The Christmas Program

We knew the Christmas program was tonight but still wanted to hit the clean beach for a few hours. The confusion just seemed to be extra loud this morning. Diane was helping Joan on her Christmas list in the office and got so distracted she borrowed Mike's headphones to try to cut back on the distractions.

In Diane's defense this is another aspect of living here that must be experienced. Words cannot explain how chaotic it is here each morning. The workers, the people lined up at the door all wanting to plead their case, the interruptions from vendors and the noise, oh the noise. I don't know how the Reinhards deal with this day after day, week after week. We finally loaded up and headed to the beach. On the way we stopped to see the church and school Peoria is sponsoring in memory of Gabriel.

The beach was in the town Aristides came from. There was a bill board up in that town saying the UN and Cholera were twins both here to stay.

Talk about trying to rile up the people! This town is much neater than everywhere else we go. Joan explained, they still throw the garbage on the ground it is just at this town they hire people to clean it up. As soon as we got to the beach the vendors arrived. Haitian vendors are not as annoying as Mexican or Jamaican vendors. They don't yell, just ask quietly if we want something.

Rhoda bought a purse but the man put a hat on her and asked her to model the hat and purse hoping to make a hat sale. Notice Tim laughing, it didn't work, Rhoda had already purchased a hat from another vendor. The Haitian people are so poor they work hard for just a few dollars. We felt pretty strongly that those that had worked to make something to sell should have the opportunity so tried to buy something from each. The problem there were twofold. How to remember who we bought from and the sheer amount. Still it is better to buy something then just give money.

Amy and I went for a walk on the beach, this dog came running up to her then followed her back to where we were camped out.

He ran right over to Mike and made himself at home, one can tell just by looking how Mike makes friends where ever he goes, although he asked Joan, "what's the word for beat it!"

The dugout canoe below

with some fishermen came in with their catch, just a few skinny fish after fishing for hours. I asked if I could take a picture of the fish but he said no. The canoes are made of a solid log, they are so heavy small round logs are needed to move them.

The man below was busy mending his nets but notice how far up the beach he got his boat by rolling it.

We didn't have enough flippers for everyone wanting to snorkel so each person got one flipper. That turned out to be a bad idea, the rip tides were strong and the fire coral dangerous. Most of the snorkelers ended up getting pushed against the fire coral and getting hurt, then when they were trying to get back to the beach from the reef they all kept swimming in circles. That's what happens when one only has one flipper. Not really but it was a long distance and hard. Tim ordered french fries at a local resturant. They came out nice and hot but not much salt, Tim asked for more salt and that came after the the french fries were mostly gone.

After lunch was snooze time for Joan and Berlica.

Mackenson was busy playing football with Tim.

While we were laying around reading and watching the crab below clean out his home.

Below is Faith and Tim coming back from a swim in the ocean.

On the way back from swimming the Sauder boys showed Mackenson the little crabs running along the sand. They all had fun chasing them.

He wasn't as thrilled when they caught one.

All good things must come to an end. We needed to leave by 3:30 to get back in time for the big Christmas play the missionary kids were putting on. That started at 6:30pm and was so cute. Below is the cast.

Bethany is Mary, Faith is a lamb and I'm not sure what Hannah was but she sang a solo.

At one point the star was suppose to disappear and it got stuck. Madam Tim (Joan) had to get up to save the day.

They were playing to a packed church. After the play everyone was issued a candle and we sang Silent Night in three different languages by candle light. It is hard to think Christmas is coming it is just too hot here. Everyone was invited for desserts and drink but we walked home to start packing. We leave tomorrow morning.