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| Youvelande, Jeffly, and Kervenson enjoying their fan spray toy thingy. It's hot in Haiti! |
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| Gazpacho is doing well and loves his Haitian mango. |
I have officially been in Haiti for a month yesterday! I can't say every day has been good, but I have been blessed along the way and know every trial I face brings me closer to Christ and to being the person he designed for me to be. As usual, I do not have a day by day account of the days since my last post, but I will try and share as many highlights as I can remember.
Last Tuesday, I believe, I had the opportunity to visit what we call "Sisters of Charity". This is a hospital associated with Mother Teresa's ministry. The hospital is located about 15 minutes from CLS, walking distance. The hospital is designed to help malnourished children become healthy again in a setting where mothers and fathers may still visit the child. Visitors are allowed to help each day with feeding the babies there. There are basically three rooms, each with around twenty five cribs in them. Most of the babies look the way you would assume a malnourished baby would look. Most were did not look the age they were due to sickness or malnutrition. The staff of the hospital prepares a porridge type mixture, which actually smelled really sweet and pretty good if you ask me, to feed to the babies. We are allowed to go into the rooms and to pick up, hold, and love on the babies as much as we wanted. Upon entering the room with the babies that "were showing signs of improvement", I was immediately drawn to a beaming, almost two year-old boy named Redando. Oh my goodness, was he precious. I held him the entire time I was there, probably over an hour. I just could not bear to put him down because when you did, he would cry. :( Feeding him was such a blessing to me and something I enjoyed doing. It reminded me of how lucky I was to have a mother and father who were able to take care of me. So many children in Haiti and in the world do not. I prayed for him and continue to think about him daily. My heart wants to see him again when I go back to "Sisters", as we call it. However, I dearly would love if he was well and able to go back home to his family. If you ever visit CLS or Port-au-Prince, you should make time to stop by this ministry. I had never experienced anything like it before.
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| On Tuesday, after I was sick, I got to go to the Apparent Project. They have the best tropical smoothies and it is one of my "happy places" in Haiti. The artisans have a special place in my heart because they helped me get to Haiti. |
This week has been busy busy busy with summer school! My first day did not start off so well, as I woke up sick and was in bed all day. :( Gladly though, I was able to rest well Monday night and teach Tuesday and the rest of the week. I am teaching English to a class of 12 sixth and seventh grade students. The overall goal of summer school at CLS this year is to improve the English of the students in the upper grades (6-11). We are learning lots of vocabulary, practicing grammar, and reading James and the Giant Peach. I'm trying to incorporate science in as much as I can, however, it's more challenging that I thought to do this. I taught my students what a "Bucket List" was and we completed those. They made the greatest lists! Most wanted to glorify God, take care of their families, change Haiti, and one students even wanted to meet his grandson! I also made my first bucket list, which was actually harder and more depressing than I thought it would be. :)
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| Four of my girls and their James and the Giant Peach advertisement. |
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| A typical school lunch at CLS. |
I really do teach a good group of students though. They are extremely smart and speak English well. It is only the first week and I am already running out of steam since I'm not teaching in the usual environment that I am used to. However, my help from the Lord arrived today! Denise, a kindergarten teacher, with much more experience teaching ready arrived in Haiti today and I am anxious to work with her in planning rich, engaging lessons for the class.
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| I was so happy to be better on Tuesday! It was too hard being sick in bed all day. I missed the kids! |
It was also a little bummed out day today because I lost my two awesome teaching assistants, Megan and Kathleen. They were so much help to me and even had to fill in and teach on the first day because I was laid up in bed. I will miss them so much, but am thrilled that Kelsey, who I met last summer, is here to help me for the remainder of summer school! She is a sweetheart, just like her mother Tammy.
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| My teaching assistants, Kathleen and Megan! |
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| Mislene helps me everyday after class to clean by chalkboard. Have I mentioned how much I hate chalk and chalkboards? |
I would like to thank you for your prayers, not only for me physically, but spiritually as well. The devil is alive and well here, as always, and he loves to try and get me down, depressed, and distracted by things that should not be occupying my time, mind, or heart. However, God reminds me daily of why I am here in Haiti. It always comes back to the kids. We cannot and will not save all of the children in Haiti. That is not our job. However, we can only help those that God puts in front of our eyes. A quote I love to be reminded of says, "Do for one, what you wish you could do for all of them". That is exactly the way I feel about the children here at Christian Light School, both in the children's home and the school. We can make a difference for each of them. Maybe not the same difference in each of their lives, but we can have an impact on them for the good. My friend Megan painted this picture for us in devotion one night. Doing mission work is like putting together a puzzle. It has to be done piece by piece and not one piece is more or less important than any other piece. That is why we are doing. Putting in pieces of the puzzle that is the lives of the children we touch. I am most thankful every day that I am able to play a, albeit, minor role in their lives. I thank God for it every day. I know I have probably left out lots of things I wanted to say, but I've said it once and I'll say it again. You cannot remember and write about every precious, beautiful moment you have. There just aren't even hours in the day for it! :) Love you all. Please continue to pray as summer school progresses!
Ashleigh
PS: Katy Harris left today too. We are all reeeaaaaallllly going to miss her! We love you Katy!
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| The one and only Katy Harris. This was our last visit to our oasis (the coffee shop) and our last time running for our lives across airport road. |
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| Happy July 4th! |
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| Kervenson, Yyvenson, Gyvenson, Vidlon, and Patrick after their last day of VBS with the Kansas team. They had so much fun. We are thankful for the many groups that come in and invest time with our children! |
