Day 7: Last day :(

Today is Sunday, May 30 2010.. Unfortunately, today is our last day in Haiti, the week flew by. This morning we slept in a little bit later until about 6am. Church was at 8:00 today and it was packed. Everybody at the orphanage was there and many from the outside community attended the service. Today is mother's day in Haiti, so it was an especially nice service. Plus on Sundays everybody pretty much devotes their entire day to religion; nobody really works or does anything else. There was this gospel choir that sang that was unbelievable and the kids all sang too.
After the service, all of us (about 25 people) went in the truck to go for a ride. Our destination was to see the palace in Port au Prince. I couldn't believe the damage that was done to the building from the earthquake. The whole top of the structure was falling off. The government here is so corrupt. Kim says that the government is technically a democracy but there is really no order what-so-ever. There is a president, but the only requirement to run for the office is that one must be a citizen of Haiti and have some kind of education. 45 people ran in the last election. The government randomly turns off the electricity whenever they want to (which happened every day we were here). It also concerns me a bit that I don't see much help down here cleaning up from the earthquake. Our country has given so much money and I do not see anything being rebuilt or any others here helping. I expected to see many trucks here giving supplies or people rebuilding or cleaning up from the tragic disaster. The only thing I see are the tent cities everywhere where people live. I feel that these tent cities will be here for a long while. I have a strong feeling that the government just takes most of the money given. Many of the buildings in the area were also completely destroyed and rubble was everywhere. Such a sad sight to see.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with the kids and we had a fun day planned for them! We took the kids upstairs 5 at a time (or else it would have been completely chaotic) to get their face painted, give balloon animals, and have them each pick out an outfit, toys, and candy. I made the balloon animals and the expression on their faces were priceless, it was obvious they have never seen this done before. It was really like a holiday for them, they were all so excited and had a lot of fun.
Tonight did not go so well, which is very sad because it was our last night here. I let a man from the orphanage take my camera to load the pictures to his computer and he deleted every one of them from the entire week.. Over 500 photos. I had a bad feeling about giving my camera away in the first place and I wish I just followed my gut instinct. The pictures from this trip were priceless to me and I can't even write about it anymore because I get upset. But anyway.. After that one of the teenage boys pushed Kim and got kicked out of the orphanage. This wasn't exactly a great way to end the trip.
Before bed we threw hundreds of glows sticks down to the kids from the balcony. The older kids were angry because of the incident. However the younger kids had a lot of fun picking up the glow sticks and throwing them back and forth to us.
I went to bed pretty early because I was just upset and not feeling well either. Plus there were a million red ants in my bed so I had to find another place to sleep. The electricity went off as well, so it was extremely hot.

So right now it is 12:10pm and we are at the airport getting ready to head home. This morning was rough and I cry just thinking of it. I was still upset about all my pictures this morning, I guess I should just get over it because it's already done and there is nothing I can do... But even worse than that it was so hard to say goodbye to the kids. I was with Dolleen and Maranata (the girls I was with all week) and they were on each of my arms crying. I didn't want to leave... It's so hard to just be here for just a week and then leave. It has been just enough time to get very attached to the kids. I literally am sitting in the airport crying right now writing this as I think of the tears rolling down their face..
So we arrived at the airport at 7am and our flight is at 2:00.. We got here early because Kim warned us that you never know what can happen here. They can leave early if they feel like it or there can be a massive pile of garbage in the road that causes a traffic jam that would cause us to miss our flight (that happened to Kim before haha). So we were here 7 hours early. But I actually had a great time hanging out with everybody... We even asked people here to teach us the gayepaye dance.. We definitely made the most of our time! We board in an hour...
Despite the fact I have no pictures to show from my trip, the memories I have will last a lifetime. This experience was definitely life changing. While we were there our team accomplished so much, we..
Started a garden to help with self-sufficiency
Built a fence around the garden
Painted rooms in the orphanage
Painted cribs
Put a tile floor in the boys dorm
Took the kids to the beach
Spent $7000 to put two bathrooms in the clinic
Fed and gave supplies to two refugee camps
Provided a tent for a family
Purchased a goat to eat
Purchased bunk beds
Purchased Mattresses
Purchased Pillows
Purchased a Crib
Fixed the Sewage system
Fun day for the kids: Balloon animals face painting etc..
42, 50lb suitcases of supplies
Organized the medical clinic
Spent much quality time with the children
We definitely accomplished a lot!!
I hope to come back in either July or December when Kim comes again..

Thank you for following.. Orevwa, tout moun...