No Bake Cookies

Well, I officially have lost 5 pounds.... of hair. I took out my braids because the yarn was not holding up to my extreme activities such as holding children who are fascinated with "white girl" hair! I rocked the frizzy hair for a couple of days and I felt nappy. My hair didn't look greasy compared to0 mechanic's hands. The process of taking out the hair, with the help of four ladies, only took an hour! Before the the debraiding, we went to church and went to the metal village! Ashleigh likes paintings, I apparently like metal. A little more difficult transporting than canvases but totally worth it. I tried to pull out my yard sale skills but I realized that I was usually the one selling the items and I would typically end up giving away everything. So I took the backseat and had Ashleigh on my right, giving me some "tips" slash telling me deal or no deal. As a team effort, I bought some solid pieces of metal artwork. Lundi, Monday, (I will teach you all a little Kreol, and quiz you when I get back) the visitors that were here, put up some gutters to collect more rain and to be efficient with the it. One handyman was lifting a PVC pipe to the other and I heard a "Huh?" and I look over my should to see Peterson took control of the situation and took the pipe out of handyman 1's hands and delivered the vital equipment to handyman 2. So sweet that Peterson is. I also have some bad news, my boyfriend, Lazar has broken my heart. Lazar declared his love to Kerin on Monday with the stipulation of she marries him and brings him back to America, typical Haitian man. There is always an underlying motive. To look on the bright side, I dodged the marriage bullet. Good. Plus, Tigga told the nurse that he loved me while patting my head, after eating. I guess I will bounce back but I will always remember my first Haitian love. Ashleigh and I had the opportunity to work with the original kids we have been with for quite some time. This was exciting again because that day we had to be on guard of them eating the caps of the dabbers that the visitors used to make butterflies. I had to use my first aid skills and do a sweep of the mouth of our dear regurgitating Kelly. I washed with water soap, wet wipes, and then handsanitzer. So at the end of the night, the group of North Carolinian asked us to help them bless the children by washing their feet. Okay, I believe you all know about my shear hatred of feet. The different sized toes that are hairy and collecting lint in between them, the the knowledge of how they have been touching all types of bacteria, and not to mention the pungent scent of rotting cheese. Now let's also remember I am living in Haiti with orphans who run around the humid atmosphere and dog poop, most without shoes because they would rather be free and not strapped down with Crocs on their feet. I accepted the mission. I was assigned Junior and Karline. I hesitantly approached Junior while he was in his typical position, the prying mantis. Well I reached out into the darkness praying I would hit leg and low and behold I landed on foot. I started to wet wipe, if you haven't noticed wet wipes are the hot commodity that we use for everything, he then stretched out his foot towards me with ease. This kid would be the master at Yoga because he fully extended with his arms still wrapped up in his shirt. I slowly moved that leg down and before I reachched for the other, it was directly in front of my face ready to be wiped. I looked up is the general direction of his face and all I could see were white teeth. It was like Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland." If you don't know that reference, let's try this one. It was like the episode from "Friends" when Ross gets his teeth whitened and somewhere in there a black light is involved. Get the picture?  I couldn't help but to let out a chuckle. After that, I went right back to washing my hands, wet wiping, and then hand sanitizing again. Mardi, (I bet you can guess which day of the week this is)  We said goodby to our friends with lots of hugs and blessings. Ashleigh and I received the opportunity to ride on the back of a rusted pick-up truck, on the muddy rock road (underconstruction), with the side wall falling off underneath me. I looked to my right and saw that my big butt had moved the wheel well wall out some and I remember thinking, welp this is not like the good old days of being in a parade and throughing candy, however I did give a kid a piece of candy. The purpose of that trip up to the market to pick up some pizzas that a group of volunteers with dentists and optometrists had bought to share with the kids and to check out the kids and staff. However they checked them out they gave them sugary Cokes. This team checked out 31 kids and most of the staff in about 2 and a half hours! Ashleigh, Kerin, and I were the designated child fetchers. So we scurried up and down the ramps of death with kid after kid and pulled up and down the wheelchairs with ease. We were all sweating after. By the way, we have become pros at the ramps of death! It is all in the legs and approaching the angles correctly. It was an incredible task that that team took upon themselves and accomplished, pulling 2 teeth from one boy and multiple fillings from many children in the short amount of time. I have had less work done and twice the amount of time it took in a dentist office. I was impressed. Last night we did our insanity workout trying to take out minds off of what was to come. The CARE PACKAGE from Ashleigh's mom, Rhonda. So I think I told you this before but I will tell you again, sending care packages to us is harder then making a snowman in July, in Haiti. Rhonda did the impossible and sent hair ties, photos, gifts for some staff and kids, Survival Haitian and NO BAKE COOKIES! Yup, a little piece of heaven. One of the gifts was a jumping rope for Peterson! We got to try that out today. I was the example and performed for him in hoping he would catch on. He looked at the snake of a rope straddled it and went right back to doing the Peterson. Priceless. So during afternoon activities, there is Boutique which is where the children get to "buy" donated gifts with the money they earned for doing chores. So Peterson was inspecting every item so carefully. Kerin picked up a tiger mask, put it on, and then called Peterson's name to show him what is does. Peterson dropped the toy from his hand, his eyes got so big and reached for the mask. Nearly ripped it off Kerin's face and took it directly to check out. We put it on him underneath his helmet. He was so proud of it and he should be because he looked good. He rocked it for about an hour and played catch with Ashleigh while they were 2 feet apart. We then put it on the outside of the helmet and felt he would be safer without  lacking anymore vision than he already did with a hockey helmet on. He is the greatest.