One more reason we love it here:

lookin goooood

this kid.

yes, in case you are wondering, he is wearing snakeskin, adult size 10 cowboy boots. and I think we can all agree, those are some sweet boots.

life in Delmas 75

It's been a crazy week, but here are a few pictures to sum it up!

 This is the feeding program, where 150 kids from the neighborhood come three times a week to our place, MDL and get fed physically and spiritually. Our Haitian man, Ivens, leads some crazy Creole songs and then a short Bible lesson, and then after we feed them rice and some kind of bean mixture. This is definitely a highlight of our week--the neighborhood kids don't speak much English, but they are the smiliest, cutest, most affectionate kids. The clean-up after is always fun- a whole assembly line of food-scrapers, dish washers, and rinsers, and lots of soapy nasty water all over your feet after.

 Our neighborhood boy Peterson's sweet vans- style crocs. He's quite the lady's man at 11 years old, and even has stylish shoes. Peterson always walks us down the street, arm in arm, saying, "don't touch my wife" to the other boys.

 Kevin chillin in the only square foot of grass on the whole block.

This is Johnny, another flirty neighborhood boy that we love. flashing gang signs?

More things we LOVE about Haiti
1. How the little boys loooove to convince you that they can't speak English, but when they want you to do something or are about to hit you in the head with a basketball they yell in perfect English "sit still!" or "Heads up!"
2. Electricity... turns out to be quite the luxury here. I guess we got lucky the first week, because the power has been out now for 6 days straight. luckily we have a generator that sometimes works.
3. Anti-nausea medicine... after Taylor threw up everything she's eaten for the last 2 weeks, our nurse Ashley, gave her a shot that knocked her out for 12 hours!
4. Makeovers with the boys.... today at feeding program, Ti-Bo and Emmanuel, found mascara in Taylor's purse and Taylor went ahead and applied it for them. I have never seen such beautiful lashes.

this place.

hi friends!

 here are a few more pictures of this beautiful place. Kel & I feel so blessed to be working at this orphanage, the Manassero's and Child Hope International are truly incredible. But, there is still so much need. All 51 of the kids need new shoes (it's $30 for  one child's shoes for an entire year) in order to start school on October 3rd and the boys home is in the process of raising funds for a transformer (not to be confused with the giant robot transformers, the one they need conducts electricity and costs $4500 USD) So, please if you feel compelled to give check out the website, www.childhope.org and even if you don't give, check out the website and try not to fall in love with all of the kids. ALSO: just to clarify about Kel's post yesterday, the cow is in fact named Kevin, but it's not because he reminds me of one of my best friends, Kevin Weiner or anything... absolutely no affiliation. 

 Women love to casually walk around with heavy objects on their heads here, it's impressive.

 Feeding program... easily the highlight of my week.

  This is the view from our roof! It's also my favorite place to watch lightning storms.

a few pictures

 our humble abode
 i think i made my bed just for this photo. yes, we have mosquito nets for the malaria-carrying mosquitoes here.. but frankly i don't see the point of them because i get bit more in the bathroom than i ever do in our bedroom. i considered carrying the electric zapper with me to the toilet room the other morning. i counted 21 bites on just the front of my right leg. didn't quite get to the left leg but maybe we'll keep a tally and let you know. ANYWAYs, there's our lovely bunkbed.

 the view from the top of Markenson's roof. if you squint your eyes you might be able to see our faint little ocean view beyond the tree :) Markenson is an orphanage "graduate" who lives on our property and does the electric and maintenance work around the house. You can hear his radio blaring all day, all night (no joke, i woke up at 3 am and it was still going) of this monotone newsman giving some inspirational-sounding speech in Creole. One morning Markenson walked out at 7 am with a crazy gray-haired grandma wig. Weird kid. We love him.

This picture makes our neighborhood look pretty classy. If you insert a few people on the side, a burning pile of trash, a cow or two, a few dingy looking goats, and some skinny street dogs, you'd get a more realistic idea of our neighborhood. Sorry i didn't actually take a picture of it all. We love our middle-class neighborhood--know a lot of the kids that roam our streets, have named a cow that is regularly tied to a signpost at the end of our street (his name's Kevin), and are getting to know our way around the block. This picture was taken on an evening walk before dinner, when the weather drops from 98 to a pleasant 95.

week 1

hi friends & family!

We've decided to do a joint blog for our 3.5 month adventure in Haiti, so welcome to Kelly & Taylor's blog! Wooooo! We've been here for one week today, but it feels like so much longer (in a good way!) We'll try to recap our last week as best as possible, but we think the most efficient way to do this is with a few lists....

THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED ABOUT HAITI 
1. People honk more here than in LA... and with better reason because there are generally at least 6 people riding in the back of every car/truck, on a dirt road with massive potholes to swerve around
2. A feeling of cleanliness lasts for around 3 minutes in Haiti... and those 3 minutes are right after you have stepped out of the shower. Once you open the bathroom door you begin sweating and continue sweating until your next shower. 
3. Chickens, pigs, goats, dogs and cows wander through the streets. They may not look like they belong to anyone, but the second you approach one or try to pet it, the owner appears from thin air and begins to yell.
4. The word for "wife" in Creole (we don't know how to spell it yet) is what little Haitian boys love to say when they hold your hand and walk with you through the street, however they DO know the English phrase "kiss me!" 
5. Groceries are EXPENSIVE.  $60.00 for a bag of frozen shrimp and $10.00 for a can of peanuts... no thank you. 


OUR FAVORITE PHRASES IN CREOLE
1. Bonjou! (good morning!) 
2. ki jan ou di na? (how do you say that?)
3. bonswa! (good afternoon)
4. m'wen cho (i'm hot)
5. dezo (trouble)


we're still learning, give us a few weeks and hopefully our vocabulary will expand. and we'll upload pictures tomorrow, they take a really long time because the connection is so weak and we are tired :) love & miss all of you guys.