There and Back Again

16 days later we are back in our country estate, greeted by a rainy day and our lovely indoor bed! It has been an adventure that we won't soon forget and that we are glad we set out on. We have been encouraged and renewed by a change of setting and people but we are so thankful to be home.
Our last couple days in PAP were full of activity and people as one can imagine running a guest house. I was trying to keep all the electric and water going the whole time I was there and of course had some things go wrong... ie this picture. When I repaired the shut off valve in the back of the toilet that was causing all the water in the cistern to leak out each night I had the water supply line cross threaded. I was waiting to turn on the water supply valve until I had filled the cistern, but I once I filled the cistern I forgot to go turn it on and check it. So what happened was that someone (Dan) turned it on thinking that I was a good plumber (bad assumption) and left. Since it was cross threaded and I didn't know it water started spraying onto the floor. We were all down stairs when we heard water splashing. At first we thought it was the cistern overflowing but with a little more listening we investigated upstairs. We walked into the bathroom to find inches of water on the floor! That is why Joy and I are standing in the picture with towels. We would sop up a towel full of water and wring it out in the shower. It took about 7 bath towels and 20 minutes and we had it all cleaned up. I rethreaded the supply line and had it working in no time! This story is much like the rest of our time in the PAP guest house. There was always something to keep us busy including this picture of Kathleen cutting a piece of wood to repair a drawer in the kitchen. At some point in the last few days (they all blend together) we set up all these mosquito nets for the Canadain team that was staying with us for another night on their way out. The teams were always coming and going and it was great to get to meet so many new people. It was really neat to see the variety of people that have come to Haiti to help in their time of need.
On Sunday we went to Petit Guave to visit the clinic. On the way Kathleen and Joy saw the extent of the damage on the 2 1/2 hour drive there. We walked down to the water and took this pic. Again it was strange to be in a place where my dad had sat and typed emails a few weeks earlier. God works in mysterious ways. It was a different Valentine's Day than I would have planned for my first year of marriage had I not been in Haiti just over a month but Kath and I were able to get a moment on a rocky beach in the Caribbean watching the waves break over old cement foundations. Maybe it was better than what I could have planned in snowy and cold Indiana.
We came back and met the team that has been working hard here to fix up our medical clinic. They are a great group of people. We kinda took this morning to catch our breath. We are still deciding when we will start our English classes but it will probably be this week. Saturday the Thedes leave to go to Petit Guave and the Baileys and us will take over working with the next team. We feel much more prepared after our last couple weeks in PAP. Thanks for all the prayers!
Kathleen and the Scotsmen (Dan, Jarvie, Kath, and Kain) - great group of guys!
The view from the plane window as we took off from PAP.

