Today, we had Kreyole lessons with Erin and sent Chris back to the states (all before lunch) for "A Night on the Porch" with a door to hope - BGM. If you're free Friday evening - stop by the Nashville office and enjoy some s'mores, shopping in a "Haiti market", live music, local food, bid on online auction, sweet fellowship, a mock Haitian classroom and a whole lot more! It's FREE!
Aftter lunch at the BHM we journeyed down to the Dearing's home where we were charging our most vital devices. (We had planned to plug them up in the BHM cafeteria, but all the plugs were taken by others who are going without electric, too.) As we were coming up the hill from their home the thunder rumbled loudly and the skies began to cry... hard... and fast. So, we took shelter for a bit near the clinic. Between the three of us, we only had one rain poncho available. So, I put my Kavu bag around the front of me and carried Brynna's backpack on my back under the poncho... and once again I looked like a pregnant hunchback grey-haired white woman walking the streets of Haiti. We made it back up the hill to the gift shop and Erin asked for a plastic bag to cover her most important bag. Then we took off swiftly racing through the rain towards home. Erin hopped in to a tap-tap to head back up the mountain to Kenscoff where she's staying and Brynna and I arrived at our gate and pounded, and pounded and pounded for Gerard to let us in. The guys across the street who had taken shelter were laughing at us or actually WITH us. One of them brought over a bigger rock to hit against the gate to try to get Gerard's attention. It took at least 15 minutes before we saw him. By that point, we looked like drowned rats. And did we ever smell like some!
We came in and cleaned our feet and legs off with a little bleach water since we had just walked through rivers of unmentionable liquids... and mud... and such, dried off and attempted to cook some hot cocoa. We have dried milk, cocoa powder and sugar. It was tasty. Fortunately, we can't remember what it tastes like at our favorite coffee shop. It's been too long. So, we counted it a blessing.
To be honest, it's not been an easy past month for me. Not only have we been grieving the untimely death of Nabeel El-farrah from this mountain so far away from Louisville, but I'm having a hard time with the reality of what season it is, what happens in the US and the fact that I'm not in the US. I'm very sorry that I've not been able to keep up with the blog as much as I would have liked to these last 30 days. So many of you have been in contact with us via e-mail or FB inbox and that has helped. We've also had a lot of transitions going on that we'll tell you all about in another post.
I'm so very thankful that my very best friend from high school, Sarah Cooper---'s mom - Frances spotted us on social media and offered to send us a care package. I told her I'd LOVE to have some of her amazing snickerdoodles. So, she put on FB the other day a pick of the package before she sent it and I canNOT wait for Chris to bring it back this weekend!!! Here's a pic of what has helped lift my spirits the last couple weeks just anticipating it:
Back on Monday...
Have I told you about Merilus? (Mer-E-Leece) He's our private moto guy. Here in Haiti you can just jump on any old moto and pay the driver to take you somewhere, but it's highly likely that you'll get what you pay for... a blindly dangerous ride. So, Erin has introduced us to Merilus who drives slower and more cautiously than most. He's my hero. He takes me and brings me back from roads that tap-taps don't travel on. Chris, Brynna and Erin make fun of me sometimes because I hold on for dear life... to whatever I can... which sometimes is Brynna or Chris' knees or Merilus' sides.
Yesterday I went up to Godet to take care of a few things with Erin. On the way home it began to pour the rain! We were on a moto with Merilus. We dropped Erin off in Kenscoff and then he brought me back to our apartment. The rain was falling so hard we couldn't see in front of us very well, but what I could see terrified me - it was rivers of water flowing down the streets on every turn. You remember we live on a mountain, right? It was quite scary, but just about 3 turns before our apartment, he realized we had a flat front tire. But, he kept on going and dropped me off at the gate. I only know enough Kreyole to call him and ask him to come pick me up and tell him where to drive me to... I felt so horrible that I couldn't communicate with him about how to help him get it fixed or that it was okay to stop the moto and I could walk the rest of the way. I just hope he didn't damage his moto driving around those curves with a flat tire. I'll let you know Friday when he comes to pick us up.
