Doing Without

Family and Friends,

Every missionary family has to make difficult decisions about what they need and what they will do without. In some cases the decisions are made for you. Sometimes the country where you are serving doesn't have all the modern conveniences, or maybe your organizational superiors have made policies about what you can and cannot have, and other times you just don't have the money to buy certain things. But a time will come when you have to make decisions for yourself about what is a need and what is a want, and you will have to take into consideration the impact it will make on the community you are trying to reach when they find out you have certain conveniences, if you should choose to have them.


We are asking these questions a lot lately. We have been here in Haiti for about three months now, and we are beginning to imagine what it will take to live here long-term (and not go nuts!). We are weighing our options about certain things and trying to figure out what is truly a need and what is a want. Then there are things that can't be justified as a need exactly, but they sure do add a lot to life, like internet access for example.

We still don't have internet access at the property where we live. We could have it if we were willing to shell out $2,000 for the start up costs and then pay an additional $170 or so per month after that. However, we have been told that the phone company (thanks to the Chinese) is installing access for everyone soon, which will be much cheaper, and we are holding our for that option. It was supposed to be here in January, but this is Haiti.

Another big issue lately has been transportation. I have to travel pretty far to get fruit and vegetables, and this can only be done in about a 2-hour window twice a week, because that is the only time when the market near us has anything good. However, if we take the extra time to go into the bigger city of Les Cayes, we can get good produce any day of the week. The problem with that option is the need to take tap-taps and/or taxis. This can be a very painful process because of the unpredictable schedules, the craziness of the mobs, and being subjected to the elements for hours on end. Patchouko and I were doing this just yesterday and he turns to me and says, “We have to be the only missionaries in Haiti who are riding tap-taps and taxis to get groceries for the orphanage and mission teams.” I just laughed, but it got me thinking. Part of me agrees that we are wasting precious time doing it this way, but another part of me doesn't want to give up that raw connection with everyday folks.

So I've been thinking about getting a car or a motorcycle lately. I started asking myself all the questions mentioned above. Do we really need this? If we buy a car will the people of our community be reinforced in their view that we are typical rich white people? Then I met an interesting fellow American who has been here for about fifteen years. He has been married to a Haitian woman for over forty years. At first they lived in Connecticut for a long time, but later they moved down to Haiti to retire and build a motel. He quipped, “I'm the white sheep of the family.” Nice.

The American guy told me about how he recently got into a wreck.  He was driving a car and a motorcycle hit him, and his story sobered me up quite a bit concerning the idea of having a car in Haiti. Nobody got hurt very badly in the crash, but even though the motorcycle was at fault in the accident, which was backed up by all of the witnesses including another man on the motorcycle itself, the judge ordered him to pay for a new motorcycle and for all of the medical bills of everyone involved. The American asked why he had to do this since it wasn't his fault. The judge simply responded, “Because you are white and rich.” Scary. Plus he had to pay the man at fault $3000 for the motorcycle even though the kind he was driving can be bought new for $700. He had to fix his own car for $3000 and pay his own medical bills and the bills of three others, totaling $10,000 or so.

Then add to all that the fact that Mike Plasier (our boss) warned us that if we buy a car in Haiti we will have to get new tires every single year, not to mention the fact that the same car will cost double here what it would cost in the US. So buying a car is not a good fit for now. We will have to do without. Maybe a motorcycle would be better...

Then there are many other needs/wants we have been considering...having a real toilet for Lynn instead of a bowl, building some kind of bathtub instead of a Tupperware container, buying an oven and a fridge or freezer, setting up better and more reliable electricity, etc... For now all of these have been filed in the category of, “Well if we decide to stay here long long-term we will get that, but for now we can do without.”

Even writing this post helps me see that God is truly taking care of what we really need...health, food, shelter, and family.  We are doing absolutely fine and have so much to be thankful for!

Enjoy your adventure today!
-The Grimm Family Adventurers