Learning

This morning I'm sitting in a pretty quiet house with only myself, Darlene, and Herold here. A team from Canada and another team from San Diego just left this morning to try to get back home, and Chris and Joy went to the airport to see about flights. Right now getting into and out of Haiti is nothing simple. You can't just go online and book a flight...you have to drive to the airport, talk to someone, who will write your name on a list, and then maybe you will be able to fly. So you have to go back the day of your scheduled flight and see if you make it on the plane. As you can imagine this is stressful for team leaders and workers in Haiti who are trying to keep clinics running and people coming and going. But someone people are still coming and going everyday! This picture is the back view of the guest house.
These last two teams were full of interesting people and different responses to what they had just experienced. I have learned these past few weeks the blessing and difficulty of hospitality. Yes, it's great meeting new people and hearing about their lives. It's fun talking to them over dinner and having sweet moments of fellowship and shared faith! So encouraging. Being the ones who know what's going on and making them comfortable is fun. But those same people also eat all the food that took a long time to prepare (well, duh...but the hoard-er in me just wants to save it all for some crazy reason!) they make things messy (not that I clean the bathroom...Herold does) they eat the food that's supposed to be for breakfast, and inevitably, at a very early hour in the morning, at least one person is talking very loudly! haha. It's been such a good challenge, though revealing about how far I have to come. I'm so thankful that Chris is here with me, he is so cool in general and natural with people, and we have become a team.
Yesterday we were sent out to the grocery store to try to find some meat and other stuff for cooking. I hadn't been down into Port au Prince yet...just to the airport and back which is about a 30 minute drive. Wow, it was strange. Some of the way it looks is just Haiti, last time we were here there was concrete rubble and trash and all that too, before the earthquake. But seeing random buildings totally in pieces, that was different. And hard to describe.
Back at the house, we cooked, along with Joy, a yummy casserole, some bread, coffee cake for the morning, and baked beans for the people coming back from a long, tiring week at Ti Goave. This picture is of the first bread I made...don't be fooled by it's appearance, it was rock hard!! But a new recipe helped with that issue.
We are now trying to figure out how we can help Darlene, who works for Carl and Maya Gilles, the missionaries whose house this is but who are in Canada right now because they have two small girls, have a better report to Maya when we go. Right now, none of us are feeling very ready to give her 5 stars! She's a nice lady, but as far as working goes...she just doesn't like to do it so much! We all have stories about funny encounters with her and her attitude, but yesterday it occurred to us, wait! We can't be nice to her and try to be chummy and Christ-like to her face but then give her a terrible report so she gets fired without even seeing it coming! So now we are in a dilemma! Do we tell her she needs to step it up a notch? Do we not say anything to Maya? (even though I found her outside fast asleep the other day, and she is really hard to work with?) Ahh! Since we are younger, the talking-to would need to come from Dan or Joy, so we will see. Oh the complications of running a guest house :)
The picture below is of Wilber. He drives for the mission and goes on various errands and trips everyday. He sleeps here everynight and eats all his meals with us. He also has gotten showered with gifts from team members who are looking to give things away. He has, in the last week, gotten a new watch, new shoes, new sunglasses, cash, and more! He has a family, but in the Haitian culture, people often are away from their families. So while we may think it's strange that he sleeps here every night, it isn't to them. He's a nice guy, and is good about speaking so we can understand him. I often wonder what he, Darlene, and Herold think of all of us Americans.
We still appreciate your prayers. We are hoping to return to Fauche early next week. We'd love prayer for our transition back there. And continued prayer for the complex and really difficult situations that each Haitian family is facing these days. Everyone has a story. Pray that they'll somehow have peace in the midst of this storm!

More teams and days going by

It's hard to believe we have been here for over a week already. Time is flying. Our life is so much faster paced here than in the small town of Fauche. This feels like a big step toward America, actually. There is tile on the floor, American-brand food, white people all around, and the faster stream of life. We are a little unsure about what to do next, and are praying for God's direction and discernment.

We left without enough notice to let our classes know. Today I realized that this is probably only a very big deal to us, as they will keep on with life and just come back to class when we get back, hopefully with understanding of why we left for a while. (An answer to prayer is that we have gotten a few kind messages/calls from students who don't seem put out by the sudden cancellation of class) But our English classes are one of the biggest things we have invested in here. Our relationships with Haitians are founded in those classes and they are important to us! The classes on LaGonave have been cancelled until September, since the missionaries are running all over the place right now and the people on the island are much closer to Port and have been affected differently. Those classes can be picked back up in September, but our time here ends in April, and so our classes can't be postponed. We've been asked to evaluate why we are in Haiti, and what we have come to do...in preparation to decide how long we will stay in Port au Prince and what our last few months will look like. While we both know the basic answer to this, (shadow in the clinic, teach English, help with homeschooling, etc.) we are just looking for some direction from God about how to approach the beginning of the end of our time. It feels strange to think we are leaving somewhat soon. We both hope that we can have a sense that we have been where God wants us and have done what pleases Him!

Well, in other news :) today we said goodbye to our new friends from Scotland. We have so enjoyed the time we've gotten to spend with these four guys! They are all so different and have challenged and encouraged us unexpectedly. They came to Haiti with tons of suitcases full of medical supplies and food. A ton of stuff! It has been distributed to various places throughout this week and it's been cool to see not only their stuff go out, but so much other supplies being sent out to places that need it. Aid distribution is such a huge task, it requires a ton of money, organization, timing, and attention to detail! and also a lot of willingness to move heavy boxes and figure out what needs to go where.Today an assessment team arrived who will be going out to evaluate damage on churches in the area. Then, they can return home with accurate information about what is needed and how the churches back in the US can help. They are currently working on a broken toilet...welcome to Haiti...within your first hours of being in the country youare already on your hands and knees fixing a leaky toilet. Most of them are from San Diego, CA and so we talked about water skiing and Skyline Church and stuff like that as we got to know them.
These pics are about a week old...but the first is of Justine and I, when we first got here and she and Matt (second picture...cleaning out the water tank that goes on the roof) were here. Justine and I are friends from college so it has been So great to spend time with her a few times in Haiti! The next picture is of Darlene (our cook) and I. This is a good example of what goes on some days! As you can see it's not very high energy :) But she has made some really delicious Haitian meals. The final picture is of Chris, Hareld, and Wilber (a driver) cleaning out a very disorganized closet. We've learned a bunch about culture from spending time with these three.

