Changes....

….happening here in Haiti. With the whites that is. Cam is leaving Haiti. He's going back to Ontario to work there for his uncle. And everybody loves him. All the kids here and the youth here in Oriani... He will be missed.

I really love the youth here. They are strong Christians and feel like any youth group. Every Wednesday we have a Bible study together. It starts at 3 and usually its Haitian time and everybody will get there quite late. And that's no excuse for what I'm about to say. -But it just so happened that last Bible study we had been talking about to punish people for not getting on time or not even showing up at all!- So last Wednesday I show up at approximately 3:05. And I walk into the classroom and its all full and they stop me at the door. Fre Willie ( the teacher) told me that anybody that walks in late has to sing a solo and say verse from the Bible. Every one hoots and hollers like they do here when something like this happens. Fre Willie justs tells them to be quiet. Immediately every song and Bible verse I ever knew fled from my mind. I had been humming a song during the day which was the only one I could think of. Suddenly though halfway through I realized no I did not know this song at all! There was a complete misunderstanding between myself and my brain. And surely I would be capable of reciting John 3:16. I managed with just minor jumbling up of the words. It was much more enjoyable when more people came and had to sing. Everybody laughed and it was a good time. A real youth group.

I thought about daily life here and how it all seems so normal to me by now. But looking through the eyes of a new comer, new to Haiti, new to third world countries. Their brain might explode at some of the everyday sights here.

After supper last night, we got a clinic call. A man, lady, and a baby wrapped in a big blanket were standing in the front yard. The madam had a piece of fabric tied around her mouth. And blood was beginning to seep through. Matt called Keith over and he asked what had happen. The madam look at the guy. And he acted like he didn't know for sure. But he finally explained that he had had been on the way to his house after work.. and laying beside the road was his wife and baby! All crumpled up and hit on the head just laying there. So off to the clinic came the mom and baby. Chrystelle took to stitching up the lady which upper lip was split open and her chin was all cut up and different places and a big gash was upon her head. Then the poor baby was a whole other story. It turns out that he had been in the clinic before but also his parents had taken him to many witch doctors and spent most of their living in caring for their son and paying the witch doctors. Here at the clinic they only need to pay around 2 dollars. The little guy was 2 years old and he had a massive swelled stomach, which is a major sign of malnutrition and worms. The mom carefully took this homemade bandage of the little guy's foot. It consisted of raggedy, dirty fabric and also a plastic bag. And under there his foot was completely rotting away. The top of his foot was all gone and you could about see his bone. But he wasn't in any pain at all..he was so sick and out of it. His arms were all twisted and his eyes closed. Matt and Keith worked on the little boy. Tried and failed in get an IV in his dehydrated body. So Matt put an NG tube in and Sherri made some formula for him, high in protein. Keith cut on the dead skin off the little guy's foot and bandaged it up real nice. Keith yelled at the guy and told him they had to bring their baby back in the morning! If they wanted their baby to live they must bring it back. But unfortunately, the little guy passed away in the night. Now he is running around in Heaven with a new foot.

The schoolroom, classroom, schoolhouse or the place we have school in, is perfect size for three students. And a teacher. Christina joined our school this week. She is in eighth grade. I'm very thankful for the whiteboard, which is enjoying the move from the GMS storage room to Oriani, Haiti. He doesn't fit in obviously because of the whiteness of him. But he loves it here. Below one window is a little black pig, snorting away on his bed of dried grasses between the banana trees. We found out if you snort back at him, it sends him into a snorting, squealing frenzy and takes him about ten minutes to settle down. We usually keep the windows open. They are high enough that the kids can't see out of them sitting down. Having the door open always causes distractions. The random chickens walking by...Ketli and Dawson...Cam working on the moto.... The last couple mornings, there has been some men working on the fence by the side of the school. We always have fun singing to them. And they always giggle and think its the greatest thing in the world when we sing in Creole. Such beautiful singing – they say. I'd say – get your ears cleaned out.

Today during school, a smell wafted in the window. I knew somebody was frying something. Next door, the lady was cooking the goat that I watched her butcher yesterday. Her and her boys had laid out some big banana leaves and laid the parts of the goat on the “clean” surface. The boys were stringing out the intestines and cleaning the insides of them out. Now comes the best part, the lady put the whole head of the goat in a five gallon bucket and added the legs. Next she squeezed the lime juice on top of it all and threw the squeezed lime on top and added some salt and from peering over the fence at her, I saw her put some other green things in but couldn't make out what it was. Now today it was their lunch.

