Haiti: The Last Days and Heading Home

     All right, we've reached the final post on Haiti! These are pictures of two house dedications and the trip home.

 Hannah and Taylor

 Sarah, Jacob, Abby, Hannah, and Holly in the "Americanized" tap-tap

Don't they look great? ;)

 The amazing view from the house that another team had worked on.

You could see the ocean, mountains, and everything in between!

 That's the island that we had the chance to go to on a Sunday earlier in the week.

 The hill to the house was a little steep though!

 This is what the house that we worked on looked like! It only needed a roof and it would be complete! (I don't know if they added a door or not...)

 The woman, son, and daughter are the one's who received the house, with them is one of the translators and our group leader.

 All of us who helped out with building their new home!

Sarah and Brianna playing cards in our free time.

 Back at the airport at 6 AM.

 Yeah, we were tired and had some time to sleep!

 Nicole, Joia, Nathan, and Hannah spending our last hours together before we go our separate ways.

 Hannah, Hannah, and I (we were always seat buddies) on the plane leaving Haiti.

 Mitchell, Abbey, and Austin (they're siblings) sat behind us

Of course the beautiful airplane shots. (I was sooo happy we got to see a couple sunsets in the air!)

     So that was the trip! Haiti brought so many emotions and memories. Seeing the people and the work God has done in the past years, transforming a country that had mainly practiced Vodou into joyous Christians all around, and also seeing how much work has been done since the earthquake in 2010, was amazing!  I would go back in second if I had the opportunity, though I would also like to explore other countries and cultures too. Thanks for bearing with me through all nine posts of Haiti, I posted them mainly so I could look back and remember more detailed memories, but I also wanted to share this trip with you. :)

-Emma :D

Haiti: Another Day at the Compound

 Okay, when I did that last post, I forgot that there were more pictures of us working! Haha, this was Thursday, our second to last day in Haiti, I cleaned pipes, pulled weeds, and washed tables!

The seventh full day of being in Haiti!

 Sarah and Brianna look a little tired getting out supplies :)

 Sarah was cleaning the pipes and gluing them in the new children's home

 Clean, glue, move the ladder  *repeat*

 There was also a group painting the bathrooms

 Sadie, Nicole, Abbey, and Hannah

 Taking a break

We also went to the "market" that afternoon. Lifeline would invite some trusted people to come and sell their items to us! You could try and bargain with them, but I'm not really the type to bargain :), though I know others in the group got some really good deals by bargaining. I really regret not bringing my camera to capture all the people with their items laid out.

 Here's some of the stuff Hannah and I got. Once I got home, my dad helped me make a frame for the painting so we could staple it on and now it's like a canvas painting!

 Sadie with her mask :)

 Day number eight!

 We acted out Noah's ark for a new program that Lifeline had recently started. Here's Abby with her leaf (she was the dove).

 These are the kids, running to find a seat :) We left after we did our skit and listened to some of their songs and listen (of which we could not understand)  :).

 Once we got back, we cleaned the patio and kitchen chairs and tables.

 We set them out to dry in the sun and they were pretty dry within fifteen minutes!

 Hosing down the tables

 Abby, Hannah, Hannah, Abbey

(Haha, the name doubles within our group! Well, there were also two Matt's, two Nicole's, two Nathan's and two Maddie's!)

(PS. I don't even know what Hannah is doing :))

-Emma :D

Haiti: Working Around the Compound

     While we were in Haiti, we weren't always out and about the community, a couple of days some groups would stay behind and help get odd jobs done around the compound while others went out and did home visits or layettes. Some of the things everyone did included: painting railings, the new children's home, the gate, and wooden boards, digging a trench to re-route some pipe line, cleaning pipes and adding support to the pipes in the children's home, raking leaves, pulling weeds, washing tables, and I'm sure there was more!

Day 6 in Haiti!

Abby and I helped Carol add a second layer of blue to these boards

This is called: rubbing gasoline on yourself to get the paint off. It worked, but we smelled so nice after getting the paint off ;)

Yay, pretty blue boards!

     Oh, and here was a toddler nutrition program that was going on that day, we would get some food and go off and pray with the person that they called up and give them the food. 

     Also, I didn't get pictures, but after we did layettes, we had a group of six go into a little depo (it was probably the size of whatever room you're sitting in right now :) ) and the Haitians would come in and we would find them two shirts and two pairs of pants and then send them to the shoe depo. It was a bit hard finding the right pant size, you would wrap the waist band around their neck and if it went all the way around, it would fit them, but as I did it I felt like I was choking a guy! And I never found some pants that went all the way around his neck... so I feel really bad if they were too small! But the people were so chill and accepting of whatever we gave them (though we had a couple reject a shirt :) ).

But back to the work day...

Here's the gate that opened to Lifeline! Many would come in and Haitians were always hanging out around the compound area.

Chrissy, Nicole (pictured above), and I got to paint it!

After lunch, Michael joined us to do the other side

Then this was before the Ladies Praise and Worship, we got to take some nice pictures!

Hannah, Taylor, Abby

Sarah and I

Sarah fishtailing Joia's hair..

(Abbey, Sadie, Taylor, Nathan, Sarah, Joia)

..which turned into the braiding train :)

Taylor, Sadie, and Abbey :)

Abby and the Hannah's

And on that t-shirt is the song we sang for the Ladies Praise and Worship. The ladies from another church planned a couple activities for the night. That night we sang, had a couple people give their testimonies, gave a message and did a craft. It was pretty fun. :)

Here's the song:

 

We are family We are family

Working together in Harmony

Lifting up the Savior

For the world to see

 Praise the Lord

We are family

-Emma :)