Well it's off to another day. Have a great week!

A Whirlwind

Kathleen told me I was supposed to blog about four days ago and I am only now getting to it! Sorry, to all of you anxiously waiting for news about us. We are still doing well. We have learned that it is not easy to feed and clean up after 20 people, but we also have found it to be very rewarding. I did not know it but I have really missed the encouragement that comes from hanging out with fellow Christians that understand my culture. It may not sound like a big deal if you have never experienced missions but talking, laughing, and sharing stories with people who I can understand their way of thinking and WHY they do the things they do. I love the haitian people but I still feel like the blanc in the room. It has been a blessing to be able to serve and feed people that are going/coming to the hospitals that are directly helping those hurting.
While we have been busy taking care of our lovely guests we have also been forming new relationships with haitians and using every Creole word we know with our drivers and our house workers. It has been a great experience. We think that we will return to Fauche next week, but we will see. We are starting to miss our English class. It is hard to make the choice of helping here and continuing what we were doing in the North. The time we have here is getting shorter.
These pics are from my days out on the road. I have seen the damage of the earthquake. It is incredible the damage that is done and hard to comprehend rebuilding every single building with different materials. All three of our drivers have damaged or flattened houses. Almost every building is flattened in the western half and beyond of Port au Prince. The people are continuing on. Their world has not stopped - it hiccuped. Now they are continuing on after yet another devastating disaster. We are praying that the aide would result in productivity and not dependency. The first pic is actually Kath with our new Scotsman brothers from Scotland. They have shown us how to drink our "cup of tea" the proper way. We have met a lot of great people.

First Teams

True to my word, I took some pictures yesterday of the house and things. However, the camera left the house with my hubby this morning with the pics still on it, so I had to use some old ones again. (A cool helicopter we saw from the plane, us on the roof of the church in Fauche, Bill and Elaine on our way to the market by a new route, we had to cross the river!) We had our first teams come in yesterday evening. Chris left for the airport with Wilber, one of the drivers, about 2:30 and came back with a team of 8 medical people from Canada at about 6. A few hours later, Dan came with a team of 5 from St. Louis, also medical people (docs, nurses, residency people). They came in shifts, which was helpful, so the first team ate and got their beds situated before the second, smaller team got here! We ate chicken tetrazzini, (Darlene our cook helped me prepare the chicken) come leftover pasta (hopefully the teams didn't know it was leftover and this was about it's 4th appearance on our supper table...we tried to spruce it up!) some bread and a cold canned fruit salad with cookies. They were great. The moment they arrived, they all started setting up their mattresses and mosquito nets outside. They weren't picky about anything, and were so appreciative. During dinner we got a chance to talk with them a little and hear a bit about them. There's some really neat people coming and going from this country right now! One couple had left their 2 kids--a new baby and a three year old I believe, at home with their parents to come serve, and others had taken time off work and other stuff to come. They were all suffering a bit from the drastic climate change, in Canada is was -25 when they left! Oh and some of them knew some French so that will be helpful to them as they venture out.
After all had gotten here and eaten, (and I breathed a sigh of relief that they were all fed and didn't appear to have any immediate aversion to the food) Dan gathered them together to talk to them about what to expect. It has been 22 days since the earthquake but there is still a lot to be prepared for. I have such admiration for medical workers. Going into something that you have no idea what you might see and knowing you are trusted to handle it, wow.
People slept everywhere! Some inside, some out. Chris and I decided to brave it and sleep inside, but neither of us slept very well! Even though we know the risk inside is not too terribly much greater than being outside next to tall walls, it was still a bit strange.
This morning we were up at about 6 and made coffee and pancakes. People ate as they were ready and then were off by 8. It was a whirlwind! Chris went with them to drive to Ti Gauve and then bring a team of 14 back to the house to fly out tomorrow back to South Carolina.
This experience is so interesting. Days are flying by, but they're so long. We like what we are doing, but it's really hard at the same time. I found myself wishing that Darlene and Awold didn't work so much a few days ago, but now I'm so thankful for them. Darlene makes amazing Haitian meals, (Kris, Eli and Anna you wouldn't like them..they're so spicy! much water is required!) and Awold mops and sweeps the floors and sings and prays out loud all day long!
Chris has had to leave each day so far for a while. The last two days it was for about half a day, and today I think it's for all day, he won't be back until evening. As silly as it sounds, we aren't used to this! Usually we are together all the time, and able to work together on things. We are really blessed--most of our friends have actual jobs so they are used to some long times apart. I think it's different being in a different country too, we have just come to depend on each other. But this time is also good--I'm learning that I can do things on my own and survive :) And it's challenging us in a new way to try to keep close while we aren't together.
A huge blessing of today: A new generator arrived yesterday with the team which means a few things: 1. It can charge the invertor so lights/fans will work at night. 2. It can handle a fridge, freezer, and lights, and coffee maker working at the same time. 3. It is about 50 times quieter than the last one! 4. WE CAN USE THE WASHING MACHINE!! Woo! I don't have to resent innocent team people for taking a regular sized towel to use anymore! :) It's an awesome provision from God.

