Sunday, December 11, 2011

Day 5

We were expecting a little over 5,000 kids at today's party. It ended up being a thousand or two more than that. It was kind of hard to count past the first couple hundred. The kids were all excited to be there, and we had a lot of fun interacting with them.

The ladies at the church here were up all night fixing rice and beans, chicken, and pasta so that each child could have a lunch. Pastor Eric went over to watch for a while and was impressed by the efficiency displayed in preparing the chicken. A number of the ladies from our team spent the morning helping to dish up the food into containers for each child. While the kitchen was quite warm they had a great time helping prepare the kid's meals.

The children started arriving around 8am for the party and kept arriving until the early afternoon. The team had a lot of fun playing with the kids. A number of the children also took the stage to provide entertainment by singing or dancing. It was wonderful to see all the talent the children possess.

Towards the end of the morning, the team helped put on a puppet show version of the Nativity story. The show is lead by Marlon and Jerri Migala from the Miami team. The kids always enjoy the puppets, and it's a great way to explain the story of Jesus' birth. The puppet team was comprised primarily of Haitians, but a few of our team members jumped in to fill a couple of roles. Luis, Peggie, and Boyd all enjoyed getting to play a role. Chris Casino and Boyd were also in charge of assembling the puppet stage that was designed and brought by Pastor Eric.
Shortly after the puppet show the kids were dismissed out into the yard to line up and receive their lunch, juice, and gift bag.

As a well deserved break, most of the team then headed up to the Baptist Mission which is up in the mountains. It is much cooler and the air is much clearer up there. Of course most people stocked up on their supplies of Haitian vanilla since it is so delicious.


The portion of the team that stayed behind from the Baptist Mission helped finish passing out gifts to the kids and closing up the party.


Its hard to believe that tomorrow is our last full day in Haiti. We will attend church in the morning and then have our final party at the Boy's Detention Center in Carrefour.


 

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