morning meditation with sharpies

summer mission opportunity in Haiti

Camp 2014

Mini-camp at St. Vincent's 

MISSION OPPORTUNITY summer 2015

Let me say up front that I don't know the people who run the camp, but I do know someone involved who sent this to me (and to her mailing list). And I KNOW that St Vincent's School for the Disabled is an amazing place, and not just because it was founded by our Sr. Joan.  I meant to post something on this last summer, but I don't think I ever did. Maybe on Facebook... Anyway, there are people who have asked me about going to Haiti, and I never know of any groups. Well, here's your chance. You couldn't ask for a better group of kids to work with.

Also, if you just want to donate money to St. Vincent's, that would be great, too. Last I heard they were having real trouble feeding the kids.  Talk about basics. If you'd like to donate to that, go to this website:  www.wtnhaitipartnership.org  I gather you can indicate if you want it to be for food (or medical care or...).

* * *

Dear Haiti friends,

If you are interested in a summer camp opportunity to work with the kids at St Vincents this summer, read on......

'MINI' CAMP AT ST. VINCENT'S

If there is enough interest, I (Tom Landry, the founder of Jacob’s Color Link Initiative)  thewill host a mini-camp at St. Vincent's in the latter part of August 2015.  This camp will be 5 days in length (3 of which will be spent at the Center with the children).  I would like to have a group of no less than 10 persons.  My tentative plan would be to stay at the Le Plaza near St. Vincent's so that we can walk to St. Vincent's each day and avoid costly travel to and from Petion-Ville.  Breakfast and dinner will be served at the hotel and lunch will be catered at the Center for the residents (70-80) or we cook together as group as I have done in the past.  The activities will commensurate with the experience of those in attendance. I am quite fluid with this given we have done so many different activities with the children.  I would however, like to focus on a few necessary life skills like teaching them how to cook in addition to fun- play activities.  

If anyone is interested in this or knows of anyone, please send me their names and contact information.  This is very informal at this time because I don't want to spend too much time planning if there is not enough interest.

TOM LANDRY II
Executive Director   Jacob's Color Link Initiative
201 St. Charles Avenue | Suite 114-255 | New Orleans, Louisiana 70170
M: 504 520 9626  |  L: 800 921 7839  |  F:  504 910 8342
jacobscolorlink.org

facebook.com/jacobscolorlink

* * *

about the camp via their website:

campJacob is an annual retreat offered to the residents of St. Vincent's Center for Handicapped Children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Campers are brought to a resort on the northern coast of Haiti and instantly become guests of JCLI. The organization creates a fun-filled environment that also offers a variety of holistic therapies and programming to develop life skills. Volunteers from the United States and Canada host the camp over the course of eight days.

campJacob removes the barriers of the campers' day-to-day lives that are restricted due to lack of accessibility, social stigma and funding. The program provides life skills and self-care training that builds confidence and inspires them toward independence. We work with the youth year-round to ensure the skills they have learned are being further developed and applied in their daily lives. The medical programming offered provides much needed physical and occupational therapy, setting the groundwork for independent living.

The cost for each camper is approximately $1,600 USD. This includes travel expenses to and from the resort, accommodations at the resort, three full meals and two snacks a day, and a backpack filled with necessities for the week and supplies for the camp. Your generous donation funds a life-changing week for these children.

http://www.jacobscolorlink.org/campjacob.php 

#Experience #AdventWord

Be fully present to life - #Experience what is NOW. #AdventWord

#Beloved #EpiscopalAdvent

As a big brother cares for his baby sister... 

#Beloved #EpiscopalAdvent #family #awww

#BringBackOurGirls - a prayer to share

The Sisters, along with so many others around the world, are praying for the kidnapped girls of Nigeria. Please join us:

O God, we cry out to you
for the lives and the freedom
of the 276 kidnapped girls in Nigeria.
In their time of danger and fear,
pour out your strong Spirit for them. 
Make a way home for them in safety.
Make a way back for them
to the education that will lift them up.
Hold them in the knowledge
that they are not captive slaves,
they are not purchased brides,
but they are your beloved daughters,
and precious in your sight. 
Change the hearts and minds of their kidnappers
and of all who choose violence against women and girls.
Cast down the mighty from their seat,
and lift up the humble and meek,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Prayer for the kidnapped Nigerian girls May 2014
(written by Elizabeth Smith from the Diocese of Perth, Anglican Church of Australia)

so chocolate bar

I love chocolate.  Especially good dark chocolate - but I'll take any kind.

