2008

I slept in today! With all of the roosters crowing at all hours of the night, church services until 11 pm, the restaurant/bar in Deschapelles blasting music, trucks honking like crazy as they pass the bridge, pigs grunting, cows mooing, dogs barking etc etc, I've not been sleeping well, waking several times in the night and getting up too early. Last night I slept like a log and didn't wake up until 7:15 am when the big "kamionn" came to drop rocks and sand off at the school construction site next door.

We had church this morning where we sang songs led by Cecile, then Luckner delivered a message about generosity and love being at the heart of Christmas. I had just had the almost identical discussion with Josiah and he was sure I had talked to Luckner and set the whole thing up. I told him that sometimes when there's a lesson to be learned, we get it from all sides.

We visited friends up in Deschapelles today. Our friend Rigaud and his wife welcomed us graciously, then offered us fresh coconut milk from coconuts that a little boy threw down from the SUPER TALL coconut tree in their yard. He shimmied up there in less than a minute!

There's a little boy at the top of this tree.

Rigaud cutting open coconuts for the milk.

The kids didn't love it but were very gracious and grateful.

All the kids tried climbing the tree after that. Ariane got the highest, no surprise there. Josiah barely made it off the ground! I guess basketball skills don't translate to tree climbing.

Go Jos go!

We stopped at the house of another friend who insisted on "diri, sos pwa avek fe" for us (rice, bean sauce, and a dish like spinach). It was delicious and much appreciated.

This evening, Mariah got her hair braided by Cecile and she looks lovely.

Grammy, Josiah, Ariane and I went up to the roof, lay down under the millions of stars and sang some Christmas carols. With my froggy voice I wasn't a very good singer that's for sure.

I decided to make a special dessert for my mom for Christmas and to try and put some meat on her bones. The recipe called for 3 eggs. The first one was rotten- yuck! The second one was ok, but far from fresh. The third, rotten. The fourth, rotten. In a dozen eggs, we found two that were not too bad and ten that were inedible! Eggs have been hard to come by for several months as the chickens here got some infectious disease that affected their ability to lay eggs. It seems the treatment and vaccination program is having an effect and they are starting to lay again, but there is still a scarcity.

These smelled so gross.

It's been a long day and I'm off to bed. Thanks for those who have left comments, it's so fun to hear from you.

I leave you with a photo of three beautiful little girls. The oldest one was pounding "pitimi" a grain that is eaten by those who can't afford rice. They were so sweet.

Liette

December 20, 2008

Today we took a tap-tap to Verrette to go to the market. It was so stuffy and crowded that you could barely breath. After that we went home and ate lunch. Then we took a motorcycle taxi to Deschapelles to go swiming. Grammy's friends came along as well. When we got home we went on a walk by the canal, with Alex of course. - Ariane

Mariah beside the pool

It was a really great day today - not too hot, but just right. I had a chance to catch up with more old friends, including a godson of Don's who I still stay in touch with and bring small gifts for. I had a chance to give skirts to all of the girls in the school Christmas concert - they were quite excited to try them on and find one they liked. We got Grammy out walking by the canal again today, but ended up going farther than we had hoped. As the sun began to set, the mosquitos and bugs came out in force - they were in our eyes, mouth and nose! We ran through the bug clouds all the way back to the mission.

The couple Ariane mentioned are an American doctor and his wife who were at the nearby hospital last year and are doing vacation relief this year. They saw Tifi when she was first abandoned at the school - she was like a bag of bones, completely unresponsive and unable to do anything. When they saw her today walking alone to them to give them a hug, they were astounded at how much progress she had made. She is just now beginning to say a few words, but she is craving attention and coming out of her shell. The woman called Karen "a miracle worker".

Liette

Cabano in his new clothes - notice the big smile!

Moise in his new clothes

Girls from the Christmas concert with their dresses

Kids from the school playing with

the new soccer ball