Another fun-filled day at camp for us at St. Joseph’s school! We all agreed that today the girls were exceptionally well-behaved (for the most part…Diana and Bea had a rough time with the Red Team) and our transitions from station to station went very smoothly—thanks to Hannah and the girls she enlists to help ring the bell for us. One of the fun things that they do to keep together as a team is to scream out a team cheer while they move from station to station. So, it can seem a bit chaotic when Cris and Ashley’s group is yelling out “We are Yellow” and the Tommy and Grace’s team are echoing after them “Team Wose” (“Team Pink” in Creole) and some of the older girls from Nikka and Mary’s team are cheering “B—L—U—E!” with some hand motions, and Georgia and Adam’s Orange Team is just trying to walk and clap at the same time until Will and Toni’s team goes by and everyone joins their Creole cheer of “Sak Pa Se!” (which is roughly translated “Hey, what’s up?”
Today’s highlights at camp were in our “Life Skills” station, they all learned how to brush their teeth from Angie and Rebekah (and each girl left the camp with a goodie bag including toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss, soap, and face cloths (among other things). In the “Games” station Gabe and Thomas M. quickly found out that hopscotch was not going to fly because the chalk wouldn’t show up on the floor, so they devised several ways to play “red light-green light” that kept the girls happily entertained. In sports, Brother Kramer and Janet introduced them to some good old American baseball, while next door Mikayla and Antonio could be heard leading the kids in rousing renditions of “Little Red Wagon” and “Princess Pat” as well as practicing the girls’ favorite song that they learned the first day “Sticky Moose”. Upstairs, our craft time experts, Jackie and Britney, had their hands full helping the girls make bracelets, while next door, JP and Tim made headway on teaching the Hail Mary in the “Prayer” station.
In the afternoon, we split into 3 groups in order for us to spread out our works of mercy in Port-au-Prince. One group went back to the Home for the Dying while the other 2 went to the Children’s Home—one to work with the children and the other to follow the Missionaries of Charity back to St. Joseph’s School where every Monday afternoon they hold their wounds clinic.
We had two baptisms today and 3 of our missionaries became godparents. Mary and Gabe stepped in to sponsor little Wilton John Paul who was admitted to the Children’s Home today and is very ill, while Tommy became the godfather of a man at the Home for the Dying who the sisters have been preparing to receive the sacrament. We were glad to have two priests with us this afternoon!
Tomorrow is our last day and we can’t believe how quickly the time has passed. Tonight a large group stayed up a bit later to prepare some more goodie bags for the children to take home with them. It is going to be hard for us to say goodbye!!! Please pray for us that we give ourselves fully in our last full day in Haiti!!!
