Some Random Pics

If I wait until my thoughts are completely coherent to write something here, this blog might remain blank for quite a while longer.  By evening time I have taken my second shower and I'm starting to cool off physically, but my brain has been cooked by 9:00 PM.  That's when the main power goes out and the inverter kicks on with battery backup to a few outlets and overhead lights throughout the house.  When I sit down at the computer at that point, I get to witness the variety of Haitian insect life as dozens of unique bugs are drawn to the light of the computer screen.  Which is unpleasant.

So it's 9:47 and I'm sleepy and I'm over the bugs, but I'm thinking I've snapped a lot of random pictures over the last few days and, at the very least, I should post a few of those, even if words fail me a bit.

So here we go.

Sarah found a coloring buddy in Elida, who works in the mission medical clinic.  She said she wanted Elida to come babysit so Mommy and Daddy can go on a date.  OK... where exactly would we go?

We've actually hosted several different folks for dinner on various nights recently.  I was excited to see my friend Joab show up at our door one day while he was in town from Port-au-Prince. He and his fiancé Angeline were able to join us for dinner a couple of nights later.

We've done a fair bit of Skyping since our arrival.  It's better than nothing, but it sure gets frustrating sometimes - you never know how strong the internet connection is going to be, how fuzzy the picture will look, or how many times the call will get dropped. In this picture, Samuel and Sarah were looking at their own images on the computer screen: Sammy was making faces and Sarah kept striking various modeling poses.

We didn't even get over to Cowman School until last Friday.  It's been impressive to see how much work has been completed over the summer and how much continues.  This is Motoi, painting one of the "cafeteria" tables. He and a crew of Haitian workers have spent the week painting and cleaning and repairing around the school grounds.

Melissa's first graders, including Sarah, will be sitting at brand new desks this year, created by a local carpenter.

Last Friday was Melissa's first opportunity to survey the space available to house both the kindergarten/first graders and the preschoolers.  She decided that this space, which was spruced up last year for kindergarten, would work best this year for the preschool.

And this space, which last year housed the office of a well-drilling ministry called Life Water, would become her classroom.  With a little bit of effort.

Even the gates got a fresh coat of paint this year.

Last Friday night we invited the Heckman family to dinner.  So GOOD to see them again.  We got to know and love them during our July Cross Training in Greenwood and were so excited to see them arrive in Haiti just a week behind us.  BUT when Melissa heard they were completely unpacked already - in their first 24 hours - she was a bit envious!

This week has been spent mostly at the school, preparing classrooms. Earlier this week, the kids helped sort and organize some of the preschool toys.

I found the remains of a rather large spider as I was cleaning out the teacher desk in my classroom a few days ago.  Glad I didn't meet him while he was still alive...

The kids have enjoyed a lot of attention from a couple of dogs staying on the school grounds - and vice versa.

We have found a wonderful lady to help us out in the kitchen three days a week.  Her name is Ma Louis.  The other night she made plantain chips - Haitian junk food - that were absolutely heavenly.



More painting - this time the outside of the kindergarten.  It's looking sharp.

This morning we had a teacher meeting - this is starting to get real!  I got the names of my students: seven 7th graders and eleven 6th graders.  Cowman continues to grow.  We have 93 students this year.  One of the teachers - who is celebrating her ten year anniversary of teaching here - said she remembers a year when there were only 12 or 13 students in the whole school!  Even in 2010 when Melissa first visited, there were only 23 students...

We tried a recipe for honey bread in the bread machine this morning and learned that it should be halved next time.  We left the machine to mix and bake the bread while he went to Cowman and one of the other missionaries called us a couple of hours later concerned that our house was in danger of burning down.  The dough had overflowed the pan and was all over the heating element.  It stank to high heaven.  We still ate the good part of the loaf for dinner tonight because we had guests coming ...

Our friends Bud and Jane came over and so did our buddy from Alabama, Steve MacInnis.  Jane has been helping Melissa navigate the unfamiliar terrain of grocery shopping in Haiti.  Tonight she came bearing a 100 pound bag ... of sugar!  You should have seen the look on the faces of our kids at the thought of that much sugar.  Still, it's the most economical way to buy it.  We'll split it with Bud and Jane and keep our half in the deep freezer, out of the reach of any insects or rats.