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully Chris will have a chance to write sometime soon. Thanks again for all your prayer, we really appreciate it. Have a good day!

In our New House

What a day! We have officially been in this house for the last 3 days straight. Unlike in Fauche, we are in the city here! The guest house is surrounded by tall concrete walls with razor wire on top. If you go upstairs you can see mountains in the distance and tops of trees but not much open space. It's like being back in good ol' Chicago in some ways.
Today Dan, Justine, and Matt all left for their home, La Gonave Island. Matt and Justine will probably be staying there for now, and Dan will return tomorrow. It was such a blessing that Matt and Justine were here for the first two days. Not only did they show us the ropes of running a guest house, but it was so good to hang out with them. Chris also left for a bit today to run errands with Carl Gilles' (the missionary whose house this is) brother, and go to a meeting for Dan. I found myself alone in this big house with the cook, Darlene and a man who cleans, named Awold. Oh yes, I was intimidated! Not because I felt unsafe, but because there was Creole flying all about me and an 8 hour work day ahead of Darlene and Awold with a very uninformed person (me) to instruct them! The most interaction Chris and I have with Haitians our same age or older back in Fauche is through our English classes, and with our Creole teacher, David. While we have made friends with students and really enjoy that, we don't have much one on one time with them. We talk with our cooks and with neighbors, (especially kids) but this was the first time I had spent hours with a Haitian. It was humbling. I knew that I couldn't just nod and smile at everything she said, so I had to ask for her to repeat things often. Darlene speaks quickly and softly so I had to really apply my mind. She and I did laundry most of the morning, washing laundry for the guest house in big tubs in the front of the house. Haitian women are so tough! Wringing out clothes and towels is tiring! Despite the limits in our communication, we shared a cool moment. Darlene was singing, and stopped for a second to say something to me. I didn't catch it, so asked her to repeat, she did, then finally she said, "Ou renmen Jezi?" (Do you love Jesus?) I thought, I know that phrase! And answered, "WI! ANPIL! ou?" (Yes, very much! You?) And she answered Yes, and it was one of those awesome moments where your love for the same God lets you forget the struggle you are having just to share a few understood words. What joy!

The rest of the day was interesting, trying to give Darlene little jobs and not have her feel like I was bossing her around.(She's 30) I learned that I never want to be a boss someday. She didn't like some of my ideas, which made things a little awkward at times, but for the most part it was a good day. At lunch time, Awold and Darlene usually eat outside while the group of us eat inside. So today, with just the three of us, I said, You can eat inside! And then I asked if they wanted me to eat with them today. Awold said, Next time! Haha. I guess we all needed a break from trying to talk :) I didn't mind the solitude.
I've been translating some recipes for Darlene and I to try, and trying to plan ahead for the teams that are scheduled to come tomorrow and Thursday. Chris has been hooking up the water, working on maintenance projects, keeping the generator stuff working, and we are both working to get organized. It's definitely a change. We miss our house and our neighbors in the North. We are hoping our English students will understand our quick departure too. But we are thankful to be here and like the change of pace and working at the guest house.
These pictures aren't very informative, but we haven't taken any of here yet, but will soon. The man in the first picture is Pastor Dan Irvine, and the second is another out of the plane window. It felt like if we had been closer to those mountains we would have clipped them with the plane. But it was beautiful. The contrasts are so hard to process in Haiti right now...such devastation, but so much help and love being poured out, beauty, but so much destruction, moments of laughing and fun, but knowing there is so much hurt nearby and even in this house as people come and go. All we know is God is in control. Thank you for praying!
Chris will write about what he saw and experienced on his drive around PAP today soon, he said he has a lot he could write about. Happy Groundhog Day!

