Three months!

Tomorrow when we wake up in Haiti we will have been here three months! It is hard to believe how different our lives are now. We have done a great deal of adjusting to the culture change, it feels more like home here now. While I am sure that we still do things that must look crazy to our neighbors, at least we now can apologize in Creole! :)

It has either cooled down a bit or our bodies have adjusted to the heat, we are much happier when we aren’t waking up at night and toweling sweat off ourselves and our kids to keep them cool.

We have figured out how to use our oven without blowing up the house and can even make cookies!

Homeschooling is a delight… I love watching my kids get excited about learning new things.

I love making Haitian food and had rice with avocados on top for lunch today. I also enjoy cooking the red sauce that they use with rice and beans. My favorite thing that I learned is how to make fresh passion fruit juice. It is delicious!

We have learned many things about the Haitians around us, but the most important thing that we have learned is respect. I deeply respect their ability to love God and how dedicated they are to their faith.  I respect the mothers who care for their infants in this dusty city. I respect the men and women who work harder than I have ever had to work, carrying huge heavy bins on their heads, pushing carts, toiling in the fields.

Thank you Haiti for welcoming us for these three months. It has been a time of learning for us and I can't wait to see what we will learn next (though I hope for a few less lessons on patience and a few more yummy cooking recipes!)

Meet Jimmy

Jimmy has been on our hearts this week. Jimmy has a sweet, kind soul. His smile is constant, his patience and kindness an integral part of his personality. Yet, he seems lonely. Instead of spending time with the kids around him, he works hard to help with the gate at Good Rest and goes out of his way to help Carl every day.

Jimmy's story seems to be one of many kids abandoned, yet we can't forget him. His biggest dream is to be a pilot, to learn to fly. We sympathize with him, we wish we could give him the opportunity to fulfill his dreams. Jimmy is one of kind, an amazing and wonderful young man. We are proud to get to know him. 

Kids Around the World

Kids Around the World, Good Rest loves you! Thank you SO much for sending food to Haiti. Today Carl spent over 4 hours moving boxes of food from your container to Good Rest, and he is going back again tomorrow! You have made a huge difference in our lives.

Thank you!!!

Emile's smile says it all!

Overwhelming Questions

Would it have been worth while,

To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

To have squeezed the universe into a ball

To roll it toward some overwhelming question...

T.S. Eliot

In the past two and a half months in Haiti, I feel that I have been overwhelmed with more questions than answers:

Why are Haitian drivers so aggressive? It causes ridiculous traffic jams… to say to least!

 Why can’t Haitians understand the concept of “saving for a rainy day?” It certainly rains enough here!

Why does Spam taste so disgusting and yet we keep eating it?

Why do Haitians treat dogs and animals so cruelly? I have seen dogs kicked, pinched, burned, and purposefully hit with cars.

Why are people living in patched tents while others have multiple empty vacation homes?

How can starvation exist in the same world as an obesity epidemic?

Many of my deeper questions can’t yet be framed into words. It is taking me time to process what our family is experiencing. Everything “normal” to us has been erased, and the void has been filled with things I don’t yet understand. The culture is very different here, and it is tainted with the darkness of voodoo and the desperation of dire poverty. Despite all of this, when the children of Haiti smile, the world is a better place.

 The only answers I have found so far are faith, hope, and love. 

The greatest of these is love.

Getting ready for school

 Today I met with Sherlie from Good Rest quickly and we are meeting again tomorrow. We are working to get the kids ready for school, which here means paying for school, uniforms, books, shoes, and other things. Many of the kids are sponsored and without those generous people the kids wouldn't have the opportunities that they have. Thank you. We are trying to make the sponsorship money stretch as far as possible. Our biggest need is still shoes. I have seen shiny black shoes for sale at Payless for $10-15, it would be so nice to get some of those in the mail for the kids here, it is hard to find good shoes and even used shoes are very expensive here.

Another positive thing: CJ likes the food here and today happily chopped up garlic and onions to make us some "Haitian" noodles. It tasted really good!