Bud and Jane are trying to help a Haitian couple in the States adopt this darling little guy.  In the meantime, they are Samuel's guardians here in Haiti.  Sammy had been found abandoned in a suitcase in an empty house last year, close to death.  Now he's a healthy, happy little boy who is full of personality and life.  This picture is a selfie - Sammy was getting a kick out of seeing himself on my smart phone screen.

Gathered around the table tonight.  A great meal of chicken drumsticks, courtesy of Ma Louis.

Funniest moment of the evening: Jane had just mentioned how she wished she had some Sesame Street videos for Sammy to watch and that must have prompted our Samuel to remember the red puppet he had made during Cross Training.  He came bouncing into the room with that puppet and Sammy screamed and stumbled backwards towards Jane!  He was terrified!  I think he might have soiled a brand new diaper.  Bud and Jane tried to work with him to get him to accept the puppet, but he was not about to have any of it...

Somehow, though, Hannah's pink puppet was less intimidating or creepy in Sammy's eyes and he finally made friends with it.  Maybe Big Bird still has a chance...

Tomorrow is Friday and it's our last day of prep at Cowman for the start of school next week.  I'm not sure we'd even be able to get into the school grounds on Sunday if we wanted to and Saturday we have promised to take the kids to the beach or at least a pool as our last hurrah of summer.  So there's a lot to do tomorrow!  We continue to find great encouragement and comfort in your prayers and support. God bless you!

One Fear Down

And one to go.

One of my biggest fears in moving to Haiti was driving on the roads here.  It's hard to put into words the craziness of Haitian driving.  There's no line running down the center of the road - because lanes are only hypothetical anyway.  If you need to get around a stopped tap-tap, a herd of cows, or a massive pothole, feel free to swerve into oncoming traffic.  Just swerve back to your side before being hit by a speeding motorcycle weighed down with 5 or 6 people or dragging a load of 8 foot rebar.  One of the other missionaries told me the other day about seeing a motorcyclist transporting a horse on the back of his cycle. 

A horse! 

And if that's not enough to pay attention to, there's the fact that 99% of the vehicles around here are manuals.  In my lifetime I have logged maybe two hours total of driving a stick shift in perhaps 3 or 4 different vehicles.  (And one of those didn't survive a mountain drive with me at the helm.)  So I decided yesterday that my first step would be to get the keys to one of the mission vehicles to drive around the grounds here where I could practice shifting with no distractions greater than a few speed bumps and an occasional goat.  Caleb and Sammy weren't gung-ho about accompanying me until I told them I planned to get a pickup truck and they could ride in the back. 

I made a couple of laps around the grounds and when I was finished, I decided to do one more for good measure - this time without the parking brake engaged.  I am telling you ... this stuff makes me nervous.

So when the opportunity to drive came up this morning, I was prepared to face my fears head on.  Elida and her friend Calaine were going to worship at an unfamiliar church and they needed a ride.  My family and I were looking for a place to worship and didn't necessarily want to go to the one familiar church within walking distance.  Everyone could go together to worship IF I would drive. 

No problem!  (Although I worked up a non-sun-related sweat pretty quickly.)  Photo courtesy of Hannah.  (Perhaps we'll have some time in our school schedule this year to do some art and photography classes and talk about composition...)

Hannah also took this shot as we were lurching down the road. My back seat passengers were trying to "look scared", but only Elida succeeded.  Sarah looks like she's in a hurry to get to a potty - which she was.  Melissa looks like she's halfway between a laugh and a tear. I am comforted by the fact that the only Haitian in the truck doesn't look scared at all.  In fact, Calaine seems to be enjoying herself immensely. 

We arrived at the church - in one piece - at about 8:50, early for the second service ... only to learn that they have just ONE service, from 7 to 9:00! 

Oh, well.  As a group we didn't accomplish our purpose.  But I felt like I accomplished something.  When Melissa and I first started praying about moving our family to Haiti, most of the reasons I came up with for saying no to God's call were fear-based, plain and simple. So I decided early on in this process that fear is a sad and terrible motivation for any sort of action ... or inaction.  I decided it is best to conquer fears as they creep up, one step at a time. So this morning's drive was a big deal to me.  And the Lord watched over us.

My second big fear?  Learning the language.  Our first language study will be tomorrow afternoon at the seminary. 

Maybe I will drive us there.


For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline. - 2 Timothy 1:7



P.S.  School starts a week from tomorrow.  Our house is set up and now it's time to turn our attention to setting up classrooms and preparing for the start of the semester.  It's going to be a busy week.  Prayers appreciated.

