Buddies

Wislandie and Christine

Jaco and Erin - he was hugely popular with the girls on my team. I have to take a little credit for it, though. Jacques normally does not talk to Americans unless they talk to him first, so I gave him the little nudge that he needed to get over himself and talk! I brought the team into his room and told them that Jacques is a blooming genius who speaks English perfectly. Within 10 minutes they were chatting like old friends and Jacques was very proud of himself. Hopefully he'll be more confident in his language skills after this experience.

Amy and Charline - Charline found Amy on our first day at the orphanage and never left her side. They had a lot of fun trying to communicate by sign language.

Fabiola (with Elsa and Ellie) was another one with whom my entire team fell in love. They could not get over how beautiful she is, how caring she is with the little kids, and how quickly she became affectionate with them. Fabiola gave the good-bye speech on behalf of the girls and cried openly.

Erin with Guerdine, Nelcia, Beana, and Jeanine

Another surprise - Kattia actually made friends with the Americans and let her photo get taken. Amazing!

Amy with Charline, Lovely, and Merline Jean

Emily and Fabiola at church

Hanging out with the girls at the seminary while the boys play basketball

Back in November, Elsa chose Bernadin as her kid to sponsor with a Christmas gift. She chose him because he was the only one whose name sounded familiar, probably because I talk about him all the time. When we played the "decorate the Americans" game, he was the only one that decorated her. In fact, he was the only boy over the age of 10 that did any decorating. My girls raved about him for days - how handsome he is, his smile, how he does everything Kez tells him to do...

Once again, the famous Jaco with his new friends

Emily was a big hit with many of the kids because she is so energetic and loving. Nehemie was glued to her the whole time, and Job and Fabiola joined her by the last day. Before she left, Job took a Santa hat and wrote "EMILY" on the white part of it. He wore it all day and now it's floating around the boys' house, being worn by a different kid each day.

Erin with Guerdine

Stephanie Jeannis became Erin's best buddy on the trip. Don't they look like they have identical smiles in this photo?

Before we arrived in Haiti, I had been concerned that my team would not really enjoy the orphanage because the HFC girls can be very moody and catty when they choose to be, and the boys can pretend very successfully to not understand a word of English. But as you can see, by the time my team left on Saturday evening, they had bonded tightly with many of the kids. Christine, in particular, cried for 10 minutes after saying good-bye to little Wislandie. My goal is to have them so badly infected with the Haiti bug that they will keep visiting and supporting the children of Haiti.