Family and Friends,
Day 129 of our Haiti Adventure!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Or Happy St. Patricko’s Day, as we say around here! (After Patchouko, which sounds like “Patricko”, our facilities manager and youth pastor)
The following is a collection of random thoughts about our life in Haiti that don’t necessarily constitute a blog post on their own but nevertheless are worth mentioning…
Today is Kenny’s Birthday! Kenny is the youngest child in the orphanage. He is now three. Technically he can go to school now, but it is hard to imagine. He isn’t potty trained, for one thing. Joshua (Patchouko’s son), his 2-year-old best buddy, would be lonely without him to play with all day.
Everyday we see baby tarantulas crawling around outside. They have a beautiful dark blue color to their hair, or fur, or whatever you call it. This must be the hatching season for them. We killed about ten today alone.
This morning the temperature was climbing steadily into the 80s like normal. Then, around 9 o’clock, a rainstorm came up and it immediately fell back into the 70s. How refreshing! Rain. We better get used to it, because rainy season will be here soon!
There is a rumor that Aristide, a former president and extremely polarizing figure, is returning to Haiti. Just that rumor alone could spark political instability. When Adrien caught wind of it, he went to Les Cayes to fill up with gas and buy food and water. Other people around here are very superstitious about this priest-turned-president. They swear he can turn into various animals or simply disappear.
Top Ten Reasons it is both a trial and a blessing to live in the same compound as an orphanage:
10. Being asked, “Can you come please? Can you read to me? Can you hold me?” fifty times each day.
9. Ten kids right outside our door for our kids to play with.
8. People are great at throwing birthday parties here, and between the orphanage and our family, we have 1 or 2 every month.
7. Trying to keep track of who-is-mad-at-who on any given day.
6. The girls and our daughters spending hours braiding each others’ hair.
5. Wondering if and when relatives of the kids will come to visit and how that will affect their ability to remain here.
4. French lessons, Bible lessons, drum lessons, math lessons, potty-training lessons, etc…
3. Sharing Haitian and American food with each other.
2. Four little boys aged four and under + garbage piles waiting to be burned and/or piles of ash waiting to cool and be thrown out = a recipe for disaster
1. Being taught patience and perseverance all day every day
No school again today, or tomorrow, or Monday. No one knows exactly why there is no school. There was no school last week because of Carnival. There were literally only 10 days of school the first semester this year because of starting late, bad weather, and political instability. They will probably only have school 50 or 60 days this entire year at this rate. Sad.
I’ve had my eyes peeled for a used motorcycle to get around on, and someone told me Nelien had one for sale. He is a 30ish man who works on a local construction crew. Once he heard I was interested he jacked up the price. This is normal procedure here, to try to gouge white people, but the sad part is that one day when Nelien was working construction barefoot I personally gave him my only pair of boots. He saw me walk in the house and get the boots, so he knows I gave him my own personal belongings, yet he still jacked up the price on the Motorcycle. That is a microcosm of why Haiti is in such a bad way. People here try to get over on the very people who are trying to help them, both at a personal level and at a national level, and in the end they only hurt themselves.
On a brighter note, we still don’t have a cholera outbreak in Ti-Rivier! I think the Doctors Without Borders clinics in Les Cayes must be doing a very good job with the whole situation. They are operating the clinics around the city, two of which I have visited. So when someone out here in the country gets Cholera they are sent to the city to get quality treatment, which cuts down on the spreading back home. This is working out good so far. We pray it continues.
Enjoy Your Adventure Today!
-The Grimms
According to the news, Aristide is back now!
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