Day 3: Water truck!!

Today was water truck day.  We delivered water to three different stops in Cite Soleil –  the poorest slum in the world.  Some of our team members helped fill people’s buckets with clean water while others held and loved the younger children.  In Cite Soleil, 60-70% of the children are slaves. These children’s parents give them up to families in the city hoping for a better life.  In reality, these families are just as poor, employing the orphaned children as their slaves.  Our visit to Cite Soleil gives these kids a chance to receive affection that they do not receive on a regular basis.

For us, this experience opened our eyes to the poor conditions of Cite Soleil, yet the joy the children still possess. These kids have the same smiles and laughs as the children in the United States. They are the same, but they are born into different lives. The day was fun, but it had a very serious undertone. This realization set in shortly after everyone loaded the bus after the last stop. We could go back to the guest house and take a cold shower or sit at the pool. We had the comfort of knowing we could eat and relax for the rest of the night. One of the hardest things to comprehend is the concept of fairness, or unfairness. The beauty of life is that it is not fair.

We are blessed to be a blessing.

During our devotional time at the end of the night, we read an excerpt from the book, Kisses from Katie. One quote in particular stood out to us as a group:

“The truth is, I saw myself in those little faces. I looked at them and felt this love that was unimaginable and knew that this is the way that God sees me.”

The kids reaching their hands out for us to hold them are the same as us reaching our hands out to God to be loved.

Braden, Erin, and Morgan