Football with a new friend!

Steven was so happy yesterday because he got to meet the little boy he sponsors here in Haiti! He came down with his Mum, and they played football before and after lunch. Steven gave him presents, including a Scotland football shirt! I think it will be really good now for Steven and this little boy because they have met and know what each other is like. Steven is still working hard, he's now doing things at the hospital.

Yesterday Peter was helping another man called Joe to build a shelf unit for the missionary house and he also fixed the ice making machines. I bet everyone here was really glad those were fixed because it is so hot here!

Some time to chill...

Hello again!

well, there has been some time for the team to take it easy, but not much! But no-one is complaining because they find the people out here so amazing with the way they cope with life being so hard, especially after the earthquake. It's a priviledge to be able to be out here helping them and getting to know them.

Church on Sunday morning was amazing! It started at 7am which seemed sooooo early. The church was full of people - even though it's a small village there were about 400 there, and they all wore their best clothes and looked so clean and tidy which must be very hard when you think of the difficulties they have living here. Ruth told me before I left that the time was going to change in Scotland last weekend - I bet you'll all be very glad our church doesn't start at 7am!

Steven is happy today because he has got the water turned on in the missionary house they've been working in. The only thing left to do is to dig a septic tank outside (I won't tell you what that's for!) but they asked if some of the local people could do that so they could earn some money and Steven said he didn't mind at all! He's going to supervise but I think he will manage to sunbathe a bit at the same time...

A Party!

We have had a really amazing day today! We had a big party for children from the orphanage. It started at 10 am and went on till 2 pm. There were 62 children, the youngest ones were 2 years old and the oldest ones were about 10 or ll. It was such fun with lots of games and the children all had such a great time! Some of them had a really hard time after the earthquake here, but it's good to see how well they are being looked after now and it was great to see them laughing and having a wonderful day. We also gave out some clothes and presents to the children and they were so happy! Peter took some photos so I'll be able to show them to you when we get back.

Well, we've nearly been here a week and it's been soooo busy - the guys have worked very hard and are quite tired. But the work they are doing will make an amazing difference to the people living and working here so that's really good.

Lots of work getting done here!

Hi everyone! This is a very busy team I'm with here in Haiti. I've been watching Steven - he started out by putting a UV light into the missionary house, he then repaired the main into the hospital operating theatre, then he pumped lots of water back into the orphanage's water tanks - they had had no water for 15 days - and he taught one of the young boys we've met here how to fit a wash hand basin. I thought that was such a good thing to do because now that boy can do something really skillful and useful! Steven also repaired a water outlet that was letting too much water escape and he's done lots of small jobs too.. I can hardly keep up with him, and he's only one of all the people working so hard!

There's also a mobile clinic team of about 20 people with their interpreters who leave at 7 am every day for a long hard journey to a town called Gros Mangles - it's about 2 and a half hour's journey from where we're staying.

A Very Long Journey....

Hi everyone!

The last we heard from Mercy was last night (Sunday), when they were preparing to make a 10 hour coach trip to Haiti. I expect they were already all very tired by then as they left Dunfermline at 4 am on Saturday morning and had very long flights! Mercy promised to be in touch whenever she could, but since the earthquake the phone lines and internet connections have not worked so it has been hard for people to keep in touch.

Meanwhile, here's some info on Haiti that you might not know yet:

Haiti is in the Caribbean. It is the Western one third of the island of Hispaniola between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.

The climate in Haiti is tropical (that means it's often very hot!) and there are lots of mountains. People in Haiti speak two main languages: French and Creole. The capital city is Port-au-Prince. If you watched the news after the earthquake you would have heard quite a lot about all the damage in Port-au-Prince.

8 million people live in Haiti. It is a very poor country and life there was very hard for people, even before the earthquake. Lots of people are unemployed, and people don't earn much even when they do have a job. Three quarters of the people have no running water and, outside of the cities, most people have no electricity. Almost half of the children of school age have never been to school, and half of the adults have never learned to read or write. That's why it's so important that people are willing to do different things to help the people in Haiti.

Lemonaid is just one of the groups that does work to help Haiti. Next time I'll tell you some of how that got started and what they do.

Ruth

I'm going to Haiti tomorrow!

This is the flag of Haiti

Hello!

I'm busy packing at the moment because tomorrow I am off to Haiti with Ruth's brother Peter and her nephew Steven. They are going out there with a team from Lemonaid of Vine Church in Dunfermline. I've never been to Haiti before but it will be fine because Peter and Steven haven't either so we will all be the same. We are going to an island called Lagonave, where there is a mission hospital. We leave at 4 am tomorrow so I'll have to get an early night!

You probably know there was a big earthquake in Haiti a few weeks ago. This is the 4th time a team from Lemonaid has gone out there since then. They are taking tons and tons of stuff with them for the hospital! I bet Peter is really glad I am quite small and light as he already has lots of heavy stuff in his suitcase. I'm not packing much either as that wouldnt help at all, and sheep don't need to take much with them when they travel.

Peter and Steven are going to try to repair some of the equipment and vehicles that the people working in the hospital really need badly. We should get to meet lots of new friends too which will be great!

It's not going to be very easy to keep in touch with everyone at home as mobile phones and the internet aren't working in Haiti just now. But I'll write on my blog if I can, and Ruth has promised to write some interesting stuff about Haiti on here for you to read too. Please pray for us!

Photos from Ghana!

I've got some photos to show you, but first I'm going to tell you about some of the other things that happened in Ghana before we left.

One day I was watching the news with Jim when we heard a report about a big fire in an oil refinery near Acra. One of the admin buildings was damaged by the fire, and most of the stuff inside it was destroyed by the water the firemen used to put out the fire. The really amazing thing was that there was a Bible which was totally undamaged, even though all the books all around it were spoiled!

We also went on an outing one day and visited two castles which had been used to keep slaves in before they were taken to Europe and other places. We heard that those poor people were chained up in horrible conditions, and had to sleep on the floor next to each other. I was very shocked and sad to hear that lots of slaves were even brought to Britain until 1807, when slavery was abolished here.

That same day we went to Kokum National Park and we walked along rope bridges 40 m high! I was so glad Jim was carrying me because my knees were shaking so much I think I'd have fallen! It was amazing to look down and see the treetops in the rain forest. There were no animals out because it was the wrong time of day - I think they mainly come out a dawn and dusk. That seemed very sensible to me as it's cooler here at those times.

Just before we left we visited a Primary School and all the children came out to meet me and we had pictures taken together. I met a little girl who is also called Mercy and we had a photo taken of the two of us. The children were so friendly and invited me to live with them, but I told them I had to go back to Scotland to the children who are my friends there.

It was good to be coming home, but it was very cold in Scotland, and Jim and I had got used to the very hot weather in Ghana!

My friend Mercy!

Meeting some new friends

In one of the churches we visited. The singing was very good and I helped with the translating