Haiti Day Three: Return to Bienac

Yesterday I shared with you how let down we felt after our visit to the Bienac orphanage. In retrospect, it is by far the orphanage that needs the most work. And it is close to the heart of a couple of our team members. And... it is the place we thought we were going to be spending most of our time. But our plans are not God's plans and that turned out to be a good thing. Still, we were able to go back first thing Friday morning to spend a couple of hours.

We cleaned up the play area and we were able to remove a lot of the scrap building supplies and garbage, picking up things like broken glass and tin can lids. We cleared out some of the big rocks. The kids all helped and so did a couple of the mamas. They seemed glad to do it. Some of the guys who came with us were able to cut some rebar that was still sticking out in a few places making things safer for the kids as well.

After cleaning up we had more play time with the kids. The young man in the photo above is Wes Comfort. I fell in love with this kid as did many others on the team. He just graduated from Baker University and was recently hired by Global Orphan to work in Haiti. When I think of the things most young people his age are doing in their early 20s, he is making a huge sacrifice and is excited to do it.

It is a dangerous thing to wear sunglasses when you are visiting the children. They are fascinated by them and all of them want their turn to wear your glasses.

Then of course they want their pictures taken with the glasses on and its easy to lose track of who has your sunglasses! I did eventually lose mine but they were only cheap $5 glasses so it was only a small sacrifice.

This is the outdoor kitchen.

And these are the young women, the mamas, who cook there.

And this sweet lady is Antoinette Chantille. She stole my heart. She was so child-like and loved playing with the children. She smiled, a lot, at me. And hugged me.

And when she asked me for my earrings, I didn't hesitate to give them to her. Such a small gift made her so, so happy. I'll remember that on my next trip, to bring small gifts for the mamas. They work very hard to provide for these kids.

After spending a couple of hours cleaning and playing with the children, we were able to leave and there were no tears this time. It felt good to give a small something to the kids, cleaning up their play area and making is safer. Playing with them, running and laughing. In that respect, they are just like children anywhere. They love to laugh and play.

Three more places to visit this day.