Hello from Haiti! It is now 6:00pm here and we are getting ready for dinner! We got to the Mole at about 1:00am this morning! Though that may seem like a long day (and it was) it definitely was expected to be much worse. We left Atlanta at 12:20, arrived to Port au Prince at 2:20 and got to the bus at about 3:20. We left Port au Prince at 3:50 to begin our long trek to the Mole.
Our bus was ‘Patrick’ and was nothing short of awful. We began with good attitudes and great spirits that lasted as long as the paved roads (3 hours). Then we were greeted with bumpy roads that probably shouldn’t be considered as roads. The bus was loud and sounded like it was going to fall apart at any second. It got dark around 6:00pm and thankfully no one got sick!! Everyone stayed healthy and we stopped for two bathroom breaks.
In the back 4 seats of the bus were 100 chickens that were supposed to be tied up and in boxes. But like a lot of things in Haiti, our plans don’t always work out. After tying up about 4 chickens, the rest were wandering around, blocked only by the seat cushion on the ground. At about the 6th hour of the journey the chickens became restless. They began to escape their area and walk under the bus seats. Pretty soon we heard Troy say, “It’s a chicken!” and we all screamed as KJ picked it up and tossed it back 2 rows. This continued for the rest of the bus ride.
When we finally made it to the Mole we were greeted with many Christmas lights and all the staff members and Castillo kids! We ate a big plate of Haitian spaghetti and showered and went to bed. This morning we slept in a little bit and went to church late. I went to children’s church along with Kaley, Hannah, KJ, Tim, and Jordon. We watched a movie and played hot potato and colored!
After church we ate lunch and had downtime until orientation at 2. Most girls took a nap during this time. Once orientation was done, we walked around the Mole and went to the beach for a few hours! The beauty always amazes me. We watched the sunset, played with crabs, and the boys swam! Now we are getting ready for dinner! Please keep praying for good health and that God does incredible things through us on this trip. Specifically pray for Jeanella as she is still overcoming her sickness.
Tomorrow we start our conferences so please pray the children are open and excited to hear what God is ready to tell them! Thank you all for praying for us, it means so much!
Love, Mikayla Minnick and Kaley Breault
P.S. Don’t forget to comment, we love hearing Jody read them!
****From Bowling Green
Bonswa from Mole Saint Nicholas, Haiti. We arrived yesterday morning at the airport and went to a hotel to relax and wait for the other group to arrive. We got to eat our first Haitian meal with our interpreter Andre. The other group arrived about 5 hours later and we got on the bus to ride from Port au Prince to the Mole.
The first few hours on the bus were enjoyable and eventful with chickens in the back, paved roads, loud Haitian music, and accompanied with about 20 other people. We got to see beautiful villages and people along the way and got to experience Haitian traffic for the first time, which was very interesting and hectic to say the least. We made frequent stops dropping people off and picking others up. Then the next six hours came about with small dirt roads winding up, down and around the mountains. These hours in the dark were not as enjoyable as the first 3-4. On about the 5th hour we made our first experience using the restroom on a dark Haitian beach, which was a struggle.
We finally arrived about 1:00 in the morning and got settled in by about 2:00. After showering, doing our devotionals and getting into bed we slept for the most we had in about 40 hours.
This morning we woke up at about 9:00 to get ready for children’s church where we listened to the Christmas story, colored, and watched a short film the birth of Jesus.
After children’s church we ate lunch at around 11:30, we had rice and a mixture of vegetables. When lunch was over we went to the orphanage to play with the orphans. The orphans are the most loving, caring children I have ever met. The minute they see you walking up to them they start running to you with arms open wanting you to hold them and spend time with them, and not wanting to let you go when you have to leave.
After playing with the orphans for a couple hours we came back to the cafeteria for dinner, we had hotdogs and egg dumplings with a spicy-coleslaw like side. We now have a few more hours to spend before bed and get an early start with street ministry in the morning.
Much love, Emily Swiney and Lydia Armstrong
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