Day 4

I am still waiting for today's post. I spoke to Eric about 2 hours ago and he said that the Internet has been down so they are just waiting to send the update to me. It's already written, but I haven't gotten it yet.

So, check back later tonight and hopefully, it will be here, along with pictures.

I know that they went to Mother Theresa's Hospital today and also to a Haitian "resort" where they swam and had a nice time.

Everyone is doing well and they are all enjoying themselves and accomplishing what they set out to do.

More soon.............

Michele

Here ya go!:

This was written by Katie Wiening and Shelby Cook:

3-11-09

Today we went to Mother Teresa’s Hospital and orphanage. It was a fast and crazy drive. There were a lot of potholes in the road and the driver drove really fast. The roads are narrow and people are always walking around on both sides of the street. The driving rules in Haiti are this: the biggest car gets to go first, honk for everything, don’t slow down for pedestrians, go 80mph when there is no traffic, pay no attention to traffic signals. On our way we came to a four way stop with only one stop sign, it didn’t work very well. The drive was good to show us more of Haiti. All over the city we saw people sitting outside their homes and stores selling anything they can find.

When we got to the hospital we were swarmed by children. It was interesting to see how happy these children were, even though they were very sick. They grabbed our hands and dragged us around and some wanted to be picked up. When we first got there the children’s parents were still there. We were sitting in this room with the older children and some of their parents and there was this little girl sitting with her mother. Just looking at this little girl you could tell she was suffering. The girl was shaking and crying and mumbling to her mother, you could just see how sick she was. Nothing her mother did helped her stop crying. At 10:00 the nurses rang a bell and that was to tell the parents that it was time to go. The little girl would not let go of her mother, it was heartbreaking to see the nurse pry her away from the mother. It was even more heartbreaking to see the look on the mothers face to watch the nurse take her daughter away. Her and many other children started to cry. The sad thing was that the kids didn’t want to sit with us ,they wanted their parents to come back and be with them.

After awhile they warmed up to us and began to sit with us and play. Many of them fell asleep in laps and arms. It was really cute to see. There was another little girl that really stuck out to me. She was 8 months old and when you picked her up she weighed as much or a little less than a new born. You could see her spine and her ribs. Her arms had scabs and dry skin all over; this little girl was smaller than the 5 month old baby that was there. The interesting thing was that this girl had a smile on her face and never once did I see a tear in her eye. I think the hardest part was to leave the kids, because as soon as we set them back in their cribs they started crying and screaming.

We left the hospital around noon, and drove up in the mountains to a resort. It was unbelievably beautiful. There was no one else there except the staff. We ordered lunch and sat by the pool. The water was clean and blue and the patio overlooked the entire countryside of Haiti. We could see everything from the mansions nearby to the slums by the bay. We also talked with our driver for a while, he told us about the rich and the poor people of Haiti. He explained that once people get into power they become corrupt because they care more about maintaining their wealth than the people. Everyone went swimming and lay by the pool. Some of us fell asleep, others just relaxed and talked.

Here are some pics of the team working hard!
The one wih the towel is Bryce.