Ripe Mango Chronicles

This has been an exciting Christmas season for our family. There have been so many firsts for the boys, and for Kenol as well. When I was in Canada I bought the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer DVD. I was surprised to find out that the boys had never heard of Rudolph. I was even more surprised to find out that Kenol had never heard of Rudolph either! The kids LOVED the movie, especially the abominable snowmonster!! It was more fun watching them than the movie itself! Tonight was another first. My parents sent a gingerbread train kit home with me as well. I brought out the box tonight and showed the boys what we were going to make. They ooed and aahhed over the box. When I started snapping the gingerbread pieces apart they kept saying, "Mmmm, that smells good!" I got the icing out and started putting the pieces together. The boys watched with wide eyes as it slowly became a train. A bit of icing got on my finger and I, of course, licked it off. The boys in unison, g

This year when we took our annual Village of Hope Christmas picture I was really excited to sneak our boys in and get my very first picture with all my kiddos! All 68 of them. We are one BIG, wild, happy family.  We wish you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in 2013! Peace, love and big families, Rachel

Alexander McCall Smith is my absolute favourite author, thanks to my momma. She got me hooked! I’ve read his entire No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, which are my favourite books ever. They were even made into an HBO series for a season. They are about a traditionally built (fat) lady detective in Botswana. If you are looking for some easy and fun reading check those out. So far he has 13 books out in that series and each one is incredible. As I have read the whole series thus far I decided to branch out into his other series. I just finished reading 44 Scotland Street, the first book of the series. It was originally published as a serial in The Scotsman newspaper in Scotland; which makes it quit interesting. Each chapter is no more than 4 pages long, and has to be a complete “scene” in a sense, as it would be read on it’s own in the newspaper. The book is about the tenants who live in apartment building in Edinburgh. The characters were quite interesting, although there wer

Meet Soudnel, he just turned one and has TONS of hair, or at least he did until this morning!  This is me cutting off Soudnel's braids!   So much hair!   Meet Soudnel with short hair. Meet Soudnel with NO hair!    Meet Julien and Gilner. They are twins, obviously, and we have a hard time telling them apart!  We usually give Gilner a closer shave on the side so we can tell who is who! Meet Julien (on the left) and Gilner (on the right) with fresh haircuts! It's so good to know who is who again! Another fun day in Haiti! Peace, love and haircuts! Rachel

Today was an exciting day for both Kenol and I. This morning was the second graduation from the Leadership Training and Bible Classes Kenol teaches on Saturday mornings. There were 48 graduates, eight of which were girls from the Orphanage. There were so many proud momma moments today, as I watched them walk down the aisle in their cap and gown and go up to receive their certificates. These kids are amazing! I was also the Maren (Godmother) of the graduation, which is a Haitian tradition. This means I had to sit up at the front in a special chair with the Paren (Godfather) and the pastors, which wasn't so bad, as Kenol was one of them. I did however have to make a speech which is always a little nerve wrecking! Especially when it is done in Creole. I have to tell you though, one of my favourite moments of the morning was when I took the microphone, looked out into the audience and said, "Bonjou Medanm e Mesye." There was a quiet gasp and then giggling throughout the a

With 68 kids within a half-mile radius it’s easy to recruit helpers, depending on the task. We don’t get many volunteers for yard clean up but when I asked if any children wanted to help make cakes for our Young Hope party hands shot up all over. We had so much fun making the cakes, we even had matching aprons for everyone which they LOVED! I taught the kids how to make a marble cake. We made a chocolate cake with white marble and a vanilla cake with chocolate marble. The girls used such precision and care when they were pulling the butter knife through to make a design. It’s always a special treat to have a small group of kids together, that’s when their personalities really shine through. Stevenson was the only boy volunteer and I am pretty sure he just came to lick out the bowls. Christella and Dounie were determined to try some cocoa, I warned them it wasn’t sweet and would not taste good, but they wanted to see for themselves. Moments later they were gagging and gulpin

I finally finished Life of Pi by Yann Martel last night. I am so thankful my bestie Leanne told me, “it’s quite slow at the beginning but just keep on reading, it will get better.” I completely agree. The beginning is confusing, and scattered and I wasn’t really sure where it was going. Although I thoroughly enjoyed everything Pi had to say about life in the zoo, it was really quite interesting. For those that don’t know, or haven’t seen the movie yet Life of Pi is about an Indian boy whose family owns a zoo. They eventually decide to move to Canada, and his father sells as many of the animals as he can, which means they have to travel the ocean on a cargo ship full of wild animals. There is some sort of explosion and the ship goes down, Pi is the only human survivor that we know of. He was thrown onto a lifeboat as the ship went down. There are a number of animal survivors as well; a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a Bengal Tiger who also ended up on the lifeboat. Seven months