Day 11 | Shannon Robison

This morning, we attended a church that was about a ten minute ride from the compound. As we walked past the church at the compound, we saw lines of people waiting outside to get in, in addition to the hundreds of people that were already inside. We did not attend the church at the compound because it was having baptisms today, which Bill said could take over seven hours! Compared to other days of the week, the streets were relatively desolate. Almost every person we saw was on his or her way to church, dressed in his or her nicest clothes. The church we attended was beautiful! Another mission team was there too; its pastor gave the sermon, translated by the pastor of the Haitian church. My favorite part of the service was hearing a young Haitian boy, no older than 10, sing This Little Light of Mine in both English and Creole. After church we ate lunch at the compound (giant delicious hotdogs) and then a few brave souls went for a mountain hike. Logan was the only Morlan to go on the hike… He said someone had to take care of his cousin! So, Mom and Dad, you should yell at Kenton and Tyler for allowing me to risk my life without their protection! The hike lasted about three hours and was so much fun! The hardest parts were walking down the hill (I kept slipping and sliding on rocks) and climbing up one of the first waterfalls. If Johnny (one of our Haitian friends and helpers) and Colton (an employee of BHM) weren’t there, we could not have made it to see all of the waterfalls. They made us feel very safe! Logan saved my life a couple times too. Not even a second after I started slipping down the hill, he grabbed hold of my backpack and pulled me back up. My cousins are more like the big brothers I never had. ☺ The fifth and final waterfall was our turnaround point. We were able to stand under the water as long as we kept our mouths SHUT! This water is even worse than water from the faucet because the Haitian people bathe in it. Although unclean, the water felt so good and refreshing! The hardest part of the hike was the final stretch coming up the long hill back to the compound. We were definitely exhausted, but no one got hurt, and we all had an absolute blast! After we had a chance to relax and shower, we had dinner (chicken noodle casserole), and then Bible study (followed by cookies). Lloyd made popcorn for us tonight (not nearly as good as yours, Daddy), which I ate as Logan Gibson braided my hair, again. This time, she did a crown braid around my head. Logan has probably done at least twenty braids so far on this trip. She is amazing. Apparently, our water supplies that was SUPPOSED to last until Tuesday ran out today (Sunday), so Bill threatened all of the girls and said that if we didn’t shorten our showers, he wouldn’t allow Logan to braid our hair anymore. Mom and Dad, you’d be so proud of how little water I’ve been using here during my showers! Tomorrow, my team heads back to the house to coat it with stucco. It’s hard to believe that our trip is already halfway over. I hope the second half is just as amazing as the first.