Climbing the hill to the "bench" - a low stone wall that runs along the field.
Drisk and Mikenlove race around the field before the game starts.
I love this kid, but it takes him FOREVER to get his shinguards, socks, and cleats on.
Game in play. The shirtless boy is not one of our boys. Our boys would never be caught dead shirtless in public, especially with me present! His name is Jean Roben; he lives on our street and plays with our boys when they need an extra player.
Around 5pm, coach Manno arrived, so I left the older boys playing and went back to the pension with some of the younger boys. When we arrived at the seminary gate, there was the HFC tap tap and the month's supply of spaghetti, rice, dried herring, garlic, toilet paper, and beans. The little boys immediately made a bee-line for the pile of supplies and without being asked, loaded themselves up!
We got to the orphanage and delivered our load to the store room. The boys were all sweating and panting, but they turned to me with big smiles and asked, "Can we go get another load?" So we walked back up the street to the seminary and shouldered more supplies.
On our way down the second time, the boys were all walking in front of me in a long line. As we came down, 2 men stopped Job and one of the them tried to take a big package of spaghetti from him. "I'll take that for you, pitit," the guy said as he tried to wrestle it from Job and then take off up the hill with his stolen prize. I was right behind Job and I started yelling at the man, so he immediately gave up and walked away. That is the first time that I have seen anyone in Fort Mercredi try to steal something that is destined for the orphanage. The funny thing is that Job was the biggest of the boys in my troupe of workers. The men could have targeted Monsanto or Ernso or TiJude, but they didn't. They went for the biggest and strongest boy and the one who happened to be walking directly in front of me. Did you have something to do with that, God?
Finally! Our month's supply of TP!
The store room filling up
After our labor, I joined Bryn and Christine for more prayer journal decorating with the girls. We had located sequins, glitter, and foam letters by this time, so the girls went crazy. The room was covered with glitter by the time they were done, and so were the girls. They all had it in their hair!
Christine and her baby Wislandy
Fabiola's journal was one of my favorites. She wrote in glitter, "I love you Jesus" on the front of her journal.
Late that evening at the boys' house, Duck and I had a heart to heart on the roof. There had been a near drought in Haiti for over a month and we were on strict water rations. While Duck and I were talking on the roof, it started to rain. Not rain the way it rains in Boston with a steady drizzle for 2 or 3 days straight - no, it poured. It honestly feels like someone is standing over me with a 5 gallon bucket and dumping it on my head. Since it was March, the temperature was pretty low by Haitian standards, and I actually got cold! Duck was not ready to go downstairs, so we stayed on the roof despite the downpour. After an hour, we finally went down to the courtyard. Emmanuel and Job brought us towels so we could dry off and warm up a bit. Some of the girls had been watching our whole talk from their windows, so when we came into the courtyard, Peterson, Monsanto, and Renick got their sheets and created a wall so we could dry off and finish talking without an audience. They are very considerate.
The last thing I did before bed was bandage poor Hermilus. The boy slid on the courtyard while he was playing soccer last week and he got a very long scrape down the back of his leg. It was still open and very tender. The NLL nurse wasn't there, so he came to me to have his bandage done. I know that I hurt him washing it and putting betadine on it, but he was brave and did not kick me in the face. He got rewarded with several Hershey kisses and for the rest of the week, he came to me for his bandage instead of the nurse.
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