Baptist Mission

Last Saturday Todd was able to ride along with another non-MAF pilot as he ferried a plane to FL. Along with the very unique experience of flying over the ocean, this provided him with the opportunity to maintain his license currency and gave him several hours of flight time. Being a maintenance specialist (mechanic), he will not have many opportunities like this!!
While he was gone, the kids and I went with the Kings (missionaries with CWRC) and Kruls (family we did language school with in Piyon) to the Baptist Mission up in the mountains. I am sure there is much more to it than this because the campus looked quite extensive, but we visited a gift shop, a small museum, a bakery, a mini-zoo, played on the playground, and ate lunch at their little open-air, caffeteria-style restaurant that overlooks the valley. I know they also have a clinic, a chapel (where some people were singing), a greenhouse, and some kind of mechanic shop.
The kids had such a great time seeing all of the animals and playing on the playground. They were not quite so excited as I was about time spent in the gift shop. :) In the "zoo" they have lots of rabbits, a crocodile, a monkey, peacocks, guinnea fowl, goats, a small coy fish pond, and a big snake that used to live in our house!!!! The snake supposedly belonged to the Ryles who lived here before us. Crismen still gets the heeby jeebies when she talks about it. :) At the playground they found a snail and a couple friends from school.
I discovered that several Creole books we bought before coming to Haiti were written by the Turnbulls who worked at the Baptist mission for years. In the gift shop, I bought a Haitian cookbook by Betty Turnbull, the Creole hymnal Chants D'Esperance, a few post cards, some hot & fluffy cinnamon raisin bread, dinner rolls and a plant from their greenhouse. I was SO happy to have my little hymnal when we went to church Sunday!
*This last picture shows a pile of sticks which will most likely be firewood, but possibly building material. The cute, little lady was resting on her bucket, so I did not want to disturb her.