Godet

Yesterday, we just about literally "went for a day" up the mountain... well... not REALLY an entire day... but, it was a VERY long walk from the Kenscoff medical clinic to the Godet Orphanage. We couldn't see 20 feet in front of us because of the clouds. They were thick!

We hopped on a tap-tap close to our apartment and went the OPPOSITE way we normally do... we went UP the mountain. We were supposed to meet Erin at the police station, but how we were seated on the tap-tap - we could not see out for anything!! Finally we went over two speed bumps and saw a blue and white building, but there were no police people standing outside "hanging out" like there usually are. So, we kept on going. Then we passed Kenscoff school - which Brynna helped to paint in July and a door to hope is beginning to help. Erin hadn't mentioned anything about Kenscoff school... so, we called her. She said we were supposed to stop way back at the two speed bumps. So, we banged on the tap-tap and yelled, "mesi"! They let us out in the middle of a long straight stretch in a neighborhood heading up the hill. Pretty sure they were chuckling WITH us... not at us.

I was so thankful that we just had to walk back DOWN the hill. We met Erin around the corner from the police station and she led us down a couple dirt roads to the medical clinic that she takes the kids from Godet to. It was unbelievable! I seriously felt like I was in the US as we walked through and got the thorough "tour" of this clean, organized place. Sharon, the nurse and Erin's friend, told us all about every aspect of the place and introduced us to Dr. Augustin. They just received a digital x-ray machine. If Dr. Augustin can't read the film they can "simply" e-mail it to a radiologist to read it.

Sharon told us that they've been up and running for 3 months now and were very excited about how much they were helping their community. She told of a little boy who had come in with severe tooth decay. They tried to help stabilize him with IVs but, the infection had spread into his body and made him have sepsis (don't know how to spell that). He ended up spending 6 weeks in the hospital down in the city. SIX WEEKS because his teeth weren't taken care of! If it wasn't for Sharon and the clinic being there - he could have even died. It's just unimaginable the easily treated or TRULY  PREVENTABLE illnesses that affect this population in such huge ways! Read more about Sharon and the incredible work she does here HERE.

After we left Sharon, we walked all. The. Way. Back. To. Godet. Orphanage. In our little shoes, with our little feet up giant hills around curvy huge mountains. WOW! We walked for well over an hour up hill mostly. Here's a pic of us with Erin:

After we FINALLY made it back to Godet we hung out with the kids. We had asked Erin a million questions along the way. After we played with the kids, watched them do homework (because it's in French!) and sent two of the older boys out to purchase us a ICE COLD coca (we are spoiled Americans) - we started seeing kids walking up the hill with the same uniforms on as the Kenscoff school. I asked Erin about them. Yes, she said they indeed walked all the way from that Kenscoff school up the hill PAST Godet orphanage to their home. So, on a good day - these kids are walking WELL over an hour to AND from school. And THEY WANT TO! These are fortunate kids to be able to attend school.

Here's some pics of the Godet boys who caught a big bug and were pretty proud:

Here's the two oldest girls at Godet (Nadine and Natacha "ch" sounds like "sh" here):

The day was fabulous NOT just because we got to hang out with our favorite kids in the entire country, but because all the long day we KNEW we were invited guests of the Dearing family for LASAGNA!!! Can you even believe it?!? Oh. My. Word. Was it DELICIOUS!! Mark served us all a plate of lasagna and some bread, prayed and then got up to prepare the cookies to put into the oven to bake while we were eating. By the time he sat back down we were on our last few bites and he served Brynna, Chris and I SECONDS BEFORE he had ever even taken one bite of his own dinner. (I put my seconds back in the lasagna pan and Clay ate it.) He's a true servant. He and his family are amazing people. We are privileged to share laughs and life with here in Haiti. I can't really imagine life without them in it up here on this mountain. I detect a tear about to drop...

It's weird thinking about the bond that we form with the teams we've served one week with in Haiti. It's going to be interesting come December 15th to realize the depth of the bond that we've formed with the Dearing family here.

This week we also spent a day in Callabasse. I'll have to write about it another day. I posted pics on Facebook. Tomorrow we have the privilege of joining Chris in Grand Goave as he leads a team. It'll be the first week in Nurse Jenny Jenkins NEW place - "the Villa"! We JUST found out last night before we laid our heads down... so, most of the night I was dreaming about whether or not I have enough clean clothes to even MAKE IT!! Friday is laundry day... that's TODAY! SO, there's not time enough to get it cleaned and dried and back to us... so, I'm about to go into my bedroom and dig into my drawers... to make sure I've got enough "drawers" to wear! Pray for us! Chris turned his clothes in on Wednesday so he'd have enough. Again, pray for us girls! Pray we've got what we need and pray for our week in Grand Goave. Looking forward to meeting the team and blazing the trail... it'll be HOT. HOT. HOT. Much different from up here on the mountain. Last night I actually wore socks to bed with long pants.

We won't be back here until AFTER Brynna's birthday. So, blow up her Facebook with HAPPINESS on the 27th - she'll be 19 - write her long mushy paragraphs about how much you love her!