After a wonderful Easter holiday, the children all finally made their way back to school this past week, and we are anxiously awaiting their report cards due sometime this coming week! The children truly do love the opportunity to go to school; they recognize school as the opportunity and blessing that it is in Haiti - the fact that it is a privilege and not a guarantee or right. Even though our children (at times) can demonstrate an attitude or sense of entitlement when it comes to the day to day, school is one thing they never take for granted, and it is that which they seem to take most seriously. Haitian culture focuses on "3 Ls" - legliz, lekol, la kay (church, school, and home), and we see this in our children and in our staff quite clearly.
As the children headed back to school, I was hopping on a flight to head up to Worcester, MA to attend our Bowling For Brit Fundraiser and a few other meetings. The Bowling For Brit event was held last night, Saturday April 2nd, and we were thrilled to have more than 180 people sign up for this fun, laid back way to get together all in order to raise money for BLB operations down in Haiti. We're blessed to have the support of amazing and incredible people, and it was such a great time to be able to see so many of our former Britsionarys at the event, and to meet many new faces who work so hard to help us help the children of Haiti, but don't actually travel to Haiti themselves! The best part of my travels is meeting those new people and connecting with friends from Haiti, too!
There were far too many people in attendance last night for me to mention all of them, but I thought that many of you who have traveled to Haiti, or for those of you who know our driver and our friend Francky well might just get a kick out of the T-shirts one group in particular had made in his honor...
That's right - TEAM FRANCKY, complete with his image adorned on the front of the shirts! How great is this!? The best part of my night was when I sent a photo of the group to Francky down in Haiti, and watched as he responded with, "Oh my gosh, that is so wonderful, I love you all and where is my shirt?" Haha. Only Francky!
While I am here in Worcester for a few days, we have quite a busy schedule ahead of us! While Len, Cherylann, and I along with the Team in Haiti meet weekly via video-conferencing and Skype, there are often so many interruptions and distractions that getting through a substantive meeting can be a challenge. Internet connection issues in Haiti often play a role in that as well, and we often find ourselves asking "Huh" and "what" more often than we'd like. T
Thus, yesterday morning, I got to sit down with Len and Cherylann in person and really have an incredibly productive meeting for almost 3 hours! I was a bit late, though, and my ever-so-sensitive boss Cherylann did not laugh, nor did she tell the entire BLB Team the reason why. Oh wait, yes she did! I've clearly spent too much time in Haiti, because I was trapped in the parking garage of my hotel for almost 20 minutes! I suppose that is quite hysterical, especially given the line of cars that backed up behind me and blared their horns at me in frustration and anger. Oops!
I did not expect to wake up to this, however!
It has been a wonderful two days here in Worcester so far, and I am looking forward to the rest of my trip and other important visits and meetings! We will be sure to share with you what is new for us as things develop! If you have pictures to share from Saturday night's bowling event, please feel free to share them in the comments section below this posting, or on our wall!
Have a great, wintery weekend!
