Written by Taylor Anderson

Bonjou! My name is Taylor Anderson, and I am going to give you an overview of our first day of work in Haiti, so here goes nothing!

Ann, Michael, Hank, Alecia, and Taylor at the Christmas Program Party.

Today was a great way to start our journey in Haiti! We considered this a “kid day” because that was the large majority of what we did today. As I was talking to Christi, she had a great point when she said, “we don’t have a lot of things planned for each day, but as long as we pray and love, we will be doing God’s will in Haiti.” So that was my mindset going into today. We started off the morning going into Pignon to pick up cookies and juice for the kids at a local school that Many Hands helps sponsor. We then went to the school and watched the Christmas program they put on. After the program, we had time to play with the kids. This was my favorite part, but it was also the saddest part because the kids are so attention starved. Everyone wanted to grab our hands, sit by us, and just be near us. We played soccer, duck duck goose, and just walked around. They all had such lovely smiles, which reminded me of why I want to become an orthodontist/dentist. All of these kids deserve to have beautiful smiles to match their beautiful personalities.

After we played, we ate food made from an outside kitchen. It was a lot of food too, which surprised all of us. Another saddening part of today was seeing the little kids eat every ounce of their food because they knew that meal may be the last for awhile.

After lunch, a few girls got up to do a few well-known dances of Haiti. We joined in on one of the dances, and it was a great experience. It may have been one of the best parts of the day because it allowed Haitians and Americans to join together in a universal language of dance! After that, we began getting ready to leave. This was another hard part because we began to see each child’s beautiful personality, and we don’t know if we will every see them again.

When we left, we went to the market in Pignon to get supplies for supper/ future meals. Then we just walked around Pignon and finally returned back to the dorm.

All in all, today was a great day! We are all excited to see what the next few days have in store for God’s work in Haiti!