Never a dull moment! (But really, though...)

I arrived at Christian Light in Haiti yesterday after a blessedly easy day of traveling. I even made a friend on the plane! My seatmate was a Haitian-American named Jean who lives in Atlanta. We chatted on the flight and at baggage claim, and then he waited with me inside until I had all my bags because he didn't want me to have to navigate the rigors of the airport parking lot by myself. As David Gunter, a fellow Alabamian serving full-time here at CLS likes to say: you meet the nicest people in Haiti! Turns out Jean is in the home repair & construction business in Atlanta. He has two clients in Auburn & mentioned coming over to paint the trim on a house there. Guess whose trim needs painting? Not that we couldn't hire a house painter in Auburn, but I did get Jean's phone number before we parted at the airport. You just never know when God is going to schedule a divine appointment! 

It was such a sweet blessing to be greeted by David and Tammy (who was also here last summer for just a few weeks and is now here full time!) at the airport - and then by all the sweet kiddos in the play yard when we got to CLS. The choruses of "Miss Lindsey! Miss Lindsey!" were admittedly music to my ears. Within just a short while, the Americans here loaded up to go out for a farewell dinner for Micah and Rachel, as they are finishing up just over a year of serving at Christian Light to head back to the States in anticipation of the birth of their first child! They have been such a blessing during their time here - particularly in all the physical and emotional nourishing they have provided for sweet little Jean Wilson - and it will be sad to see them leave tomorrow!

Jean Wilson and his two mamas. Bernadette comes to visit every week, and I know she is so grateful for the way that Rachel and Micah have nurtured him from literal starvation in November to the happy, healthy boy he is today.  The hope is that Jean Wilson will return to live with his Bernadette when she is able to fully care for him on her own. And then in just a few short years, he'll be attending Christian Light!

We had planned to go get sushi at the UN compound. Scott half-jokingly asked before I left if I thought I might get some sushi this trip, so I was thrilled! But, alas: the sushi place closes at 4 on Saturdays. :( There's another restaurant onsite, though, so we enjoyed a nice meal there from a varied menu: Ms. Sherrie had a banana split for supper and Rachel had a veggie burger with bacon!

It was after dark when we got back to CLS, and I had a little time to tell the younger boys goodnight. I still hadn't managed to unpack anything or really catch my breath, but it was about that time that we realized that Vidlon was crying desperately with recurring pain he'd been having all week. Vidlon is almost 7 years old and he's a pretty tough cookie, so the amount of pain he seemed to be in was worrisome. Katy (here from Auburn, as well) had asked for prayer for him on Facebook on Thursday because he was having such a hard time, but he had woken up on Friday feeling much better. Even so, the pain seemed to have returned with a sudden fierceness last night. Because of the ongoing nature of the pain that didn't really fit the profile of the standard illnesses around here, David & Ms. Sherrie decided he needed to go to the hospital.

I had just been saying at supper that I never go anywhere while I'm here - outings are usually planned for the afternoons, which is when the Late Bloomers class I've worked with is in session. Well, time for a field trip! Ms. Sherrie suggested I accompany David to the hospital with Vidlon. I had already gotten help from Tcharly to get Vidlon in the truck, and I was just waiting with him, singing softly to him while he cried. When it was decided I would go, I ran upstairs to get my purse & phone - so much for catching my breath! But I was truly glad to go, just so there would be a mama on board for what might be a long night.  By the time I got back downstairs, David had Vidlon sitting in the front seat with the air conditioner on full-blast. Multiple vents of AC all to yourself is a pretty rare occurrence for the kids here, so I think the wonder and delight of that privilege helped settle him down quite a bit.

Vidlon

We went to Bernard Mevs Hospital, which is only a few miles away.  The triage room was set up like a small clinic, and we had the blessing of a pediatrician already being there. When we arrived, the other patients were all children, but in the two hours we were there, one man came in with what was either a dislocated jaw or tetanus, and another man with two jagged cuts on the side of his neck. The combined Haitian and Canadian nursing staff were pleasant and kept things running pretty smoothly. They were so impressed with Vidlon's sweet nature and his speaking English so well. He wasn't crying anymore, and was very quiet and patient as we waited. He stayed curled up in my lap while I continued to try to just love on him and sing quietly to him. Because his pain was closer to his sternum than his belly, David was concerned about possible pancreatitis. They didn't have everything in the lab needed to run his bloodwork, so it was decided after examination by the pediatrician that he wasn't critical, and the bloodwork could wait until we could get to the lab downtown on Monday. They gave him a "GI cocktail" which seems to have alleviated his symptoms, as he hasn't reported any pain today. As Sherrie said on Facebook earlier, perhaps God simply healed Vidlon - which was certainly what we all prayed for last night.

