Fun in the Sun
Hey Family and Friends back home!
Lowell here checking in.
Being Saturday we would typically have the day off and go to the market in the morning, but because there are two teams here they sent the other team to the market and we continued working on projects. We will head to the market sometime next week.
Some of our team continued working on pews, others went to the children's village to paint a classroom in the elementary school, and Abby, Justin, and I got to teach English to an adult class in the technical school. The 8:00 am class promptly started in typical Haitian style around 8:45 am. There was a CD player to play audio for some of the lessons, but (also in typical Haitian style) that didn't work. Not a big deal, we got through the lessons just fine. This was a new experience for all of us and we really enjoyed it. The class started a bit slow, but eventually they were all very engaged and it was a really fulfilling experience. At one point Justin was explaining part of the lesson where he would say "it is... " or "that is..." and the Haitians would fill in words. He pointed to me and said "he is...?" to which they responded with things like "a man", "skinny", and "from Canada". Justin then pointed to Abby and said, "she is...?" to which some of the men promptly responded with things like "beautiful", "pretty", and "cute". We had a good laugh and Abby may have blushed just a little bit.
In the afternoon we headed to the beach. Even though I've been there a few times in the past it is still always a humbling experience to see this wonderful earth that God has created. We brought some goggles to the beach and were able to find many small fish and other creatures such as jellyfish, starfish, crabs, and sea urchins. Mitch found a new friend named Jim. Jim is a crab that lives in a seashell he brought back to the compound. I don't think Jim is going to last too much longer. We got to eat lobster on the beach. That was a great treat. No one left looking like a lobster so I would say it was a successful trip.
The evening was pretty chill. We spent some time with our group debriefing on the day and singing worship songs on the roof in the rain. It's crazy to think that we are over half way done the trip! We have done some great work so far and there will be more to come next week. The highlight of the trip for me so far has for sure been seeing my sponsor child. Her name is Danifara. Ann and I sponsored her in 2014 when she was 3. She is now 6 years old. I met her on Thursday and she was shy and timid at first, but you could tell she was quite excited to see me (maybe more so for the bag of goodies I had for her). Later that day we had VBS. Danifara was there and she was a lot less shy. When she found me she came running up and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. This was a pretty special moment for me. I'm looking forward to when I can give my wife and baby boy a kiss on the cheek back home as well.
Lowell Reinhart on behalf of the Cornerstone Team