This morning we had the opportunity to attend a 6 a.m. worship service at the tent church with the other mission team that is here and staying in the other guest house.
We returned to Citi Soleil for a second day of delivering fresh water from the water truck. We made two stops today. Both times kids started shouting “Hey you.” with smiling faces as we pulled into the area. It was difficult to get out of the tap tap because a few eager kids started tugging on us as they helped us off. They immediately wanted to be held. This is not the same as in the U.S. where we teach our children to stay away and not to touch or hug a stranger.
My heart went out to the girls who appeared to be about 6 or 7 years old who were too old to be picked up in your arms, but still wanted that human touch.
Mostly woman and children brought large 5 gallon buckets, stood in line and then when filled either carry the bucket on their head or carry it. I helped a woman carry a bucket. She and I shared the handle, she held the other hand with a young child and after several steps I noticed that she was pregnant. I felt badly that I could only walk with her to a certain spot and then had to stop.
There seemed to be more naked little boys at our first stop today than on other stops on Tuesday. One bucket had about 4 little boys around it with a mother supervising and scrubbing. Ward noticed a boy who was about 6 years old using water to take a bath. He then washed his little brother who was maybe two, followed by about a four year old sister. All were naked which isn’t unusual. How many six year old Waseca kids would do that without a parent around. Everyone on the team can tearfully think of precious little faces that we left. I think of leaving and several kids running behind our tap-tap for several yards as we left the area.
On our first stop this morning we were able to walk down to a pier and watch men fishing and some women sitting on the pier cleaning fish and eel. We also tried to help two men pulling in their fishing nets. After about 30 yards the rope came untied from the net. One of the men said that this happens a lot.
This afternoon we went to Juno’s orphanage about an hour’s drive from the guest house. Juno’s houses about seventeen children from ages of about four to teens. Each student proudly stood and said his/her name. Our goal was to simply provide a fun time for an hour or two. Being from Minnesota we read a book about snow, tried to explain what a snowflake was and brought ice and made snow cones. We don’t think that the kids had ever had snow cones before and that seemed to be the hit of the day. We found out that there is no Creole word for snowflake. Oh well. Popcorn was handed out. Kids were able to make tye-dyed shirts, make bracelets, have their fingernails painted and played football (soccer) and played with punching balloons.
Cassie spent most of the time with sweet little boy named Edmondson who was about four. He was wearing pants that were sized 18 months and they seemed to fit.
Continue to pray and see where God leads us tomorrow.
Ward and Sue
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