You Know What to Do with Those Big Man Thighs

July 1^st, 2014 – 9:05 pm

I forgot to mention a bunch of things yesterday, so I’m taking the opportunity to mention them now. First off, Rachel poured the contents of her water bottle onto our driver. You see, when water gets left in the bottle for too long, it actually gets really ridiculously hot, so we all pour it out after a while if it’s too warm. She didn’t look before she dumped. Hilarious. Also, I got a huge bruise trying to open our stupid door. Good stuff. Also, Ed decided to sing along (as loud as humanly possible) to Frozen’s “Let It Go” on one of the bus rides yesterday. Uhm, grown men shouldn’t have that on their iPod to begin with, but the fact that he knew all the words and could belt it out in front of all of us was just downright weird. Weird, but entertaining. Gotta love Ed. And the last thing I forgot was about the third house we went into yesterday. With the old man. I was the one that prayed for him, and oh my goodness, he was so thankful for that. It was so cute. He gave me the tightest handshake and actually held my hand as he walked me out the door and said goodbye and thank you. It was so heartwarming. So on to today…

Seriously, it took three days, but the trip finally became really fun – at least for me and Emi. It was surprisingly cooler today and we finally got kid time. This morning started off with French toast. An obvious sign of a great day. Then we got back on the King of the Roads and went to Source Matelas to paint a house. It seemed like we drove forever before we got there. We actually made it all the way to the ocean, where there were beautiful vines full of pink flowers and all of the houses seemed put together and there were no babies running around without clothes.

The house had four rooms – which in Haiti is pretty darn amazing. It was definitely considered big when contrasted with the shacks people live in all along the roads. Uhm, we painted the walls and the outside a deep green and everything else was cream. We literally painted the entire house in two and a half hours, which is apparently like record breaking time. Kensington wins. Whaddup. Too cool.

Nothing really interesting happened besides music playing and one particular Haitian man dancing and singing in a really high-pitched voice. He was extremely entertaining. I kept trying to paint in his area so I could watch and listen. OH! And Emi walked up a hill holding a little boy and when she put him down, I happened to notice that one side of her chest was all wet. We made jokes and finally decided that it must have been the child’s sweat. Later however, she was complaining that she thought she smelled of urine… Tami has been quoted saying that you haven’t really been to Haiti “until you’ve gotten peed on.” Well, Emily has officially been to Haiti! After that, we packed everything up and went back to Main Campus for lunch.

Lunch consisted of nasty little hot dog pieces (Collin selflessly offered to eat all of mine) and lots of plantains. They were really hot and tasted awesome. After lunch, we headed back to Source Matelas for more painting. This time the house was brand new and was a Mission of Hope project.

We painted the walls pink and the trim white and finally, things started getting more interesting. Of course, all the teenagers quickly deserted their painting duties when the kids appeared. There were at least five of the children. Two girls and three or four boys. They were the cutest things I have ever seen.

One little girl took to me and was literally copying everything I was doing and she was acting like the biggest diva ever, I loved it! She was throwing her head to the side and making ridiculous noises and sticking her tongue out. So much sass, it was so funny! Later she even looked me in the eye and started speaking creole to me – must’ve thought I understood or something. I kind of understood the word baby. Like, she said it in creole, but it really sounded similar to something and I guess I put it together. She ran over to a nearby house and grabbed a baby girl by her hand. It was her little sister and she wanted her to meet me too! It was like, the cutest thing ever, and I played with the both of them for a while before I got called over for another group picture. When I came back after, she jumped onto my arm, wrapped her legs around my wrist and started swinging. Somehow I became her own personal swing and I was flinging my arms around as she smiled and laughed the entire time. It was awesome.

There was also this boy, who was 11 years old, and I believe his name was Valence. It was either Valence or Valdez. No one can understand the Haitian accent… He was adorable, very talkative and knew a little English. He counted to twenty with us, taught us how to do the same in creole and then asked us how old we were. He like, made this hilarious shocked face when we told him we were 18 and 19. It was adorable. He did the same with Emily – apparently she looks much older for her age.

Another little boy sat with me for like fifteen minutes doing magic tricks. He was adorable too. He had my trying to figure out which hand he held a rock in after hiding it behind his back; he ‘magically’ made it difficult for me to pull two rocks apart and he put the rocks in crazy positions between his fingers. I loved him too, and kept trying to make him laugh.

This is why I came back to Haiti. The kids make it all worth it.

Emily and Beth taught Valence how to play ninja. He also had a mini dance party against Ed, who showed off his weird ligament-less shoulder blade dancing. Joe (who is my new friend crush) actually slipped into a well, and then like three different people actually dismembered the spout…

Then we drove back to Main Campus after a very distressful goodbye. Dinner was rice and random different sauces and cake, which was perfect, because it was Susan Shoemaker’s birthday!

After dinner we had down time until church service at six, which was just Haitian praise and worship for an hour and ten minutes. Haitians were dancing, singing at the top of their lungs, Villarson was playing the recorder just like last year, and one was even bowed down on his knees with his forehead against the ground in surrender. Haitian church is pretty amazing, even though you can’t understand anything.

Then we had team time at 8, meaning we had some more down time. A group of us kids were chilling on the roof before that and I’ve never laughed so hard. Joe became my friend crush, meaning that I want him to be my friend, because he’s hilarious and absolutely awesome. Which, by the way, is where this title came from. We were talking about how we lost the soccer game (sorry, hopefully you knew that already) and complaining about how weird it is that the players get their legs massaged, and their thighs jiggle, and then AshLee freaked out about how gross it is. Yeah, so that’s that.

During team time, we shared stories from the day. Catherine apparently got to know a kid on a really personal level yesterday and she saw him today at church. Dale was impressed with the way the Haitians were so free with their praise. And we finally started our group introductions.

A day or two ago, Tami gave us the homework to meet up with another member of the group (that she paired you up with) and get to know them so that you can introduce them to the group. Ryan and Daniel presented each other; Collin and Dale did the same; and so did Susan Dare and Makenzie. It was really cool to hear everyone’s stories told from the perspective of a different member.

Anyways, it’s really late. I love you all, and I’d love to tell you more detail… but it’s late. I need sleep.

Katie Coming to You from Haiti