Sunday, November 1, 2015

Haiti-10/15/15

Today was our EBO work day. Did not go as planned......

We get to EBO and James and Murph start talking to the Mama's to explain what we had planned for today. This little intro turned into a 2 hour discussion in a hot little room where we learned that our leadership team was the bulk of the problem at this orphanage. They basically are not being good role models for all the younger children and the Mama's feel that if they would change their behavior then the younger children would follow suit.

Imagine our defeat..... great, so the kids we were going to train and empower to lead this place are the problem! What! of course.... nothing can ever be easy. So we threw our plan out the window (well, just left it on the bus) and had to start over right then and there.

But let me back up just a bit.... while James and Murph were having their discussion I got to have a little fun. For some reason today, several of the younger children were home from school early. We got them all gathered around the table to make salvation bracelets. These are the bracelets with the colored beds that represent how Jesus died to save us from our sins. We started off by discussing what each bead meant and why it is important and then helped them all make their own bracelet. They actually seemed to understand and enjoyed making the bracelets. After that we colored and played soccer.



Ok back to the leadership training...

After the discussion with the Mama's I came in for a little of what we call Good Cop, Bad Cop. The four 'leaders' came in and sat with us and Murph was bad cop and James was good cop. They were a pretty amazing team. We spent another hour having a true 'come to Jesus' moment if you will. We just wanted to hear their side of what is going on and maybe find out why they feel the need to have poor behavior. At first we had just blank stares but eventually they opened up and discussed how they feel. We ended up having a conversation about respecting those put in leadership over you and how they can step up and be role models for the younger kids.

Outside, the younger children were starting to melt down. At this point it was about 5pm and our presence prevented afternoon nap time from taking place. All members of the team were being pushed emotionally and physically. We wrapped up on conversation and headed home, perplexed and unsure of what to do next.

 We need to think and sleep. One thing is for sure.... we need to come back tomorrow. 

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