P.P.S.  Since we didn't get a chance to worship with the Body this morning, we will go to the English Bible Fellowship at 3:30 this afternoon.  It meets upstairs at the radio station.  I think the kids are looking forward to it - they found it a challenge to sit through a two hour service last week, all in Creole.

As Far As Emergencies Go ...

... my money was on Samuel, falling out of a tree, during the first week we were in Haiti.  I was right on two of those three points.

Around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I was walking towards the house and Caleb was at the door, motioning for me to hurry.  "Sarah's been hurt!"

I found our six-year-old crying and moaning in Melissa's arms.  The story was pieced together from several eye witnesses: Sarah and a couple of the Bundy kids were climbing a tree.  Sarah was swinging from a branch when it snapped.  She fell flat on her back and had the wind knocked out of her.

I got an ice pack on her back and then ran to see the tree in order to judge how far she had dropped and whether or not she hit any branches on the way down.  It wasn't a very big tree and she couldn't have dropped more than four or five feet.  BUT, Caleb once rolled off a couch onto a carpeted floor and broke his arm, so...

We got Sarah settled onto our bed and she moaned and fussed every time she was jostled.  She could wiggle her toes and all, but couldn't lift her legs or her head without pain and tears.  We began to worry about a fracture in her spine or possibly a rib.

I ran down to the medical clinic (which is only two or three minutes from our house) and found Dr. Rodney.  Thankfully, he was available and willing to come back with me to the house.  By the time we arrived, a crowd was starting to gather: local kids were peaking in the window, Elida Walton (missionary who works with the medical clinic) was on her phone, and Angie Bundy came in to pray over Sarah. 

All the while, Sarah remained way too still and acted sleepy.

Dr. Rodney was concerned enough to suggest we find a board to carry Sarah down to the clinic for an X-ray.  He gave her a shot to ease the pain.  Sarah's panicked cries of "no, no, NO!" over the shot were gut-wrenching. 

We transferred Sarah from the bed to a board that Brett Bundy found in the shop, then out the door to a vehicle. I held the board level in the back seat while Melissa walked alongside to steady the plank and to keep the door from slamming into it.  I had one hand free to take pictures.  ;-)

Brett and Dr. Rodney carried Sarah from the vehicle into the clinic...

And got her situated on the X-ray table.

The X-ray was taken and developed and read within five minutes and showed no fractures or any other abnormalities.  Try to get that speed of service in the States!

By that time, the pain medication had taken effect and Sarah was able to sit up without too much discomfort.  Dr. Rodney let out a "Hallelujah!" and prescribed couch time in front of a Barbie movie and an early bedtime.

We thank the Lord for watching over our little one!  I didn't find out until this morning, but apparently one of the calls Elida made was to her father, who works at OMS headquarters in Indiana.  He put the news out on the prayer line, which meant it went worldwide.  Literally. 

I suspect this post will un-nerve the Grandmas a bit, but this incident reminds me of a couple of things:

1) Sarah climbs trees.  It's in her DNA.  - This could have happened anywhere.
2) It would have taken much longer to reach a doctor where we were living in Indiana.  And getting one to make a house call? Yeah right.
3)  This is the kind of community that rushes in to help in someone's time of need.
4)  We are surrounded by prayer here.
5)  God hears our prayers and He is so good and so trustworthy!


"Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God.  Give me relief from my distress, be merciful to me and hear my prayer."   Psalm 4:1

Sarah popped out of bed quite chipper this morning and was out the door by 7:00, looking for her friends.  I snapped the picture below as she walked away because I was thinking how grateful I was to see her healthy and happy and how often I take that for granted.
 

Thank you, Lord, for watching over our (Your) little ones.

Overdue Blog Post

We have been in Haiti a full week tomorrow and this is the first time I have updated my blog. I have THOUGHT about updating every day but have been lacking in either energy or internet connection each time it crossed my mind.

Now there's so much to write about, that I don't even know where to start: Our Last Goodbyes, Our Time in Florida, Our Flight In, and now Getting Settled.  Each of those blog posts needs to be written if for no other reason than to give expression to dozens of big THANK YOUs. 