So when I heard the expression "That's so chocolate bar!" used by these little boys, I knew just what that must mean. 

You all may well have seen this already - the story seems to be on its way to going viral.  I hope it does. Having made the Today Show will not hurt a bit.

chocolate bar book for a cure

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/26/dylan-siegel-chocolate-bar-book_n_2765396.html

http://todayhealth.today.com/_news/2013/03/01/17134471-boy-6-writes-book-raises-92000-for-best-pals-rare-disease?lite

This child, Dylan, who is six, has written a little book to raise money to help his friend Jonah, who has a rare disease.   When I read about it today, he had already raised $93,000.  He plans to raise a million. 

And here his parents were thinking bake sales.



I am grateful to have found this today.  It's been a difficult week for quite a number of people I know.   Then there is the news.   Too many stories of people being truly horrible to each other.   It's good to read about the ones who are acting in love.

The older I get, the more I realize both the depth of the evil that is possible in humanity and the astonishing good of which we are capable.  All of us.  Hearing some stories of things that happened here in Haiti, stories that  are being passed around now that Baby Doc is finally on trial, just blow my mind.  It seems like something out of a history book, except I now know people who were there.

front page of yesterday's newspaper

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/28/3259925/former-haiti-president-baby-doc.html#moreb
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/04/3266912/attorney-haitis-baby-doc-duvalier.html
http://www.lenouvelliste.com/article4.php?newsid=114014 - Les minutes de l'audition de Jean-Claude Duvalier

There is plenty more of that  happening all over the world. 

Every time some little - or not so little -  interpersonal nastiness takes place, it's a shadow of participation in that larger evil.  It is just easier to justify, I suppose.  To cover.   Certainly to get away with. 

And then I remember once again that this is all wrapped up in the paschal mystery.  

It's Lent.  It's a time for repentance, for turning around, for seeking a closer relationship with God - which means seeking a closer relationship with each other.   We meet Jesus daily in the people around us.   What does that look like?  How do we, in fact, treat Jesus? speak to him, not in a church, but in our daily interactions? Holy Week is coming.   The evil in the world is on display during that week.  It is not too surprising that some people prefer to skip it and go straight to Easter.  Even Easter dinner - skip the resurrection - it might remind you that you have to die in order to be resurrected.

But of course that's just it.  There is no point to Easter without Holy Week. 

OK, well, maybe the chocolate.

But even chocolate can't make evil go away, tempting as it might be to try sometimes.

When things get to looking evil, Holy Week comes along to remind us that evil and death will never have the last word.  Whatever it is, God can take it and turn it inside out and bring life where there should be no possibility of such.  You can't gloss over the horror of crucifixion any more than you can gloss over what happens here and now.  We try.  We can't. And we don't have to.  God lets us stare it right in the face.  Then and only then is there resurrection.

Sometimes things like Dylan's chocolate bar book remind me that there is more to our story, that God is at work in and through us in the most creative and unexpected ways.  As with Dylan and Jonah, I could tell stories of serious illness - and stories of friends who step up in surprising, beautiful ways.  When I hear a story of cruelty, I can also tell a story of a young deacon who is willing to move into a house with no running water or even a well so she can minister in an area in need.  So many of those stories are untold.  Maybe we should be sharing them, even if our stories don't make the Today Show.   God's work bringing life to the world is just the good news we need.

#26Acts of Kindness

’If you do good, you’ll feel good’: Ann Curry explains origins of #26Acts of Kindness

Acts of kindness honoring those who died.  You've probably all heard about it by now.  We just got power back after a while without, so it's news to me. 

Some of my favorites listed:
-- $10 Starbucks card and a card (note) on someone's windshield
-- feeding the meter for a disabled veteran (saw the plates)
-- sending notes telling people how much they were appreciated
-- sponsoring a child in Haiti (of course I liked this one!)
-- covering for someone at work so she could attend her child's classroom party
-- buying lunch for someone in need
-- listening to a troubled classmate

What could ours be?

Ann Curry is right: doing such things does, in fact, make you feel better.  It reminds me of someone who used to do such things to make himself feel better when he was down.  I was the recipient of flowers on a number of occasions - and it cheered him up at least as much as it made my day.  Sending random care packages is a lot of fun, too.  And feeding the parking meter for someone - what an easy way to brighten someone's day - and your own.  Obviously this isn't just about making ourselves feel better, but she does have a point - and maybe someone will be surprised into continuing.

