June 23-Nathan Self

After a long but good week of serving throughout the local Haitian village of Bercy, today's relaxing break at a resort was not opposed to by any of the tired faces on our team. Although the trip to the resort was planned for the entire day about half of the team; Alex, Drelyn, Chelsea, Mrs.Jorg, Kristina, and myself, chose to take part in a unique experience during the morning. We left earlier than normal at 7:30 and made our way to the main campus. Two companies that were started at mission of hope, called Vibella and Three Chords Haiti, sell handmade jewelry and goods to teams and local Haitians. They were offering to let people who were interested learn more about them, meet the staff, and then make your own headband alongside the staff of Three Chords. This experience took place all of Friday morning and it was really cool to be able to hear some of the stories of the staff on how this job has impacted their lives since the earthquake in 2010 when these businesses were created. Making the headband was really cool and wasn't as hard as i thought it would be. With the assistance of a staff member i finished mine in a matter of minutes.
After wrapping up that cool experience we hopped on the canter, a semi-opened seated truck like vehicle, and made our way to the resort to join the others for lunch. Our lunch was a traditional Haitian meal of chicken, rice and beans, coselaw, plantains, and a soda. I absolutely love Haitian food so i was very excited to be able to enjoy one last meal like that. After lunch our team split up again: Mr.Vance, Nick, Caleb,and Alex went fishing while Sean, Katrina, Drelyn, Chelsea, Jason, Mrs.Jorg, and myself went snorkeling. Since i didn't go snorkeling last time i was very excited to go this time. The reef was very interesting swimming through and all the pretty colored fish were around every turn. My favorite one that i saw was a puffer fish but sadly it never puffed up. Upon returning we had just enough time to swim a little more and grab a refreshing mango smoothie before hopping back on the bus to head back to camp. The rest of the day was filled with relaxing, spikeball tournaments (which i will proudly say Chelsea and I lost in the second round.....only after getting a pass on the first round), devotions, and packing for tomorrow's travels.
This trip has truly been amazing and I have been so blessed to hang with this wonderful team and get to served the amazing people here. Thank you to all of you who have continued reading our posts throughout the week and have kept us in your prayers it's much appreciated. I would ask that you continue to pray for us as we travel back into the country tomorrow and slowly make our way home. Also please keep Holly and Drelyn in your prayers as they both came down with fevers this afternoon. They are not the first to get sick this week so my hope is that they can recover quickly just like all the others did. Thank you so much for your support and I know we are all sad to leave Haiti but are definetly looking forward to being home again.
-Nathan Self
(it's also pouring down rain for the first time all week right now and it's amazing!)