Bills' Village - Skittle Distribution - Part 2

Bill was explaining what the plan of the day would be for the Skittle distributions as we walked further into the desert/village.

A man riding a young horse trotted by.

Children like their pictures taken. Here Rob was showing them photos.

This is a cute boy with a bright face :)

Manu, Johnny and Solyvien enjoy coming along for our journeys.

It was a warm day.

This shy young girl is posing with her Skittles.

Paulna was the pied piper as we walked towards Williamise' home.

This is Williamise' younger sister. She is 2-years-old and delayed in her development due to malnutrition.

The children of the village pointed out who didn't get any treats yet and also tried to get extra too :)

Williamise is doing well. She is walking stronger every time we visit her.

She sort of is a walking miracle. She has hydrocephalus that was never treated. Her father refused the surgery and by God's grace she is developing well. Her verbal skills are excellent and now physically her body is adapting to her heavier than normal head. She loves candy and is now strong enough to fight off children who try to steal her candy.

This is Williamise' mom. She is a happy lady that does the best she can with life's circumstances.

See how well Williamise stands with the other children! We always encourage the people in the communities we work in to integrate the handicapped into society life.

Here are 2 happy boys :)

This young boy is heading back to the water source to haul another bucket of water for his family.

Other children came running to see what was going on.

This girl approached balancing a bucket of water on her head.

She tried to get Williamise to give her her candy. Williamise didn't budge.

Bill is taking a peek backwards to see what lives in the thatch roof :)

This young boy brought his sister along.

Success! Paulna gave candy to her too.

Water is precious in the countryside. People walk to bring back water by the bucket to their homes.
Here Levi is sharing a drink with this young thirsty girl.

Her big sister carried her to get some candy.

Johnny was the keeper of the Skittles. He kept them in his backpack and Paulna pulled them out and handed them to the children.

Johnny can be an imposing guy when he wants to be. His ambition is to be in the new Haitian military or on the police force. He has registered for both but is waiting for the call. He'd be a good candidate :)

This young boy came with his bowl of food to check us out.

I love taking pictures of the people to show who the people are that we try to help.

Williamise walked up to Levi and asked him for some water to drink.  It is great to see how she is progressing.

Rob played the pied piper as we turned around and headed back through the village and out to the truck.

Bills' Village - Skittle Distribution - Part 1

Bill has a special place in his heart for Paulna's family and every time he visits Haiti he goes out to visit Paulna's family. With the rains we had to park in downtown Bonnette and walk the rest of the way to her house. The best way of experiencing Haiti is to walk and meet with the people.

The village, Bonnette is a farming community.

The biggest structure in the community is the church. The building constructed next to it was recently built and is used as a school for the community.

This was a first-time visit for Rob and it gave him an opportunity to experience rural life in Haiti.

We passed a recently upgraded home that is now a cement block house complete with a tin roof.

Not much shade for the animals.

Most of the homes are made of sticks and mud and then they are white-washed.

It is a desert existence for the villagers.

Homes are small.

Technology! We passed this solar panel which was charging a cell phone battery.

Doudeleimy came up to say hello. She is the girl on the left with her arms stretched overhead. Several years ago she went to the United States for surgery on both feet to correct her congenital clubbed feet problem. Now she walks normally :)

This young boy was showing off on his homemade guitar :)

 This small shelter is the kitchen.

Even the children are strong. This young boy is carrying a heavy bucket of water on his head.

The smiling woman walking up the street is Paulna's mother.

This is Paulna's family home.

Here are a couple of her young neighbours

Every time we go out to the village we see the people working. It is man's/boys' work to care for the animals.

Paulna's older brother assisted his mother with the donkey and the load of charcoal that it was carrying.

This is how Paulna's mother provides for her family. Trees, scrub brush are cut and then used to make charcoal. Paulna's mother will sell it at the city market either in Croix-des-Bouquets or Port-au-Prince.

A Haitian saddle is not very comfortable :)

Here is Rob trying to communicate with this young boy.

Cactus have no problems growing here.

Paulna is standing next to her mother. She looks exactly like her in this picture.

This young child was peeking around a corner of a mud hut.

It is also a tradition when Bill comes to Haiti that he brings packages of Skittles to hand out to the children. This year was the best year for organizing the Skittles distribution. Notice the children are actually waiting in line :)

Here are a couple of the children waiting their turn.

Sheep and goats are farm investments for the village people.

We headed further back into the community.

This young child was crying because she was too shy to come outside the door and wanted some Skittles. We brought a package over to her and she was happy again :) 
More photos tomorrow :)