nothing vey exciting to post about. its been rainy for four days now. its awesome because its not hot (its 73 and I'm cold) or humid. its also very breezy which is a nice change. when it rains here the pot holes in the roads become these huge puddles that people have to zig zag across the road to get around. yesterday the kids didn't have school because the roads are so flooded. the girls are getting ready for school and i can see one of the teachers but the roads are still flooded so they might not have school again today.
I've started working on one of the storage rooms that needs to be organized. Becky and I had this room completely perfect when she left in January. not sure how it got to be such a disaster again but as long as Im here it will be kept in order.
paul &kate are starting a bible study with the girls tomorrow. it has a craft that goes with each lesson &they asked me if i wanted to do that part. it starts with the creation story &paul mentioned something about a timeline that also will have their birthdays on it. I'm excited to start doing crafty things.
I'm trying to learn at least a few new creole words a day, sometimes a phrase or question. usually the girls will say something over &over to me or each other and ill look it up or watch them to see if i can figure it out. the other day when Carole and Barb were leaving Nepthalie kept asking "ou pati?" which i learned means "are you leaving?" when she asked paul &kate and they said no. they also make cute hand gestures that i don't understand. but I'm trying. i feel so rude because i can't really talk to the house staff. Madame Michelle cleans the upstairs part of the house where the Americans stay every morning and all i can say is "good morning" and "how are you?" she speaks a tiny bit of english but not enough to converse with me. theres a new nanny that watches the girls in the afternoons and helps them finish their homework that speaks no english at all. but she either has or is working on some sort of education in art therapy. that is SO exciting to me. i wish we could talk about it. i would ask her all sorts of questions. instead she just stares at me and i smile and hope that she doesn't think I'm rude because i can't talk to her. my goal for the summer is to get to know the staff. the kids are easy cause they love everyone and just rattle on in creole like i have a clue what they're saying. but the staff are important too and i want to know them as well.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
apart from putting my clothes away, i am officially unpacked &have organized my room (which also doubles as my art supply storage space). yes!
it rained again this afternoon. its "cold" now &im about to put pants and a sweater on. but thats fine with me as long as the humidity stays away!
i have at least 21 mosquito bites. I'm hoping ill build an immunity to them? not very likely but wouldn't that be nice? i am getting used to the itchy feeling though.
i pulled out some bubbles tonight for the girls to play with. the little ones can't blow bubbles to save their lives but its fun to watch them laugh. they aren't very good at sharing though. i tried really hard to get them to take turns. for the most part it was okay. only a few tears from the little ones. they'll figure it out someday.
i started what will hopefully be a routine "Bible study" this morning. before i left i got a Poverty and Justice Bible. it addresses 47 poverty/justice related issues so Im going to study about 2 a week, sometimes 3. the one i read today was about treating all people equally because we were all created in God's image. its fairly easy to forget such a simple fact. but its so important. this has always been something i keep in mind, especially when it comes to humanitarian issues. if God created us all equally, there shouldn't be such an imbalance between the "haves" and "have nots." but it shouldn't stop there. i catch myself thinking negative things about people i don't particularly care for all the time. what gives me the right to do that? its not easy to love people but i should. unconditionally. it'll be easier to work on this fault of mine when there are more Americans here (I've never met a Haitian i didn't like). but i will definitely be changing this about myself.
the other book I started this morning is a book i was supposed to read for a missions class i took at Milligan. I read most of it but as a freshman it was WAY over my head. now its sort of interesting. its a collection of biographies of missionaries all over the world that illustrates the history of missions. today i read about Paul. some people think all missionaries everywhere should follow Paul's method exactly. but some people don't. obviously Paul was an extraordinary man, no one could argue that. he planted churches and grew them so quickly its amazing. things like that don't happen anymore. church planting and evangelism take time. I'm hoping this book will explain the disconnect.
oh, i have a few pictures:
it rained again this afternoon. its "cold" now &im about to put pants and a sweater on. but thats fine with me as long as the humidity stays away!
i have at least 21 mosquito bites. I'm hoping ill build an immunity to them? not very likely but wouldn't that be nice? i am getting used to the itchy feeling though.
i pulled out some bubbles tonight for the girls to play with. the little ones can't blow bubbles to save their lives but its fun to watch them laugh. they aren't very good at sharing though. i tried really hard to get them to take turns. for the most part it was okay. only a few tears from the little ones. they'll figure it out someday.
