Moving Day

The day of our visitors coming finally arrived and it forced Matt and Keith to build beds so I could move in with Christelle. I have been loving living with Matt's and so almost with regret was I moving in with Christelle. But then if you have ever met Christelle you could understand how excited I was. She is bubbly and so lovable, I couldn't wait to live with her. And since Alyssa was eager to have her own bedroom and company was coming that needed a bed, everything was finished and I could move all my belongings into my new room!

So come Wednesday morning we pack up to go down to Port – au – Prince. And yes, this is a whole entire experience all by itself. So all six of us climb into the Excursion, which is so spacious we can't complain. The ride up the mountain we will have added 6 more humans and 8 suitcases. And no small ones either. The humans are small tho. We reach the smooth pavement and rejoiced. So many sights to see here. We reach the city passing loaded down taptaps. They carry people and the occasional chicken and goat perhaps. Full to the max! And tour buses and gravel trucks...endless people... walking along the side. There are few traffic dos and don'ts. Use your horn as much as possible. You, in the vehicle of sorts, have the right away. And be aggressive in your driving or you won't get far. Today was the day for shopping. And I'm reminded again that I don't appreciate shopping. But since this is Haiti and the normal thing we see each day are hunger and poverty, the stores that cater to the UN and aid groups are exciting. Sometimes you almost forget that such nice clean stores can exist! Surely they aren't even this nice in California... and an Elevator!! the only one in Ayiti., in this store called Masion Handel. Home décor, office supplies.. anything you want, at a price of course. Once outside again it's Haiti. We were driving along behind the US Embassy and in this nondescript white building there was this nice restaurant. Totally modernly decorated and the smells coming from that place was a little bit heavenly. But we honestly felt out of place in there! You have to remember we are mountain folk. We journeyed on to Petion-ville. The richest city in Haiti. Right close to the airport actually. We went to Caribbean Supermarket. And I do realize that I'm talking about grocery stores and shopping but once you have lived in the farthest mountains of Haiti, far from “civilization” you treasure these moments. Inside so many blans!!(whites) We have pizza and chocolate ice cream in the little restaurant inside. You almost feel silly talking Creole to these Haitians. My stuttering around does not seem to impress these people. So I long for my friends back in Oriani. Tomorrow! We are always excited to go down for a vacation and always happy to go back home.

Beatrice

The mountains here are full of trails. Steep ones winding up and down the deep ravines. Today I walk to a high mountain behind our house. The deep ravines go down in a half circle around me. Soon Beatrice comes to me and sits beside. She is a Fre Julian's daughter eight years old maybe. She holds my hand and pinches my white skin and touches my arm. Just as much as I love touching her hair she loves touching mine. She has dirty clothes on and dirty shoes, soaked with dirty water and mud from the rain that just came. But here this is not a problem. Nobody looks at her with disdain or thinks her dirty clothes are anything but normal. Her mama will do laundry later this week and maybe her only clothes will be very clean. Beatrice's Sunday clothes will be quite the opposite of these. A crisp clean dress. With floufy socks and ribbons in her hair. Sunday is a very special day. Beatrice talks to me today and asks me if I would want to see her goats. We wander a little down the mountain side. I tell her I hope we don't stomp over too many gardens and plants. The goat is tied up on a rock and beside it two little kids are hanging around. They like their mama and so they do not run away. Beatrice catches the little brown goat for me and I hold it and pet it's soft fur. It's new I can tell. We walk back home and she tells me she is hungry...but I tell her to go see if her mama has food. I say goodbye to my friend. She walks away but I do not know if she will eat tonight or not. Makes me wish I could fix her troubles and everybody else's. But she is growing up in a Christian home and that's more than a lot can say.

I feel somewhat of a kindred spirit with Noah. Although what would we have done for 37 ½ days stuck inside the house while it was pouring down rain! But it seems the Haitians were not afraid to walk around in the middle of Hurricane Matthew. We always seemed to have someone sitting in our house. But our house not without its faults during the rain. The wind was pushing the rain under the ridge cap and it was leaking onto the plywood. Soon it was soaked through the wood and dripping or rather sprinkling into our house, mostly into the kitchen. Buckets covered the floor but it wasn't really collecting all the water. So much mopping had to be done. All night Sherri was on her knees mopping and probably praying too. So since Tuesday at 4 o'clock we were wide awake in this damp house. We were also conserving power since the solar panels wouldn't be collecting power on a rainy day. We lived by kerosene light, which makes everything more cozy. Most of the storm happened Monday night and Tuesday. I don't really have words to describe this storm. So think: WINDY and RAINY. Wednesday morning most had subsided and Matt Sherri and I made our way to the clinic. No school on this day. In the middle hall of the clinic we swept waves of water out of it onto the front porch. The clinic has a very leaky roof but only one room had some water in it. There was only one patient to see and then Keith, Matt Sherri and I went down to Forte de Pins 30 minutes from us to see how bad the road had been. The drive is through the forest and lots of trees had blown down in the road and also just on the ground. Luckily we could get around every tree, they will soon be taken by people and cut for firewood. In Forte, we went to another missionary's place. They have a small little clinic there. They had made it through the storm okay so we went back home. Deep rivets had been washed out in the road and the mud had all been washed off exposing the rocks. So it was extremely BUMPY. And it was already very bumpy before the storm so you can only imagine!

The poor houses around here. The ones that are only rocks held together with mud and the littlest bit of concrete fell down. And that means the poorest families too. Sometimes there will be eight or nine people living in one grass-roofed hut. The saddest thing ever. Lots and lots of chocolate children running around with big rounded bellies full of worms. They just are darling cute though! So Matt told the mama to please bring her children to the clinic to get vitamins and some medicine.

My Dawson was jealous that I got to blog so this is him from here on out....

My friends were like everything.. doing stuff to me.. and some friends were bugging that crazy lady! And they were my friends! I just have friends and love in my heart.. I don't have bad stuff in my heart.