Rachel #2

Hello everyone!

Sorry for my absence on my blog lately; unfortunately, my computer has fried and is on it's way back to Austin to see if it can be salvaged. Until then, I will do my best to keep everyone updated as often as possible.

Each week is going by faster than the last as I get more comfortable and confident in my classes and in my relationships with the children. Word must be getting out about English classes at the Hope House since I had multiple members of the church approach me yesterday about possibly attending my class with the mommies in the mornings. What an amazing thing to see all of these people, in the face of adversity, so willing to learn new languages and interact with everyone that is here to help! My classes with the mommies have been truly inspirational. Everyday we cover a different concept and the next day, they are eager to show me that they grasp it perfectly! They now know simple greetings, days of the weeks, months of the year, seasons, colors, numbers to 100, the alphabet, fruits & vegetables, parts of the body, how to tell time, and many past present and future verbs.

The kids classes are going smoothly as well. They are excited to learn and my main problem with them is keeping kids from going to more classes than the ones they are assigned! (I'm not too sure, but I'm pretty positive this isn't a bad problem). In my most advanced class we are reading the book Holes. Each day before we read, the students are successfully able to summarize the previous day's reading and answer comprehension questions. They are very excited to watch the movie when we finally complete the book :-)

The longer I am here, the more responsibilities I am given with the Hope House and I am loving it! From passing out the children's report cards to emailing information to their sponsors to distributing donations, I love that I am able to be here to help. Jean Marc, one of the older Hope House boys, decided today that I need to just stay forever and be Rachel #2. That is quite a flattering statement considering all that Rachel has done for the kids and how long she has been living here.

It has been raining more this week than it has been in the past so nights are a lot cooler- thankfully :-). I am definitely getting used to the heat, the long walks and the cold showers and sometimes almost forget I am in Haiti until I witness things like Friday night when my Hope House boys were hot-wiring a speaker so we could have sound for our movie night when we lost the correct cord. In situations like those, I always tell myself- "Only in Haiti!" :-)

Roseline was not happy on our walk by the river in Cabaret!

5 minutes later, she fell asleep.

As always, I thank all of you for continuing to pray for me on this journey. It is crazy that my trip is already halfway over and while I look forward to returning and sharing my stories, I will also be anticipating my trip back as soon as possible.