Slight Change of Plans

We had nearly given up hope and only whispered prayers of still being able to see my dad when he emailed us on Friday saying that Dan wanted us in Port-au-Prince to help run the guest house and he needed to know if we were willing to come. We only found out because Kris came down and told us that we had an email (my dad sent it to her too) and that we better consider quickly. The thing was we had English class fifteen minutes after we found out. The email was asking us to come ASAP, even Saturday morning. Back and forth we emailed each other after English Class trying to find out if Dan Irvine (area director for our mission) could get us a plane ride from O'Cap to PAP Sat morning. The last email we got from my dad sounded like it wasn't likely, so we went to bed thinking it wouldn't be till Monday that we would go and we hadn't packed a thing. I set the alarm for 5:00 to get up and check the email to make sure that we weren't supposed to leave at seven or something, but there was no email. We went back to sleep and then got up a few hours later. We had a nice little breakfast and devos and then we checked the email again. It said get to the airport by ten, you have a flight. It was already 8:30 and it takes at least an hour and fifteen minutes to drive there. That was pretty much it! So we packed for 2-3 weeks in two carry-ons, asked Cory to drive us to the airport, and began our journey to PAP. Cory did a great job of getting us to the airport in just over an hour (AMAZING for our roads) by 10:16 am. He waited with us until our plane landed and we talked to the pilot. At this point the hope I would get to see my dad was coming back, and we were more than willing to come to PAP to help in any way we could. Then John our missionary pilot told us we were going to wait around for a medical team that was coming in to make sure they weren't overweight for their flight. We ended up waiting in the Cap Haitian airport for a few hours with the hope of seeing pops dissipating and Kathleen's apprehension of flying in a small aircraft was growing.
Finally, we took off at 12:30 p.m. The flight was pretty uneventful with a couple of sudden drops and shakes that come with flying in a sesna. I loved it and my wife endured it! We came into PAP from the east and saw the bay filled with huge ships. The farther east you go the less damage that is visible. But as we approached the airport I could see more and more fallen walls and then houses. We caught this picture of a small tent city which I am sure you have heard about. These people need tents! President Preval has put out an international plea for 200,000 tents. No one is sleeping indoors as their is still a 3% chance of a 7.0 quake, and a 90% chance of a 5.0 quake in the next thirty days. Even here we are sleeping on mattresses pulled from bunk beds under mosquito nets. The last two nights that moon has been bright and clear casting shadows on our tiny camp.
When we landed we were met by Dan Irvine. We just knew that by this late in the day my dad was on his way home in the Amway Jet, but Dan told us that we would be able to see him. So we walked drove out onto the tarmac with our truck and parked. Then we proceeded to walk by 3-4 huge C-13's (so I am told like the one in the picture). We walked with a purpose like we were supposed to be there, walking around all the men and women with M-16s and people waiting in line we started looking at those waiting for my dad in the crowd. While we were searching their was a C-13 (prop, not jet engine) preparing for take off and its engines were so loud they were drowning out all other noise. We spread out a little and after a minute or two my dad found us! It was great to see him! It was also surreal. I mean here I am seeing my dad for the first time in 6 months and in Haiti and not being able to hear him over the four roaring engines of the C-13! It was just weird. I felt like I had just seen him last week. While we were shouting at each other a huge wind of dust and gravel was thrown at us as the plane backed up, but we were more than happy for the to leave. We got a few minutes to chat before we had to go, but Kath and I were so thankful to be able to spend some time with him. What a blessing and answer to a prayer that we had given up on at least 10 times...God is faithful. We spent the remainder of the afternoon searching for our pallet of supplies in an area much like the one in the picture. The amount of aid here is amazing! Dan told us that all the stuff we see today won't be here in 48 hours. While loading nearly 2000 pounds of rice, medical supplies, and other stuff another Organization "OneXone" came and got two semis worth of pallets. It was awesome to see all the stuff coming and going in order to help Haiti. I had a chance to speak to some Canadian soldiers who asked what we were doing and where we were working. They encouraged us to go to Laogone and hard hit areas. They were friendly guys with a thick Canadian accent. We left the airport and arrived at the guest house at about 5 ready for dinner and to see our friends Matt and Justine who have been working the guest house until now. They are usually on LaGonave and have just come over to help. So we are relieving them of their post :D It has been so great to hang out with them and to spend some time with others in their 20's. Now we are here and waiting to see what God has for us now. Matt and I have been repairing the plumbing and cistern that were messed up in the quake that my dad started to fix. Funny to have him come before me and to be in the places that he has been that I was before him. We will try to keep you updated!