Haiti: The First Days

      Once we arrived in Haiti, we loaded most of our group onto a school bus and I think the others went on a truck (there were 49 people from four different groups). And thus began our first look at the roads and cities of Haiti. It was a hot, bumpy ride, by the time we arrived I was sure that I had sweat all over my skirt! (But despite what I first thought, Haiti isn't as hot as you would think, well I guess it is, but there is a really nice breeze making it seem cooler.) Anyway we saw a lot of things on the 2 hour bus ride from Port-Au-Prince to Grand Goave.

 There were markets all over the place!

 Another thing I didn't know about Haiti was that there were lot's of mountains!

I'm pretty sure over half of Haitians make a living selling things. (Like mangoes!)

 In Grand Goave around 90% of the people lived in the mountains, so we only saw a little of their population

(this picture was taken while we were still in Port-Au-Prince though)

 These kids were just a little bit away from the compound

Our first morning waking up in Haiti

 Now this is what I call an "Americanized" tap-tap. It's basically a cage on the back of a truck, then there were benches to sit on. Oh, and a tap-tap is like a Haitian taxi.

 One of the main projects we did was help build a house, here our group was praying before laying the foundation.

 We had a lot of bucket brigades throughout the building process because pretty much everything was done by hand.

 We shoveled and sifted rocks that the Haitians had gotten from the mountains so it could be used for making cement and laying the foundation.

 Sadie and Mrs. Simmons strike a pose :)

These guys carried water from the water pump and would dump it in these buckets.

 More sifting!

 Laying the first of the cement.

 Pumping out the water, this was also where those that lived around here got their water.

We made a lot of new friends.

 They like gambling for rubber bands. :)

 Abbey always had a little girl attached to her.

 Smoothing it out, this guy had great balance!

There was also this nice pig just taking a nap :)

There were animals all over; throughout the course of the trip we saw pigs, goats, dogs, cows, chickens, bunnies, horses, donkeys, and lizards!

More coming soon!

-Emma :D

Mission Trip: Destination? Haiti.

 So about two weeks ago from today, I landed in Haiti for my first mission trip. Ever. I'll post about the trip in multiple posts, because I took like 460 pictures (don't worry, I won't post them all! :) ). I went with a group from our church, and it was directed toward youth, so there were 19 students and 5 adults. We stayed in Haiti with Lifeline Christian Mission for almost a week and a half.

 We were pretty psyched for the trip, all of us had been preparing for the trip since January

 We took five planes over the course of the whole trip

 I was lucky and got a window seat three times!

 We went to Chicago...

 And Miami..

Stayed overnight and then arrived in Port-Au-Prince Haiti the next day

And so the adventure began. :)

-Emma :D

Part Two: S'mores and Fireworks

Selfies with the fire!

The correct way to roast a marshmallow :)

 S'mores= deliciousness

 S'mores= happiness

 S'mores= joy

 The embers!

So cool!

So after having s'mores and cake (yes, we were on a sugar high!) we went to watch fireworks! And I took sooo many pictures, but I narrowed them down to twenty so I could put them in a college :) I tried to get the "finale", but it looked like a blurred fire in the sky (some of the ones in the bottom row are evidence of this).

Ta-Da!!

Have a super wonderful day!!

-Emma :D

Part One: Making the Cake

Happy (late) Independence Day!

My day started off by marching in the parade with our band and then some Chick fil a for lunch. Mmm!

Then, for this 4th of July, my mom decided to make the cake recipe that had been in a recent Parade edition. So she set to it and we now have this huge triple layer cake. Here are some of the pictures of the process!

 

 

 (I thought sticking a baseball would make it look cool :) )

 All baked!

 Now we didn't even the layers out, and it kinda split.. but I would recommend cutting off the curved top. And make sure you have a lot of frosting! This cake used up almost one whole, store bought, container of frosting!

 Then you can stick a flag in it! Or whatever you want :)

See, we put sparklers in it later :)

 Then cut and enjoy!

I hope you all had a good 4th of July! More pictures will be coming :)

-Emma :D