Earlier on Monday, we were invited guests along with Erin to the Dearing family home for lunch. They grilled steaks!!! We had baked potatoes, sliced cucumbers and green bean casserole! Oh, my, oh, my was it yummy!! On the way home we encountered our road that was completely blocked. I have yet to tell you that they have come in with bulldozers and torn out brick buildings and loaded them up in dump trucks and dumped them over the mountain! This is a picture that Chris snapped on Sunday. Today, they've torn out even more shops. There's constantly crowds of people lined up watching. There's lots of people who are coming in and grabbing anything that they could use or sell - like rebar. There's been a great police presence to ensure that the crowd doesn't get out of control. Each time we've had to walk through it coming or going the crowd seems just enthralled in watching the transformation. Have only witnessed one angry exchange and it was with the tap-tap drivers and the police. They apparently were being told to line up on down the road because they had torn out all the shops where they normally line up. Now, we'll have even farther to walk to catch a tap-tap down to PV. But, that's ok. I just feel so uncertain about how this will affect our little community. It's taken out businesses that we've spent our time and money in. Where will these people go now to make a living? Rumor has it that they are going to make a round-a-bout to help control the traffic and improve the safety of the place. (I put up a video on FB once of the "crazy corner".) Rumor also tells us that the government paid the owners of these buildings some amount of compensation a while back, but they didn't exactly know that "today was the day" and that it would all be torn away. I'm just praying that tomorrow we don't see them tearing out Simon's shop by the BHM. That would be one sad day. But, we're told that that's private property and they won't be tearing that out. Time will tell.
Well, back to my story - on Monday on the way home from the Dearing's the road was completely blocked by dump trucks and we had to climb up the hill just to the left of this picture. You want to talk about a funny site? So dangerous! But, it was the only way home. Sadly, we were following all the children who had just come out of school and were making their way up the hill. They were all dressed in their blue checked shirts and there we were just "blending right in". I was not able to climb up the muddy hill without Chris pulling me up. Just don't even imagine that. It was not pretty. Nor were our feet and legs as we trudged through the mud and water and made our way back down that road where the people are lined up and then past the dump trucks on the other side to make it safely back to our apartment.
Tomorrow, Brynna and I along with Erin will board a tap-tap and head down to PV to pick up some powdered milk for the kids at Godet along with some other items from the Giant grocery store. If you think about it, pray for safety. That's my biggest fear here in Haiti... our safety. Not necessarily for safety as far as kidnapping or something violent, but just simply transportation, brakes, steering wheels, drivers, craziness and etc... We're constantly flying up and down these mountain roads and it's a miracle that we've been safe this entire time. Thank you God!
It's now 10:18 and my eyes are ready to rest. Thank you for all your prayers and support. We will do our best to give you more pictures of Haiti and the life we are now living. We are starting to look forward to coming "home" in December. And we are blessed to be able to spend time with our family, our faith families in Nashville (White House) and Louisville over the break. We look forward to touching base and hugging all your necks! We've still got 40 days in Haiti. Please continue to pray. Na we pita! (See you later!)
To be honest, it's not been an easy past month for me. Not only have we been grieving the untimely death of Nabeel El-farrah from this mountain so far away from Louisville, but I'm having a hard time with the reality of what season it is, what happens in the US and the fact that I'm not in the US. I'm very sorry that I've not been able to keep up with the blog as much as I would have liked to these last 30 days. So many of you have been in contact with us via e-mail or FB inbox and that has helped. We've also had a lot of transitions going on that we'll tell you all about in another post.
