Petoucheka, Heidi, and Ben (well, me too) have cried tonight. Simon is a little more reserved but sad. They are not happy that we can't take Petoucheka home with us this trip. Me too....
Petoucheka started it. She had to sit on the steps and quietly cry where none of us would see her. One of the older teenage girls brought it to my attention and that was when started. I sat her on my lap but what could I say. I just cried with her and told her I loved her. I told her we would pray for her daily and return as soon as we could. I said we hope you can come with us soon. Nothing made me feel better - I'm sure it didn't help her either. Dennis held her for a long while after me - I don't think he cried but I wouldn't have been surprised if he did. I fetched her new bunny stuffed animal and let her cuddle it. I think it helped. Then I did get her to laugh after the sadness had gone on long enough as we compared foot sizes and I tried to wear her new sandals. We discovered that she can "scrunch up her toes" and curl her tongue too!! Then we played a family game of R-C-L or Right-Center-Left or Dwat-Mitan-Gosh or D-M-G... what ever you want to call it! (See Dennis' post for more on that!) All sadness dissipated at that point... for now.
As for the rest of our day...
Immediately after I posted my blogpost from earlier - a Rah Rah (not quite sure of the spelling) went by... that's a parade in Haiti. Not quite the same as in the USA... more or less a bunch of people mobbing the street and walking in the same direction... to music. The kids enjoyed seeing it - especially since we've been trying to catch one for 3 days. :)
We played a lot with the kids during the afternoon - and learned a lot more Kreyol. The older kids have really taken to us and love to quiz us on the American pronunciation to words and test us to see if we can make a sentence in Kreyol if they say it in English. Carlo, Berlin, Enoch, and Elisee are the ones who really love to catch us and "parle!"
To add my 2¢ to Dennis' talk on R-C-L.... here are some photos of me helping to translate Dennis' explanation and the kids playing. The game really brought Petoucheka alive... I mean "whooping" and dancing and talkin' smack in Kreyol! I was really amused! :) She had fun!!! We will be leaving that game with her and the other kids....!
While she was out today, Eveline picked up a little surprise for our family to take home... does she know us or what?!?!
We also gave her $5.00 US and she brought us change... :)
Brand new and CLEAN!
For dinner - we got a table to ourselves. It was very sweet - they put our family (all 6 of us) together even though we had many new guests arrive today. Of course, one might think it was because we smell bad. Or one might say we were exiled to the "kids table"... well, after our family epidemic of "bottle cap eyes" - might agree with the logic there! LOL!
At least Ben redeemed our family reputation by helping Mafie clean up after dinner.
The day's blog wouldn't be complete without me sharing more miscellaneous candid and posed photos...
And to all - a good night...! Bonwit!
Shelby
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