Prepare yourselves...

This is going to be a long post. Wednesday was our most exciting and interesting day thus far.

So, remember that worship service I talked about that went from 2:30-am-4:30 am? Well we have topped that! Tuesday night we fell asleep to the beginning of an ALL-NIGHT service. And I do mean ALL-NIGHT! Literally, we fell asleep to them, and when we woke up (I use that term loosely because we would have actually had to have been asleep) at 6:45am, they were still going. We were asked the next day if we would go home and do this. I thought about the children's all-nighter once a year at my church and laughed. Although that was truely the only one that went all night, they have been out there the past 4 nights. They never cease to impress me!
So after we rolled ouyt of bed and ate breakfast, it was time for us to leave. Pastor Millian was picking us up to head to Leogane. We went out with our 50+ lbs suitcase of supplies to meet him when we saw that there were people sitting in the hallways and all the way up the stairs. We now had the fun obstacle of getting that suitcase down the stairs that had 2-3 people sitting on each step. Somehow I got it down the stairs, and I didn't take anyone out or fall! I am still impressed with myself!
Wednesday in Leogane and Thursday in Carrfeour we made musical instruments with the kids. To say that we got mobbed would be saying it nicely. At one point in Leogane, Pastor Millian grabbed a stick and started to use that to get the kids to back away and sit down! Today in Carrfeour we did backpacks and put a model magic, 2 markers and stickers in each one. You would have thought we were giving them gold! They kept coming up to us telling us they didn't get one thing or the other. But check their backpack or pockets, and you were sure to find it. It made us laugh everytime. Even some of the adults and teenagers were coming up to us and asking for one thing or the other.
After VBS in Leogane on Wednesday we played what Adrienne calls "street ball" with the kids. Well, Adrienne played. The rest of us feared for our lives. The ball was hit off roofs, buildings, walls, trees, rocks and humans. Call me crazy, but I wasn't looking for any broken bones, so I sat on the sidelines but still had to duck every now and then!
After the deadly game of "street ball" ended, we got to help with a food distribution at the church. I helped put a costco size coffee can of rice into a plastic bag for each person. And then we helped hand out 3 bags of pre-packaged rice and soy protein mix. I asked Pastor Millian after how often they did this, he said it depends, sometimes once a month, sometimes every 2 weeks. It was very humbling.
As we were loading into the car Pastor Millian asked us how we had been eating. He was very concerned that we weren't getting enough to eat (he hasn't seen the amount of snack food that we brought). So, he took us out to lunch at what we now fondly refer to as a "feast for $3." All 6 of us ate for 282 Gourdes. In dollars, that is $11!! Talk about cheap! And it was good. We bought 2 soccer balls for 300 Gourdes. We all left stuffed and with leftovers, sadly we never got to eat them though.
We ran a couple of errands with Pastor Millian before we headed back to Carrfeour. It was cool because we got to see more of Leogane than just our regual route. At one of the stops they were making school desks. I have never seen so many desks in my life. There was also a man asleep on his motorcycle. I have pictures to prove it. I have never seen anyone sleep in such a talented position before.
As if that all isn't exciting enough for one day, as we were on our way home we got a flat tire. To which Pastor Millian replied in a confused voice "was that us?" Which made us all laugh because we could all feel it. Pastor Millian walked away to try to get someone to help us. Which left the 5 of us standing on the side of the road. To which we thought it would be a good idea to try and get someone to help us. No suck luck. We even had a group of Americans drive right by us. After Pastor Millian returned with help, he looked at us and asked if we wanted to stand in the shade. To which I sarcastically replied that we preferred the burning sun (for some reason it never dawned on any of us to go stand in the shade that was 10 feet away). He looked at me very puzzled and asked "really?!?" It didn't take long before we were all standing in the shade and having a dance party. We asked Pastor Millian if he wanted to dance with us. He looked at us like our father and just shook his head like we were his crazy children. Which we pretty much are. We did get lots of honks as we were having our dance party to Kirk Franklin's "Stomp." Pastor Millian really is a kid at heart. We are all very fond of him. He treats us all like we are his kids.
