So I figured I'd not get any sort of celebration for Thanksgiving this year, being in Haiti and all. But I did. And it was great.
Dr Bernard invited us up to his house for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. But this is Haiti. Thursday morning he called us and said we'd have to postpone the meal for a day. Why you ask? His stove was broken, so he couldn't cook the turkey. Or more correctly, four turkeys. There was a group of about 40 Americans staying at his guest house that we were joining for a Thanksgiving meal. Anyway they got the stove fixed, and we came up yesterday (Friday) for dinner. And was it magnificent. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy. Even cranberry sauce! And there was desert. Which never happens at the orphanage. The closest we get is having cake for joint birthday parties every month or two. But we had carrot cake, pineapple upside down cake, spice cake, and pumpkin pie. It was wonderful.
There were a few really good things about having Thanksgiving dinner on Friday, besides the wonderful food. For one, we were at the school on Friday morning, which happened to be party day. They had music, dancing, games, and food for all the kids in the school. It was kinda like a field day, except replace the field with a concrete courtyard about 20x30ft. But it was a lot of fun. And the kids had a TON of fun.
Secondly, one of the kids was coming up to Dr. Bernard's this weekend, so she got to have a typical Thanksgiving dinner with us. Which was kinda fun. Maybe just for me, though. Mashed potatoes, stuffing. Not really your typical Haitian fare. And she wasn't impressed. After we finished eating, I asked her if she liked it, and she shook her head emphatically, looking fairly disgusted. Then, I asked her if she liked the dessert, and oh how her face changed in an instant. Her eyes lit up with a huge smile across her face. The head shaking remained emphatic, but with the opposite emotion propelling it.
The last nice side effect of postponing Thanksgiving dinner was that we get to stay up at Dr. Bernard's for the weekend, which is nice to have a bit of time away from the orphanage to rest and relax. To be off duty.
How much we all have to be thankful for! I'll leave you with the words of an song/prayer of simple thanks that I learned, well, I don't remember every not knowing it! Maybe some of you know it too. Savor these words.
"The Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord
for giving me
the things I need
the sun and the rain
and the Appleseed.
The Lord is good to me.
Amen."
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Miracle
Miracles can be a touchy subject. The Bible is full of stories of men surviving impossible situations, stories of miraculous healing, the deaf and blind receiving their senses back. Some people say those stories just aren't true. Some people try to explain them using modern science. The impulses to explain them away or dismiss them come from the same place. Miracles seemed to have happened so much during Biblical times, but it seems like they don't happen anymore. Why not?
Many people much smarter than I have tried to answer this question. And they have some good things to say. I don't want to try to answer that question. I just want to share a story.
Last week, we found out that there was a hurricane/tropical storm in the southern Caribbean eventually headed for Haiti. We watched it, trying to see how bad it would be so we had some idea how to prepare for it. And it looked like it would be bad. For a city in which hundreds of thousands of people are living in tents (tents that have already taken a beating from the sun, wind, and rain of the past 10 months) and many more are living with fragile rusted roofs over their heads, any storm with high winds was going to do a lot of damage. And Tomas was predicted to be a Category 1 or 2 hurricane by the time it got to Port-au-Prince. We were a little worried.
Alright, a lot worried. Thursday night the boys and I were watching the weather channel on Haitian TV, and they were predicting the rain and wind would only get stronger as it headed towards us. There was nothing much to do other than pray. And I think a lot of people were praying, both here and back in the US. I was raining most of the day on Thursday, but Friday it was supposed to hit us hard. As I got out of bed on Friday, there was a bit of rain and wind, but you could hardly call it a storm. It was a light drizzle, and maybe a 5 MPH breeze. It was actually quite pleasant. We waited for things to get worse.
But they never did. We had a steady drizzle most of the day, but we couldn't have gotten much more than an inch all day long. At one point, Cecelia's mom called. She was watching the weather in the US. The radar said we should be getting buckets of rain and 75 MPH winds. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Still light drizzle and a light breeze every once in a while.
