To the beach

The kids are going to the beach on Saturday! The team from Andover Free Christian church that is currently visiting the orphanage has raised the money to send them all to the beach, the first trip of 2008. Originally, they were going to go on Sunday but Claudette didn't think the kids should miss church. Of course, Dr. Bernard doesn't want them to miss school, so they are going on Saturday. The Andover team leaves on Thursday so they won't be able to go with the kids, which is sad for both Americans and kids; regardless, the kids are super excited. I'll have the whole story for you next week.

Daniel's birthday was January 20th, Emmanuel's was January 25th, and Stev's was January 26th. They were special birthdays for all of them. Bill Henson, a member of the board and friend of HFC, visited the orphanage last weekend to spend time with the kids, especially the birthdays boys. It was a special treat for them. I talked with Emmanuel on the evening of his birthday. He said it might have been his best birthday ever. His birth mom who lives near the orphanage and makes her living doing odd jobs there (like washing my laundry) gave him a bottle of cremas, a Haitian drink made with coconut. In the evening, Bryn showed the kids a movie and gave them candy. I like to think that my call in the evening added to his enjoyment of the birthday, but he said something about the evening being good at the beginning and bad at the end. He also told me that I said something to make him mad in my last phone call, but he wouldn't tell me what. Oh, boy. If there is one thing that drives me crazy, it's when those kids tell me I've made them mad but won't tell me why. All I could get out of him was that it's something that he both appreciates and does not appreciate. What exactly does that mean? Of course, knowing Emmanuel, the whole thing could have just been an act to make me say "I love you" a few extra times. I'll talk to him in a day or two and see if I can drag anything other bits of truth out of him.

Speaking of Emmanuel, he has asked me to take him to Cap Haitien because that is where he was born. He has told me several times that he thinks Haiti is not beautiful, but he agrees with me that what he really means is that Port-au-Prince is not beautiful. If he could only see more of Haiti's countryside, I think he would be amazed by the beauty of Haiti. I told him that I would try to take him there someday. Maybe that's why he is mad at me. He hates it when I don't give him straight "Yes" or "No" answers, but I am just not going to promise to take the boy on a trip across the country.

Drisk's team won 2 games of soccer on Wednesday and he scored. I joked that I'm a way better soccer player than him and he laughed like crazy. C'mon, I scored twice in my 5 months in Haiti. That clearly makes me better than him! Richecarde somehow got hit in the eyes with a shoe that was thrown in the dark by Bernadin (the way these kids amuse themselves, I mean honestly!), and Wilson told me that sometimes he steals Jacques' towel when he's showering so the boy has to run up to his room in the nude or stay in the shower and plead for mercy. Kattia actually spoke English when Nikki's mom called to talk with her, and Stephanie has been showing everyone the photo I sent her of me, her and our little baby Stanley. The girls were really excited because Kerline called from Spain to talk with them. According to Martine, her voice has gotten prettier, she is more interesting and she still speaks Creole just fine. They asked her to demonstrate some Spanish for them and all she said was "Hola" which made them all giggle. They giggle a lot.