the move

In 2008, I spent my summer in California. During this time, the Three Angels board was discussing plans for finding a new House Manager for the orphanage, because the woman currently there was moving back to the states on August 30th, and they didn't yet have a replacement. It was now the beginning of August. The board really wanted a husband and wife couple that would move there to run the orphanage together, but at this point, there wasn't anyone that was interested and ready to move. So the idea came up and I agreed that I would fill in as the temporary House Manager. I drove from California back to my home-base in Indiana on August 20th... and flew out for Haiti on the 27th. It all happened pretty fast!! I was a little nervous about it all, but it was definitely what I wanted to do.

The plan was that I would arrive in Haiti and have a few days with the current House Manager, Sandy,  to learn from her and figure out... well, figure out what I was suppose to do! However, hurricanes got in the way of that plan. I had made it to Miami when I found out my flight to Haiti had been canceled and there wasn't another one for 5 days. I rented a car and drove to Palm Coast to stay with Gretchen, at the time, the President of Three Angels. I rebooked a flight for 6 days later... only for that one to be canceled as well. I finally made it to Haiti on September 5th. But Sandy was long gone at this point.

(just walked in the door of Three Angels)

So here I was. I had been to Haiti on three different week-long trips. But I was just a member of a team on those trips. I didn't really know the staff. I didn't know what things look like from day to day at the orphanage. And I certainly didn't know anything about running it.

The first few days felt extremely long. I had to kinda just play things by ear and figure out a system as I went. All the little things-- like what time the kids get up, how to do breakfast and dinner on the weekends, when to do snack, what to feed them (yes, a lot to do w/ food!), figuring out who the employees were and what they each did, figure out what it was they needed from me when they came up and stared at me, when to turn on the generator...etc.  Oh yes, and do all this without speaking Creole. There were a handful of people in my daily life there that spoke decent English.  The first few days were rough! I often questioned whether or not I really should've come. There had to be other people better qualified for this than I was!! But slowly, the day to day life fell into place. I figured out a system. We had somewhat of a routine.

I would usually wake up in the mornings to a kid walking in my room around 5 or 5:30. Most of the kids knew some English, the older kids spoke it very well. However, some words, they would just always use the Creole word.  So when they would come in at 5 am, they would say what sounded to me like "sleep". They clearly were needing something, I just had no idea what. Then one of the kids would go through my room to the porch, pull underwear off the clothes line, and then leave (of course, usually forgetting close the door on their way out). Come to find out-- the Creole word "slip" (pronounced "sleep") means underwear. I would also get woke up for things like diapers and toothpaste. I didn't take long to figure out how to plan better so that no one would need anything at 5 am!!