Yesterday afternoon I was hanging out at the boys home when Daniel sat down and told Cindy and I that he had just seen a goat have a baby. Actually, he got his words confused and said that he saw "two goats having a baby." It took a few hilarious minutes, but we finally figured out that he had seen two goats being born. Daniel asked to go show us where the goats were, near the clinic, so Cindy and I took a group of the younger boys to go check them out, stopping along the way to get Kaitlyn and my camera.
Mama goat and Baby goat
We were oohing and awing over the cute little goats in the bushes when we began to feel a few rain drops. Then quickly the sky turned dark and a swift wind blew over the neighborhood. We started running to get under shelter (I'm not scared of a little rain, but I didn't want my camera to get wet). I got inside the guest house gate, then peaked through its opening. A stream of parents and children who'd been waiting to enter our feeding program were running and screaming down the street in the drenching rain. When it rains during the feeding program usually we'll do a shorter version- feed the kids, but not have sports, coloring time, worship or a sermon. Today the people knew this rain was different. Erta was taking cover with me and said that people were thinking we were having another earthquake. It may sound ridiculous as an earthquake doesn't usually have massive winds and rain with it, but there is pervasive fear here about earthquakes and unusual weather. Also, many people's homes are tents right now....enough said. I put my camera away, grabbed my hooded jacket, and ran over with Kaitlyn to check on the girls. But not before seeing our big truck parked at the guesthouse with a tree branch lying on top of it.
**all further pictures are Kaitlyn's
The girls were all huddled together underneath the front awning of their house. My suggestions to go inside the house were ignored. Hey, a hurricane is coming, so let's stand outside! A few kids from the feeding program as well as our laundresses and cooks and their children took shelter there as well. Haitians love to sing, so to ease the distress and calm the situation, I suggested to Mari, a cook, that she begin to sing. Many of the children and adults were fervently praying as well. We watched as the storm thrashed around us and held the kids tightly when they screamed during the thunder. To lighten the mood (maybe I am inappropriate during a serious situation, but that's probably my coping mechanism) I began to briefly sing "raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens." As Daphne hid against my chest, I couldn't help thinking of The Sound of Music, my favorite movie, and the scene where the kids hide with Maria during the storm. A couple girls laughed as they remembered watching the movie. A brother came to get his four siblings at the girls home, walking through the door shirtless and shoeless, in boxers.
The girls home huddle
Boxer shorts boy with his siblings
Earlier in the day Susette had shared with the kids and I that a team from the states would be coming to spend the afternoon at the feeding program, leading worship and skits. This group is African American and the kids love them. During the storm a couple girls had asked if I thought the team would still come. As the rain and win finally let up, some girls peaked out the door and came running back, shouting, "The American Blacks are here!" Erta, Susette, and others rounded up the feeding program kids from outside, the girls home, and the near by tent cities (which I've heard was pretty much destroyed within minutes). We congregated inside the boys home and the "American blacks" performed skits, shared the bible, danced, sang, and worshiped with the feeding program kids and our kids. It was a beautiful blessing to all the kids and a welcome respite from the fear.
While we were involved in the activities at the boys' home, a team visiting from CA was down in a tent city, repairing some homes (tents). Kaitlyn took an awesome picture of one of the men they were helping, a father of one of our feeding program kids, walking down the street with a machete, taking branches and wood to repair his family's tent.
Machete Man
At the end of the "American Blacks'" time with the kids, we prayed together for the kids then the parents came to pick up their children. What did these families experience last night, in the cold and in the mud? Please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers, as they wait for the money that was raised to be given out to rebuild Haiti and homes.
Here's an article- Haitians Cry in Letters: ‘Please — Do Something!’-
describing the situation in Haiti right now.
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