The Helicopter Returns > A mother and daughter came to the house late Friday night badly burned from a gas fire. They were locked in their house, unable to escape. So that made it all the worse. The girl was 90 percent burned and the mother had bad burns on her legs up till her waist. Sometime in the night Matt got a hold of Haiti Air Ambulance. This ambulance service had been to Oriani once to check it out and find a landing spot. They are willing to come get anyone that needs more help than the clinic can offer. And the patients they take down only have to donate something. One time it was two coconuts. So come Saturday morning, Sherri got the landing spot ( the town's soccer field ) ready with caution tape. And the crowds of people came and wondered what was going on today... the ambulance came with the two patients all bandaged up.. we waited for the helicopter. Everything is slower here. And soon the chopper came and the crowd grew very excited! And all waving at the pilot and it landed. Surprisingly the people stayed behind the tape and they drove the ambulance out to the chopper. Just like a picture you would see in a Samaritan's Purse magazine. Just a green field and the old off-road land cruiser ( Ambulance ) parked up beside the helicopter. And all the Haitians crowded around it see. Well me too! Only the daughter and her father fit in. So it came back a second time for the mother. We were all hoping it would be able to come back again before the clouds came in too thick. And when it left for the last time there was only a window of sky, and the helicopter going through it.

The last Sunday night service rather impressed me. It was Solo and Testimony. Any body can give a testimony and then have a solo..hence the name. Someone will get up and say how this song inspired them and then sing the song... or lead it as a congregational and this does not exclude the ladies. Well lead isn't the exact word but they stand behind the pulpit and sing while the rest of the church sings as well. On this one particular night, it seems the solos were abundant. Some beautiful and others....well God got them all the same. One guy got up there and started singing, half talking the first verse of the song. There's always a few faithful ladies that will try to help these poor souls out. He was crashing and burning all alone. And finally he just gave up and held up the songbook and called out, “ I need help! It's the first song.” and instantly the whole church went up in song and sang the whole song again and it was beautiful. So willing to help each other out.

Every once in a while in Haiti, the youth here has a party and all the youth in Haiti is invited. So it turned out that on Saturday, November 5^th there was one scheduled. This one was to take place at Roch Blanch at the old CSI compound. It is a huge mansion there and a massive yard. Feels like you walk inside the gates of a small city. So Friday night comes, and the youth from Oriani and the white youth wonder how we are going to get down the mountain! “Bondye konnen” (God knows) Matt and Sherri had the Excursion down in Port-au-Prince and the transmission for the ambulance was laying at it's side. So thankfully Keith was willing to work on the old Excursion and get it ready for us to take. We were going to meet the Savann Mounton people in Forte about 20 minutes from our house Saturday morning. We met them and Quenton, one of the unit guys, drove our machin. We had about 10 people in ours and a totally chaotic ride down. We had just the craziest time! Singing the whole three hour drive. And many different CE programs..Charlette was a great instigator of it all. You have a solo...and you give a testimony..and you sing a song in Spanish (even though no one knew Spanish and trust me that didn't stop anyone)..and there was lots of sermons on movies and music and phones.. and Laughing and more Laughing. Almost more than anything else. Anyway a very entertaining ride down there. We arrived at the house around 2 o'clock. And even though the party was supposed to start at 12 I believe, we weren't a bit late. Actually almost the first ones. When life mostly consists of trying to survive and find food and that is your only mission in life, watching the youth let go and play like children made me so happy. We had races and people would just fall to the ground laughing. I also found out that Christelle does not like to be pushed very high in a swing. She started screaming and screaming at Mis Kay to stop pushing her!! I don't know how she is ever going to fly in an airplane someday. Made me laugh and laugh. Then more congregations started showing up. Each in their own unique vehicle. The congregations in Port are very similar to home and so the youth are extremely fun to be with. The guys all went behind the tree and changed into their soccer uniforms... they take this very seriously. And made up teams and you can just see that they love this game! And it's all about having a good time.. the girls tried to play some volleyball. But mostly that was a joke. Heather tried to teach them some but it just wasn't working too well. It made me miss my volleyball back at home so much!! We hit the ball back at forth though and no one at that point could dampen my spirit..it was all just so fun! Lacey taught a big group of people how to play Duck, Duck, Goose. Boy, I have never in my life laughed so hard at that game. People just flat out tackling each other to get to the spot in time. And the short dresses flying up..and oh it was hilarious. Issac and Heather had made spaghetti for us all. I've heard there was about One hundred and fifty youth there. And she was just scraping the bottom of the bowl when the last person went through the line... and there was SWEET TEA to drink. A very special thing. Then everyone gathered around and sang a song and one of the youth guys announced the next party. December 27. A Christmas party. And Oriani is in charge of the cakes and drinks...and everyone has to bring a gift for it too... so I am looking forward to it! Well who wouldn't be! ….and now the ride home. Stopped at a gas station and Chase bought us all some ice cream! So this day was full of loveliness! More singing and laughing to follow... and it was dark and the way home is always enjoyable and everybody is kinda of sleepy from such a wonderful day. One of my favorite days for sure.

Last Wednesday we embarked on the journey to the beach. It takes about two and a half hours to get to Grand Gossier. So all twelve of us piled into the Excursion and went. The road there is quite washed out and rough. Someday maybe I'll go to the beach on a moto and it will speed this whole driving process up by an hour or more. The whole way you can see the ocean and so it taunts you....”I'm farther than you think!” Finally we enter the town of Grand Gossier and go right by the cemetery, with approximately 43 goats climbing all over the tombs. So now is where Matt's love for off roading comes in handy. The road was totally overgrown. Where there once was a road, there no longer is. And so Alice and the girls thought this would be a good time to burst our eardrums with their screams. Ok so exaggeration, but was very humorous. So we made the road down to the beach and found the most lovely spot on earth possibly. Although who am I to say....God created so many Beautiful things for us. The beach doesn't have much sand mostly just smooth small pebbles. White limestone cliffs tower hundreds of feet above us. And the aqua blue water, just calm and still..no waves today. Another thing I love is that there is no people..none at all! You just don't see that in Haiti. Absolutely empty. Oh wait, here comes three men in a little motor boat up to the shore. They wanted to take us on a ride around the shoreline and back....and also wanted us to pay for the gas both ways. So it was decided not to go.. that was sad tho because I thought it would be great fun. But swimming was epic! So easy to float and suddenly I brought my head out of the water and there I was so far from shore. Then some of the girls wanted to go out there. The word -shark- was mentioned to much for my liking. But the only living creature besides fish that we saw was jellyfish! Once when we were way out in the ocean, there was a few 7 up bottles floating on the water. So we inspected them with goggles and there was a long rope with a trap of some sort sitting on the ocean floor. Soon a very Haitian looking boat all painted bright and Bon Dye (God) written on the side. The man was paddling toward us and just stopped and watched all twelve Americans be crazy people in the water. We seemed to be entertainment for him and we were all happy to provide that service. The hurricane changed the scenery some but it washed some cool shells up so we walked up and down the shore, grabbing whatever we could. Most places just looked like absolute paradise!!! made my heart so happy. And then back over the bushes, through the cemetery with approximately 43 goats on the tombs, over the rough road, with a stop in Thoit for supper, and then on to the lovely Oriani home.