Nursery Nirvana

This was our last full-day in Haiti. We stopped by Carmel Wagnac's home. She is the founder of the Nelly's House school lunch program that feeds over 500 schoolchildren each day out in southwest Haiti. Feel free to check out her ministry at http://www.nellyshousehaiti.com/   Carmel is also concerned about the problem of the abandoned elderly. It is not that unusual for the elderly who ceased to be able to assist the family through caring for the grandchildren and such to be cast out. It is a function of poverty, there is just not enough food to go around. So assuming you even beat the odds and live to an advanced age, you might then die of starvation. Carmel currently houses 7 elderly women and pays a lady to cook three meals a day plus a snack. The seven ladies are sleeping in 2 bedrooms (4 beds to a room) but are so grateful to have a safe, clean place to live and not to be hungry. Carmel is out of town at the moment, but we did speak with Michelle, the director of the elderly program and I'm really glad that these ladies have this haven. 

We spent the remainder of the day setting up the orphanage nursery room with the new cribs. We scrubbed all the toys and mats and things were looking pretty good by dinner time. Without a doubt, we worked like dogs. There was a lot of dust and slobber to wipe away. In Haiti, I have learned that it is good to celebrate the small victories and today we celebrated a cleaner nursery. It was our Nursery Nirvana Day.

And speaking of dinner, we thoroughly enjoyed another traditional Haitian dish, black rice with beef sauce along with fried plantain. Life is good. So now we're packing up. All the supplies that we brought down (300 pounds) have been distributed to various organizations. This is the third year that I've been buying artwork and wooden items from Andre. Without a doubt, Andre had a good sales month. Tonight when he parted, he didn't just say "Mesi", he exclaimed "Mesi an pil! (thank you very much!)

The plan is to fly out from Port-au-Prince airport tomorrow at 5:30 via Ft Lauderdale to Chicago. My plan is to post our last day photos sometime this weekend. 

It is now raining pretty hard which will settle the dust.

This is a typical dog that you will see on the streets of Port-au-Prince. He hangs out at the HIS Home gate and would escort us whenever we walked up the hill.



Cherdinor is riding a very clean rocking horse. He was born with a cleft palate which has been surgically repaired. He is beginning to talk. I've been teaching him the phrase "Auntie Linda is my favorite aunt."



Tina and Steve scrubbing the play mats.  

The mats are drying.

These 3 little busters are waiting to be taken to visit with their soon to be adoptive parents. They flew into Port today and will be able to spend a few days with them at a local hotel. The rather glum faces are probably due to the fact that as I was taking this photo, I was blocking their view of a TV cartoon show.

Tina with her latest purchase of wooden trinket boxes. Sadly, I didn't take a photo of Andre who assured us that he was most content. We are very pleased to be able to support Haitian made items. Haiti has a rich history of metal work and other crafts.