Wed. Aug. 1st, 2012

This is Faith, down with a group from North Carolina...just to share a few of my thoughts after a day here:

Being in Haiti reminds me of the story of the little boy and the starfish that had gotten washed up on shore during a storm. I don't remember exactly how the story goes, but the essence of it was that there were too many to save all of them, but he was going to throw back and save all he could.  There are just SO many people here living in the worst conditions imaginable...without complaint.  I know as Americans, we're "aware" that such conditions exist, but nothing can make you really get how fortunate we are, like seeing it with your own eyes.  Being here and walking among the folks in La Digue makes me want to cry (and I'm not much of a crier).  It also makes me much more appreciative of home. 

I never thought I'd sincerely appreciate a cold shower, but it's my favorite thing in the world down here. Oh, the mission house does have hot water (I actually almost scalded myself the first night because the knob that says H is actually the cold one, so I turned on the other knob because I wanted a cold shower...oops) but cold just feels so good down here. 

It's not been as hot as they expected (although it's pretty hot!) but there's been some rainshowers that have cooled things off a bit.  Didn't stop the kids from playing soccer though.  T'Neal and Taylor (two of the girls down here with us) actually got out and slid around in the muddy soccer field in the rain with the kids.  The kids are adorable, by the way.  We haven't been to an orphanage yet, but the village kids flock around every chance they get.  A fifteen year old (I'm not sure her name, but it sounded like Wood-Lee) talked to me for a few minutes.  She was the sweetest thing.  She's in 9th grade at the mission school and wants to be a nurse, she said. 

So we walked through the village this morning and then came back and helped get some scrubbing done in the mission, then took a short break for lunch, and after all that, we went and painted at the new school.  It's a lot of bare concrete walls right now, and it's sure not like painting at home.  Frankly, I don't think I will paint anything yellow for a long while.  =)  But it sure looks good on the walls in the school that have been finished.  The concrete sucks the paint really bad, so we went through a lot of paint and didn't feel like we got very far, but we did what we could.  I think we may be supposed to go back tomorrow to paint some more.  It felt like a much longer day than back at home.

Now everyone is just chilling back here at the mission until bedtime; I can hear them playing games out on the deck, and I think I'll go join them.