The internet, however, seems to be fading in and out here tonight, so I am doubting that I can post too much text or too many  of the pictures I'd like to show you, but here's one of our new home:

That pic took quite a while to upload, so here's the Reader's Digest version of our last few weeks (I'll flesh these events out with details and pictures - and thank yous - in future posts):

Our final days in Indiana were marked by farewell parties and some great summertime eating.  Goodbyes were tough for every member of the family.  Packing took much longer than expected - we delayed our departure by one full day ... and half of the day after, which made the drive to Florida quite rough.  We left Columbus at 1:30 PM and had to stop at midnight, three hours short of our goal.

Uh-oh.  Getting too much into details.  Gotta get back on the surface.  I am sitting in the dark as I type this and more and more insects are landing on the computer screen... I need to wrap up.

We had a relaxing 48 hours or so in Valparaiso, Florida before driving to Fort Pierce and unloading our cargo.  The flight itself, last Tuesday, was uneventful - just the way we had hoped.

Bringing 4,000 pounds of boxes through customs was not fun.  The officers opened every box.  By the time they were checked, loaded on trucks, driven to Vaudreuil and unloaded in the house, the house boxes and school boxes were all jumbled together ... and looked quite intimidating.  But we made it.

A little glitch caused us to land in one house, start unpacking and cleaning, only to move to another house two days later.  The second house is in much better shape and is really starting to feel like home at this point. The house was together enough for us to host a movie night here last night for some of our neighbors.

Our days have been marked by setting up rooms, dinner invitations from the other missionaries, and lots and lots of LEARNING.  And our kids have helped a bit, but they tend to spend most of their waking hours playing with the Bundy kids.  They spend the days playing soccer, chatting, swinging, making up games and climbing trees.

And ... oh yeah ... one of our kids fell out of a tree today and we had to get her back X-rayed.  (But she's OK, praise the Lord.)  Don't tell the Grandmas!

The Downside of "Overwhelmed"

I downloaded pictures from my phone last night - pictures from the last week or so - and it made me tired just looking at them! And, once again, it's hard to narrow my focus for posting here because so much has transpired in our lives these past few days.

But it seems to me that the word "overwhelmed" sums things up nicely! 

We tend to think of that word in negative terms - and we have been overwhelmed at times in a negative sense.  Packing boxes for ANY move is stressful, but this move is beyond anything we've ever experienced.  For each item we were asking:

How much does it weigh? (Because it will be $1.50 per pound to get it into Haiti.)

Is this something I might need but can't get in Haiti? (No Walmarts or Targets there! We've been told that even ordinary stuff like deodorant and toothpaste can be tricky to get ahold of.)

Can I bear the thought of this item being broken or stolen or lost in transit?  (As the mound of boxes grew, I kept envisioning the times I have entered the Cap Haitien airport with a carry-on and a single suitcase and yet struggled to hold onto them in the midst of the confusion of passing through customs and then entering a crowd of people so eager to help carry the luggage - for a price - that they will forcibly pull a bag out of your hands if able.  How likely is it that ALL of our hundred plus boxes will make it from Columbus, Indiana to the house in Vaudreuil without incident?)

At one point, the kids (bless their hearts!) nearly drove Melissa and me to insanity.  Beyond the basic toys and clothing already in tubs, we decided to allow the boys and the girls an extra box each - for keepsakes and books and crafts, etc.  All we accomplished was opening the door to a thousand questions.  Should I take THIS?  What about THAT?  Actual sample question in order for you to understand how this might get under a person's skin: "Should I pack this pencil?"

And the box the boys packed?  I mistook it for trash.  When I started poking around in the contents, I discovered a bag of rocks.  I confess that my announcement to Caleb that I was not paying a dollar fifty a pound to transport rocks to Haiti was severely lacking in grace. 

It took a day and a half beyond our target date to finish up all the packing.  We went through a lot of cardboard, tape and bubble wrap, but now it's all tucked into a 16 foot rental truck which, at this moment, is resting in the driveway of a beautiful little house on the bayou in Valparaiso, Florida - a house made available to us for a couple of days by some friends through One Mission Society.

Ready to roll - this past Thursday at 1:30 pm!

In the next post I will have to tell you about the upside of being overwhelmed (we have SO many people to thank!), but I don't have time at the moment.  It is Saturday, and we are headed to the beach for a fun family day.  Tomorrow after church we finish our drive to Fort Pierce, Florida (another 8 hours), on Monday we unload the truck at the airport and early morning on Tuesday is our flight!

^"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:6-7)