A Day in the Life of a Little Missionary

Naomi is our youngest child, which makes her the youngest of 14 kids. Just that fact makes her life somewhat unique. She has adapted well to living in Haiti and seems to really love it here. Naomi actually came VERY close to be born here in Haiti (which is a whole story in itself). She then was back in Haiti by the time she was six months old, so Haiti I believe is in her heart as well as mine. She is almost 4 years old and is incredibly smart. This is both good and bad. She is also a master at getting what she wants. She is just so cute and personable that she is likely to find somebody in the family that will cave and give her a cookie or whatever else she wants.

Well, today was no exception. Although she's old enough and certainly big enough (as you can see in the picture above) to walk all on her own, she has multiple siblings that will often take turns packing her much of the time when we go up and down the mountain. This time though, it was just me, Julia, and Naomi going up to the clinic to help get things ready for the medical clinic tomorrow. We got a late start, so David had already left for school. Julia was carrying a pretty heavy backpack, so I ended up with the job of packing Naomi part of the time.

On the way down to the riverbed, walking is not so bad. It's going UP that becomes challenging. She was pretty happy running across the riverbed, talking to people, watching people wash their clothes, etc. Naomi makes quite the impression being pretty much the only blond little kid for miles around. 

When it started to get steep again, Naomi had a few pouty moments where she crossed her arms and decided she wasn't going to walk anymore. She would lift her arms and say "pack me" and when she was told she could keep walking a little farther, you would think her life was coming to an end. BUT...we could usually get her to walk a little farther with the reward of "When you make it to that tree, you can have another drink" or "When you make it to that next tree, mom will carry you a little farther". 

She would stop and rest and waive to people as they walked by. She would talk about all the rocks and how she likes that one or this one and needs to sit down and rest. It's really quite funny! I think we must make quite a sight huffing and puffing up the mountain.

Finally, success at the top of the mountain! She ran the last stretch up hill and was yelling "I made it! I made it!" Julia and I were both laughing, "YOU made it?" That's like riding a bike in a marathon and then tossing your hands up in the air at the finish line in front of all the runners. Yes, Naomi walked and ran part of the way, but she was also packed much of the way as well.

But we made it to the clinic and were able to do some organizing in preparation of the team tomorrow. We made sure all the station boxes were ready. We checked out the pharmacy and tried to get it well stocked. Naomi helped in the clothing closet by trying out the baby clothes. Everything was, "Oh...it's sooooo cute" to her.  She is quite the girly girl.

She made friends on the way back down the mountain. We stopped to take some pictures.

Little preschoolers were leaving school. They looked so sweet in their school uniforms. I can't believe how small and young some of the kids are that walk home from school all alone. Naomi ran down the mountain with a few of the kids, but didn't keep up with them. Partly because they were going too fast and partly because she thankfully kept stopping and looking back to where we were. She's cautious to not get too far ahead.

But....there was a slight accident on the way down the mountain. Again, you would think life was coming to the end because she fell down and her hand was bleeding. We cleaned it off, but didn't have any bandaids with us, so we wrapped it with a wet wipe. Naomi literally showed her injured hand to every person we saw on the walk.

I took pity on her and packed her part of the way down. Or maybe I took pity on myself and Julia because we were hungry and wanted to get back home. Naomi kept stopping to talk about the rocks and everything else that was "Oh...soooo cute" to her. It was an amazing day and we are so thankful to be serving with Mountain Top Ministries! We look forward to a busy day with patients at the clinic tomorrow.