Day 2 - Water Truck

Good evening from Haiti,

I guess the energy draining day we had today left the rest of my team zapped to blog, so you get me again :)  We had a very good breakfast which gave us just enough energy to get through this emotionally and physically draining day!  We ventured off to Cite Soleil for our first water truck stop and it was very exciting to see all of the children and their sweet faces greet us when we came to a stop!  Their smiles were infectious, their laughter was musical to our ears, their hugs were so pure and so warm.  I got mobbed as did all of my team by the throngs of little ones everywhere, it was awesome!!  God put us there to see how they live, to give them life water and to love them up with the love that God put in and on our hearts.  It really was sad to see their living conditions, sad to see the raw sewage flowing down the street, sad to see the barefoot kiddos running and walking on broken glass and rusty cans...so sad that it broke our hearts!! We got to hold the kids, play with the kids, deliver water and share God's love, Jezi Renmen Ou kids!!!  

We went back to the water truck stop and wow what a back up of water trucks!! It was fun to get to see all of the different companies and the Fire Department with their 2 Fire Trucks!! I really enjoyed that as I work with Fire Fighters everyday and one of our teammates Kathy Messer's husband is a Fridley Fire Fighter...hey Todd!!  Once full again, we ventured off to a new stop for me, cement buildings, wide streets, longer distances for hauling water but the same adorable children who wanted our attention so bad that they fought with each other for it.  I love all of them wanting to climb on us and they all seemed to really enjoy Keith and me as we have the bigger stomachs...they say we're big and they ask if we have a baby inside...such sweet kids :)  I loved seeing the ladies on our team (Kathy, Renee and Colleen) with all of the little kids, they have magical abilities to put children to sleep...I do not!! It was neat to go down the street a ways and see a change in neighborhoods, big difference in housing structures seen.  We had a third water truck stop and this one was my favorite.  We worked harder, carried more water further distances, played with the kids between hauling more buckets and more buckets.  When we ran out of water, I was so happy!!! 

We got to go to the warf after this stop and see a bunch of boats, a puffer fish, some fishermen, a man fixing nets and some kids playing in the ocean...pretty cool to see!!  I was pretty happy to get there and see the neat sights!  We came home and got to go swimming with some of the local neighborhood boys and wow that was refreshing!!!! We had a great dinner tonight followed by word of the day which got interrupted by pouring rain...guess what happened then??  Slip and Slide!!!!! Renee and I were the brave souls to go for a slide and man was that fun!!!!!  Anna Collins and Mandi Rae were my first teammates to try the Haitian slip and slide out last Sept and I had so much fun that I had to do it again...I know I am a giant kid but God loves that about me :)  Thank you Haiti for a wonderful day, Thank you God for providing this day to give us a glimpse into the daily lives of some of the Haitians, they have so little and never complain, we all could learn from that!!  Hey Lois Girgis Coyle, lovely Haitian Tulip right??

God Bless all of you,

Matt Johnson