Reclaimed my heart.....finally!

         In my first blog, I wrote " When I was in Haiti for the first time, God took my Heart and planted in fertile ground of Jacmel. I knew there would be a point in my travels in Jacmel the second time were I would meet God in a personal way. He would show Himself mightily and in the process I would reclaim my heart, to know without a shadow of a doubt, why God took this ordinary guy from Salt Lake City, and put him into Haiti for 6 weeks.
          Monday was the day God showed up, mightily, personally and in the process reclaimed my heart from Haiti. If I did't do anything else for the next month in Haiti, I know my trip was worth it.
         We had a Vacation Bible School for the kids of Raymond, about 100 of them, it was a awesome day. The day started at 8:00 am to set up 3 stations (sports. crafts, Bible stories and songs) and there was an excitement in the air, knowing 120 kid will be here running around within the hour, playing soccer, and leaning about Gods love. The first load of of kids came, as soon as their feet hit the ground, soccer balls and Frisbees were flying. It happen so fast, the only thing we could do was to jumped in and have fun. Then about 30 min later the next load came in, all I can say it was chaotic but God ordained to see all the children playing and laughing. I think the biggest change was, of course, was in  the team, it was hard to take in everything that was going on around us. Sara, for instance, she came up to me with a big grin on her face and a tear in her eye, and said "I am so happy, these kids are great". She had a Haiti moment, were God showed her the reason why she was here and the reason she will be coming back. You go Girl!
            I thought everything went smoothly, the sport was easy, soccer, and frisbees, the craft-- bracelets and beads Bible and singing was fun too. After everyone went through all the stations, we had lunch, rice and beans go figure, then packed the kids up in the truck, said all of our goodbyes and off they went singing a praise song in creole. The great thing is they will be back tomorrow, same time, same bat channel.
            After we clean up the site, we walked to the beach and relaxed and got sand in places sand should never be, GOT SAND?
            Tuesday------We did the same, we got there at 8:00 set up, and the kid came but only 160 of them, and boy it was steaming out there. We had the same drive as yesterday but the heat was so draining, everyone had to find shade and drank the contents of a  water truck by noon. I had a fun job, I took pictures of the cutest Haitians kids ever. They hung on me like glue, they love to have their pics taken with everybody on the team as you will see. I had a blast with the kids, same with the other guys on the team, no one will forget this day for a long time to come. I was proud to share in this experience and praise God for these people that he brought into my life.
              The kids went in the stations again, everyone had a good time but the heat got to us again, so we had the kids eat. This church had around 300 pair of crocs donated and made up 160 gift boxes filled with pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste and other school supplies. So each kid got a pair of shoes, a gift box and a candy and off they went as we said goodbye for the last time, how sad, I will never, never forget the kids of  Raymond.
              Then back to the beach and Got Sand?

Sara her happy moment

A little surprise when we got there first thing 

 P.S.  I want to thank God for taking my heart and planting it in Jacmel the first time, so I had to come to Jacmel to reclaim my heart, it made me a stronger man' so I can rely on God more. Love you all, Scott

Blue lagoon

        Now, on Saturday we revisited the hottest place in Jacmel, the tourist trap of all tourist tourist traps, when people come to Jacmel this is where they go.........uhhh wait a minute, I was talking about about the fencing site and not the Beach....well the I guess the fencing site is the hottest place in Jacmel, and it is a tourist trap( the wasps lured you into the beauty of the place and they try to keep you trapped by buzzing around your head). This will be one of the places were people want to go when in Jacmel after the vision of Joy in Hope, and the community of Raymond in working partnership, develops their 15 year plan for Raymond.
       So in the morning 10 of us put 300 ft of fence, for the fun details of that adventure Check out "A fencing we will go" on this Blog site,  to much fun. In any case, all of our skin were shimmering in the the hot sun( that was a nice way we were dripping sweat) . The goats on the property were calling to us all morning, if you listen to them hard and long enough, some goats sounded human, or maybe it was a touch of sun stroke. The wasps were out defending their territory, the black and yellow caterpillars(poisonous if they bite you) doing what they do. All in all, it was a great morning,we got back to the Isaiah house and the rest of the team gave us a cheer and served us lunch, it was nice.
        Went to the beach in the afternoon, it was beautiful and very relaxing which I needed. It was interesting to have 20 white( blanc) people descending on a Haitian beach and within 15 minutes the souvenir vendors set up shop all around us, with the bracelets, necklaces, and the Haitian canvas paintings.
         The water was like bath water, which was better than the temp outside. We all had a great time playing with the mangines children and just chillin on the beach watching a soccer game, feeling any stress we had melt away.
          I had my first experience of drinking coconut juice from a real coconut. A Haitian boy came up with a wheelbarrow full of coconuts and sold a coconut for $1.00, then he took a machete and chopped and carved it into a point, with one more chop, he open a small hole to revel the juice. I gladly drank it, wasn't sweet, I still can't put my finger on the taste of the coconut. After the juice, he scooped out the meat of the coconut, It was white and rubbery, and had very little taste, good times.      
          Was other great day in Haiti.

                                                              Scott

A fencing we will go

        Today.........Today was one of the most labor intensive days I had since I got here. The team, their from a town north of Toronto,  Newmarket,( I've been working with since Monday) They have adopted me into their group and made me feel apart of what they stand for. I just want stop and say thank you for making my trip so much more memorable, I will never forget you. Back to Adventures of Fencing (not swords) I don't think no one was ready for this kind of adventure, it was the toughest but most rewarding and in some, character building.
      We went to Raymond,  it's about 20 min from Jacmel, to put up about 800 ft of fence. Now on a regular fence no problem, pull up with your pickup, drop off the material and go to work and your done. Now, as I am figuring out in haiti we do things different here, instead of of backing the pickup to the job site, we decided to carry ALL materials by hand 200 yds through a field and up a lava rock hill. When half the team hauled thefence the other half took machetes and cut down half the trees in the forest to clear a path for the fence line.
       When clearing the path, someone found a wasp nest in a tree, so we started a fire underneath the tree to get the wasps out of the nest, everyone sat around the bonfire in 90 drgree heat and 150% humidity, thinking it was cool burning up a wasp nest.
        We got done tying up fencing, everyone was hot and sweating no energy.  Finally lunch, at Isaiah house and the second half of the day, I went with Jeff up to a mountain village to talk to a pastor of this church of 45 people. This christian church was right across the dirt road from the voodoo temple.  It took an hour to get up to this village on a washboard road,. including just for fun, ruts! We interviewed the pastor and took some pictures and went back down the mountain to Jacmel.

Guess Who?

Going to the north 40

This kid was excellent at swinging a machete 

One of the many lava holes around the property

Hams for the camera

Some new friends

more hams

Do you know where Billy is?

comic relief

The awe of a good bonfire, wasp nest

The Fence

Hauling fence up lava rock

A Haitian reservoir, they like their fish 

The church

Jeff

The voodoo temple

   Supper......... All you can eat pizza at a  beautiful restaurant by the ocean, all I can say is good times,good times. Tomorrow the same, A fencing we will go. The end for now, thank you for your support and prayers.

Guess which one is the mask