Never a Dull Moment

Monday morning, 27th.

Standing alone, tears flowing, watching the van drive out through the mission gates.  They just left for Port au Prince, to start the journey home to Calgary, Canada.

Filled with thankfulness for all their hard work and accomplishments of the past eight days.  Feeling sad to see them leave. They were delightful to have around, easy to be with, and accepting of everyone and everything they came in contact with.

It is always a joy to have my darling daughter, Liette, here. Her longstanding love for the precious Haitian people is obvious. Liette shines with love and commitment to the education of the Haitian children.  Anyone watching her interacting with little preschool students, with elementary, and also our secondary students, can see there is something aglow inside her. She truly knows how important every life is.  She knows how very important schooling is to every child. She works diligently to help make it happen. I loved watching her work.

Too, I was proud and pleased to see her in action at the school meeting for parents who have children in the sponsoring program. She knows how to relate to the people and there were many good and positive comments overheard afterwards.

She came this year with two good friends, Yvette who has been here several times, and Sandy, a first timer, but not her last we hope, and a lovely young women Heather, who has also been here several times.  Liette, Yvette and Sandy worked like beavers on the school photos and letters of our school students. Our own Mr Keif did his usual superb job of taking the photos of all the students. Heather was a godsend to us with our children. She spent very valuable time every morning with Ti Fi. TiFi is these days very much alive and glowing. She has attention, she is out and about in her chair, she is involved with children and adults.  Too, Heather daily spent time with our other children helping them to improve their reading and writing skills and has helped Luc with his spelling homework, as well as supervising the children’s play time. All of these important tasks by Heather made it much easier for the other three to do the huge computer job necessary after the photos and letters had been done.  Heather’s being here also enabled Jocelyn, Joan and I to be able to do our regular and necessary work.  HATS family member, Jim Steer, of Lytton BC, also plays an important part in the success of getting this huge job done yearly. The photos and letters go from Haiti to Jim in Lytton and then back to Liette in Calgary. Many people play a part and every part is important to the school sponsoring program and in the lives of the familes. A huge thank you to each and every one of you.

A little time was found for them to see some things and to spend time with the children.

The ladies left here feeling a little drained but knowing all four of them were a tremendous blessing to the HATS-Haiti mission and to the school IMKH , its students and to their families. There is still work for Liette to do with this job in Calgary, as the letters and photos have to be all sent out to our sponsors for whom we are very grateful.

More sponsors are badly needed. We have several students awaiting a sponsor to enable them to receive very necessary schooling.  Anyone interested in, or willing to help with, the education of a child, which in turn means helping a family, please contact Liette at  liette.wilson@hatshaiti.org.

On our previous blog you read  about Joan’s unfortunate accident on the hike.  Joan and Keith arrived in Montreal close to midnight Sunday and went directly to the hospital. Joan is now resting at home. Her foot is in a cast due to broken fibula in her left ankle. She has to ‘stay off it’ and see the surgeon on Friday, then continue to let it heal. Joan and Keith are missed here but we all know they did the correct thing by heading home for help.

Jocelyn and I are kept extremely busy. No time to get into mischief even if we wanted to. No slacking off for sure.  Jocelyn is covering for Joan with Luc’s schooling. She is a fantastic help in the office and with all aspects of the children, and that involves a lot.

Never a dull moment has been heard and said many times at the HATS-Haiti mission. This is certainly the case and most likely always will be. After all we have 17 children here, all with their various needs, infections, injuries, disabilities and all needing lots of love and affection. For both Jocelyn and I this is the best part.

HATS is and always will be   ‘ALL ABOUT THE CHILDREN’.

Karen