We went to a Creole speaking church Sunday morning enjoying praise music in Creole and even though there was a language difference the positive energy in the church was evident.  The church was at an orphanage and we got to interact with the sweet children who sat around and with us playing throughout the service while some sat quietly listening. It made me feel even more connected to the culture and enhanced the desire to adopt a Haitian child as there are many who could use homes.   It was sad to leave them especially when one of the very friendly little girls through a tantrum when we said goodbye.  We spent the earlier part of afternoon at the Hope Alive Guesthouse and had plaintains with picklies for lunch.   Myself, Wilio and Katie went for a long walk around the neighborhood first to Grace Village at an attempt to get medications, when we couldn’t do that we decided to explore other areas.  We walked down to a beach hotel called the Lambi Hotel, about 20 or so minutes away by the main road. It was a popular beach, but it was not the traditional sand and ocean I was used to at a beach.  The beach was in the south of Haiti where I heard the beaches aren’t as nice as those in the north.   We stopped and got some homemade pineapple icecream on the way there from a icecream stand which was tasty.  It was a small beach, we had to pay to get in.  There was loud Haitian music playing and an area for activities where people played sports and tables where people sat eating and drinking.   There was dancing and lots of Caribbean style music, locals were there and I did not see any people who looked liked visitors.  Seemed like a common place to go on the weekends, it was cool to get a taste of at least part of the authentic experience of living in Haiti.

I was eventually picked up later that day by a driver and Cary Roberts, one of the team leaders from the Haiti Outreach Ministries medical, construction and mental health team called Diakanos from Canada that I planned to work with that week in Port au Prince.  Cary wanted to make sure we made it back by dark as it was Carnival time when a lot of partying occurs.  Fights and other problems can erupt jeopardizing security and leading to unsafe conditions quickly.  We spent the evening getting acquinted at Walls Guesthouse with a team of providers, Pastor Leon (founder of Haiti Outreach Ministries) and his wife and others who would help with construction and building.  I even reunited with some old acquaintances a nurse from Seattle and Larry Roberts, (founder of Servants Gifts, an outreach organization with a group house in Haiti), friends who happened to be staying at the same place.    It was a refreshing start to prepare for the next week which will be spent in a clinic at Cite Soleil, an underserved, impoverished and historically unsafe community, known as a large slum.   The community has been victimized by crime, inequity and is vulnerable, I really anticipated serving there.