The first night in Haiti was a rough one... as I didn't get a single wink of sleep the entire night! The next morning I realized I wasn't the only one. There are so 3 new noises one must get used to when sleeping in Haiti: 1.) The barking guard dogs- remember Blackie and the cute pregnant one I mentioned earlier? Well, let's just say they are not so cute when barking at 1:00am! 2.) The roosters crowing... you don't realize how early dawn really is until you hear them. Yes they do start crowing at like 3:30-4:00 am. And it's not just one cock-a-doodle-do, more like a choir of roosters on stage performing for the entire morning duration. 3.) All the new breathing noises and bed creaks around you. All of this plus Malaria meds that tends to speed me up, not slow me down... Thankfully I didn't have any problems the rest of the week catching up on sleep. It's amazing at how quickly the dogs & roosters become noises like home! I didn't even hear them the rest of the trip!!
Today was Josh's birthday!! What a cool way to spend your birthday! (We are celebrating it today- August 7 with family.) That morning we went to Junie's church, where she has been going there since she was a young girl. The drive to her church was in a nicer area a little further away from the busyness of the city, although we saw a lot more damage from the earthquake. I don't even remember how far the drive was because we were so focused on the scenes around us. We saw many buildings and homes that were devestated from the earthquake. The hardest one to see was the presidential palace. It was so upsetting to see a beautiful iconic for the Haitians, destroyed and crumbled. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...
The church service was all in French, so we didn't understand any of it. But it was so encouraging to see other believers so passionate about what they believe. The only part we understood was at one point we kind of heard a church leader say "...Christ Community Church" and look right at us. We stood and everyone waved at us. Then later we heard the same type of thing and she looked right at our group. The piano player got ready and the whole congregation started singing "Happy Birthday" in French. We weren't sure exactly if it was for Josh or not, but I think it was! It made us so happy!! The church was beautiful with stained glass windows and made up of wonderful people! (I know I have a picture of it, but can't find it... so I'll upload later.)
The rest of the day we didn't have anything planned but relaxation, which was perfect since I was extrememly tired! That night we prepped for our big week with the kids! I went to bed so eager to see those beautiful faces that I had seen one year prior.
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