#HAITIROCKS

Today was our first work day.  We packed up supplies and headed to a village nearby called Titanyen to paint houses for villagers there that wanted a new paint job.  In the morning, I painted the inside of a house with Britt, Monica, Lydia, Elise, Austin, two girls from Texas, and one of the translators (I can’t remember his name but he looks like Usher so that’s what we call him).  I’ve never really had much experience painting before and we were just kind of handed a paint brush and told to start, but our room was a pretty blue and it actually turned out pretty good which was a relief.  We finished painting the inside and out of two houses side by side and went back to do 2 more after lunch. It was HOT.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m so happy to be in positive degree weather, but it’s definately taking a little while to get used to the heat here.  It was completely worth the hard work though.  Some of the kids helped us paint and when we finished and saw how much brighter the houses looked and the reaction of the owners when they saw the painted walls, it was a great feeling. We rode a bus back to MOH when we were done and the our translators sang with us all the way back to the campus.  That’s the thing that I’m noticing around here: Haitian people LOVE to sing.  Back home it’s sometimes kind of embarrassing for teens or young adults to sing, but nope, everyone does it over here.  It’s inspiring to watch them sing their hearts out about their faith with no shame and it’s just shows how grateful they are for what they have, even most of the time it’s nest to nothing.  We went to a worship service at church in the evening and it was completely different from my church back home.  There was people singing and dancing in all the aisles and during the last song about half the church went to the front and had a huge dance party and did a conga line around the church (Dad - hope you’re taking notes for next Sunday).  All in all, it was an amazing day and I’m loving Haiti more and more.  I’m already dreading leaving, but we still have 4 more days so, oh well, I’ll deal with that when the time comes.

Love and miss everyone,

Nicole