Friday morning as I lay half awake in my bed, I had a vision of a huge God-hand coming out from the tops of the mountains that surround Port-au-Prince and curving over the city, protecting it. It turns out the storm broke up as it approached Port-au-Prince. I know weather forecasters are often wrong about these things, but they were really wrong this time. And I don't think it was because they're not good at their job. I think God covered the city with his hand of protection.
And I don't hesitate to call it a miracle.
Psalm 46:1-3,10-11
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change.
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult
"Be still and know that I am God.
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth!"
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Many people much smarter than I have tried to answer this question. And they have some good things to say. I don't want to try to answer that question. I just want to share a story.
Last week, we found out that there was a hurricane/tropical storm in the southern Caribbean eventually headed for Haiti. We watched it, trying to see how bad it would be so we had some idea how to prepare for it. And it looked like it would be bad. For a city in which hundreds of thousands of people are living in tents (tents that have already taken a beating from the sun, wind, and rain of the past 10 months) and many more are living with fragile rusted roofs over their heads, any storm with high winds was going to do a lot of damage. And Tomas was predicted to be a Category 1 or 2 hurricane by the time it got to Port-au-Prince. We were a little worried.
Alright, a lot worried. Thursday night the boys and I were watching the weather channel on Haitian TV, and they were predicting the rain and wind would only get stronger as it headed towards us. There was nothing much to do other than pray. And I think a lot of people were praying, both here and back in the US. I was raining most of the day on Thursday, but Friday it was supposed to hit us hard. As I got out of bed on Friday, there was a bit of rain and wind, but you could hardly call it a storm. It was a light drizzle, and maybe a 5 MPH breeze. It was actually quite pleasant. We waited for things to get worse.
But they never did. We had a steady drizzle most of the day, but we couldn't have gotten much more than an inch all day long. At one point, Cecelia's mom called. She was watching the weather in the US. The radar said we should be getting buckets of rain and 75 MPH winds. Couldn't be farther from the truth. Still light drizzle and a light breeze every once in a while.
Friday morning as I lay half awake in my bed, I had a vision of a huge God-hand coming out from the tops of the mountains that surround Port-au-Prince and curving over the city, protecting it. It turns out the storm broke up as it approached Port-au-Prince. I know weather forecasters are often wrong about these things, but they were really wrong this time. And I don't think it was because they're not good at their job. I think God covered the city with his hand of protection.
And I don't hesitate to call it a miracle.
Psalm 46:1-3,10-11
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change.
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult
"Be still and know that I am God.
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth!"
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Little surprises
I've actually been back in Haiti for three weeks now, but we haven't had internet for most of that time. It was really good to have time at home with my family for a bit, and now it is good to be back here with the kids. I was really missing them while I was home. They can be really difficult and frustrating sometimes, and other times they are really wonderful. But I shouldn't be too surprised; they're teenagers.
I want to share one story along those lines. One of the boys spends a lot of time hanging out with me. He's a really great kid, and I think I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's a pretty smart kid, he likes making movies, and he's really outgoing. But his interests are a little different from the rest of the boys. To begin with, he doesn't like soccer. Which, for a Haitian, is really strange. Haitian boys will turn anything into a soccer ball, whether it resembles a soccer ball or not. I think my favorite might be a dead AA battery that one of our boys was kicking around one day. Really. Anything can become a soccer ball.
Anyway, this one boy spends a lot of time with me. He talks a lot and doesn't really mind interrupting whatever I'm doing. Sometimes its great; he's helped me a lot with learning Creole and explaining cultural things to me. But sometimes, he's just annoying. And it gets frustrating when he does something that he knows is annoying, and keeps doing it. Or when he asks every five minutes when the library is going to be open and we tell him every time that the library won't be open for another four hours. Well, one evening I was sitting on my bed writing in my journal. I just finished writing how frustrated I was with him (it was particularly bad that day) when guess who jumped through the door! Yep. But it wasn't with the typical "como estas are you." He was very serious. And in fact, he had something very serious to talk about. It really surprised me. He was genuinely concerned, observant, and quite mature about his complaint.
