Stay informed, stay involved: here's one way of keeping up with what's happening in southern Haiti. Please consider supporting our mission to save orphans and vulnerable children from desperate poverty; contributions can be sent to our partners at Free the Kids - www.freethekids.org. Thank you for your help.
Please send prayers and happy thoughts to one of Espwa's best students, Placide, today as he takes the TOEFL exam! The Test of English as a Foreign Language Exam is Placide's key to studying at a university in the United States. We wish him the best of luck on the test today!
As many of you know, we concluded our Christmas singing competition, Espwa nan Nwel, at the end of December 2014. The final show before Christmas had three finalists singing and a winner was selected. Now, one month later, the committee for the competition had a chance to get together and celebrate this year's achievements with some of the kids who participated.
They had a small reception where kids performed their songs and dances and the committee thanked everyone for their hard work. One of Espwa's own groups came in third place this year: Julio, Elizabeth and Tama.
A few other Espwa students choreographed and performed dances between the songs. One of the choreographers was our own, Kens, currently working in the guest house. Rachel's sister, Natalie, filmed the dance he created for Espwa nan Nwel is some of his favorite places around the Espwa property. You can watch the video below.
Espwa visitor Gladys is a former opera singer, who spent most of her career performing in Belgium. For all of our aspiring artists at Espwa, working with her was an excellent opportunity to enhance their singing techniques. Any training in the arts is very rare in Haiti. The schools don't offer music or art classes like they do in the United States, so even our best singers learned basic music-reading and piano skills with Gladys.
Gladys and her students even performed "Amazing Grace" for the attendants of weekday morning mass. How exciting to see Espwa students inspired and dedicated to improving their musical expression!
During a walk through the boy's village, one usually sees dozens of t-shirts laid across the rocks on the ground drying in the sun. But thanks to our visitors from Georgia, the boys now have their very own clothesline! With the help of Espwa's metalwork shop, they welded the stands and cemented them into the ground. The boys and housemoms are thankful that their clean clothes can now hang in the breeze away from messy soccer games and playtime on the ground.
Last week, Deacon Bill brought a group of volunteers from Georgia to Espwa. One of the many activities they orchestrated during their week in Haiti was a birthday party for all the kids: all 450 kids that is.
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At Espwa, birthdays are usually celebrated by month with each child receiving a cup of juice and a cookie. Many of the kids at Espwa don't know for sure when their own birthday is so they are assigned to one of the months. None of the kids are accustomed to a party like this. It was so special to see the smiles on their faces as they walked away with candies and frisbies in their arms.
Espwa visitors from California did some finger-painting crafts with the kids last week and also made some baby toys for the smallest members of Espwa. These "water kaleidoscopes" made from recycled water bottles are good for stimulating baby's eye muscles, and can be used as a gentle body-roller to help them develop the language of touch. Of course, when there is glitter involved, the girls take the craft to another level...
Obviously the girls enjoyed making the craft and we look forward to using these toys for Espwa's babies and toddlers.
Last week, Lily one of the volunteers in Dee's group offered to give some of our boy's haircuts. All around the village the boys crowded around Lily and her helpers to watch as she cut and styled their hair. Almost two dozen boys left smiling with brand new haircuts, a fun gift from another talented visitor. Thanks Lily!
