Yesterday morning we learned that Maria was doing wonderful and had a healthy baby girl. We later found out that when they had taken her home that her living conditions were horrible. She had a tarp held up and then some piece of plywood on the ground and that was where she slept. She is oneo of the poorest of the poors here in Haiti. I can not help but feel that in general even the poorest American has it better than the richest Haitian. Their lack of clean water, sewage systems, free education for their children, lack of food, etc all make even the best possible living situation here much harder than just living in the US. However there is joy and peace here too. I could move to Haiti and live but my life would be very different. I would have to give up hot showers because hot water heaters cost a lot of money, I would have to have a generator because you are never for sure when the power company is going to turn off the power, etc. I feel like as Americans we take so much for granted. Yet I am content here and it almost feels like home.
We got a special treat yesterday morning in that Renald, one of our Haitian guides, started the morning off by having an impromptu praise and worship time. It is great to just praise the Lord together. We got our assignments for the days and we were off. I choose to ride with Renald on his four wheeler and being Ms. Grace that I am almost fell off in the mud trying to get on. Poor Renald felt bad, but I was too busy laughing at myself. We went to the sewing center where I set up a purse party (Yes ladies I am bringing home 35 purses and some jewlery and expect everyone to buy something). I also got some picture of the ladies using old singer sewing machines while they were practicing their sewing. I then went upstairs and helped Sue teach her embrodiary class. The ladies enjoyed it so much that we will be going back today and I will be teaching them cross stitching. That way they can outline a design and then fill it in. It will be nice to see them doing that. They were very smart and caught on quickly. Sue also taught one lady how to do quilting. They also are very thankful. We enjoyed working with them.
After our morning passed it was time to get to work finishing up stuffing pillows. We did some before lunch and then after lunch. Sue and I worked together to finish up the 2,000 lb monstrosity that had been there. So this week we stuffed about 1,300bags of pillow stuffing. The women should have plenty of stuffing to last them for a while. That is such a hot and dirty job and the pillow stuffing flies up and gets all over you. You can literally roll off big black lines of the stuffing off your arms. We agreed to finish the one bale and then go. It was a joy working with Sue and getting to know her a little bit better.
I had decided that we should just walk back to the Harbor House since I knew it was just one street over. Troy told us in which direction we should go when we got to the end of the street (I thought it was left and he said no it was right). Sue was a little nervous about walking but I thought it was an adventure. She followed behind me and it was a little muddy. However my entertainment for the day was listening to her as we walked. She had out her mace and was ready to get any intruder. I was about to die laughing. A little girl followed us all the way to where we were going. I said Bon Swa (good afternoon) and then she just started following us. I guess she was wondering where the crazy blanc (white) people were going.
When we got to the Harbor House we just sat down and rested for a bit and fellowshiped together. Sue and I then went and primed a wall that will be painted for the two Haitian women who run the Harbor House. It was soooooo hot in that room. The sweat was just pouring off of us as we worked. However we got one side of the wall ready to be painted.
When John finally showed up we were ready to quit work. We hoped in the vehicle and headed back to the guest house. We took our showers and got ready to go to John and Beth's last night for dinner. After showers I took a little nap. I was told most of our group did. It was just hot and the heat had drained me. Dwan woke me up and we headed out to John and Beth's home.
We had a wonderful dinner of pasta with white sauce, a lovely salad, the most delicious bread, and some chocolate chip bars for desert. After dinner we played with their new puppies. They are Mastif puppies and just so cute. However my highlight of the night was getting to play with Melody. She is a little girl who is one of two of the last children to be adopted. Her and I looked through a photo book and had fun just playing and spending time together. She is so sweet I could just eat her up. I just wanted to hold her and spoil her and if I thought she could fit in my suitcase I would take her home with me. Right before we left she came up and gave me a big hug. I held her and gave her a kiss. It was just a very sweet moment and made me miss my boys.
When we came back to the guest house I thought I would go right off to sleep. However I got into playing a game of Dominoes with Karen, Aaron and David. My first time through I was not doing very good and Aaron was aggrivating me telling me to get my head in the game. We were having a lot of laughter and fun. Then the second round I actually won and it was hilarous. Aaron came in last so I got to give him a little bit of his own medicine back. That is the wonderful thing about hanging out with Christians. We are so different and yet we all have this thing in common. We are blessed by our differences instead of divided by them. After beating Aaron I figured I should end the night on a high and finally went off to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment