Sunday, Dec. 23rd

My team left by 12:30pm, and I took a taxi back to HFC. In the afternoon, the kids went to chapel with Sister Finit, and then to "counseling" with Tati Guirlaine. Tati Guirlaine is a wonderful woman who is friends with Dr. Bernard and has been visiting the kids for a few years. She recently left Haiti to work and study in Canada, but before she left, she had weekly meetings with the older kids to talk about life issues, celebrate birthdays, and just hear how they are doing. In many ways, she was the first intern and the kids love her, especially the boys. They were excited to have her back in Haiti for Christmas because she visited them several times during her vacation. On this particular day, she talked with the kids about the importance of saving sex for marriage and waiting on serious relationships until they are older. I was impressed by how she discussed the topic, assuring them that the attraction they have to the opposite sex is normal, but that acting on it now is not healthy or godly.

After the counseling, we all stayed on the roof for a while, just chatting about the future. Nikki is hoping to return to Haiti to work with a nearby mission for 3 years starting this summer, and like me, she would love to see our older kids helping in some way. We joked with the boys that after they all become professional soccer players and earn millions of dollars, they will have to support the work that she and I are doing in Haiti. We also talked more seriously about trying to get them assisting at the clinic where I worked or with the school that Nikki may be running.

My favorites moments of the day were spent running around with Nadia and little Edeline, getting photos of NLL babies for their adoptive parents. I had never spent much time with Nadia, but we were together a lot on this trip and she really impressed me with her simple loyalty to all of us interns and by her willingness to help me with anything I asked. I also finally got a quality talk with Emmanuel. As we were relaxing on the roof, he came over to me and started begging me for some food because he was hungry. I gave in and we went down to my room to eat something. Emmanuel started talking openly about random, unimportant topics, but talking, nonetheless. 10 minutes later, the nannies called for the boys to cross to their house and Emmanuel left. As he did, I realized he had only eaten 3 peanuts in that whole time. Obviously, it wasn't food that he had been after; it was one-on-one time with me.

And the quote of the day: As I was handing out gifts to the boys, Drisk grabbed me by the arm. "We're just happy that you're here. That's enough gift for us."