Going home!

Stephanie, Jude, and Lovenie Jeannis have finally reached the end of their adoption journey and they are headed home to California! Praise God.

Servants

News from Haiti - the first real news that I have had in over a month:

There is a team from the States visiting the orphanage and they wanted to do painting jobs. But instead of painting the interior of our orphanage, they decided to go paint at another orphanage. Better yet, they decided to take some of our kids along for the work!

So this week, Stephanie Q, Argentine, Mathurin, Jeanine, Jefthe, Evens and Bernadin are leading the kids in painting the walls of another orphanage in the Port-au-Prince area. They also have the opportunity to play with the kids and help in their daily care. Stephanie told me about a 2 year old boy named Wilkens that she fell in love with and took care of yesterday. The kids get to sleep at Dr. Bernard's guest house in Thomasin with the team every night so they are thrilled. And I am thrilled that they are getting a chance to serve outside of their home.

Beantown through new eyes

This week, I got to lead a group of 6 youth and one co-counselor from summer camp to a wonderful city for a 2 day visit.That's right - my very own Boston! I have lived in (or just outside) Boston for 19 of my 22 years, but since I am a local, there are things that I have rarely or never done. It was a real treat to be able to introduce them to my hometown and to experience it all for myself.
We were an eclectic group. Mario is from Portland, Maine. Nikolas and Lukas are from Austria. Baptiste is from France. Raelyn, the only girl, is from Virginia. Miles is from Nashville, Tennessee. My co-leader, Travis, is from North Carolina. People always regretted asking us where we were from because the answer took so long.

We rode the famous swan boats (a first for me!)

We re-enacted the Battle at Bunker Hill and we climbed the monument.

Not that way, Miles! Use the stairs!

We tried to visit Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution, but we were there on a Monday and as you can see, the ship is closed on Mondays.

We made friends with the local fish.

And visited the New England Aquarium, another first for me. 560 pound sea turtles!

We imitated statues,

Posed with creepy cigar-holding men carved from wood in the North End,

Danced to Sound of Music songs through the park,

And bought very expensive t-shirts from Johnny Cupcakes which is supposedly very popular right now (who knew?).

We visited the fountain at the Christian Science Center,

And cooled off in it too!

Some of us had our first ever ride on the subway,

But most of all, we ate. Ice creams,

Hot dogs,

Canolis,

Quesedillas (with a fork and knife, so French!)

Chicken wraps,

And slices of American flag cake. Not to forget the Bertucci's, Ben and Jerry's, Wendy's, oreos, pizza, and innumerable Dr. Peppers.

It was a tired but happy crew that drove back into camp late last night.

You know you're in Maine when...

1. A moose runs in front of the camp lodge during staff meeting.
2. It's cold enough to sleep in your 30-below sleeping bag every night.
3. You can pick wild lupins for your bedroom.4. A porcupine tries to come into the boys' cabin and joins in at the campfire.
5. The best ultimate frisbee games are the ones that happen during the rain.
6. A seal swims right up to your canoe and stares at you.
7. You hear the word "lobster" more often than the word "computer".
8. We pull ticks off the dogs and each other daily.
9. All the roads feel like rollercoasters because they are so curvy and narrow.
10. You meet a group of crazy camp counselors like these ones:
Camp has been great so far. We spent 2 weeks just getting to know our fellow staff members and refreshing some of the skills that we would need for the summer, such as sailing, fire-building, silly song singing, and crowd control. The staff is a crazy mix of 17 guy and girl counselors plus me, the oddball non-counselor nurse. I am apparently the first nurse in 20 years who is under the age of 40 so I have been asked repeatedly by parents if I am really a nurse or if I am just a counselor filling in until a replacement can be found. The campers don't seem to be bothered by my age - I have been called "Nurse Kezzie", "Nursie", "Dr. Kez", and my favorite, "Mrs. Nurse Lady". (OK, I'm kidding. I hated that one).
The best part of staff week for me was being reunited with my friend, Annie, and getting to know her brother, Jonathan. Annie and I met last summer at this same camp. She was the kitchen girl and I was a first-time counselor. I had just left Haiti after my 5 months at HFC so I was suffering some severe reverse culture shock and feeling hugely guilty for leaving the orphans. Annie was the first person that I really felt comfortable with and she remained my closest friend throughout the summer. It has been such a blessing to be able to spend time with her, just talking, laughing, lifeguarding, and praying together. Her brother, Jon, has also been a fun and encouraging person to be around. Annie and he are very close which probably explains why it has been easy for me to become comfortable with him too.
We had our first batch of campers last week. They were local kids who stayed for only 5 days. We loved them and we miss them.
Hank was probably my favorite camper from last week. He was 13 years old, a goofball who knew how to have fun but was also very polite, respectful and helpful far beyond the typical teenage norm. I loved seeing him make friends with the other boys, offering to help the kitchen lady carry things, holding the door for female counselors, and congratulating his opponents after a sporting event. Both his parents work, so Hank gets up every morning, makes breakfast for his 3 younger siblings, dresses them for school and gets them on the bus before he goes to school himself. At age 13! Wow.