My first thought was, "Wow! That's a miracle." Which it was. And with that, I realized that people can change. I know that sounds like a very basic observation, and something I should have learned a long time ago. But people can change instantly. One moment they are annoying and frustrating, then the next, the considerate, concerned part of them is brought to the fore, coaxed out by some miracle. And that gives me hope. Hope that no matter how difficult or whatever a person is, there is hope that there is something inside is different. Hope that there is some goodness in there that just needs to come out. And I don't take credit for that, but its really a miracle.
I want to tell you about one other event from the past few weeks that was fun. Every month the kids have one big celebration for every kid that has a birthday in that month. We had the October celebration a few weeks ago. There's cake for everyone, and the birthday kids get an extra large piece. But there are two really cool things about this celebration. First, they don't give each other presents. They don't have much to money to give each other anyway, but they don't even try to make cards from stuff we have in the library. Instead, they perform for each other. Each birthday boy or girl will ask a specific person to sing for them. And there is often some complaining, but they do it. Of course, they made me sing. The other thing I like about it is that it isn't a strictly secular affair. Unlike most birthday celebrations I've been to, they began with prayer. Then most of the songs were religious songs. Then there was cake. It was just the right amount of God in it all. It was still about celebrating their birthdays, but God was still present in that celebration.
And one last quick thing. There is a hurricane/tropical storm headed this was, expected to make landfall late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I tell you this not to worry you, because all of the kids and I will be perfectly safe. Our buildings are in very little danger from a hurricane. They're solid concrete. They're not going to get blown away. I tell you this instead to ask for your prayers for safety for the rest of Haiti. There are so many people still living in tents and other flimsy buildings. And there are thousands of people who still have their homes who are also in danger of losing their metal roofs. There are dangers of mudslides with heavy rain. So I ask for your prayers for the people of this country who are still deathly afraid of natural disasters. Pray for safety, peace, and comfort.
I want to share one story along those lines. One of the boys spends a lot of time hanging out with me. He's a really great kid, and I think I've gotten to know him pretty well. He's a pretty smart kid, he likes making movies, and he's really outgoing. But his interests are a little different from the rest of the boys. To begin with, he doesn't like soccer. Which, for a Haitian, is really strange. Haitian boys will turn anything into a soccer ball, whether it resembles a soccer ball or not. I think my favorite might be a dead AA battery that one of our boys was kicking around one day. Really. Anything can become a soccer ball.
Anyway, this one boy spends a lot of time with me. He talks a lot and doesn't really mind interrupting whatever I'm doing. Sometimes its great; he's helped me a lot with learning Creole and explaining cultural things to me. But sometimes, he's just annoying. And it gets frustrating when he does something that he knows is annoying, and keeps doing it. Or when he asks every five minutes when the library is going to be open and we tell him every time that the library won't be open for another four hours. Well, one evening I was sitting on my bed writing in my journal. I just finished writing how frustrated I was with him (it was particularly bad that day) when guess who jumped through the door! Yep. But it wasn't with the typical "como estas are you." He was very serious. And in fact, he had something very serious to talk about. It really surprised me. He was genuinely concerned, observant, and quite mature about his complaint.
My first thought was, "Wow! That's a miracle." Which it was. And with that, I realized that people can change. I know that sounds like a very basic observation, and something I should have learned a long time ago. But people can change instantly. One moment they are annoying and frustrating, then the next, the considerate, concerned part of them is brought to the fore, coaxed out by some miracle. And that gives me hope. Hope that no matter how difficult or whatever a person is, there is hope that there is something inside is different. Hope that there is some goodness in there that just needs to come out. And I don't take credit for that, but its really a miracle.
