Day 7 – May 25
June 10, 2009
Day 7: Monday was a cool day. Pretty much what went down was that we visited two orphanages in the city of Ouanaminthe. This was an awesome experience. The first orphanage we visited was amazing. It pretty much looked like a private school complex in the U.S. but with 600 Haitian children. The story behind how it started is awesome. Pretty much a lady named Danita visited Haiti on a mission trip, saw the need for an orphanage and moved back about a year later by herself and set up shop. She started out with 3 children and is now up to 600. All the facilities are top notch with an excellent school program. While their location, access to resources, setting etc. is much different than the orphanage in Ft. Liberte. The orphanage in Ft. Liberte provides an incredible, life-changing opportunity for so many children but like with any major project you must always look to the future and examine how you can improve. Visiting the orphanage in Ouaneminthe definitely provided us all with many dreams/ideas for what the future of the King’s Orphanage could be. You could see in Annette’s eyes that she was thinking up so many possible ideas for the King’s Orphanage. I have no doubt that more amazing things are still to come.
A quick story about our time spent at Danita’s Children Orphanage. We started out by getting a tour of the facilities as a group. Somehow Jarrod, Emily, Lee, and I got separated from everyone else. My best guess as to how this happened was that we were goofing around and playing with kids instead of paying attention to the tour. I am so glad the tour left us because what happened next was pure madness. All of a sudden we find our selves outside of the church with about 30 kids surrounding each of us. We tried to move into the church thinking they wouldn’t all rush in…WRONG! Almost every one of them followed us in to the door and started running around like crazy, swarming us. It was the most fun I have had in a long time. Just imagine trying to walk around with about 10 Haitian children hugging you while another 15 to 20 children hug the ones who are hugging you! You aren’t going anywhere.
Hearing the children laugh and yell, seeing the joy on their face was such an experience. Being surrounded by such honest joy grabs hold of your heart and doesn’t let go.
Those children, filled with hope and love, are the future of a nation that is in need of those very things: hope and love.
Pray for those children, that they rise up and lead their nation.
Pray that as they get older hope and love isn’t filled with apathy and greed.
Pray for those children.
Here is a look at one of the huge playgrounds...
Here are some the kids singing...They loved to perform...
These kids love to have their picture taken!
And as you can see, they don't mind getting close up on the camera!
Emily getting mobbed by the kids...This was hilarious...Oh ya, and while I took this picture of her I had the exact same thing happening to me...CRAZY!
Jarrod & Emily with a gang of Haitians
Ok, I love this picture...This girl made some of the craziest faces!
