June 21-Christina Jorg

It is Wednesday afternoon & I stayed behind at campus for our afternoon shift of painting.  Katrina had a little battle with her malaria meds this morning and the meds won.  When we were painting a home in the village of Bercy the fumes started to bother her already upset stomach.  The Haitian people were so kind and helpful to us in helping to get her into the shade, telling us to pour water on her neck & head, and we bought her a Haitian version of saltines being sold right next to us. She is feeling much better, but we decided an afternoon of rest was a good idea so she could be good for tomorrow.

I have been so impressed with the kids on this trip!  They are respectful & motivated to help out in whatever way. They also make me laugh so hard I'm crying!! I'm trying to think of stories about each kid for this extra post that I'm getting to do this afternoon while I'm staying behind. So here goes.

Sass was the first to jump up at the first few meals and gather dishes for people as we we were visiting & take them the proper spot...others have jumped in now and helped with that as well. Even with her being so helpful there are several individuals(that will remain nameless...however I will say one is a chaperone, can you guess his name Lori Tucker?) that have given her a hard time all week about the Uno cards that were lost the first night we were here. (FYI...It has all been very good natured teasing & Sass holds her own well. So no worries!)They claim it's her fault the cards are gone because she cleaned the cards all up(helpful Sass again), while everyone else left to play Spikeball.  The bag of cards got left on the table instead of put into Jason's backpack & the staff here picked up tables & they have ended up in one of the staff dorms. We are still hoping to get them back before we leave.  They will be nice to have for our 6-7 hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday!

While Katrina was resting in the shade this morning, she was teaching our Hatian intern(Jean Marc), who speaks very good English as well as his native Creole, some chinese words as well as spanish words.  Jean Marc was loving it & i was having fun listening to HIM try to get the correct accent. The Hatians laugh at us white people as we try to pronoun thier words.

I know Chelsea from church, but have not really gotten to know her.  God gave her a quiet demenor & it has been so fun to get to know her a bit & watch her be with the group.  One of our Interns, Jean Marc, is super fun & has us singing all kinds of songs while traveling in the Canter, some with movements and all of them FUN.  I've loved seeing Chelsea have fun with this!

Holly was awesome yesterday in the village during our Strategic Village Time, were we go to specific homes and collect data of living conditions, and also have the opportunity to get to know the family a little bit and share the gospel.  We were split into two groups for this and Holly was in the same group as me.  At one of the houses Holly took charge and asked questions with the help of the interpretor.  She then had the opportunity to share the gospel with the young women we were visiting and she did an excellent job!

Drelyn has been our unofficial "videographer". I found out the other day she is making a video for Jason to use during his Senior Expo presentation as well as some other people for similar purposes. I'm really gratful she is doing that & super excited to see the video!

Caleb has been our comic relief. If you know Caleb, I don't need to say much more :) No really, his humor has been very much appreciated!!  He says he's planning to meet his future wife here in Haiti because apparently Dr. Toby Travis met his that way. We are all waiting to find out who that will be :)

Nick took charge on our painting instructions today & I was grateful he knew what he was doing.  He has joined in just a bit with dare devil activities described below, but he doesn't make me quite as frantic to keep track of as some :)

Sean started out the week with a bit of dehydration, but quickly recovered with the help of the MOH people and has been fine since that day. Sean is a bit of a dare devil and would love to hang out the Canter we ride in each day to the village.  A Canter is like a big pickup truck that has a roof & open windows in it.  There are benches on each side for us to sit on. Sean will try to sit in the windows.  I told him he was going to give me a heart attack :) Good thing God gave me boys & I understand their need to be dare devils :)  Also the Hatian kids love his longer hair.  He had braids in his hair as well as Nick & Caleb, which were done a few days back.  His lasted the longest out the three of them.  I'm pretty sure there were some Hatian teenage girls laughing at the three of them the next day in the village when we went out.  I know the rest of our group got a kick out of them!!

Nathan also has dealt with a little bit of something not making him feel well, but he has been fine today.  He stayed behind with our other female chaperone, Kristina, a couple days ago to rest up that afternoon.  Nathan has been a steady worker & he has a bit of a quieter sense of humor, but says things that catch us off guard & the laughter starts again(we have been laughing a lot).

Jason has done a good job being our "leader"but I might be a bit biased :) Really though, he has stayed on top of things well here with keeping up with what the leaders need to know. He left the states with a couple nasty spider bites & an antibiotic for it, but the nurse on this campus took a look at them when we were concerned that they were looking worse after our flights.  After following her advise on how to care for them in this climate & taking his anitbiotic he got the day before we left, he is doing much better.  I don't think he has especially loved that his mom was concerned about the bites though...oh well :)

You all should be very proud of these kids.  They represent Desert well as well as their families.  It really is such a blessing to me to be on this trip with each of the other 12 people that God called to do this trip.  There are so many stories I'd love to tell, but I'm exhausted, Ive been hunched over typing this on my bottom bunk that doesn't have enough head room for me to sit up & I need a nap while I have a little down time before the team return.

One last thing.  Please keep Matthew in your prayers!  He has been sick for the past week & we aren't sure if his JRA/JIA is acting up or what is going on.  Fevers everyday, soreness,etc.  Even though I am loving being here and serving the peopleof Haiti at MOH, my mama heart is having a hard time being away right now. So please pray the doctors will figure out what's going on soon & how to help him.  My wonderful husband is doing an incredible job getting him into see who he needs to see!!

Sorry for mistakes. This tablet is a little difficult & im too tired to really care :)