Day 16 of our Haiti Adventure!
Family and Friends,
Happy Thanksgiving!
We are doing great down here in Haiti. We have been enjoying a few quiet days between teams from the US. The last team led by Gretchen and Karen was a lot of fun, and many of them will return in the years to come. Next will be a group led by Pam and the Mission Ball people. They will do a lot of sports ministry down here early in December. Should be a great week!
Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write again, so I will copy/paste from my journal. But just know that we are thinking about everyone back home and praying for you every day. It will be hard to be gone over Thanksgiving and Christmas, of course, but we will enjoy some time on the beach and hopefully make all of you jealous. And even better we will discover what Christmas looks like in Haiti! How fun.
One quick story...
We have been having trouble getting fresh fruit and vegetables lately, so yesterday I decided to travel on public transportation to a large market about an hour away. It was quite the experience. One quick snapshot...I was walking down a side street at the market, and all around me were large bulls...in front, in back, and beside. I thought to myself, this is exactly like the running of the bulls in Spain, just in slow motion...but I definitely don't plan to stop and tie my shoes! I'm not sure exactly how I found myself in that predicament, but I turned to my friend who was with me and said, "this is really bad for business for the little stands along this street...even if we wanted to stop and buy something we couldn't." Anyway, it was quite the adventure, and it took forever to get home which was stressful for Lynn. But at least I brought some fruit and vegetables.
Okay, here is the entry from the journal...
November 21, 2010-
Today is the 13th day of our Haiti adventure. Thanksgiving will be in four days, but it doesn't feel normal to say that when you live in a climate where the temperature still gets up to 90s during the day. It would be nice to have a great big American feast, though. I could really go for some pumpkin pie and ice cream.
Speaking of ice cream...Mike (Pam Plasier's husband) is here and he took our whole family to Les Cayes for a special day yesterday, and we got ice cream! It was actually really good and could rival any brand from the grocery store in the US. It was about the same price too, or even more. We got it from a little store downtown that is similar to a very small grocery store in the US. You can get most of your food and supplies there if you want, but it is pricey.
What you can't get there is fresh vegetables and fruit. Those have to be bought from the various markets. One of my ongoing projects is learning how to get what we need at a fair price and carry out the process of bartering. This will take a long time, but I have one of the cooks from the orphanage helping us. John Rivier, our Creole tutor, has also offered to take me to some markets and show me around. Part of the problem is that people are notorious here for charging white folks double what they charge everyone else. I'm trying to look at this as a challenge and a chance to meet new people.
The kids have been doing really well. They like hunting for bugs, lizards, and tarantulas. They really love swimming in the ocean. I just hope they don't get stung by jelly fish. I got stung on the first day and it didn't hurt too bad, but I'm sure the kids would cry if it happened to them. I also had a run-in with a little colony of fire ants. Actually, I don't know for sure if they were fire ants. I didn't ask them or anything. But I know one thing for sure...THEY thought they were fire ants when I kicked over their nest on accident. Pretty soon there were several of them inside my sandal biting with all their might. I still have several open wounds on my feet from that adventure.
Kester is starting to use a couple of creole words in his speech, so it seems his year of spanish immersion is paying off, giving him confidence to learn another language. Alexandra even let one of the kids from the orphanage push her on the swing and braid her hair. She was very excited to find out that when her hair is braided she doesn't have to have it washed for a couple of days. The showers here are really cold. Basically you take a 5-gallon bucket of water and an old peanut butter jar and start dumping water on your head. Alexandra always cries, but when we don't wash her hair she doesn't get quite as cold.
The team visiting from the US right now has been a lot of fun. Gretchen Shafer and Karen Sumner are leading the team. Both of them have been here several times and do a lot for Mission Haiti back in the US. Some of the group members have been here before as well, so they know what they are doing. Tonight there will be a great big competition down by the beach between Haitians and Americans. First they will do some Haitian activities, like hauling buckets of water on their heads, and then they will compete with some American sports. It should be fun to watch. I think I'm supposed to be one of the referees. I'll probably let the Haitians bribe me to favor their team...that is the way everything works down here. When in Rome...
I'm just joking because obviously corruption is a huge issue here in every facet of life. Next Sunday will be the elections for the new president, the senators, and the deputies, which are equivalent to our House members. Their system is very similar to ours. Every time there are elections there are also various kinds of demonstrations and even riots. I will try to lead the youth group in doing some sort of prayer vigil that weekend, asking God to provide good leaders for Haiti as they move forward, and protection for everyone in the community as they try to vote and pray as well.
As we were preparing to move both Lynn and I read a book about missionary life called, “Through the Outhouse Floor.” It recounts a lot of the ups and downs of everyday life on the field in Africa. We have already had some similar little adventures. As mentioned before we didn't have Lynn's indoor toilet for the first week here, but it was nice to finally get it out of the back closet when Mike and the team arrived. However, the kids needed some special training on how to use it. Normally they will use the outhouse, but sometimes, like it in the middle of the night, it is just easier to stay inside and avoid confronting the bugs and potentially dropping the flashlight down the outhouse floor.
So Elizabeth decided to use the toilet. I was doing something with one of the suitcases we are living out of on the floor nearby. Elizabeth attempted to dismount from the toilet, and the Tupperware bowl that catches everything fell off and hit the floor. The contents previously donated by Lynn, Elizabeth, and possible others promptly splashed up and hit me directly in the face. Oh what fun. Everything else in the vicinity got wet as well and required a very detailed clean-up effort.
One day Alexandra locked herself in one of the two outhouses. Kester was helping her, so he told me she was locked in there. The latch was stuck. After figuring out she couldn't get it open even with some coaching, I tried to shove Kester through the little opening above the wall between the two outhouses. It was pretty small and the concrete was pretty rough, so maybe that wasn't a good idea. He was fine, but my hands got pretty scratched up reaching through there and trying to lower him down. Then Kester tried to undo the latch, and that still didn't work. Now the kids were getting a little panicky. Alexandra said, “Dad what are we going to do now?” and you could hear she was a little scared. Finally I handed a rock through the opening to Kester, and he was able to bang the latch open with that. Disaster averted. We do have a circular saw and the door is wooden, so we had other options if it came down to it.
The other day I read something inspiring in “Introduction to The History of Christianity”:
“Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him to the humiliation of his cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them... They who love Jesus for his own sake, and not for the sake of comfort for themselves, bless him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less than in the greatest joy. And were he never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would stil always praise him and give him thanks.”
-Thomas A Kempis, from “The Imitation of Christ” (written in the 1400s)
And...
“Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2)
Wherever you are reading this, whether in the comfort of your home or in some coffeeshop or in a foreign land, look out the window and there you find see a world full of people waiting for you to take an interest in their life and tell/show them what Jesus is all about. Will you stay inside and seek your own comfort, or will you do the hard work of talking to them and listening to their story and taking on their burdens as your own?
May your life be an adventure for Jesus this week!
God Bless!
-The Grimms
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