Haiti. Arrived here on Thursday Wednesday 25, 2016.

The cast of this Oriani life.

Keith Toews – owner of the clinic and his wife Candace Toews, an amazing cook.

Their children Cam, the mechanic that keeps everything running, Chase, runs around doing all sorts, Christina, the little housekeeper, and Ketli, the lovable, sassy 6 year old, most definitely my favorite Haitian.

The Nurses consist of Kay Wedel – a brilliant nurse here at the clinic and my new walking buddy and Chrystelle, the lively Haitian nurse who excels in anything mom and baby related.

Todd Schmidt, the Deacon here at church and his wife Donna Schmidt, the seasoned teacher who helps lots in the church school.

Lacey Toews, the white skinned Haitian. She loves the people in Oriani and teaches in the church school.

And my family here, Matt and Sherri Giesbrecht. Matt, a general handyman around the house it seems and an amazing nurse here at the clinic. I love to watch him work. And help him if possible.

Sherri, the one who stays up late with me to talk. And the one who keeps this house running. My students Bodie, the model maker, and Alyssa, she always has everything cleaned to a T. And last but not least little Dawson. The noise maker of the household, but the cutest one.

Now on to the Oriani life part.

Normal life here is hard to say. So many different things happening all the time. We don't have a fence around our yard yet, so all the little neighborhood boys are always playing around our house and wondering if we could ever give them something. We start school at 8 in the morning. Its just right across our yard and Keith's yard. A short walk. We usually find things to do until one o'clock or so. Not as hard as I make it seem though! For recess the kids love to play baseball. Keith's yard is plenty big enough for it. We use a pick handle as a bat. And its quite heavy for Alyssa but I enjoy whacking them out into the neighbor's garden. But I always feel bad when we stomp through the garden looking for the ball. Hopefully not ruining too many plants! We have a lunch break at 12. Side note here it seems we are always eating. Today two Haitian brothers that were working in our yard, ate with us. We had left over Haitian food which a spunky, always laughing youth girl, Manitha, made for us on Saturday. The men kept saying how good the food was and they ate and ate.

The scenery up here in the mountains is breathtaking. The mountains go on forever in the distance. Everything is a lush green. Banana trees are everywhere and green grass and all sorts of plants and red hibiscus. And on clear days I'm told you can see the ocean. I haven't saw for myself yet. There's little trails everywhere in the mountains and you can walk just straight up the mountain on a little rocky trail. There's a Bible study on Fridays about a 45 minute hike from our house. Sherri, Kay, and I went. It's a surprisingly hard climb. We took it fairly easy on the way there but Kay was the leader on the way back and we took the straight up route and I think it went fairly well despite little goats were passing me up the mountain. Up over the mountain there suddenly was our house. A lot harder but faster route. Back at the little tin church, where it was almost full, Bible study was in session. And my entertainment throughout the service was the cutest baby. She was about one year old I would guess. An so chubby I was just drawn to her. Most of the little babies here are afraid of white people, and what a shame too because all I have is love for them! Yesterday went to a sister's house that just had a baby. She had light skin and was bundled tight in a blanket. She felt so light! She must have been only a few days old. Lacey had brought a pair of little cute shoes for her. The mom held them under the light inspecting them and was so tickled about the visit and the gift. Outside her house, some children were all standing in a circle singing songs as loud as they could, although it was still beautiful.

Late in the afternoon, the music in the village is pumping loudly at the Mini Bar and the town is alive. But as soon as the sun sets the towns settles down to sleep and the people wake with the sun.

Thus ends this scrambled nonsense. The introduction of a country would take books and I don't have the patience or the want of carpal tunnel. So here's my little piece.