My other favorites were Aston and Josh - two boys whose punk hair cuts, baggy clothes, and manner of speaking would lead you to believe that they are tough kids. In reality, they are marshmallows. The two of them would get up in front of everyone and lead a silly song or pull out their guitars and serenade us all. They participated enthusiastically in all their activities, especially in my frisbee games. A scholarship is awarded to them each year so they can come to camp and each year when we send them back to the rough and tough world that they live in, we pray that they will make it safely to the next summer.
Fun activities with last week's campers included skit night (hence Paul and Mikey's strange get-ups in the above photo), s'mores and stories about throwing tomatoes at people, extreme dodgeball, canoeing through insanely strong currents, kickball, vicious games of soccer where I may have tripped 15 year old Dan five or six times, ultimate frisbee, and capture the flag which resulted in 2 identical sprained ankles on 2 female counselors - as far as I'm concerned, none of the girl counselors are allowed to play capture the flag again this summer.
We sent those kids home after a closing BBQ on Monday and have since refilled camp with a mess of kids from Spain, England, Austria, France and the entire US. It's been wonderful seeing kids from last year, especially my French friends, and getting to know new ones. I think of my Haiti kids every day and wish that they could be here with me. I know that they would be completely overwhelmed, but they would love it too.

Keziah Furth, RN

Thanks for your prayers. I passed my exam with flying colors. I am now a registered nurse and legally allowed to practice nursing in the United States. Woohoo!

What am I doing?

I thought you might be curious to know what I have been doing since my return to the States in mid-May.

I graduated from nursing school on May 2nd (I missed graduation because I was in Haiti). I now have my Bachelor's of Science in Nursing, but to get my Registered Nurse certification so I can practice in the US, I have to pass the Nursing boards. I will take them on Wednesday, in 2 days (!), so I have been doing a lot of studying in the last 2 weeks.

I would really appreciate all your prayers for my exam on Wednesday morning. I'll let you know when I have my results. Thanks!

My American kids

For the last 3 years (minus my extended time in Haiti) I have led Kids' Church at my church in Boston. Today was my last day with those kids. I am going to spend the summer in Maine as a camp nurse (so I can look out for my younger brother while our parents are in Europe) and in the fall, I head back to Haiti, so I have officially terminated my service with Kids' Church. The kids were sad about it, but we decided that rather than pout we would celebrate with a Good-bye Picnic.

Within moments of arriving at the park, they were wrapping me in crepe paper, a symbolic imprisonment to keep me from leaving.
The saving grace about leaving these kids is that they are all intrigued by Haiti, so as disappointed as they are that I will not be their leader anymore, they are enthusiastic to hear about my happenings in Haiti. As we ate, they kept begging for stories about the HFC kids and I willingly obliged.

Playing the human knot

Me and Sarah - she's been with me for the entire 3 years

Ling and Katraya (Traya is pen pals with Daina)

Silly Ren-Ren

Me, my co-leader Brian, and some of our crazy kiddos!

We are going to continue to have a relationship between the HFC kids and my Kids' Church kids. Last year, my American kids sent 2 suitcases of clothes, gifts and letters to HFC and several of the girls send letters with me every time I visit. This Christmas, lots of parents and kids sent toys, clothes and food for the orphanage. The new Kids pastor is hoping to get a buddy system set up with the entire Kids' Church to keep exposing the American kids to the needs in Haiti and to keep sending encouragement to the Haitian kids at HFC.