I'm so very thankful that my very best friend from high school, Sarah Cooper---'s mom - Frances spotted us on social media and offered to send us a care package. I told her I'd LOVE to have some of her amazing snickerdoodles. So, she put on FB the other day a pick of the package before she sent it and I canNOT wait for Chris to bring it back this weekend!!! Here's a pic of what has helped lift my spirits the last couple weeks just anticipating it:
Have I told you about Merilus? (Mer-E-Leece) He's our private moto guy. Here in Haiti you can just jump on any old moto and pay the driver to take you somewhere, but it's highly likely that you'll get what you pay for... a blindly dangerous ride. So, Erin has introduced us to Merilus who drives slower and more cautiously than most. He's my hero. He takes me and brings me back from roads that tap-taps don't travel on. Chris, Brynna and Erin make fun of me sometimes because I hold on for dear life... to whatever I can... which sometimes is Brynna or Chris' knees or Merilus' sides.
Yesterday I went up to Godet to take care of a few things with Erin. On the way home it began to pour the rain! We were on a moto with Merilus. We dropped Erin off in Kenscoff and then he brought me back to our apartment. The rain was falling so hard we couldn't see in front of us very well, but what I could see terrified me - it was rivers of water flowing down the streets on every turn. You remember we live on a mountain, right? It was quite scary, but just about 3 turns before our apartment, he realized we had a flat front tire. But, he kept on going and dropped me off at the gate. I only know enough Kreyole to call him and ask him to come pick me up and tell him where to drive me to... I felt so horrible that I couldn't communicate with him about how to help him get it fixed or that it was okay to stop the moto and I could walk the rest of the way. I just hope he didn't damage his moto driving around those curves with a flat tire. I'll let you know Friday when he comes to pick us up.
Earlier on Monday, we were invited guests along with Erin to the Dearing family home for lunch. They grilled steaks!!! We had baked potatoes, sliced cucumbers and green bean casserole! Oh, my, oh, my was it yummy!! On the way home we encountered our road that was completely blocked. I have yet to tell you that they have come in with bulldozers and torn out brick buildings and loaded them up in dump trucks and dumped them over the mountain! This is a picture that Chris snapped on Sunday. Today, they've torn out even more shops. There's constantly crowds of people lined up watching. There's lots of people who are coming in and grabbing anything that they could use or sell - like rebar. There's been a great police presence to ensure that the crowd doesn't get out of control. Each time we've had to walk through it coming or going the crowd seems just enthralled in watching the transformation. Have only witnessed one angry exchange and it was with the tap-tap drivers and the police. They apparently were being told to line up on down the road because they had torn out all the shops where they normally line up. Now, we'll have even farther to walk to catch a tap-tap down to PV. But, that's ok. I just feel so uncertain about how this will affect our little community. It's taken out businesses that we've spent our time and money in. Where will these people go now to make a living? Rumor has it that they are going to make a round-a-bout to help control the traffic and improve the safety of the place. (I put up a video on FB once of the "crazy corner".) Rumor also tells us that the government paid the owners of these buildings some amount of compensation a while back, but they didn't exactly know that "today was the day" and that it would all be torn away. I'm just praying that tomorrow we don't see them tearing out Simon's shop by the BHM. That would be one sad day. But, we're told that that's private property and they won't be tearing that out. Time will tell.
Well, back to my story - on Monday on the way home from the Dearing's the road was completely blocked by dump trucks and we had to climb up the hill just to the left of this picture. You want to talk about a funny site? So dangerous! But, it was the only way home. Sadly, we were following all the children who had just come out of school and were making their way up the hill. They were all dressed in their blue checked shirts and there we were just "blending right in". I was not able to climb up the muddy hill without Chris pulling me up. Just don't even imagine that. It was not pretty. Nor were our feet and legs as we trudged through the mud and water and made our way back down that road where the people are lined up and then past the dump trucks on the other side to make it safely back to our apartment.
It's now 10:18 and my eyes are ready to rest. Thank you for all your prayers and support. We will do our best to give you more pictures of Haiti and the life we are now living. We are starting to look forward to coming "home" in December. And we are blessed to be able to spend time with our family, our faith families in Nashville (White House) and Louisville over the break. We look forward to touching base and hugging all your necks! We've still got 40 days in Haiti. Please continue to pray. Na we pita! (See you later!)
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