A Weekend To Remember

One of the downsides to blogging is that when you have a busy week you not only don't have time to write one but then you have so much to write about that the task seems overwhelming! I will give it a shot and try to make it short enough to read in under five mins.
Last Friday was our one month anniversary for being on the island. The Thedes were more than kind about it - they made us a delicious cake with marshmallows on top and asked us how we were doing. The answer to that question is - We are LEARNING. We are learning to trust that God will give us enough for each day. We are learning to live out our faith in a new place without as many words. We are learning about love and life. We are learning about the heart of God. After dinner and a Friday night movie we headed to bed to get up on Sat for a hike with Cory. Kathleen, Cory and I started up a nearby hill at about 6:30 am before the sun was too hot. As we hiked the ridges around the campus and gained an elevation several hundred feet we saw the ocean in the distance and the two valleys that the mountains we were climbing on separate. It was amazing and refreshing. The beauty here is hard to match. I think what makes it so beautiful is the contrast that a green forest full of trees and plants and the difficulty of life that the people live. You tend to forget about tin roofs and dirt floors when one is overlooking the sea, but when we stopped and listened it was not hard to hear thousands of voices rising up the slopes to our ears. Haiti is heavily populated. It is hard to tell because you don't seen apartment buildings or huge cities. You see a tin roof here and a tin roof there that each hold a family with an average of about 6 kids, and everyone is related it seems. So we walked up and down along the ridge and learned about all the plants, tried several different guava (none of which were very good), and took in the scenery. It took us about 2.5 hrs with plenty of pictures and stopping in the shade, but it was a great way to get the blood flowing in our legs and to remember that we are small people in a big world.
Sunday was a rough day of sitting! Not because our legs were sore from the hike, no it was from the bumpy roads that we drove on for 2 hrs to get to a church that Cory and Kris needed to visit. It was not a bad trip there for us in the cab of the truck, but for the four who were sitting in the bed of the truck on a 2x6 must have really felt the potholes and rocks. The church service was crowded with women on one side and the men on the other. Our coed group sat on the women's side without being yelled at so I think we were okay. Kathleen and I got up and said, "Bonjou! M'rele Chris e sa se Kathleen. Meci pou fe nou bien vienne. Nou kontan rakontre ou." Then we said God bless but I already forgot how to say that haha! After church we walked around the school and it was beautiful. The town has an amazing overlook of the mountains and hilly bricked streets. It was really a nice place. We were then given lunch of goat meat (reminded me of chinese pork - heavily seasoned and very good), fried cooking banana (banann pese), a pasta salad, and beans and rice (which was very good!). I had two helpings. On the way home my rear went partially numb. Ya know... that feeling where it is throbbing but you don't really feel anything when you move around. I am a wimp when it comes to sitting still for hours on end. We drove through a rainstorm in the mountains and the water was flowing over the road. The people in the back tucked themselves away under a tarp and Kris showed Kath and I that we are as close as family ;) But we made it home and spent the rest of the night relaxing and reading. Now we are on to the next 7/8 of our trip and we are more than curious as to what God has in store for us.