I'm grateful she thought of this.  It's one of the most fruitful responses I've seen so far.   Blessings on all who are participating as well as to those who have been affected.

Landfill Harmonic

After today's tragedy, I really needed some Advent hope.  And thanks to Bishop Steven Charleston, I found it.  Would this work in Haiti?   I am  astonished that a cello made from an oil can could sound so good! 



I gather there is a documentary to be released; I hope I can find a way to see it when I'm back in the US in August.

We live in a world where severely disturbed people kill children - and not just today.  We also live in a world where trash becomes an orchestra and music pours through souls as a result.  Incarnation.  Paschal mystery. It's all right here. God with us.  Veni, Emmanuel.

post-Sandy hunger

I think I'm ready for everyone to have a respite from natural disasters.  Aren't we all?

This week we heard that President Obama plans to ask Congress for 50 BILLION dollars for clean-up from Sandy.  Where will we get the money? I understand that worry. And then there are those who are faced with the clean-up itself who know that won't cover it and who were hoping for $82 billion. 



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/nyregion/obama-to-ask-congress-for-50-billion-in-storm-aid.html?src=recg

One thing few people in the US will have to worry about, though, is actually starving to death as a result of the storm.  American food insecurity is a reality few recognize, and it's of real concern.  I think especially of children. It's hard to learn when hungry, and lack of proper nutrition hampers physical and mental development.  I could go on, but I'll spare you that in order to point out the obvious: it's worse in Haiti.  Especially this year.  And I don't like what I hear.  This coming year will be rough.  Food prices? I could be concerned about our budget - but we have one.  A budget, I mean.  I don't expect to be going all day without food.  Then there are all those people who eat from their gardens, the gardens that got washed away along with their hopes of selling produce to pay for school tuition for their children.  Now it's about finding them food.

This week an official report was produced to explain the situation.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Study: Widespread hunger in Haiti after storms - Haiti - MiamiHerald.com

An excerpt from the AP coverage of the report:
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitians have suffered widespread hunger following an unusually active storm season this year and are likely to experience more, according to a study released Friday.

The report, backed by a Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-based think tank, found that rural households in the heavily hit areas of Haiti's west, north and Grand-Anse departments experienced what it termed "severe food shortages" after Hurricane Sandy and an unnamed storm that followed. The two merely brushed the Caribbean nation in October and November but caused major flooding and killed as many as 66 people.

Nearly 70 percent of the more than 1,000 households interviewed said they experienced moderate or severe hunger, according to the study, "After the Storm: Haiti's Coming Food Crisis."

The report was written by social scientists Athena Kolbe, Marie Puccio and Robert Muggah, who frequently work in the impoverished country. It echoes U.N. warnings that more than 1.5 million of Haiti's people are at risk of malnutrition because they lost crops in the storms. As much as 90 percent of Haiti's harvest season, much of it in the south, was destroyed in Sandy's floods, the world body said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/07/3131370/study-underscores-hunger-problems.html#storylink=cpy
[And here's a first for me: I've found the same article translated into French on a Haitian news page:
http://www.radiotelevisioncaraibes.com/nouvelles/haiti/apr_s_les_ouragans_une_crise_alimentaire_menace_ha_ti.html]

The New York Times ran an article about the food situation a few weeks ago, too. 

It starts out like this:
FAUCHÉ, Haiti — A woman who lost just about everything now gives her children coffee for meals because it quiets their stomachs a bit.

Seriously, when is Haiti going to get a break?
As they summarize the situation:
As if the quake were not enough, Haiti is now suffering the combined onslaught of storms and, before that, drought, imperiling its food supply, causing $254 million in agricultural losses and throwing 1.6 million people — about 16 percent of the population — into dire straits.

Tropical Storm Isaac in August destroyed farms in the north, preceded by a spring drought that devastated farms there. Then came Hurricane Sandy, which passed west of Hispaniola and over Jamaica but was large enough to send 20 inches of rain over southern Haiti.

Last week, as the government and the United Nations took stock of the storm and grappled with flooding in the north from a fresh cloudburst that left 10 people dead, they issued an emergency appeal for $39 million in humanitarian aid to a world weary of its recurrent disasters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/americas/poor-haitian-farmers-are-left-hopeless-after-storm.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0

Add to the food crisis the fact that bridges were washed out, so there are towns that are nearly impossible to reach.   All this from brushes with hurricanes - thank God for the mercy of avoiding direct hits.