i started what will hopefully be a routine "Bible study" this morning. before i left i got a Poverty and Justice Bible. it addresses 47 poverty/justice related issues so Im going to study about 2 a week, sometimes 3. the one i read today was about treating all people equally because we were all created in God's image. its fairly easy to forget such a simple fact. but its so important. this has always been something i keep in mind, especially when it comes to humanitarian issues. if God created us all equally, there shouldn't be such an imbalance between the "haves" and "have nots." but it shouldn't stop there. i catch myself thinking negative things about people i don't particularly care for all the time. what gives me the right to do that? its not easy to love people but i should. unconditionally. it'll be easier to work on this fault of mine when there are more Americans here (I've never met a Haitian i didn't like). but i will definitely be changing this about myself.
the other book I started this morning is a book i was supposed to read for a missions class i took at Milligan. I read most of it but as a freshman it was WAY over my head. now its sort of interesting. its a collection of biographies of missionaries all over the world that illustrates the history of missions. today i read about Paul. some people think all missionaries everywhere should follow Paul's method exactly. but some people don't. obviously Paul was an extraordinary man, no one could argue that. he planted churches and grew them so quickly its amazing. things like that don't happen anymore. church planting and evangelism take time. I'm hoping this book will explain the disconnect.
oh, i have a few pictures:
the girls made me a few welcome signs
and colored me some pictures
and gave me some jump ropes? haha
8 month old i wrote about in my last post
mob of city soleil boys waiting for us to get out of the van
Monday, April 23, 2012
never a dull moment here
well friends, i have arrived! traveling on saturday felt like a dream. i haven't been anything but excited to do this. but when i was waiting for my flight to port au prince there was a moment where i was terrified to do this on my own. how scary to move to a place like this where i don't know really anyone or speak the language or understand the culture. i just kept repeating to myself over and over how great it was going to be, i asked for this, I'm going to learn so much. then i realized I'm not really doing this "on my own." to take credit for all i will do this summer would be extremely unfair. what an intense reminder of how NOT alone we are.
yesterday morning Carole took me to church in City Soleil, probably the poorest, most dangerous area of Port Au Prince. its not too far away from where we are but its so different. they built the small community for just a few families next to some big factories in that area but the Haitians burned large parts of it down at different times and it never really recovered. its also one of the most dangerous parts of Port Au Prince, which is one of the most dangerous places in the world currently. not a good area. i don't tend to be nervous in situations like that but when we parked the van &it was time to walk across the street, i felt a little uneasy. but we were greeted by a smiling mob of little, half-naked boys and i knew we were going to be fine.
the service there was much easier to sit through. Angelo, my Haitian boss, was preaching and i was able to follow him a little bit (i understood about every 15th word). he was explaining to the church how you can't raise your children without teaching them right from wrong and then blaming them when they grow up and do wrong. apparently this is sort of a problem within the Haitian church. he explained later at lunch using an example that parents will not teach their children sex education or even explain to them the importance of waiting until marriage. but when their daughters come home pregnant, they are no longer welcome in their homes or families. Angelo is such a blessing.
after church we hung around for a while to check on some babies of a church family. they had twin girls 8 months ago. one seems to be doing okay but the other still only weighs about 5 pounds, has really dry, pasty skin, and can't hold her head up or move her limbs. they were taking her to the hospital today to see whats wrong with her. i held her for a few minutes and she was the tiniest little thing. it gets easier to see things like that and not be emotional at all. not sure if thats a good or bad thing. we went to deli mart and got her some formula &her father came by yesterday to pick up some other things for her. hope to find out how she's doing on sunday.
carole took us to a hotel for sunday lunch. it was buffet style &delicious. they had knock off american food like corn &carrots &such but with all the delicious Haitian spices. they also had picklese, my favorite Haitian thing apart from hot chocolate and popcorn. its like cole slaw almost but its got a vinegar base &some type of ridiculously hot pepper. great with rice &beans. yumm.
last night the transformer blew up. I'm not sure if any of you have ever experienced that before but i have never been so terrified in my life. i was dead asleep by 9 last night and around 10:30 the power surged a couple times and then there was this very loud electric-type noise &VERY bright colorful light. then everything was just dark &silent again. i honestly thought we were being attacked. i waited for a few minutes to see if anyone else was up &then i saw flash lights &heard paul &carole so i got up &went down stairs. everything was fine and the girls were okay apart from a few tears. it did take me a little while to fall back asleep though. scary, but also hilarious in hind sight.
carole &barb went home today so its just me, kate, and paul now. very quiet (as long as you can tune out screaming children haha). kate &i are going to spend the afternoon getting out new shoes, underwear, and clothing to replace what the girls are currently wearing.
