God's Art- Nature

Last week the kids here had spring break because of Carnival. I took off from my classes too. I had a great vacation! I babysat three of the days, one day I went to the school of some friends of ours and did some painting, and one afternoon I went on a hike. 

In an effort to give the teens some time away from their parents, Marc (fellow youth group leader) and I took the missionary kids, and a few others, out for the day. Marc had been to this waterfall before and he thought it would be a good place to take the kids; he was right. Sixteen of us, plus the driver, squeezed into one vehicle. Thankfully the waterfall is right in Port-au-Prince so it didn't take that long to get there. We stopped on the side of the road where there was a little trickle of water coming down a hill. Marc said, "Alright...just follow the water all the way up." It didn't look like there was going to be a stream, let alone waterfall, at the end of this trail of water but we trusted him. 

The beginning of the hike.

Walking through the stream.

It was only about a 25 minute hike to the waterfall. There were lots of Haitians, men and women, doing their laundry in the stream. Some of them were also bathing in the water...with some clothes on. This is Haiti- when you get away from the city you see that all the time. The terrain was fairly flat leading up to the fall. Once we made it there we climbed up a steep embankment to get to the top of the fall. The kids, and myself, enjoyed sitting on the rocks hanging right over the edge. It might not have been the best/safest idea, but we had no parents there telling us to be careful ;)

The waterfall!

At the top 

I climbed up to the top with a few of the kids who continued exploring. We followed the stream further up the mountain and climbed 3 or 4 more smaller falls. It was a beautiful place to spend the afternoon! Eventually I told the kids that we couldn't go any further up (I know, ruin their fun) so we headed back down. The group hung out at the bottom of the fall for a bit...

We got a little wet- Tasha, me, and Taressa

These are also youth group kids.  Great kids...great friends!

The walk back. 

After the waterfall, we went out to dinner at Epi'dor. Epi'dor is the closest thing you'll find to fast food in Haiti. They have hamburgers, subs, ice cream, some Haitian food and many other options. My experiences with the American food at Epi'dor have not been good. The sub sandwich I ate once had ketchup on it!! Yuck!! This time though I had some Haitian food and I really liked that. When we finished our dinner we went to school and hung out in a classroom. We played the game signs and then watched a movie. The day was a success! The kids really enjoyed the hike and said they wanted to go back again sometime.