You just might be living in Haiti if...

You just might be living in Haiti if…

Your 9 year old makes a vivarium and has a choice of which gecko he’s going to catch from inside your home

You find gecko poop in your shoes (and it looks just like mouse poo but you’re not as disgusted by it)

While you’re bleaching carrots, you see your three year old out the window completely naked, pee peeing alongside a puppy

You go to a 3 ½ hour long church service…and when you take your restless toddler outside to the nursery he entertains himself by chasing chickens

You see live goats tied together by their horns, hanging from the side view mirrors of trucks

You sift bugs out of the pancake mix at night so the teams don’t know (tip: freeze first to stop them from crawling (j/k..kinda ;)

When you get an owwie, someone sincerely pokes it

No one gets up from the dinner table to remove the tarantula crawling on the wall

You continuously have fire-ant bites between your toes

You wake up at 5am to hang laundry and still sweat

All the fruit you buy at the market is personally marked by the seller

Your children walk around balancing odd items on top of their heads

Children you don’t know, try to braid your hair at church

You’re at the grocery store and you have to divide everything by 40 to figure out how much it costs and then they tell you the price is in another currency so divide by 5 but pay in the first denomination or multiply by 8

Your husband alternates Norwex clothes to wipe the sweat from his head…while he sits in the shade…with a “cool” breeze

You drink the bugs in your water bottle and actually think to yourself “I’m saving money on protein”    

You use a public restroom and come out and say “three walls and a hole…it’s better than I expected”

Your nine year old asks to carry a machete like the seven year olds he sees

Someone tries to wash your car with gasoline rags and then demands you pay them for the unwanted service

You find pig feet and other parts sitting out on your counter

You try to eat a banana and find out it’s actually a potato

Your chicken comes with parts you don’t know how to cook

Your three year old can be a professional locksmith…in his underwear

You just might be living in Haiti…if you find joy and humor in a place you feel blessed every day to share the love of Christ

 

 

Had to share this picture of Anders. 

He and this man from the elderly feeding program (Gran Moun) wore their matching shirts today.

Grandma's Birthday Gift...that she doesn't want!

Cure for a toothache?!

This young boy was brought into the burn clinic today by his father. He had a toothache so his mother tied a rope around his big toe to cure it...well, his tooth doesn't hurt as bad! Poor kid, so sad!

Did I really just get some pictures uploaded?! Yipee!!!!

Running after us.

I love this picture! Abbi at an orphanage, she doesn't like to share the babies.

Barrett fixing a much needed well.

Love this man's heart & strength.

Port Au Prince in the background.

Cement pour for the stage

Braxton's Garden

Brodie's hair is a huge hit.

Brodie's buddy.

Saturday "Sunday School" for children who don't go to church.

 

Braxton, Abbi and Carrie with a team from CO in the mountains

Making crafts from donated craft bags

Mountains after Sandy

Progress on new church build

Kitchen at one of the orphanages

Stopped by the sewing school to drop off donated fabric.

Sewing school. They make their patterns by hand.

Anders visting recess and music class

While the other kids have each had a chance to help out with many of the programs and activities, Anders has tagged along happily.  He recently had a chance to visit the pre-k and kindergarten school for recess and music class. He loved it! He was quite the celebrity at first, everyone wanted to touch him, especially his head. Most kids would have been overwhelmed, but he just rubbed their heads too. :) There were one or two 3 year olds who were scared of him but he kept everyone entertained by pretending to repeatedly to throw up on the merry go round. (yes, that would be our child) Thank you to everyone who sponsors a child here. We saw how you are a blessing to these children and their families.

Waiting for the key.

Notice the hand coming in from the right. Nice buzz cut!

No worries when these little mama's get a hold of him.

He got a turn!

;

Kept missing the shots of him slumped over with his tongue out. :)

Music class was Fun & Loud!

I think she may be pushing the dress code. Way cute...but probably hot.

Saying bye-bye to new friends

Oh, Anders!

 Oh, Anders!! Most of you know that since Anders was a baby, he hasn't sucked his thumb or used a blankie. His alternative to those has been to use my hair...in his ear. (up until now, that's all he's put in there) He's going to love hearing about that when he's fourteen! Ha, well, he's going to hear about it alright because last week he told me before bed that he had something in his ear. I looked and didn't see anything. He stuck his finger in and pulled out a blob of something red! I asked him what it was and he said "Playdough!". (the last time he had played with playdough was two days earlier)

The team that was here had a member with a scope and so down Daddy was sent to ask him (if he was still awake) to take a peek. He looked, and yes, there was a hunk of red playdough stuck pretty far.

The next day we took him to visit the doctors before they headed out to their clinics for the day. They saw the playdough and said it was going to take awhile to get it out and would probably hurt. We planned on coming back that afternoon when they returned. I asked them to please check the other ear while we were there and they said there wasn't any playdough in that one but it was infected and had "something" completely blocking it. Thank you, Anders.

Abbi accompanied us for his procedure as the physicians assistant and future photo taunter. Dr. V. was great! As you can see in the photos, the office overhead costs are kept low and there is plenty of natural light. 

The playdough took a little while to get out and there was plenty of it! The "something" in the other ear, came out relatively easy and ended up being a little rubber piece to who knows what and who knows how long it was there. :) 

Anders toughed it out and only cried a few times. When we would show him what was coming out, he would laugh. Help, me! I was hoping he would learn a lesson about sticking stuff in his ears, but as you can see he doesn't seem too traumatized.

Thank you to Dr. V and Mrs. Wanda for taking such good care of him!