its raining and the kids are loving it. they are downstairs running around, screaming their heads off. its been humid for days but its cool &breezy now. well worth the misery.
were also going to start our jewelry making on sunday with the group of girls kate is working with. they are between the ages of 14 and 20. they live around the neighborhood and i think they are part of a new sponsor program kate put together to make sure they are still in school and being fed properly. they will use the materials we have here, make something, and we will be selling their things to people in the states. they will give us back a very small portion of what they earn for supplies in order to learn a little bit about how a business works but they will keep the majority of the profit. if you'd like to donate supplies, just let me know &ill get that worked out with you. we need beads (NOT PLASTIC), charms, chains, and any sort of hardware to make bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
carole also gave me the task of organizing, and keeping organized, the hygiene depot and the store room for the school for the summer. she also asked me to do some gardening and decorating in our courtyard. id like to do a mosaic using all this glass i picked up off the streets around the neighborhood at some point.
so much to do! can't wait to get my hands dirty!
yesterday morning Carole took me to church in City Soleil, probably the poorest, most dangerous area of Port Au Prince. its not too far away from where we are but its so different. they built the small community for just a few families next to some big factories in that area but the Haitians burned large parts of it down at different times and it never really recovered. its also one of the most dangerous parts of Port Au Prince, which is one of the most dangerous places in the world currently. not a good area. i don't tend to be nervous in situations like that but when we parked the van &it was time to walk across the street, i felt a little uneasy. but we were greeted by a smiling mob of little, half-naked boys and i knew we were going to be fine.
the service there was much easier to sit through. Angelo, my Haitian boss, was preaching and i was able to follow him a little bit (i understood about every 15th word). he was explaining to the church how you can't raise your children without teaching them right from wrong and then blaming them when they grow up and do wrong. apparently this is sort of a problem within the Haitian church. he explained later at lunch using an example that parents will not teach their children sex education or even explain to them the importance of waiting until marriage. but when their daughters come home pregnant, they are no longer welcome in their homes or families. Angelo is such a blessing.
after church we hung around for a while to check on some babies of a church family. they had twin girls 8 months ago. one seems to be doing okay but the other still only weighs about 5 pounds, has really dry, pasty skin, and can't hold her head up or move her limbs. they were taking her to the hospital today to see whats wrong with her. i held her for a few minutes and she was the tiniest little thing. it gets easier to see things like that and not be emotional at all. not sure if thats a good or bad thing. we went to deli mart and got her some formula &her father came by yesterday to pick up some other things for her. hope to find out how she's doing on sunday.
carole took us to a hotel for sunday lunch. it was buffet style &delicious. they had knock off american food like corn &carrots &such but with all the delicious Haitian spices. they also had picklese, my favorite Haitian thing apart from hot chocolate and popcorn. its like cole slaw almost but its got a vinegar base &some type of ridiculously hot pepper. great with rice &beans. yumm.
last night the transformer blew up. I'm not sure if any of you have ever experienced that before but i have never been so terrified in my life. i was dead asleep by 9 last night and around 10:30 the power surged a couple times and then there was this very loud electric-type noise &VERY bright colorful light. then everything was just dark &silent again. i honestly thought we were being attacked. i waited for a few minutes to see if anyone else was up &then i saw flash lights &heard paul &carole so i got up &went down stairs. everything was fine and the girls were okay apart from a few tears. it did take me a little while to fall back asleep though. scary, but also hilarious in hind sight.
carole &barb went home today so its just me, kate, and paul now. very quiet (as long as you can tune out screaming children haha). kate &i are going to spend the afternoon getting out new shoes, underwear, and clothing to replace what the girls are currently wearing.
its raining and the kids are loving it. they are downstairs running around, screaming their heads off. its been humid for days but its cool &breezy now. well worth the misery.
were also going to start our jewelry making on sunday with the group of girls kate is working with. they are between the ages of 14 and 20. they live around the neighborhood and i think they are part of a new sponsor program kate put together to make sure they are still in school and being fed properly. they will use the materials we have here, make something, and we will be selling their things to people in the states. they will give us back a very small portion of what they earn for supplies in order to learn a little bit about how a business works but they will keep the majority of the profit. if you'd like to donate supplies, just let me know &ill get that worked out with you. we need beads (NOT PLASTIC), charms, chains, and any sort of hardware to make bracelets, necklaces, and earrings.
carole also gave me the task of organizing, and keeping organized, the hygiene depot and the store room for the school for the summer. she also asked me to do some gardening and decorating in our courtyard. id like to do a mosaic using all this glass i picked up off the streets around the neighborhood at some point.
so much to do! can't wait to get my hands dirty!
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