Once we finally got home we went into our room and got teased with about 10 minutes of air conditioning before they turned the power off on us. Which led to a lot of dillusional moments for the 5 of us. We were all just sitting/laying around when Katie got up to get some water and said "spider!" It had to have been the size of my fist. Although I am sure Adrienne will beg to differ that it wasn't that big. But it was huge, and there was a lot of screaming that followed in the next 5 minutes as we tried to kill it. First, we grabbed the bug repellent for our clothing. Mind you, this stuff is not supposed to touch our skin. We had to have used 1/2 the bottle trying to fumigate this monster. After that didn't work, we grabbed the Lysol. Another 1/2 bottle later, it STILL WAS NOT DEAD! But according to Rachel, it had to have been having some sort of breathing problems. Our next attempt was for Adrienne to stand on a chair. She was too short, so we tried to get Rachel to do it. That all failed as well. To which the next attempt was to put Adrienne on Rachel's shoulders. Well it didn't take long for Rachel to figure out that this spider could fall on her face if Adrienne actually did kill it. So logically, she started to yell my back is going to buckle and dropped Adrienne on the bed. Meanwhile I am laying on the bed filming this all. To which only a select lucky few will get to view. Anyways, back to the spider. The next attempt was Rachel standing on a chair throwing a shoe at it. She had to have hit it 3 times. When Katie joined in and wanted her chance to take out the spider. Still, we did not succeed in killing it. He fled to the corner which is where his demise comes in. He was directly above the table which gave Adrienne just enough height to reach him. Now, a little background on this table. It is strictly used for holding stuff because it is extremely shakey. We don't even bother to try and sit there. So, now Anna, Katie and Rachel are holding the table while Adrienne is standing on the table trying to get to the spider. In the midst of all of this chaos Adrienne starts to yell "I am peeing!! I am peeing" To which Katie replied "yes you are!" And to which the rest of us are all squealing of laughter and fear of this spider. Adrienne finally crushed the monster. Luckily it didn't fall into her mouth which was open from laughing. And now I hope that you all feel like you were in the room with the five of us and the monster. Oh, and don't forget, power was off which meant no air conditioning, and the 5 of us in as little clothing as possible. Which meant that while we were trying to fumigate the spider, the door was closed. Don't worry moms, we are all still alive, and no longer dillusional from the fumes.
Moving on to the less exciting events, the next morning, Adrienne, Anna and I woke up not feeling well. I had the chills the night before and hardly slept. I ended up sleeping through breakfast and the first part of VBS. We are all feeling much better now. Between the 5 of us, we covered most of the medicines that we needed.
Later in the afternoon we walked to go meet Gustav (our translator), this was the first time that we ventured outside of jail (as we fondly call it) without supervision. Today walking to the internet was the second time! But don't worry, Gustav was waiting both times for us. Gustav knew that we wanted to go to the ocean, so he offered to take us. We went to the sandbar ish thing that we can see from the roof of where we are staying. It is so pretty. But when we got there, we saw that it is covered in trash. There was trash along the shore and even floating in the water. But it was still so pretty. Once we got to the end Adrienne and I climbed out to a rock. The water was so warm, it felt so nice. The rocks on the bottom were a bit slippery which made it interesting trying to get out there. I eventually gave in trying to keep my shorts dry and went for getting to the rock without falling in completely. There was a man out on the rock next to us who was fishing with a string wrapped around an old spite bottle. Once he caught a fish he put it in another bottle that had the top cut off. Talk about impressive, and yes, he did actually catch fish!
After we came back from our walk, we met this group of 4 students at the school who are studying English. They asked us lots of questions, and it was fun to ask them questions. Adrienne and I even got the opportunity to read this one girl's journal of the day of the earthquake. It was very sad to read, but the faith they have here is amazing. Everytime it seems that we talk to anyone here about music they ask if we have Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," and Jordin Sparks and Chris Browns' "No Air." Then we play them a variety of other music and try to get them to dance with us. First they look at us like we are crazy, but usually they give in and amuse us.
As we were sitting down for dinner, a group of American showed up. They are mostly all from San Diego and they are here building an orphange. We talked to Pastor Millian about going to help them, and he said Saturday. So hopefully tomorrow we will be able to go and meet up with them!
Well, I think that about sums it all up. It has been a crazy few days here, but I know each and every one of us is loving every minute we are here. In 5 days we will be headed to the airport. We get asked a lot if we are coming back, to which I reply "I sure hope so!"
Thank you all for your prayers. We love and miss you all!