At least the weather seems to have improved for the moment. 

But it continues elsewhere: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/12/05/166552118/hundreds-dead-hundreds-missing-after-typhoon-slams-philippines. Enough already! 

Everyone everywhere is up to their ears with disasters, and we still haven't cleaned up from those of the last decade (remember Katrina? how about the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear plant meltdown in Japan?).  Somehow we need to learn to care for the environment and care for each other, to respond to urgent needs and to plan wisely for the future.  I don't know how we can do that, but I am confident that there are those who do and that we can all contribute something to move the world in the right direction.

Advent is a season of hope and expectation.  God reminds us that it isn't over yet, and God promises to walk with us through all of this.  So instead of worrying, we pray and work while we wait.  Pray for seasonable weather and wisdom in planting: may God have mercy on farmers here in Haiti and elsewhere.  Pray for children who drink coffee instead of eating, and also for those who have a Coke or potato chips for breakfast and only look reasonably fed. Pray for our scientists, our leaders, our economists, our media.  Pray for all those people who don't make the news. And keep praying for Haiti. 

Kyrie eleison.

future Olympic skiers?

I was walking around Waterville Valley, NH, today on the way to play tennis (in a generous and creative manner of speaking...) and stopped to watch these kids learning to do ski jumping.  Middle schoolers (I'm guessing) upside-down in the air, making it look entirely easy as they landed on an enormous inflatable mat.  I should have guessed they'd find a way to ski in the summer, too. 

summer school for skiers

wheee!

somersault

looking so nonchalant upside-down

Who knows? Maybe in a few years we'll be cheering for them as they go for the gold.

little Lovely meets her saviors

Haiti Earthquake survivor Lovely Avelus finally meets her saviours
By Catherine Porter/Toronto Star

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI—Some mysteries are like religion. They linger, forever out of reach, promising only possibility and puzzle. Others are like calculus problems, requiring investigation and pencil scribbling before proffering concrete answers.

There are many mysteries about the story of Lovely Avelus and the earthquake that cleaved this country 21/2 years ago. How did her little 2-year-old body, so small and bird-boned, survive the weight of two stories of concrete without even a scratch? How then did she survive there, trapped for six days without food or water or someone to buoy her little spirit with songs of hope and solace?

a hero: Lalanne with his son and the pigeons he raises
Fort National, Port-au-Prince, Haiti

You can read the rest of the article here:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/1233232--the-story-of-a-hero-in-haiti
You can see a slide show here:
http://www.thestar.com/photoplayer/1233231

Thanks to Ruth at http://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com/ for pointing out this article.  Go read her blog, written from Haiti. It's good.

not dead



No, I'm not.  In case you were wondering.

on the road to Fonds Parisien last week

My mother sent a concerned note about my lack of blog posts.  Yes, I was sick. No, I am fine now. Yes, very very busy weeks, visitors, travel for the bishop's installation and for several patronal festivals, deaths and a baptism, and power mostly at night when I have been too tired to write after Compline.  

Whew.

Life is full; life is good. 

And my time here - this stretch - is growing shorter by the minute.  I'll be home at least for a while this summer. After that? TBD. 



on the road again...

Meanwhile, there's a lot to be done, and much of that arrives unannounced.  No sense making plans without the knowledge that something else is just as likely to happen.  That's just the way it works.  It's sort of like travel time.  I'm such an American - I keep asking how long it will take to get someplace.  The real response, in essence, is "we'll arrive when we get there."  I am growing in the ability to go with the flow and to let go of my need to know what's going on.

It will be. 

arbres flamboyants (flaming trees) are flowering this month - beautiful to look at while you're sitting in an afternoon traffic jam on Avenue John Brown

This weekend I think not knowing was probably helpful.  I didn't put it together until it was nearly time to leave Saturday that I was going to be hearing the first confessions of many of the children to be confirmed Sunday.  Hadn't ever heard a confession - much less in French or Creole.  Jumping right in was most likely the best way to do it.  I ended up enjoying praying with and for them. I'm not sure that asking them what they wanted to say to God exactly counts as standard procedure, but it worked to begin the conversation - and we got to pray in thanksgiving and petition as well that way. 

And you should be proud of me.  In the middle of a conversation with one child, a HUGE spider ran out from under the bench right next to me and off towards the altar at high speed and I didn't even yelp.  It might have been a tarantula; I'm not sure.  Since I was trying to listen intently and since it was running away from me rather than towards me, I didn't dare move my head to look.  The legs were certainly at similar angles rather than nearly flat to the ground.   By the time that conversation and prayer time was over, it was long gone.  Trust me, I glanced around between children after that. 


