The two weeks I was here during summer school last year flew by in a flash, so I am grateful that the pacing has been different this time. Usually when I'm here, I feel like every second I'm not with the kids is time wasted - but there's no way I could keep that up for three weeks! So I've allowed myself the leisure of more downtime this trip. Which is interesting, because I feel like I've spent pretty much [can I just say that autocorrect changed "pretty much" to "preyed ichthyosaurs"? That I'm ever able to hit "publish" on this blog is a bigger accomplishment than y'all even know] the same amount of time in the yard with the kids, but I guess the difference is maybe that I go down there without an agenda or feeling like there's anything I need to accompish. I just love them and I love being with them. The opportunity to do so at my "leisure" is such a blessing!
Now, I feel like there's almost nothing about that last paragraph that made sense. Maybe my blogging wagon has a wobbly axle? It probably doesn't help woke up around 4:30 this morning with a not entirely irrational fear that I'll get the mosquito-borne chikengunya virus before I leave on Friday. I seriously just laid in the bed, pleading with Jesus to spare me from this sickness that is running rampant through Haiti this summer. We've got a few girls still in the recovery phase, so we're not in an acute situation with the kids here the way we were the week before last. But the mosquitos are everywhere! I woke up yesterday morning and there were four of them just hanging out on the outside of my mosquito net. Bloodsuckers. So, of course I go to trying to kill them by clapping my hands around them like a maniac - at 7:30 on a Saturday morning, with my roommates sound asleep. And it's almost impossible to avoid mosquito bites, even though I'm layering/alternating essential oil blends with conventional DEET. I think the only person I've seen here who hasn't gotten any bites was one of the sweet ladies on the Williams team who offered to leave the 100% DEET spray she'd been using. Yikes! I asked her if she thought she'd sustained any nerve damage from it, but she seemed like she was in pretty good shape. :)
David, Tammy, Josh, Katy, Ashleigh and I went on a big outing (for me, anyway) on Thursday. Ms. Sherrie wanted to make sure the kids here would have a good way to watch the World Cup, which is of course a huge deal in Haiti. David was able to get a TV antenna and set it up under the awning on the roof so they get the advantages of both the shade and the sea breezes while they watch the games. First, we went to a huge furniture store across from the US Embassy that reminded me of the palacial stores around High Point, North Carolina. There was definite sticker shock when I looked at the prices, but I think the people around here who can afford to shop there aren't really too worried about it.
Then we went to MSC+ which is like Home Depot (but is not the same as Eko Depot which I've always heard described as being like Home Depot, so maybe I should say that MSC+ is a lot like Lowe's?). There were some very well-priced items there, so I apparently it's all about shopping smart - just like anywhere else in the world! After that, we stopped at BelMart for groceries, so that's two grocery stores I've been to on this trip. I can no longer claim that I never go anywhere while I'm here!
On Friday morning, I rode with Edmond to pick up the CLS distribution from Food For the Poor. There are several relief agencies that make regularly scheduled donations, which makes a huge impact when you consider the number of people that CLS feeds every day, especially when school is in session. FFTP is actually just a few blocks from the school in a large building that is easily visible from the balcony where we enjoy our meals here. This was the first time I've traveled to that side of the neighborhood, though, so it was nice to get a little better understanding of the surrounding community. I think Friday was the last day of school for many Haitian schools, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to see so many sweet children in their brightly colored, perfectly starched uniforms, walking to school hand-in-hand with mom or dad. Just like watching families on their way to worship on a Sunday morning, it's a blessing to see the priority placed on education for as many families as can manage it.
Knowing that we would be waiting at FFTP for awhile, Ms. Sherrie offered to let me borrow a book from her personal library. I chose one called The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster by Jonathan Katz. The author was the only American reporter on the scene here when the earthquake struck. I'm only about a hundred pages into it, and Ms. Sherrie said the language gets pretty salty toward the end, but I've already learned a great deal from reading it. From amazon.com: “Beautifully-written, brave, and riveting, The Big Truck That Went By tells the devastating story of the post-earthquake reconstruction effort in Haiti. Weaving together his personal experiences with the knowledge gained from his intensive investigative report, Katz offers us an autopsy of a global relief effort gone wrong. But the book also offers us a moving portrait of the courage, humor, and vision of the Haitians he worked with, offering a glimpse of the possibilities for a different future. Anyone seeking to understand Haiti’s current situation, as well as the broader impasses of our current model of aid, should read this book." —Laurent Dubois, author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History
Friday afternoon we went swimming at a nearby guesthouse, which was delightfully cooling & relaxing. I know: it's a tough life, right?
