Flat tire Friday

Today team # 2 started the day very early and literally woke up with the chickens! At 5:30 most team members were still a bit sleepy, but very excited to experience our first Haitian church service with one of our hosts Fanfan. Everyday we are here our team experiences so many random and odd things different from home, so in my attempt to capture our daily events I will just list each item as I review the day.

*Walked home from Church and greeted many Haitian school children.
* Noticed a huge hog sleeping on the side of the road- stopped to take pictures of this... Very cool knowing we have pigs pictures!
*Enjoyed another AWESOME breakfast with fresh eggs, pancakes, fresh squeezed juice, & french toast (or what Jean calls Creole Toast)
*Driving in Haiti, which can only be described as WOW! Every time we drive it seems like our jaw drops. Cars honking horns, cows on the side of the road, people darting across the street dodging traffic. Trucks passing sometimes 3 wide at a time... Very hectic, but it seems to work..
*Seeing UN trucks.. This is one thing that always fascinates me. Troops from Brazil, Uruguay, and a few others we are not sure of. They are all armed with an M-16 and a camera- kind of funny..
*Stopping at a check point
*Driving up the mountain to Titanyen.
*Stopping to pick up a few of our guides to assist with going to homes of orphaned elderly.
*Flat tire on our taptap (Our means of transportation)
*Walking up a dirt road with a beautiful ocean view at our back..
*One team member who was a little sick.. :(
*Fanfan praying for our team member.. :)
*All kinds of animals next to us.. Chickens, goats, pigs, cows, donkeys- just walking next to us also enjoying the sights..
*Grace Village, which is a newly constructed orphanage on 17 acres on the hillside overlooking the ocean.. Awesome to see this almost completed..
*Yvonne's orphanage- Our team visited here for a few hours this afternoon. The children were very excited to sing songs for us, we were very excited to play with them. Some read books to the kids, some painted faces and I played a very crazy game of "keep-a-way" it's amazing how fast a few hours goes by playing such simple games. Our team loved the experience!
*Taptap wouldn't start so we had to push to get it started.. Not a common issue, but just part of the adventure.
*Taptap gets stuck due to our road blocked.
*Pushing taptap out and driving back home.
*Dinner- which was made by Fonese, she is our guesthouse angel. Everyday we arrive back at the guesthouse with dinner cooking, our beds made, and our clothes freshly washed. We are treated VERY well and we are blessed to have such great hosts!!!!
*Group discussion about our word of the day and highlights.
*Blog

I know this blog entry was very random, but so is an average day in Haiti.
When we first arrived on Monday I experienced a small taste of culture shock, but that quickly changed once we had a chance to get out and see how beautiful Haiti is. Our days seem to pass by so fast and we are able to savor the moment each day!
Thanks for following our team-

May God Bless You.
Joe