Wednesday night

We have had a good day here, on our last full day in Haiti. It has been hot, though—the consensus seems to be that it has felt like the hottest day we've had here.

This morning after Chapel and Flag, the guys went to the roof site, while the girls went to do activities with the kids. First, however, they joined them in recess, where Emily had a blast with them jumping rope.

Marissa and Katie did yoga with them outdoors, as shown in the following photos (notice yoga master Mark, squatting at the left in the first picture), and Mari did origami in the classroom.

We had what Mary Jane called a "typical Haitian lunch"—vegetables over rice, and were also given the opportunity to drink the water/milk from fresh coconuts. Opinions were mixed about the desirability of that experience.

After lunch, everyone went down to check out the offerings of a man who came around to sell souvenirs, down by the church. Then at 2:00, gifts were distributed to the children from their sponsors.

The work on Jake's roof site went well today, with all the tin sheeting going on by early evening. However, as Tom noted, this never would have happened without the assistance of Megen, the welding teacher at the school, and Jonel. Mark noted the steady pace at which the Haitians work—never fast, he said, but they just keep going all day. The pictures here show Megen beginning to hammer the first sheet of tin into place this morning; Mary Jane and Jake observing the progress of the work in the afternoon; some creative engineering to allow for a large tree that extended through the edge of the roof; and an evening view just as the work was finishing up.

Before dinner, we gathered on the front steps for a group photo. With the sunlight quickly fading, it is not a very high-quality photo, but across the back from left to right are Jake, Tom, Sveta (part of the mission who has become a good friend of ours this week), Matt, Eric, and Allen; across the front from left to right are Katie, Marissa, Mari, and Emily. Mark, sadly, was absent, behind the lens of his camera.

Tonight we had a nice dinner of tuna salad sandwiches, Haitian potato salad, freshly made sweet potato pudding, and Haitian candy (a sort of chocolate/caramel mix over coconut).

Tomorrow will be a short day here at the mission. I heard Mark say something about us leaving for the airport at 10:00, even though our flight isn't until around 3:30—this will leave us plenty of time for unexpected travel delays on the way to the airport, as well as time to navigate customs.