It's full moon here tonight. Chase, Cam and I went on the mountain behind our houses and sat on rocks and looked at it. It's bright and you can see the valley and the mountains go up again. The clouds were low below the moon. The light from the moon was reflected off the clouds and they were like silvery fluff. Just us out there. Very peaceful and quiet, talking about how much we loved it here in Haiti.

Haiti. Arrived here on Thursday Wednesday 25, 2016.

The cast of this Oriani life.

Keith Toews – owner of the clinic and his wife Candace Toews, an amazing cook.

Their children Cam, the mechanic that keeps everything running, Chase, runs around doing all sorts, Christina, the little housekeeper, and Ketli, the lovable, sassy 6 year old, most definitely my favorite Haitian.

The Nurses consist of Kay Wedel – a brilliant nurse here at the clinic and my new walking buddy and Chrystelle, the lively Haitian nurse who excels in anything mom and baby related.

Todd Schmidt, the Deacon here at church and his wife Donna Schmidt, the seasoned teacher who helps lots in the church school.

Lacey Toews, the white skinned Haitian. She loves the people in Oriani and teaches in the church school.

And my family here, Matt and Sherri Giesbrecht. Matt, a general handyman around the house it seems and an amazing nurse here at the clinic. I love to watch him work. And help him if possible.

Sherri, the one who stays up late with me to talk. And the one who keeps this house running. My students Bodie, the model maker, and Alyssa, she always has everything cleaned to a T. And last but not least little Dawson. The noise maker of the household, but the cutest one.

Now on to the Oriani life part.

Normal life here is hard to say. So many different things happening all the time. We don't have a fence around our yard yet, so all the little neighborhood boys are always playing around our house and wondering if we could ever give them something. We start school at 8 in the morning. Its just right across our yard and Keith's yard. A short walk. We usually find things to do until one o'clock or so. Not as hard as I make it seem though! For recess the kids love to play baseball. Keith's yard is plenty big enough for it. We use a pick handle as a bat. And its quite heavy for Alyssa but I enjoy whacking them out into the neighbor's garden. But I always feel bad when we stomp through the garden looking for the ball. Hopefully not ruining too many plants! We have a lunch break at 12. Side note here it seems we are always eating. Today two Haitian brothers that were working in our yard, ate with us. We had left over Haitian food which a spunky, always laughing youth girl, Manitha, made for us on Saturday. The men kept saying how good the food was and they ate and ate.

The scenery up here in the mountains is breathtaking. The mountains go on forever in the distance. Everything is a lush green. Banana trees are everywhere and green grass and all sorts of plants and red hibiscus. And on clear days I'm told you can see the ocean. I haven't saw for myself yet. There's little trails everywhere in the mountains and you can walk just straight up the mountain on a little rocky trail. There's a Bible study on Fridays about a 45 minute hike from our house. Sherri, Kay, and I went. It's a surprisingly hard climb. We took it fairly easy on the way there but Kay was the leader on the way back and we took the straight up route and I think it went fairly well despite little goats were passing me up the mountain. Up over the mountain there suddenly was our house. A lot harder but faster route. Back at the little tin church, where it was almost full, Bible study was in session. And my entertainment throughout the service was the cutest baby. She was about one year old I would guess. An so chubby I was just drawn to her. Most of the little babies here are afraid of white people, and what a shame too because all I have is love for them! Yesterday went to a sister's house that just had a baby. She had light skin and was bundled tight in a blanket. She felt so light! She must have been only a few days old. Lacey had brought a pair of little cute shoes for her. The mom held them under the light inspecting them and was so tickled about the visit and the gift. Outside her house, some children were all standing in a circle singing songs as loud as they could, although it was still beautiful.

Late in the afternoon, the music in the village is pumping loudly at the Mini Bar and the town is alive. But as soon as the sun sets the towns settles down to sleep and the people wake with the sun.

Thus ends this scrambled nonsense. The introduction of a country would take books and I don't have the patience or the want of carpal tunnel. So here's my little piece.