dancin in the guesthouse

This is Tiyou and he is going to be in the dance Kel and I are choreographing for the Christmas Pageant. We're doing a hip hop version of jingle bells... what could be cuter than that? AND we have all of the 5 & 6 year olds so it's bound to be an awesome performance. We had our first practice last night and although we only got through the introduction before they all had to go to the bathroom and started begging for chocolate, it was a really good start. And we are so excited for Whitney, Anna, Courtney and Liz to visit this week! God is so good!

beauty.

hi friends!

sorry it has been so long since we last posted or blogged or whatever you call this. It has been busy around maison d'lumiere this past month and the next two weeks are about to get crazier. But we promise to try to update this thing at least a few more times because we only have a little over two weeks left! We can't believe it! But one thing we are sure of is that we are in love.....

-We are in love with Jesus
-We are in love with the kids at this orphanage
-We are in love with the people in this country
-We are in love with the wonderful staff we get to work with each day (that one sounds kind of weird)
-We are in love with Mariah Carey christmas songs
-We are in love with riding in the back of trucks and flying over pot holes
-We are in love with ice cold showers and haitian spaghetti

Maybe we like the last 3 more than love them... but haitian spaghetti is really good.
 

 This picture is of our little english class we do twice a week with the neighborhood boys 

hiking in haiti..

Today, Kel, Jack and I decided to take a few of our little boys on a "hike"

But, first they all had to check under some random house's gate because Kenny saw a big dog...

After that we started our little adventure, but not all of the boys felt like walking, so Kel and I ended up with Wilson and Stanley on our backs the entire time...

It was a long trek, through the neighborhood and then down the ravine and back up. We had to watch out for thorn bushes because each time we'd run into them Wilson and Stanley would scream "Owww, prickees!" 

We timed it perfectly so that we reached the top of our hike at sunset! Jack tried to sit the boys down and tell them about the story of King Saul in the Old Testament, but they were all much too worried about everybody having to go to the bathroom

This was the closest we got to getting a picture of the whole group. Turns out taking eight little boys, all under nine years old, on a hike through a random part of Port Au Prince, is quite the adventure.

P.S. Happy birthday Kevin Weiner! (man, he gets more shout outs on this blog than anybody)

"Let the little children come to me"

 This is Tiyou. He's got to be one of the cutest kids I've ever seen. I've told him many times, "I just wanna eat you Tiyou" which probably doesn't sound quite right to a kid who doesn't really know our English idioms. Tiyou can often be found skateboarding around the Bens with little jean overalls on (or a giant Hawaiian shirt that he likes to keep completely unbuttoned, his choice on the outfit depending on the day) or flying his kite (a plastic bag tied to a string) with his brothers Wilson and Stanley.  Today he grabbed Taylor's chapstick out of her purse, smashed it all over his lips, and then attempted to put some on his brother's face. He just looked at us with a huge smile. Taylor didn't ask for it back.

 Us with the boys. We miss you Whitney.

 Daphne, Davidson, and Lukey braiding Taylor's hair. Each time they've finished a braid, Taylor has unbraided one more. She wasn't quite ready for the Tami hair-do

 Estaline loving her new potty chair that our friend Angelo built for her. She started kindergarten this year so the diapers need to go, and she agrees. She's just a chubby love with a whole lot of sass for a girl her size.

Nahom and Angelo, two of our neighborhood boys that go to MDL school. I chased them down and snuck up behind them to take this picture because i thought this was the cutest thing. It's so sweet to see that now some of the kids that live in the tent city nearby are able to go to school, thanks to sponsors back in the states. It's amazing to me how stoked these kids are to learn. For them, school means moving up in life. One of our feeding program kids, Eddie, asked Taylor last week in his sweet broken English if she could meet with him and teach him English. Eddie can't afford to go to school but wants so badly to learn; he carries around his old tattered English phrase book with him everywhere, and now Taylor has had a few teaching sessions with him. The more we're here, the more I'm realizing that getting an education is CENTRAL in allowing people to lift themselves from the never-ending cycle of poverty. If you would ever consider sponsoring a tent-city kid to go to school, please let us know because we can talk to the principal and work out a sponsor system. That's one investment that will not burn up in the end : )  Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me." Matt. 19:14

I whip my hair back & forth...

Tami

This is Tami, she's the house mom for our little girls and she is awesome. She is awesome for a number of reasons, one of them being that she lets the girls braid her hair and put in extensions. Just in case you are confused, that's not her real hair.

Kelly had the genius idea to record Tami throwing her hair around to Willow Smith's, "I whip my hair back & forth." So that's how we spent Saturday afternoon, trying to bribe Tami into letting us make a music video of her and we succeeded. This is a picture of Kel & I jumping in on the action. Our connection is too weak or slow or something to upload videos, but don't worry, we'll continue to try! 

lazy sunday

Kelly is sick... with a fever.
And she has been in bed all day, so, being the supportive friend that I am, I have decided to be honorary sick with her. This includes laying in bed all day and taking naps. And updating the blog. And drinking the diet coke that Brit bribes me with when I babysit her kids (I secretly don't need to be bribed because they are the two cutest little boys ever, but don't tell her that) and listening to the Reality podcast. Sundays in Haiti are usually pretty busy because we have church, lunch at the Manassero's and then soccer at Quisqueya Chapel.  But, the change of pace today has been so nice. I picked a few of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks, so here they are:

Wilson

this little guy loves to skateboard

Kel, Emmanuel & Richard  

 isn't this the sweetest picture?!

Junior & Keso

Two of our boys, watching soccer at the bins

 A day at the beach

We drove for two and a half hours up the coast and got to spend a day at the beach! And that is baby Isaiah, i'm not sure i've ever met a more precious babe.

 Hangin at the bins with Emmanuel

 I hope you guys can tell that we have fallen in love with these kids. Yep. Head over heels.

P.S. Kel is feeling a lot better now! :)

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.