Mountain views- the DR to the left
On New Year's eve we attended a church service that started at 8pm and went until 4am... yes, 4am! Aaron and I didn't make it that long and thus missed out on the Haitian tradition of pumpkin soup at 4am. The service was so much fun. We played with all the children from the children's home for awhile, sang worship songs (well, we tried to sing along in Creole) and danced. At the stroke of midnight after the universal countdown, we celebrated. I mean, really celebrated. I have never seen so much joy and fun at the promise of a New Year. When midnight struck the place went nuts! Screaming, jumping, dancing, hugging for a good 15 minutes! It was nothing like the celebrations in the States where most of the time I feel like we are just trying to stay awake for the obligatory ball drop before I can slink off to bed.
Today is not only the New Year in Haiti, but also Haiti's independence day. This may be the biggest holiday in Haiti so no one worked today. So we took the day off, mostly. After breakfast we rearranged the cafeteria to make room for the onslaught of people that start arriving on Tuesday. We have 4 teams from the U.S coming in the next 2 weeks. We will go from our 8 people at dinner tonight to 88 people in a week! So we have had a lot to do in preparation for all those people coming. We also spent some time riding the go cart around, which the kids LOVE (maybe not as much as AAron though). Then we packed up the truck to go for a drive up into the mountains... just to get to the compound gate and realize it was locked... and we didn't have a key. So we drove out to the warehouse to get some suppliesfor the upcoming teams and chased some baby chickens around, which the mom hen didn't really like. She tried to attack Isabel as we returned one of the baby chicks.You should have seen the sheer look of terror on Isabel's face as she ran away! 
Finally Eric, who has the gate key, showed up so we could leave. We loaded up the truck and drove up to the mountains, only a 15 minute drive. The views were beautiful. To our left you could see the lake and the Dominican and to the right you could see Port au Prince and the ocean. It was a lovely drive through the mountains! We came back home and took a nap..... ahhh so nice. I then spent the time before dinner preparing the girls' school for this next week. Anna (our Austrian doctor friend) and Andrea (our German friend) fixed a great dinner. We put the kids to bed and I headed to the office to get some internet access.
It is a bit strange in that my days are very full and typically have little down time, but I never seem to accomplish as much as I would like. It seems that nearly everything takes twice as long to do here. Maybe it is the heat and the slow pace of life. Maybe it is just fact. It takes longer to get the kids ready for bed when I have to walk to the cafeteria to fill up a water bottle to get water to brush their teeth. Then walk to the bathroom to brush their teeth and have them use the restroom. Then walk back to the kitchen to bathe them in a tub (the kitchen is the only place that has hot water and the sinks are extra big). I do a lot of walking. But when you don't have a bathroom or sink in your house, I guess that happens.
Finally Eric, who has the gate key, showed up so we could leave. We loaded up the truck and drove up to the mountains, only a 15 minute drive. The views were beautiful. To our left you could see the lake and the Dominican and to the right you could see Port au Prince and the ocean. It was a lovely drive through the mountains! We came back home and took a nap..... ahhh so nice. I then spent the time before dinner preparing the girls' school for this next week. Anna (our Austrian doctor friend) and Andrea (our German friend) fixed a great dinner. We put the kids to bed and I headed to the office to get some internet access.
It is a bit strange in that my days are very full and typically have little down time, but I never seem to accomplish as much as I would like. It seems that nearly everything takes twice as long to do here. Maybe it is the heat and the slow pace of life. Maybe it is just fact. It takes longer to get the kids ready for bed when I have to walk to the cafeteria to fill up a water bottle to get water to brush their teeth. Then walk to the bathroom to brush their teeth and have them use the restroom. Then walk back to the kitchen to bathe them in a tub (the kitchen is the only place that has hot water and the sinks are extra big). I do a lot of walking. But when you don't have a bathroom or sink in your house, I guess that happens.
We don't have internet access in our tent so I have to walk across campus to the office which usually doesn't happen during the day because the kids would need to come and then they interupt everything going on there. So after I put them to bed I head to the office for internet. And in the 20 minutes I have been in here I have had to restart the router 4 times to get the internet connection working.
It is very easy to become complacent of how easy and convenient most of us have it in the U.S. At least here I have access to clean water. Many in Haiti do not. I have access to a shower. Many don't. I have access to a toilet. Most don't. I have 3 meals a day, and I don't take these things for granted anymore.
It is very easy to become complacent of how easy and convenient most of us have it in the U.S. At least here I have access to clean water. Many in Haiti do not. I have access to a shower. Many don't. I have access to a toilet. Most don't. I have 3 meals a day, and I don't take these things for granted anymore.
"praise God from whom all blessings flow...."
ReplyDeletethe simple freedom to have a joyful celebration is another thing the Haitians may have over us! :)
Happy new year, Elliotts! Thanks for the reminder of what's really important and our incredible abundance up in our neck of the woods. Love and miss you guys!
ReplyDeleteFor a nonblogger your are doing great. Love getting on here, catching up and praying for you all. The pictures are incredible
ReplyDelete