Tickles, French, and more

The days I have left in Haiti are slowly dwindling down. Honestly, each day gets a little harder. Its like a cloud is hanging over me as I think about the fact of leaving this country and all these kids. Each morning Haley and I always have a long talk about things we have seen so far. Some days the conversations we have can be really sad. We talk about all the different kids and how each one has something special about them. We are finally getting to really know the kids and their personalities. Each day when we walk into the orphanage kids come running up to us yelling Haley and Abby. Thinking about leaving this is a hard pill to swallow. These kids have truly been a blessing in my life. Each day I notice something new about the orphanage or the culture. The more I see of this country the more I realize how poor this country is. Some days it can be really hard seeing the homes these people live in. Often times my mom tells me and that was just a God thing. This morning I believe I had one of those moments. Haley and I were walking to go and get a tap-tap and both of us were sad about leaving and I believe our tap-tap ride was made to distract us from all those thoughts and to remind us to just live in the moment.

When the tap-tap pulled up to pick us up we both went oh no this one is very full. We are not a huge fan of jumping on full tap-taps. I let Haley hop on first so I could sit on her lap. The ceiling was very low so I was bent over on her lap. It was very uncomfortable. Soon someone got off and I was able to sit on a bench. We stopped to pick up another group and it was a bunch of school boys. We are getting used of the school boys pointing at us and making fun us. We have no idea what they are saying half the time. This one boy had no place to sit so Haley just pulled him down on her lap. This poor boy was so embarrassed because all of his friends were harassing him about. It was very entertaining because everyone was laughing but we have no idea what they were saying. We soon got to the place where we had to get off and I yelled in French so they would stop. Soon they all looked at each other and said oh no they know French. Little did they know we only know very little French so we have no idea what they said.

Once we arrived at the orphanage we observed in the morning and played with the kids in the afternoon. Haley and I headed to our normal sitting spot and waited for the kids to come near us. As always we started the afternoon off by playing tic-tac-toe and other random games the kids came up with. Most of these kids know how to juggle rocks and get a kick out of me attempting to juggle rocks. Indiana was hiding from me this morning so I decided to go near her bed to find her. When I got near her bed I started hearing this giggling. The little stinker was hiding under her bed from me. I finally caught her and laid her down on the bed and started tickling her. Soon four other girls hopped onto the bed and I just went down the line tickling them and chasing them around the room. Indiana was running away from me and slipped on a backpack and fell hard. So I quickly picked her up and sat down. After about ten minutes of rubbing her back she was out. I am really going to miss her sleeping on my lap in the afternoons. I might even miss the huge drool spots she tends to leave on my clothes.

Haley and I were sitting in our normal spot and this guy about our age came up to us. He started talking to us and had asked us if we knew any French/Creole. We told him that we only know the basics but wished we had knew more. He then pulled out a piece of chalk and started writing on the wall of one of the buildings. He taught us all different types of phrases in both French and Creole. He had a friend with him and they both got a kick out of us trying to pronounce the words. They talk so fast and it is so hard to catch onto what they are trying to say to us. Over time Haley and I slowly started to pick up on it. He told us that he would come back tomorrow to try and teach us a little more. Of course we would meet someone who is willing to teach us right before we head back home!

When leaving the orphanage we soon found out that we were out of money. With no other option we decided that we would have to walk back to our hotel. It was around a three mile walk back to the room. It was nice to walk down the streets and say hello to the Haitians. Its very entertaining to see their face when we start talking in French since they expect us to only speak in English. We also really got to see the houses they live in when walking down the streets. We had like three close calls where Haley and I thought that we were going to be hit by a car. We have learned to just trust that the Haitians know what they are doing.

We also found out that the people that were chasing us yesterday were putting on a show in attempt to raise money for the upcoming carnival. The carnival starts the week after we leave so we won't be able to see it.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we are getting ready to say goodbye and neither of us are near ready for this!

With Love,
Abby