As I mentioned last week, the rest of our children were off to school this past Monday. It was a little busy getting 52 children off to school! But, we managed to do it! We are very thankful that the 2 schools have 2 different starting times. It makes mornings here run a little smoother than they probably would if everything was at the same time. The children for MOHI's school are up, showered, dressed, fed, and leave the building by 6:40 at the latest. Then the next group enters the dining room and eats before their departure for school around 7:20. It's a very busy hour or so, but we are beginning to settle into our routine. I have even begun my own morning routine. Our MOHI kids walk to school, and as most of you know we have quite the hill to walk down! To make up for my lack of exercise, I have started walking the kids to school. Not only is this a fantastic workout for me, walking down and up the hill daily, but also it allows me some more time to spend with the kids in the community. I enjoy these walks to school with the children that go to MOHI. And now when they complain about walking up or down the hill, I can say that I do it too so they have no reason to complain to me! After I return to Be Like Brit, likely in a sweat due to the usual temperature in the 70s at that time of day, I will make sure that our children who go to St. Francois are all cooperating with their morning routine. Once they are finished, we load the bus with the children and head off to school where they are to arrive for 7:45. We get all 25 of them into their classrooms and head back to the very quiet house. The first morning with all of the kids at school was a little strange for me, as I have never been at BLB before when the children have been in school. Last week with half of our children still here, it hadn't set in what it would be like when they were all at school. These morning hours while the children are at school allow me to focus during some uninterrupted work time.
While I have enjoyed being able to focus on these uninterrupted mornings, there was one morning this week when I was gladly interrupted. On Wednesday evening, we welcomed 3 new siblings into our home. Dave (7), Isemylove (5), and Blanco (3) came to us from the mountains behind Be Like Brit. So when Thursday morning rolled around, they hadn't been enrolled in school yet, so I got to spend some quality time with our 3 newest additions. Thursday afternoon we enrolled Dave, Isemylove and Blanco in school and they attended on Friday morning. Upon their return from school, the children change their clothes right away. I went to check on these 3 specifically to see how their day was. It was one of the most incredible feelings when Dave came running up to me and jumped into my arms with the biggest smile on his face! It's the moments like these that remind me of the difference that is being made in the lives of these now 55 children. Emotional for sure but some of the greatest emotion that can be had.
Another monumental moment this week was the long awaited arrival of Petit Bruno! Petit Bruno is the son of Britney's bulldog Bruno. In Creole, "petit" means little or child of Bruno. Petit Bruno was brought to Haiti by Cherylann and Sue. Sue is the breeder that made it possible for Bruno to breed and therefore possible for our children in Haiti to have Petit Bruno here with them. Cherylann and Sue spent a bunch of time acclimating the dog to his new home and setting up the surroundings for him. We also made sure to give the children some directions about the dog such as appropriate ways to act with him and not to share their lollipops with him! They are so generous, but we don't want them to be too generous! Cherylann also spent some time showing Sue around to see some of the places the Britsionary groups normally go for afternoon excursions. It was a busy morning, but we wanted Sue to see Haiti! Sue was a Britsionary way back at the construction stages of BLB so she was amazed and happy to see in person all of the progress since the last time she was here. We'd like to extend a big "THANK YOU" to Sue and her husband Ray for all they have done!!!
I've also had some new experiences in Haiti this week. We had to bring one of our children to the hospital to have some tests done. (Don't worry, all is fine!) But this was a new experience for me! I hadn't been to the hospital here before, thankfully, and I am happy to say that it wasn't as long a process as I had expected it to be. We waited for maybe a half an hour in a dark hallway, as there was no power at the time. After waiting, the doctor checked out our child, prescribed some tests and some medicine and we were on our way. A relatively painless process considering that I have heard stories of waiting hours to be seen by a doctor in Haiti. I also got to experience the bank, as I needed to open an account here in order to eventually obtain my "Permis de Sejour" or Residence Permit for Haiti. It took Jonathan 18 months to obtain his permit. This will allow me to remain in Haiti over the 90 days that is allowed with a U.S. passport. So Gama, Michele and I headed to the bank on Saturday morning. We waited close to an hour to sit with the service representative. She then had me fill out all the required paperwork by hand to then put it all into the computer. This was another 30-minute process. But finally, I left with my new account passbook in hand! Onto the next task required to obtain my Permis de Sejour!
Yesterday we had the arrival of the Solar team, here to install our solar panels!!! This is such an exciting step to help us reach our goal of self-sustainability. They got right to work early this morning! I can't wait to see the end result later this week! Stay tuned.
Another thing we are all looking forward to later this week is the return of Jonathan! The children had asked me so many times how many days until he comes back, so being the teacher I am, we made a paper chain to count down the days! They are all anxiously waiting his return! We know for sure the children will give him a great welcome upon his return... I'll have to make sure we have someone standing behind him to catch him when the waves of children go running toward him!
Whenly and Daphney check to see how many more days until Jonathan comes back!
As always, thank you for reading and thank you for continuing to spread the word so that we can help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit!
