Twa

Please excuse any gramatical or spelling errors throughout my post, I don't think my hands have ever done so much work in one day before.  

We started off our day around 8:30am.  The worksite I mentioned in yesterday's post was where we are doing the building throughout this week. In all honesty, we had a bit of a slow start.  We started by moving concrete blocks from one area to the house that we were building on.  While some of us tested out our strength with the "bloks" (see, I'm learning Haitian creole), others walked back and forth with large buckets of water so mix for cement.  We all thought we were pretty legitimate until this Haitian woman walks past us carrying one block on her head and another in her hand. She definitely showed us all up. After taking that blow to our ego we carried on. After we all got into a groove, the work picked up.  I took several small breaks throughout the day to entertain the little boys that gathered at the site throughout the day. I'm not trying to brag but I'm pretty sure I have a lot of admirers. (Antonio, Peter, Maxon, Roberto, and the list goes on; keep the jealousy to yourself please). I wrote down my email several time so hopefully I get some mail from the little men sometime soon.  We promised to bring a few soccer balls tomorrow and that promise quickly escalated into a soccer game and eventually into a World Cup.  I really pumped up my soccer skills to the kids so hopefully they're not disappointed when they actually see me play.  Pastor is frantically trying to find a striped shirt because he has claimed the job as referee. Game time is 9am, I'll let you all know the outcome tomorrow. While the kids were very entertaining, they were also very clever.  They constantly asked for water, food, candy, and anything else they could get.  It was very hard to say no because we all know that these kids have very little and to say no to their requests was very difficult. However, most of us decided that on the last work day we'll hand over our shoes and anything else that we can.  I was able to talk to the kids about sports, music, and whatever else I could semi-translate to them. They mentioned listening to Michael Jackson and I assumed they liked some of his more popular songs such as "Billie Jean" or "Black and White", but I was pleasantly surprised when they started singing "We Are the World."  Coincidentally there was a remake of that song made specifically for Haiti after the Earthquake by Wyclef Jean (who is also Haitian) and many other artisits.  If you have a chance you should YouTube the video, I believe you can just type in "We Are the World, Haiti Remake" or something similar to that. It will definitely be worth your while.  I was also able to carry on a pretty decent conversation (in Spanish, evidently all of my years of Spanish class is paying off) with two guys in their 20's who spoke Spanish as well as French, Creole, and a little bit of English.  They told me about their desire for education, but expressed how difficult it is because they don't have money to pay for it.  Unfortunately there are very little job opportunities therefore there is no money therefore they can't go to school.  However they are very ambitious young men who have yet to give up their dreams of education.  One of the men, Roberto (not the same Roberto from my list of admirers) opened up to Pastor and I about how he lost his mother and a few other familiy members in the earthquake.  I found it very difficult to hold back tears as I told him how sorry I was for his losses.  Peter (also a different Peter from the one previously mentioned) also told me about his earthquake experience.  I was amazed at how easily they spoke about their experiences, but was very glad that they opened up to me about it.  I was very impressed with the optimism that these young men have about their futures.  They both lost their homes and are now living in tents but I never once heard them complain.  Little do these people know, but they are teaching us way more about ourselves and our lives than we will ever teach them.

We ended the day around 4pm and piled into a van to head home.  There may or may not have been a few fights for the shower...just kidding, but I do believe that I scraped off a thick layer of dust and dirt while in the shower.  Tomorrow's schedule will be the same, except for Pastor and I who will be heading off to the soccer fields for our World Cup tournament. 

That's all for tonight, I hope that you all are getting a decent idea of what's going on here. It is definitely something that everyone should experience in their lifetime.

More to come.