It’s 92 degrees and it feels like 102!  Sometimes I can exaggerate yet I really am not today.  The truth is it feels that hot in the direct sun but if you are sitting on Judy and Manis’ roof as I am in this moment and a nice breeze is blowing then it barely feels like it’s 90!

The internet service has changed here and is limiting our ability to connect but everyone has quickly adjusted to this reality and I am sure there will be a lesson in this for all of us when we realize how much time can be spent with our computers, ipods, smart phones etc etc.

We have literally hundreds of pictures between us all and will try to upload a few as we can but for the moment you will have to go with me in your mind to ‘see’ what I want to share with you….

Picture 36 cute little 4 and 5 year olds, all in bright yellow and checkered green and blue uniforms, girls with yellow ribbons neatly in their hair. Now picture each one sitting in a little wooden chair brushing their teeth and the toothpaste foam starting to ooze out their mouths.  Thankfully the hospitality staff and teachers were prepared with a large basin at the front of the room for the children to quickly get up and spit into the basin. It became a little chaotic as each child was at a different pace in their brushing and spitting as they were taught “pa mange” do not eat the toothpaste.  We taught them a song in Creole which was “we brush the teeth we want to keep, want to keep, we brush the teeth we want to keep we want to keep them all!  Through the donations we brought every student at the school received a new toothbrush and each family or individual received toothpaste.

A big part of a mission trip into a third world country is learning that number one it is about relationships and number two ‘be flexible’ not like yoga or doing back bends but flexible like just flowing with the day and what may or may not happen. The girls  planned to be up and ready to herd sheep at 5 this morning and when your phone alarm is set for Wisconsin time you may still be sleeping when it it time to leave.  Thankfully their sheep herding tour guide Rachel came and got them up and going and they were able to experience it still early-enough this morning.

Yesterday evening we traveled to Mme Wisely garden to see her plantains, bananas and mangoes growing yet clearly in need of rain; last year there was a little stream to Mme Wisely’s garden and this year it is all dried up. Between us all we have many many pictures of bananas now.  Walking through the community watching our step for the many very sharp pickers we passed by many mud huts with thatched roofs, goats scattered here and there with every one greeting us as we passed with a smile and a welcome; so different than walking through an average neighborhood in the States….

Hoping next to just have a pictures-post with the toothbrushing littlest students, the sheep herding, goats, the girls ‘home’ this week and of course Mme Wisely’s garden.