Confirmation - Cathedrale Sainte Trinite
Port-au-Prince

I'm planning plenty of things for this week.  And I'll go with the flow of life, which, as they say, is what happens when you're making other plans.  I am not, however, planning for any large spiders, tarantulas or otherwise, even if they are running in the opposite direction.  

Plenty of adventure without them.

flashback delight

student in uniform
Holy Trinity School
Sunday morning Eucharist

This morning we arrived at church early enough that the early service was just letting out.  All the children from Holy Trinity School were in their uniforms, so there was a river of green and white flowing down the driveway towards us. We had to stop and wait - attempting to part the flood like Moses would have been too risky.

By the way, that *is* the early service.  For children.  A children's service as the early service.  Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. 

Mais revenons à nos moutons, as they say. Close tangent.

the snow cone cart sitting in the cathedral driveway

As we were sitting there in the driveway amid the swarm of children, I looked over, and what should I see but one of the joys of my childhood, right there waiting for the kids:  a snow cone vendor with his cart.  Happy flashbacks of Lions' Park in summer and the little old man who used to come with his cart at odd intervals, never predictable (at least by me and my friends).  Delight in the lucky chance of finding him danced with the delight of flavored ice, cool on the tongue on a hot day.  I wonder if some of these children feel the same.

Are you kidding me?

In 2012, I should not be reading the following:

SHAWANO, WISCONSIN - What's love got to do with it? Not much, especially if you say the words "I love you" in the Menominee language in front of a certain Wisconsin teacher.

Seventh grader Miranda Washinawatok, Menominee, found this out.

Miranda speaks two languages: Menominee and English. She also plays on her basketball team. However, two Thursdays ago she was suspended for one basketball game because she spoke Menominee to a fellow classmate during class...

The principal told Washinawatok that the assistant coach told him she was told by two teachers to bench Miranda for attitude problems.



Miranda Washinawatok
Menominee
photo via article

The alleged 'attitude problem' turned out to be that Miranda said the Menominee word “posoh”  that means “hello”
and said“Ketapanen”
in Menominee that means "I love you."

Miranda and a fellow classmate were talking to each other when Miranda told her how to say "Hello" and "I love you" in Menominee.

"The teacher went back to where the two were sitting and literally slammed her hand down on the desk and said, "How do I know you are not saying something bad?"
http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/menominee-seventh-grader-suspended-for-saying-i-love-you-in-her-native-language.html

How many ways can you say, WHAT???  There are a lot of things in here which just make me splutter. They're probably obvious enough that I need not point them out.

I understand that this teacher must be terribly insecure as well as racist, but she should be able to control her own fears and work on them, not take them out on children.  I'd say "unbelievable" - and at one point in my life, I probably wouldn't have thought it possible - but sadly, I don't have any reason to disbelieve it now. I'm old enough to have heard personal stories as well as read related items in current news as well as in history books. 

I also find this discouraging from the perspective of a foreign language teacher.  I still remember finding out that, at one point, Louisiana schoolchildren were forbidden to speak French on the playground. As hard as I had to work to learn French, and as much work as it is taking me to build up my poor excuse for Spanish and Haitian Creole, it just blows my mind that anyone would discourage the resources we already have - never mind benching someone for attitude because a foreign language was used in a private conversation.


We must encourage our children to use, maintain, learn, and teach each other all the languages possible.  Our country needs this.  And especially the languages native to America.  It's just so sad. 

Newbery anticipation

Tomorrow is the day on which the Newbery Award is announced. One of my close friends, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, has written a book that has been named among the contenders, so for the first time I am waiting with great anticipation.  Jefferson's Sons tells the story of Thomas Jefferson through the eyes of three of his children, two of whom are slaves.  Kim has written quite a bit of historical fiction as well as a few contemporary novels.  I'm not sure whether they count as late grade school or young adult - but I've enjoyed them all despite being a bit removed from those categories.

