Writing this on the canter, as we go out round 2. Painting in the village right below the mission, get there and a big fire going on, find out there is a start of a protest. They turn us away at the gate into the village so back to the mission we go. (Ed. Note: God's protective hand).
Had time to play cards while the interns packed our lunch. Lacey bought us a coke and the sugar TOTALLY went to my head. I got to laughing and just could NOT stop, so I slapped myself. Which in turn, caused Lacey to spew pop out her nose and mouth, and Hallie to have to leave the table to have "A moment for myself". Sometimes I am ridiculous.
Austin came and played cards with us, and he was all "Hurry up, let's play cards so I can win." Kellie, "We have at least 40 minutes before the bus leaves." Austin, "I know, I'm not very good." OMGravy.
Got to Levech and started picking up trash. This village is awesome because it's where MOH is building 500 houses. The pride is evident in these homes. Everyone trying to plant food and flowers in their yards. Cactus fences divide the houses, view is good, but absolutely barren with water. Lizards are everywhere here, and my ankles have disappeared into cankle land. Even the tops of my feet are tingling. Some of the kids have figured out I am a total dorkfest, ok, most of them have. I just noticed I totally whacked myself picking up trash and I am bleeding all in my shoe. Groovy.
Lacey twisted her ankle (in tennis shoes) so she was giving me a run for the money.
This is one of my most favorite pictures of the whole trip. Total Kellie.
A deaf man from the village saw us around the cactus and went nuts. Showed us one prick would make our joints swell. (Ed. Note: I finally figured out the bleeding was from the cactus and that's why my feet are in ridiculous mode.. Totally whammed myself on cactus. Deaf guy was totally right)
Tuesday PM
At lunch we shared with another team and took a good nap with the Florida team, while the Interpreters had a creole lesson in one of the other classrooms. Of course, Me and Hal hit the cards.
Those scamps in the back corner grinning at me totally became part of my family this day.
Learning creole. And that ain't easy.
We expanded our card vocabulary.
Soccer at the deaf community. The interpreter drives in and cranks the music and here come the hearing kids.. We had a dance party and impromptu soccer match. It is so hot I think I might explode from heat. It's fun, but in the village ZERO shade. I'm content to sit in the canter and take pictures and nurse my swollen cankles.
Can you say Dance Party??
Kellie and Austin are soccer machines. Lacey is a dance master....Fun great stuff.
Well, it seems that the protest from this morning has turned into a full scale riot. It is totally blocking the road BACK to the mission, so we are stuck. We are going back to the Bercy location again, to sit it out by the ocean. I feel sorry for the team in the bus, they had no lunch packed (going to go back to the mission), so when we showed up they were so relieved to have other people, water and food. We shared our p b&j's and tuna and crackers, like it was Jesus feeding the 500 people from the 5 loaves and fishes. :) Totally worked out.
Meanwhile, the poptart scraps I have in my purse from earlier (didn't eat the outside), taste like manna from heaven. It's not lost on me as I eat my crushed poptart rejects, that nothing is coincidence. We are here for a reason. We haven't experienced hunger. We've experienced heat and thirst (only because no one likes to drink the warm water), but hunger, we are fed good here. And now we get to feel like what it is to be hungry. Wondering when we will get to leave. Trying not to project, wondering if the watermelon gum in my purse will keep my girls hunger at bay.
Apparently a local concrete company was supplying electricity to the village they were working in because they were making enough money to do it, and when they quit working there, they took the electricity away. The locals went nuts, feeling like they were "entitled" to the electricity and they are trying to make a statement (and boy are they) of how they can control the main highway through Haiti. They have highjacked semis and turned them sideways in the road so no one can go in or through the main highway.
So, we play cards, use the lovely toilet, and throw rocks at bottles on a pile of dirt to entertain ourselves.
I bonded with some of the boys from the Florida team, Evan, his brother Jonathan, who told me his name was Biddar (I asked him to spell it, and we decided collectively it was cooler spelled B'Daar), Tim and LeeLee from Jacksonville, Florida. We had a rocking conversation of Muslim vs. Christian, the joy of being a nurse, and what degrees you should take in college when wanting to pursue a music career. Just small stuff.
Not sure what Hallie is sad about but Evan is cracked up and LeeLee is totally hiding.
B'Daar and some of his teammates.
We don't get to go back to the mission yet (6:00), so the interns have decided to take us to the beach resort and feed us dinner and hope that the riots calm down enough to go to bed and call it a night. We drive up to the beach paradise, walk in and guess what TV! (oh yeah, game 1 of thunder/heat series), ICE, Water. Paradise. PUMPED.
Ok, let's review day....
-Breakfast totally late.
-Took forever to load paint throwing us one hour late.
-got to village we were suppose to paint in- turned away at gate.
-returned to MOH, packed some food, and traveled to MOH village
-after spending time in one village, went to another and found a team stranded with no food, and was able to share ours with them. traveled to another village, and bonded with the people with soccer and dancing.
-spent quality time with youth teams and made friends with everyone (normally everyone too busy to really get to know other teams)
-always fun to play cards
-diverted to heaven on earth in the resort with hamburgers, ice and THUNDER.
But let's "What If" here....
- What if everything had been on time, and we had actually been in that rioting village?? (So would have been)
-What if our interns hadn't wisely chosen to bring food and extra water to our morning site?
-What if Thunder hadn't beaten the SPURS to get to the finals???
Ok, none of that happened!!! God is GOOD!
It THUNDERED in Haiti, and I mean really THundered, and came a DOWNPOUR. I think the best way to stop a riot with fire in it's tracks, is to send such torrential rains you lose CABLE. Yes, that happened. Every channel but ABC came in. It was ok, though, we didn't think we were even going to get to see anything, so it was a boost just knowing we saw a minute of something.
At 9:00 we left the resort and made our way back to the mission. We unloaded the canters (didn't want to take any chances of anyone being outside, so everyone loaded into the buses. We had 3 to a seat, about 70-80 people on each bus. It was intense. and Hot. And honk honk honk and no windows down for fear someone would throw something in one of them. Florida's preacher kid threw up out the window. (Ed Note: little did I know), and 2.5 hours later we made the 25 mile drive to the mission. we saw coke trucks, semis, turned in the road with tires slashed and windows smashed blocking the road. Our bus driver was a rock star, and got us home, and we all cheered like crazy when we got in the gate. God had his hand all over us that day. Our guardian angels worked overtime, and we just thought, the worse was over. Oh so very wrong. Wednesday was coming.
Praise the Lord for his great mission
ReplyDeleteThank you Lord for being there
And planning everything out ahead of time
Thank you for safety and the driver being your angel