And then yesterday's outing was extra-special: Cafe Rebo! I thought Josh and Tammy were nuts when they said we could walk there, because we'd have to cross Airport Road on foot. But the promise of iced coffee and air conditioning was too much to pass up (plus, there's a median in the middle of Airport Road, so it's not too much like a game of Frogger). Rebo is the premium coffee brand in Haiti, and the Cafe is their version of Starbucks, right across the street from their warehouse. It. was. perfection. Josh, Tammy, Katy, Ashleigh and I enjoyed the walk through the neighborhood market and then to the main road. I had never been that far afield on foot before - it's maybe a 10-15 minute walk - and the yummy rewards that await at Cafe Rebo are worth it!
On the way back, we ran into Watson and Cherline in the market. They are students in the afternoon LB class, so that was a special surprise. There's not much to compare with a sweet smile from a familiar face in the middle of a crowded marketplace!
We were blessed to attend Port au Prince Fellowship again this morning. The music was once again great - and I found out on Facebook after church today that one of the songs at the AUMC Resonate service this morning was 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord), which was also one of the songs we sang at PAPF! Often on Sunday mornings, I'll pause during worship and wonder what's happening at worship here, what songs the kids have sung, what message they've heard - and then I look at my watch and realize there's probably not any overlap between the time when I'm at worship and when they are. But then on our church-wide winter retreat this February, Reverend Olu Brown shared about the difference in our time (chronos) and God's time (kairos). Since then, I've kind of given my worship experience over to God's time with the assurance that He can somehow weave it into that of the kids here. So, to have had the same song span both chronos & kairos today struck me as pretty cool!
The final song we sang at PAPF this morning was Jesus Paid it All. As we sang the final chorus, the worship leader asked us to really sing it with everything we had. Suddenly, I could hear Jovenel's voice rising above all the others around me, proclaiming:
Oh, praise the one who paid my debt
And raised this life up from the dead
My heart is full, just thinking about it.
With Jovenel at Port au Prince Fellowship
Whether driving home from church today or in all these "off-campus" adventures this week, there were wonderful sights on the streets that I would love to have captured with a photo. But I just can't bring myself to point a camera phone at people as they are going about their daily lives. Once, I had a guy take my picture at a gas station in Auburn because he said I looked like Julianne Moore. It was random and weird - and it made me wonder where the heck that picture was going to end up. So, although I've gotten some cool glimpses into daily life around here, I'll be tucking them away in my heart rather than posting them here or on Facebook.
Even with all the fun outings and changes of scenery, my heart is always most content here at Christian Light. Whether it's cuddling with one of the little ones, or a conversation about the nature of evil as illustrated in Star Wars, or visiting with the handul of ninth graders who have come to school on their own on a Saturday morning to study for their upcoming national exam: I am just so grateful to have been given this much time here. I will leave in Friday, which on one hand will be too soon. But on the other hand, I've never been away from home this long, so I eagerly anticipate settling into a summertime routine (or is that an oxymoron?) with all three of my boys. Of course, I say that - but Scott will be off to Bolivia before we know it and then he'll be the only one left at home when Will, Mark & I come back to CLS with an AUMC team at the end of July.
I suppose what I learned after I left CLS last summer is that I have to find the grace and gratitide in all of it: in the comings and the goings, in the greetings and goodbyes. I wouldn't have it any other way.
(Except for the mosquito bites. I haven't quite figured out how to be grateful for those!)
And I hear the Savior say
Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness, watch and pray
Find in Me thine all in all
For more information about Christian Light School and Children's Home, please visit www.clshaiti.org
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