Carnival

It's been a hectic few days and I've been off campus most of the time. When we headed out to Beauchamp, we had every intention of having a sports camp that afternoon. The group went to visit the church in LaPlaine, which was supposed to be a 20 minute walk that turned into a 45 minute hike through the desert. Everyone was exhausted but in good spirits when we got there. We visited with the community and played some duck, duck, goose. A massive storm started to roll through so we left to get back to campus. Ten minutes into the walk, the sky turned black and just opened up. It down poured the rest of the time, ending when we got back to Beauchamp, of course. It was like a giant slip and slide through the mountains, definitely sounds more fun than it actually was. We passed several houses with people on the porch. We all hoped they would offer for us to stand on the porch until it passed, but they just pointed and laughed at our ridiculousness. Obviously, the rain kept the kids away so we didn't have the sports camp. The group just had this impromptu photo shoot with the kids there. It was so funny - they have so much personality. The next day, we traveled out to the orphanage. We held a carnival there. The kids went nuts, literally. It was a circus, but a great one. There were balloon animals, bean toss, parachutes, face paint, and other fun things. It went for three hours and the kids were happy the whole time. It was heartwarming to see the kids so excited. The sports camp was planned for that afternoon, but ended up being much shorter than planned. The group fell ill really quickly. They started to get sick very badly. The group made the decision that we needed to get back to St. Louis for medicine. The group poured what they had into the kids and it was a great time. We spent the day on campus and I got to spend some time with the nutrition moms in the morning. I took the group to the jail in the afternoon. The guy who tried to steal from the mission is being sent to Port de Paix, hate to see it happen but that's how things work. There was a woman that had no idea why she was there. She said the police just showed up and took her, leaving her 5 year old daughter by herself. Later on, she found out that her sister had gotten in an argument and the boy charged her sister. Since her sister couldn't be found, she was taken as ransom. We have the next two days "off" so we are headed to Port de Paix tomorrow in hopes of finding this mystery ice cream shop. Hoping it's actually really there.