Ripe Mango Chronicles

This morning an older women with the saddest eyes came to greet me. I know her well, she greets me every Sunday, but her eyes don't normally hold so much pain. I smiled at the baby in her arms and began the usual exchange of greetings. A smile. A kiss on the cheek. How are you? How is your family? This morning the answers were not what I expected. Her eyes welled up as she shared that her grandson passed away this week. A young boy I have met on numerous occasions. I was shocked as he has always looked so healthy. She doesn't have much, but I know she loves her grandchildren dearly and takes care of them as best she can. "What happened?" I asked. With her head lowered and eyes down she whispered, "He had a fever, and then he died. I tried to help him, we tried to take him to a hospital, but he died." I cannot begin to even imagine what life is like for this dear woman. Her husband shines shoes for a living, while she cares for a number of grandchildren...

This has been a truly awful week. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING went the way I had hoped. People were fired, tutors didn't show up, kids failed assignments, vehicle requests went missing and our bulk purchasing trip was cancelled, twice...It was a very stressful and frustrating week to say the least. There was one thing that made it even worse, the fact that Kenol also had an awful week. Quite possibly worse than mine. While Kenol was in a meeting this evening a friend messaged me asking if I knew if he was still prepared to share at our home church on Sunday night. I knew there was no way I would be able to do it after the week I had so I responded and said, "It's been such an hard week I doubt he will be up to it." Kenol got home an hour or so later. I shared with him that I had told Katie he wouldn't be up to sharing on Sunday night. He looked at me with surprise and said, "Why did you say that?" To which I responded, "because you have had such an...

September was a great month at the orphanage, there were so many things to be proud of. I visited an orphanage in Williamson back in April, which is when the idea of a kid led VBS was born. We brought the idea up at family meeting, asking if any of the kids would be interested in planning and leading a VBS program for another orphanage and more than half our kids showed up to the planning meeting. I really had no idea what to expect as this was the first time we really tried something like this. The kids blew me away. I literally just showed up and took pictures. The kids planned and ran the whole thing, for three days! These kids are truly amazing, watching them serve our Lord with such joy and passion brought tears to my eyes. Our leaders split the kids into 4 groups, which then rotated around to different stations. We had a craft station, sport/game station, community health and Bible story station and a music station. Our leaders were in charge of specific stations and wer...

I love Christella, I really do. From the first time I met her, almost 10 years ago now, she has always been a special child to me. Her cute smile, her quiet voice, her sweet/sassy personality, her willingness to follow me anywhere and help with anything. There is a special place for her beautiful face in my heart, for sure. The other day Christella was hanging out in my office and out of no where she said, "I still have the letter you wrote me." She then told me she has had it for more than a year now and keeps it safe in her photo album. I remember the letter, it was a small card I wrote to her for fun. The kids are always writing me letters and drawing me pictures, (which I absolutely love, and treasure) so one day I decided to write them back.  Little did I know that little card I wrote would mean so much. The things that matter most in this life are almost always the little things. A hug, a phone call, a picture, an email, a card, just letting someone know you are t...

I was sitting in my office, dripping with sweat.  I had to sit directly in front of my little fan for a few minutes before I could reach down to open my bag. It is just so hot these days, like deadly hot, with no relief. I wiped my brow, then wiped it again as I had already started producing new sweat and pulled myself together. I got out my computer, pulled out some files and got to work. A short while later a few kids came bouncing into my office with giant grins and something tucked up their shirts, or hiding behind their backs. They then proudly pulled out their report cards and handed them over with a smile. I was so busy trying not to drip sweat on my keyboard that I had completely forgotten that our primary kids were getting their final report cards today. The kids were so proud of themselves as they handed their reports over. The chatter was constant as they lounged on the couch and leaned all over my desk.    Eventually Ochanel came wa...

There are so many days I feel like I have the best job ever, and this Saturday ranks most definitely as one of those days. A group of our young men (Wish I could say boys, but they're too manly for that anymore.) are in a Christian rap group. If you follow my blogs, you'll have heard of them before. They call themselves Young Hope. We brought them to Kenol's old church in Port au Prince to take part in a rap concert. I figured they would be one of the first groups to play as they are just starting out, but group after group was called up and more and more people were showing up. I kept getting more and more nervous. Kenol was called up to share a short message, they collected offering and yet another group was called up. I started really freaking out now because the group was really REALLY good. I didn't want our boys to have to go up there after them...but of course, as soon as they were finished Young Hope was called up to take the stage. My heart was pounding, I ...

A few weeks ago the boys and I jumped at the chance to go visit an orphanage in Williamson. The boys were super excited about our afternoon adventure, that is until we got there. We pulled into the orphanage/churchyard and hopped out of the truck. It was interesting to watch the boys as they took in their surroundings. They were so timid. There was a small metal swing set and monkey bars in the yard so I headed in that direction. The orphanage boys came out to get a better look at us. I greeted them in Creole, which sparked a whole series of questions. I chatted away with them and introduced Joshua, Olivier and Joseph. Slowly but surely Joshua started talking to the boys and a short while later all three of them were running around showing off their dance moves and doing flips. Once I knew they would be ok, I headed into the church to see what everyone else was up to. I saw the Pastor and went to introduce myself.  When I greeted him in Creole he was lit...