Day 3: Painting

Today is Wednesday, May 26 2010. This morning I was a bit tired because I stayed up late with John, Stephanie, and Jenn to play a haitian card game that we just learned. But we were still able to make 5am devotion.
We spent the majority of the day today painting and doing work around the orphanage. We first began to paint the baby cribs. The cribs are very old and worn and they had chipped paint. They were afraid the babies would eat the led from the paint. While we were painting, it started pouring rain so the guys helped us to bring the cribs inside.
During the rain storm we did arts and craft with the kids. They actually were all excited about the project and sat still long enough to complete it. They even decided to glue their craft to the walls.. . haha.
Then we all worked to paint the walls of the downstairs of the orphanage. We used baby blue paint to match the cribs. We even had some of the kids help us paint, which meant there was a huge mess that we had to clean up after. The place is really starting to look great!
While we were painting one room, I noticed a child in a crib all curled up in a ball. She looked like an infant, maybe a few years old... I knew something was wrong with her because she could not move from her position with her legs up to her chest and she kept hitting herself and could not speak or communicate at all. There were flies landing all over her body. She stayed in this crib pretty much all day, everyday. I found out that she was 21 years old. I was in absolute shock and did not believe it. I am unsure what was wrong, but it was a very sad sight to see- she was my age...
We spent the rest of the day playing with all of the kids... again, so much fun! A few of the kids sang "We are the World" with me, which was so nice. I hung out with my friend Emmanuel for a while to work on my creole and french..haha.. and of course I had a million other little friends attached to my side the whole day :)
In the back of the orphanage there are refugees staying in tents. One woman came up to me and was talking to me for a while... she was very nice. She asked for some money for her family because they were hungry. I don't really think I am suppose to give money when they ask, but I could not say no. She was very greatful. It was great having a conversation with her.
Before I went inside I watched the most beautful sunset. I felt like I was in a movie watching it with the refugee tents and palm trees below.
I have also been taking my video camera along everywhere and camera... can't wait to share this experience with you all...I'm sure I will be creating another documentary of this experience to share.