Haiti Day 4 afternoon (July 5)

After a fairly difficult morning, we were hoping for a more encouraging afternoon.  And it was!

After lunch, we left the mission again to visit the House of Hope in Port du Paix.  From what I understood (we never got a good explanation!), the House of Hope is a children's hospital, that also serves as an orphanage as many sick children are just left there by their parents.  It is not a part of NWHCM, but they welcomed us to come visit and play with the kids.  More kids who need love and attention...so many kids in Haiti and not enough arms to go around to all of them!

We were SO excited to see our ride for the day:  this beautiful, big, military style tap tap...with a bench and railing!

Our trip to Port du Paix was just under an hour, and it was such a nice ride compared to our crazy ride to the orphanage yesterday!  Yes, the roads were still bad and it was still very bumpy.  But just having the railing behind our backs gave us a feeling of security, and it was much more relaxing to ride without having to hold on to stay inside the vehicle.  Look at those smiling, happy faces enjoying the lovely ride!

 We had a great visit at the House of Hope.  We told the Creation story again.  Another small group from the mission went along with us, and they brought some crafts to do with the kids.  These kids were so different from the kids we had worked with on the street this morning.  They were super sweet, and they really got into making the craft (gluing cotton balls to blue paper to make a sky, and we had stickers too). 

My buddy for this afternoon was this little girl named Roselanda.   Roselanda was not as happy and bubbly as many of the other kids.  She wanted to be held the whole time, and it was hard to get her to smile.  I finally did get some smiles out of her when I pulled out the stickers and let her put them all over my face!

 These are tiny twin boys (ignore the pink clothes, color is not important when clothes are a necessity and not a fashion statement).  They are 6 weeks old, and so very tiny.  I have no idea what size they were when they were born, or if they have been growing since birth.  I don't know whether they are healthy or sick, but they just looked so very tiny.

We pulled out the good old bubble machine for the kids before we left, and then it was time to head back to the mission for dinner, devos and bed!