We were back before 11 and I was in bed by 11:30, so it was yet another blessing to be able to go to the hospital and still be asleep before midnight!

And because there's an adventure around every corner here in Haiti, we had a flat tire on the way to church this morning. The spare was also flat, so David and some Haitian Good Samaritans took the tire around the corner to be patched. Apparently new tires are a fairly rare commodity here, so you never have to walk very far to find someone in the tire-patching business.

We were on a residential street when we realized the tire was flat, so the other ladies & I just waited in the shade until it was fixed.The streets of Port-au-Prince on a Sunday morning are a delight, because you see so very many people walking to church. The phrase "Sunday best" is epitomized here in the way everyone is dressed, and it's lovely to see the value that many people place in going to worship. It was nice just to tell people good morning and admire all the beautifully dressed children - who are always quick to share a sweet, shy smile. Was the delay an inconvenience? Perhaps. But it still was a blessing in its own way.

We got to Port-au-Prince Fellowship at 9:15 for the 8:30 service (we had left CLS at 8), but even the little bit we heard of Brother John's sermon was worth the trip. He talked about hope - I took notes, so I'll have to look back and process it a bit more - and the misplaced hope we sometimes have in the world around us.  My favorite part was when he said that the Communists in Russia once promised a new coat for every man. Pastor John countered that Jesus seeks to put a new man in every coat. You just about have to say "amen" to that!

We've had a fairly quiet afternoon around the school. I tried to nap for a bit, with limited success, but I think the rest did me good. At Ms. Sherrie's request, I brought a few of the kids up on the balcony where we have our meals so they could finish some thank you posters for several donors in Canada who sent an entire shipping container of supplies for missions in Haiti. In addition to some other goodies, CLS got a full-sze photocopier - which is a pretty big deal. I got out my portable bluetooth speaker, so we could listen to music as we colored the posters. When I asked what kind of music they wanted to listen to, they all said church music, so I chose my "Haiti" playlist, made up of songs that speak to me about God's calling on my heart to be here. To hear those songs play while sitting alongside some of these sweet boys and girls that I think about when I sing along at home was yet another blessing.

Pame is all about a selfie!

Speaking of music, I posted a video on Facebook this afternoon of some of the younger kids singing "Let it Go" from the movie Frozen. They had been singing it for what seemed like at least an hour when I recorded it.  It's astonishing - and kind of hilarious - to think what universal appeal that song seems to have!

There are of course dozens of other things I could write about tonight - the sheer beauty of the mountains when the sun hits them just so in the afternoons, how proud I am of Jovenel in all he says and does, the sweet new friends who left today and the sweet "old" friends who dropped by after supper - but I'm going to have to figure out how to edit myself if I'm going to have any success in blogging! I'm a bit of a sharer - perhaps you've noticed?

I'm so grateful to all the people who have supported me in getting here and I want to share as much as I can. However, I also want to sleep as much as I can, so you know: balance. I desperately want to go proofread this thing to pieces, but that would be pulling a string that I'd be knitting back together all night! So, I'm just going to trust y'all to embrace the fact that I'm a much better speller than typist.

I do want to quickly ask for prayer for Miseléne, a ten-year-old girl here who seems to have come down with chikengunya fever today - a mosquito-borne virus that is making it's way through this area like a freight-train. It is characterized by fever, rash and miserable joint pain, and she was just pitiful this evening. Hopefully it will pass quickly. So far, I have managed to avoid mosquito bites with a varied regimen of insect repellents, but I know that tomorrow will be a busy day once school is in session, so I will have to be especially vigilant about that.

I am simply filled with gratitide to be here tonight, enjoying the evening breeze and the feeling of contentment that I always seem to have when I'm here at Christian Light. To consider that I'm less than three weeks past gall bladder removal surgery is still mind-boggling to me. That I have both the energy and capacity to plow through all that has happened in the last 36 hours is a testament to Divine Providence. With continued measures of God's grace, I look forward to whatever tomorrow may hold!