Jefferson's Sons - Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Here is her website: http://www.kimberlybrubakerbradley.com/

I like that she has posted a list of her sources, which might prove useful to some of you who are particularly interested in this subject: http://www.kimberlybrubakerbradley.com/click_here_to_go_to_the_list_of_sources_for_jefferson_s_sons_40174.htm

Here is the Amazon page with her books: http://www.amazon.com/Kimberly-Brubaker-Bradley/e/B001ILFOVU

Ruthie's Gift
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Ruthie's Gift, her first novel, is still one of my favorites, along with Weaver's Daughter and ... well, never mind.  I keep coming up with more of her books I really like.  Where to stop?  I would certainly recommend them to you as well.

Here are some blurbs on Kim's books that I located while looking around for more on the Newbery contenders for this year:

Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - Simon and Schuster website
Loving the quote at the top!

Authors and Artists for Young Adults on Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The author of five well-received novels for juvenile readers, as well as several picture books, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley has demonstrated a remarkable breadth of theme and subject matter, portraying protagonists from a lonely girl in rural Indiana in the early years of the twentieth century to a brave French teen who fights for her country in the World War II Resistance movement. With her first three titles, Ruthie's Gift, One-of-a-Kind Mallie, and Weaver's Daughter, Bradley has created tales for middle-grade readers, and with her novels Halfway to the Sky and For Freedom: The Story of a French Spy she writes for slightly older readers. All Bradley's books, however, are noted for their wealth of detail and warm human portrayals.
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/kimberly-brubaker-bradley-aya/

And here, finally, is a book of hers I haven't yet read, but which looks like fun:

Ballerino Nate
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The most important thing about Kim, however, is who she is.  She is the kind of person you would want to know, the kind of person you would want for a friend.  And she is raising my goddaughter to be the kind of person I also feel blessed to know.  (She gets bonus points, of course, for her interest in Haiti.)

So, Kim, whether or not you win your Newbery, you're worth a cheer. 

all before lunch



Shape of my day:

Morning Prayer

breakfast
get ready to go downtown

hear squealing and investigate: the puppies are being bathed

newly-bathed puppy eyeing the dirt

move wet puppy to sunny spot far from mud



moving a dripping puppy



go back inside and clean off habit; puppy had already found the mud

once at the cathedral, offer to help

end up reading the gospel and concelebrating

hear my first children's sermon on the Holy Innocents - that's what I call a challenge
my own challenge: with a two-part chalice (2/3 for wafers, 1/3 for wine), take wafers, dip them in, remember the French words, don't drip wine into wafers - and when you do, figure out what to do next...
anoint and bless dozens of children

walk over to the old convent grounds, where the Sisters have set up a party for the children
enjoy their singing and dancing
take lots of pictures


Look what I got!



eat the first bright orange cheese puff things I've had in years and remember someone during a high school religion class party trying to stuff as many of them in his mouth as possible, keeping count; wonder why they stick to my teeth

take more pictures while gifts are distributed

as requested, bless a stuffed pink bunny named Sabrina

Sabrina, the blessed bunny

start getting picture requests
pick up trash
head home
be welcomed by jumping dogs
have a mango for dessert at lunch

And I wonder how I got my habit into this state today? (-:

diapering the cat with giggles

I know, I know, this has nothing to do with anything. Certainly nothing related to Haiti. But the giggles are infectious, and I marvel at the relaxed patience of this cat. If you want something to make you smile, this is your video. If these little girls and their laughter don't produce a lift in your day, run-do-not-walk to the nearest vacation day. Or at least an ice cream parlor.

Link:
  http://thebubble.msn.com/video/?id=180da74c-c5c7-4728-8031-3ed1ce4799e4

giggles while diapering the cat

 patient cat accepts not only being diapered,
but also being wheeled in a stroller 
totally making these little girls' day
and mine, too

Pwoje Espwa in Les Cayes, Haiti

Just read an entry from the Pwoje Espwa website that I've followed on and off.  Fr. Marc does not find the NGO's very helpful... Sad.  They come along to make sure he is doing everything they think he should to take care of all those children, but can they offer a dime to help him take care of them?

Here is the Rev. Lauren Stanley's blog post about the organization Pwoje Espwa:
Pwoje Espwa - Hope in haiti

And here is the blurb about Pwoje Espwa from the top of their blog:

"This is one way of keeping up with what's happening in southern Haiti. Please consider helping us in our work with Haitian orphans and vulnerable children. Contributions can be sent to: Theo's Work 25422 Trabuco Road Suite 105-362 Lake Forest, CA 92630 Or Theo's Work, 2303 W. Market Street, Greensboro, NC 27403-1517 Or you can make a secure donation with a credit card at our website www.freethekids.org. Thank you for helping us fight poverty in Haiti, one child at a time."