Community and Slip in Slide!!!

I tried unsuccessfully 3 times yesterday to post a blog but our internet was to slow to even log on.  Luckily it is working better today!

Yesterday Nick and I spent some time with people from the community!  We went to the Haitian church which is right next door to us.  Their service is 3 hours long, but Nick stayed for 1 (he had to go to the airport) and I stayed for 2.  We took communion and were actually given wine instead of grape juice!  We couldn't understand most of what was said, but Brian, the missionary from next door was there and would tell us what verse the pastor was reading from!  They have a VERY CONFUSING hymn book, so someone had to turn it to the correct page for us so we could sign along.  In the middle of the service a chicken walked down the aisle.  Nobody reacted, so I'm assuming this isn't an unusual occurrence!

Last night Nick and I went for a walk and there were two really cute little girls hanging out by our gate.  They held our hands and walked with us, smiling the whole way.  When we got back, we decided it would be fun to play soccer with them, so we pumped up a ball and took it back out.  We played keep away and kicked the ball around a bit.  They were probably close to 8 and 10.

After a while, two boys from the community came and the girls immediately left.  Boys are more dominate here, so this didn't surprise me at all.  We then played soccer with the boys for a while.  My team beat Nicks team 3-0.  We didn't play for very long because we were both in flip flops.  When we left, we told one of the boys that we would leave the ball there if he threw it over the gate when they were done.  He spoke English, but I'm not sure he fully understood what we said.  We never got our ball back, but thats fine because we brought them to give out.

Today was a blast.  One of the short term volunteers decided that we should set up a slip in slide in our yard for the kids.  I really didn't think this would work since our oldest kids are only 2.  I was very wrong though because the kids loved it.  We put baby oil all over the kids and then laid them down on their stomachs.  Two of us would grab the kids arms and legs and slide them to another volunteer, through the pools of water that had gathered.  They had so much fun!  We also had some little inner tubes that we could put the younger kids on and slide around.  A bunch of kids would gather around a little puddle and splash each other and then laugh!!  We were out there with them for 2 or 3 hours and only gave in because it started to thunder and lightning.  We'll put up some good pictures of this in a few days.

I have kind of started preschool which is going good!  The preschool and prenatal program have been under construction because they are plastering the back wall.  Therefore I have been doing preschool in the playroom which is kind of overwhelming for the kids.  We have been working on our animal sounds.   Whenever I ask them what a puppy says they all say "pup-pee."  It super cute, and I give them credit for at least copying me!  I have also been signing the itsy bitsy spider to them and a few are starting to get the hand motions down!  It has been really fun!!