I love me classroom and all the bright, fun colors. One of the first things I got was a bright yellow tissue box cover from Joy and it sits on the corner of my desk. While there aren’t many runny noses, tissues are great for cleaning dry erase boards or sweaty faces after recess so I pass them out often. One day during class as we were cleaning up Vardy raised his hand and asked, “Miss, can I have a… a… a smiley face paper!”  I took me a second but I couldn’t help smile at his resourcefulness when the word “tissue” escaped him. 

Recently our team took a “family vacation” down to the city of Jacmel. We were up by 5 am (I was not super excited but there was coffee) and we loaded up our bus and the excursion and headed out. There were about 24 of us; all the interns, the men on our staff plus three of the women, and all 9 of the Reeves family. We had a huge amp with us in the bus and the guys plugged their phones into it so we could rock out to music all the way there. It took about 5 hours to make our way through Port-au-Prince and then up and over the mountains. On our way we passed through the poorest ghetto of not just Haiti but possible the world. It's called Cite Soliel. You could smell it as we drove through. It was just a sea of rusty tin roofs with every available space filled with people. The rivers that cut through and go to the ocean were completely filled with trash. There were places where you couldn’t see water or ground through the layers trash. That was probably the most sobering thing I've seen since I've been here. The whole country is poor but that was really is shocking. Our bus then had to climb a mountain. I'm almost positive this bus runs entirely on Jesus. The tires are getting bald and it's pretty old but it climbed and climbed and climbed and we were totally safe! 

We stayed the weekend at this missionary couples guest house. It's such a cool spot, RIGHT on a beautiful public beach with a decent surf break! I slept the whole afternoon the day we got there to recover from my 5:00 AM wake-up call. The next day the group set our for a mini-adventure. We drove up an even crazier mountain in the bus ( powered by prayer) and then hiked about 15 minutes into the forest to this beautiful waterfall called Bassin Bleu. You wind you way next to a river where shockingly blue pools of water spontaneously form as the river winds its way through rocks. The past is broken up by rock stairways and remnants of buildings that used to stand high up on this mountain. They would have had breathtaking views. There’s even a spot with two cement tables and benches that looks through the leafy tree branches at the river, perfect for a quiet afternoon’s good conversation. Finally you cross the river and climb a surprisingly steep staircase only to rappel down the other side of a rock. Once you’ve made it past these obstacles you’re almost there if it weren’t for the huge cliff hanging over the pool  before you. By this time we were good and hot so we jumped straight in and as we swam around the cliff the waterfall appreared! It wasn’t gigantic but the water rushed over and poured into the cool , deep pool at the bottom. As advertised the water was amazingly blue.  We swam over to the falls, climbed to the top and jumped off (not as high as the cliff at 87 but the jump was a little sketchier). After a relaxing time playing around we made our way back down the mountain and back to the beach where I attempted to surf! I knew I would regret it if I didn't try even though I’m not exactly a surfer. Mostly I just nose-dived into the white-water before I even tried to stand up but it made me feel like I was in California for a little while (except that the water was actually warm instead of frigid!). The day ended perfectly watching the sun set and the moon rise sitting quietly out in the bay on my surf board.

Ken and Diane Pierce, the missionaries who run the guest house, have a great ministry in Jacmel. Much like Kerry and Joy in Montrouis they have they are the hands for many ministries including a critical-care infant rescue home, orphanage, feeding program, and surf ministry. For more info visit their site at: http://surfhaiti.org/index.php and find SurfHaiti on Facebook!