Rooted- Day 5

Hello!

This is Luke writing today. It’s the Satur-day. Haha Today was “and still is” a fun day. I’ll tell you all about it! So, I woke up nice and early after everybody else. I got all my things ready last night so I can do that easily. =) Then I walked across to the bathrooms to go Pea Pods (shout out!) The bathrooms are right next to the orphanage housing area so it’s nice to say goooood morning to them. I say goooood morning just like that. Then I walked to the breakfast, lunch, dinner, common area, thing where we had our morning devotional lead by Erinn. It’s great to start every day with a morning devotional and I’d like to contenue the habbit back home. The other day when I lead devotional, I had to do a good amount of “research” into the topic I wanted to cover and found myself really exploring the Word more than expected. So cool! We then had breakfast! Breakfast is always my favorite meal of the day and today was especially good because it was cinnamon rolls! I put Jelly on mine with the gooey white sugar frosty stuff too. After breakfast we cruised on over to the Pharmacy building that we’ve been building ontop of all week. It’s truly incredible to see the progress this building makes every day. As we walk over the pile of broken coconuts from our real life fruit ninja it was nice to see no more giant piles of rocks and sand because our bucket ninja skills moved all of that to the top of the building. Oh and real life fruit ninja… awesome. Yesterday when we found the mechetti the entire crew laughed and enjoyed our enjoyment of the coconut destruction. Fresh coconut water by the way is the best thing after getting sweat in my eyes. Today’s work on the building was to get more sand to the top of the building by our telephone bucket brigade. The shovelers say something and without them knowing I would tell the line and the message would be relayed to the top. Yay for random phrases “shoveling for Jesus, ,reps on reps for Jesus, huh huh hurarrr, permission to launch the bucket, this bucket is heavy, Luke is a good bucket placer” and much more. Today the frame for the two bathrooms were laid out and we all had our good fun pretending to use them. You know, like showering and Pea Podding (another shout-out). The team was to a good stopping place fairly early on so we all got ready for sports camp. I was almost late to sports camp because I was watching a gieco gecko in the bathroom be yellow and greenish. I ran across the field to Zach (he waited for me) and the rest of the crew as we went into the town plaza for sports camp! So sports camp means we have balls and Frisbees and the entire town like to play. I thought we should play kickball with the soccer ball but then it was all like nawh… that’d be hard to explain how to play. There is a really big Olympic sized soccer field of dirt one game started and I played golie!… on the baby field next to the big one. I lucked out because my golie box had a shade tree! We played where after every goal, the losers switched out and the winners kept the field. I was a loser at first but then I got on the 3^rd team in and held the field! Soccer is intense here and I feel like a cheater for having shoes…. But I see no rulebook saying otherwise. Then I played a bit of basketball and lost.. all the time. I lose at basketball all the time haha it’s a stature thing I’m sure. So I sat under the shadetree and some kiddos recognized me from last night from slaps. Slaps is the game where you put your hands out palms down and the other person puts their hands out palms up against yours and flips super super fast before you pull away. They are good. They are really good. And the slaps will hurt the 5^th time. Today however, I did not want to slaps. Not at all. Oh and middle Blog… Happy mothers Day tomorrow! Woot woot thanks mom and my friend’s moms! Okay back to blog… sports camp was great and the shadtree was too! We then walked back to the breakfast, lunch, dinner, common area, thing where we had hotdogs and French fries. No buns and the fries were green! Dustin, David and I then walked through the town. We walked and walked and truly explored the area. Kids recognized us as we walked and others didn’t. One showed us the inside of a church across town that had only 1 window and looked to be abandoned long ago and smelt really bad. When we were walking alongside one of the streets “jumping out of the way of mopeds.. haha one group of guys yelled to us.. “hey we have question… why you so short?” haha it was laughable and being short is something that is universal. We walked along the beach a bit and through town and finally back to campus for Beach day with the orphans! We all got burnt.. really burnt. Well at least I did. The beach is amazing as it is but with little kids thinking you are a shark it’s a bit more interesting. I had a single braided hair bun thing on the top of my head… just like a real shark. Many of the children climb on our backs all the time…. We are ladders for them. And horses. And cars. And planes. And today, we were boats! The sun is still soaking in my skin though it has set. We are all watching Planes Fire & rescue now with the orphans. It’s a good movie for sure. =) I think they like it too. So… for now I bid you all farewell! Thank you for the Prayers! God works wonders.

Mr. Luke Harper Prince

Bonjour, Bonswa, or Bonwit!

