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September 22-30 Mission Trip Report
Our new orphanage, Royaum des Enfants de Dieu, is almost complete thanks to the efforts of the most recent Mission Team.
The September 22-30, 2010 team consisted of Mike and Tifanni Watkins from Montana, Lisa Scoppa from New York, Nicole Newman and Kathi Juntunen from Arizona and Alecia Settle from Texas. The team spent the nights of September 22-26 and 29th at the new orphanage in Port au Prince. The main task were organizing donations, clearing rooms of boxes, priming, painting and stenciling cribs and doing community outreach. The team also spent 2 days visiting our new crèche partner in Les Cayes, which is a beautiful coastal town in the South of Haiti.
The team sorted over 400 boxes of donations from the container and cleared 2 rooms to prepare them for bunk beds and cribs. Once the rooms were cleared we were able to get to work setting up the baby/toddler room. We primed and painted cribs and created a great space for the little ones. The bunk beds were also started as well as a number of smaller projects. During our stay in Port au Prince we also spent an entire day doing outreach. This involved distributing boxes of donations and financial aid to other orphanages and tent cities in the area. It was a great day of service.
Our living conditions were primitive but the joy we experienced sharing with others made up for all the inconveniences. We witnessed a tropical storm, flooded roads, loss of power for days and a host of setbacks, but the trip was one of the most amazing experiences for all of us. We had visits from many of our colleagues working in Haiti and seeing the collective efforts of all these individuals was inspiring. Our trip to Cayes surpassed our expectations. We had our hearts opened when the children greeted us in song and our hearts pierced as we interviewed birth parents who felt the only option for their children was to place them for adoption. It was an uplifting and exhausting ten days. The children at the crèche were a joy and we hated to say goodbye.
Please take a look at the pictures from our trip to get a better understanding of what we experienced. http://www.chances4children.org/c4c/media/photo_gallery/
The trip was a once in a lifetime experience and we hope you will consider joining us on one of our Mission Trips in 2011.