I don’t know how to follow a blog like that, but here I am! It’s Darcy here. God has been revealing things to me like crazy! But first of all, let’s talk about my thoughts throughout the day. Woke up at 7:15, like any other morning and came straight to the cafeteria for our morning devotional (today it was Erinn) before breakfast at 8:00. For the record, I’m from Alaska. I ALWAYS sleep with a blanket… even if it’s hot. But here in the Mole, it is border-line unbearably hot. This trip is the first time in my life I’ve ever slept without a blanket. I sleep with the least clothes on as possible with no blanket and a somewhat cold water bottle next to me and still wake up one to two times a night because I’m so hot. HOLY MOLE, it is HOT here. I have never been in a hotter place in my entire life. With that being said, let’s get back. After Erinn’s devotional we all ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast then went to construction, today is day four on construction! Yesterday, one of the workers brought us coconuts and we ate/ drank fresh coconut/ coconut milk. It was awesome. So you know how I told you I was hot when I slept? Imagine being in the direct sunlight for hours on end. My tan lines are pretty awesome (; Next, we went to the town square which is really just a big open area with a dirt soccer field and a basketball court and we brought basketballs, soccer balls (the Haitian kids’ favorite) jump ropes and nail polish and painted the nails of a few of the girls of the community. I personally played basketball with a few Haitian’s and a few members from Rooted. It was HOT, but I’ve grown pretty used to the heat here now. For instance, I’m wearing a dress that goes to my ankles with a long sleeve cardigan and am not sweating! This time on the first day all of us were dripping sweat… haha, at tonight’s devotional we all talked about how we are all adapting to the heat here, and how when we go back to America we will freeze our double rears (Dawn’s southern way of saying booty) off. ANYWAYS, after the sports camp, we came back to the base and ate hot dogs and fresh french fries for lunch (12:00). Then we had a few hours to kill before the beach with the kids here at the orphanage, so my friend Collin and I attempted (succeeded is a big word) hats made out of Palm tree leaves! It was a struggle but let’s just say it’s a work in progress 🙂 Then comes THE BEACH! On the very first day, we had about an hour to spend with the kids, just to hangout and play and love. The first kid who jumped into my arms was Mark. He is the quietest but cuddliest little boy I’ve ever met in my life. He doesn’t talk much… or at all, really. Even as I’ve been practicing my Kreole and learning tons and asking him phrases, he almost never responds. He and I are best friends 🙂 On day three of hanging out with Mark, he finally answered one of my questions! I said, “Mark, kilaje ou?” which means, “How old are you?” and he responded “Sis.” Mark is six years old!!! How great it was to hear him talk to me. Today, when we all met up before the beach, Mark found me in the crowd (as usual) and jumped on my shoulders. I carried him to the beach, put him down (only once) to take my shoes off then into the ocean we went! As I was standing in the ocean with Mark asleep in my arms, I realized a few things. Oi, in America we have a lot of stuff and a lot of food, but stuff and food do not equal happiness. God has really been speaking to me lately on how selfish we Americans can get. On the ride here on Patrick the Bus, I obviously soon realized a huge difference. People here don’t care about materialistic things that Americans do. They don’t care how their car or motorcycle looks, just as long as it gets them from point a to point b. They don’t care how their clothes or shoes look, they just have to cover their skin from the sun and protect their feet. They don’t care how much stuff they have, they are grateful for everything. God has really made it obvious to me exactly how little they have but are still happy and welcoming. I wake up every morning and pass at least three Haitians and say “Bonjour!” and every single one of them say “Bonjour” back with a huge smile. Walking down the streets in town, I can pass an old man, a young man, or a tired & working man, and all will always smile and say “Bonjour” back, without a doubt. Being here and praying to God very often has really made me realize what the book of Ecclesiastes means. Everything on this world is meaningless. The church here is an old army tent, but there can be up to 100 people in there simply to worship our King. 100! That is absolutely incredible. Looks don’t matter, nothing matters, except our King. The fact that there are some churches around America that are getting shut down because they don’t look good enough or the music isn’t loud enough really blows my mind. Loving Jesus is all that matters! Loving Jesus is all some people have. Loving Jesus is what makes people genuinely happy. That is what matters. On that note, I am going to finish watching a movie with Mark, Magdalie, and Pierreson. I would like to wish a very happy mothers day to Mama Val, who is simply the best mother (and grandmother to Lyo) I could have ever wished for. I thank God every single day (if not twice a day) for making her my mother. I love you Mama! (Aloso, thank you TONS for Hawaii, can’t wait to talk with you about it!!! Oh, praise Jesus for providing). Mama, please have an amazing day, eat lots of caramel, and give Lyo lots of hugs and kisses for me. Love from Haiti! Also, shoutout to my dad Johnny, I miss you and hope you’re doing well. Can’t wait to hear your hilarious stories about work. And to Josh & Tenika: I love you man. Wassup Josh! Hey Clifford! Love you bro! Hey Grandma Babe! Stay safe, I love you tons! Also Bauer, be a good boy. Lexii, wassup cuz 🙂 And, of course, Lyukae. I love you with my whole heart and may God be with all of you. I can’t wait to talk to all of you on Thursday! Mwen remen ou! Jezi remen ou!

P.S. Mom, tell the fam to check out this blog. The photos are awesome. God is awesome. Loving the comments, keep ‘em coming! I love you! <3

Darcy Larae Peter

—————————————————————————————————————————–

NOTE: Please continue to leave comments for the team! They love hearing from you each evening!