I want to tell you about one other event from the past few weeks that was fun. Every month the kids have one big celebration for every kid that has a birthday in that month. We had the October celebration a few weeks ago. There's cake for everyone, and the birthday kids get an extra large piece. But there are two really cool things about this celebration. First, they don't give each other presents. They don't have much to money to give each other anyway, but they don't even try to make cards from stuff we have in the library. Instead, they perform for each other. Each birthday boy or girl will ask a specific person to sing for them. And there is often some complaining, but they do it. Of course, they made me sing. The other thing I like about it is that it isn't a strictly secular affair. Unlike most birthday celebrations I've been to, they began with prayer. Then most of the songs were religious songs. Then there was cake. It was just the right amount of God in it all. It was still about celebrating their birthdays, but God was still present in that celebration.
And one last quick thing. There is a hurricane/tropical storm headed this was, expected to make landfall late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I tell you this not to worry you, because all of the kids and I will be perfectly safe. Our buildings are in very little danger from a hurricane. They're solid concrete. They're not going to get blown away. I tell you this instead to ask for your prayers for safety for the rest of Haiti. There are so many people still living in tents and other flimsy buildings. And there are thousands of people who still have their homes who are also in danger of losing their metal roofs. There are dangers of mudslides with heavy rain. So I ask for your prayers for the people of this country who are still deathly afraid of natural disasters. Pray for safety, peace, and comfort.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Revision
So I've been thinking, many of my expectations about what I would be doing at the orphanage were inaccurate, and I'm not doing as much "work" as I expected.
What I have been doing, however, is loving kids. And loving kids is so much more than doing things for them. In fact, sometimes it means not doing things for them. Before I went to Haiti, I was thinking I would show the Haitians how much I love them by doing stuff, by "working". But after a few boring days, some days filled with supervising the library, and generally just being with the kids, I'm discovering lots of other ways to love them, not just through what I generally think of as "work". Loving by teaching. Loving by learning their language and culture. Loving by admitting my faults. Loving just through living in community with them.
So while I still believe work is a powerful way to show love, there are many other ways that love is "made visible" and many of those have been more prevalent in my work at the orphanage than what we might typically consider "work". For all of us, we have some many more chances to show love than just by the "work" that we do. So, with that, I'm just going to amputate the first two words from my blog title. I think that will make it a little more accurate.
On the topic of love, a few weeks ago, I taught a Bible study with the kids on 1 Corinthians 13. If you've ever gone to a Christian wedding, chances are good you've heard this passage before, particularly v. 4-7. It talks about what love is, and what it is not. Interestingly enough, it doesn't say, "love is hard-working." It is, however, lots of other things.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Pictures. 'Cause I have decent internet
I'm going to take advantage of a fast internet connection while I'm in the US to post some pictures.
First, here's a picture of the boys' house. Its right across the street from the other building that has the school and the girls dorms. My room is in the back left corner of the boys' house.
Me sitting in my room reading. (Credits for this picture go to Renick. He likes taking pictures with my camera. Mostly of himself, but sometimes he takes pictures of other things. Like me.)
Here's a picture of all the kids minus three who were taking exams that day (some of them aren't cooperating really well) with me and Mark and Marsha (the other two white folks). We took this picture on the roof of the girls' house.
This is the kitchen in the boys' house. All the cooking is done in the other building, so this kitchen is mostly for storing and washing dishes. And blue thing on the right is our water filter.
I think that's good for now.
Monday, September 13, 2010
A time for grieving
Some of you know part of this story already, but I though everyone might like to know
A few weeks ago, my maternal grandmother passed away. She was sick and we knew it was coming, but it has still been very difficult for me being so far away. Then, this weekend, my paternal grandmother passed away as well. She had also been fighting cancer. All three of her children were with her this weekend, and I know they were glad they were there.
As I'm sure you can understand, this has been a very difficult few weeks for me, especially the past 24 hours. I will be going back to the US on the 23rd for the memorial service for my mom's mother, and will probably stay in the US until after my dad's mother's service, although we don't know for sure when that will be.
I ask now for your prayers for myself and my family, that we would be given strength and comfort in this time of sorrow and grief. I ask your prayers specifically for me, as it has been extremely difficult for me as I have struggled to deal with their deaths far away from my family, and for the last two weeks, without anyone I can really talk to about it.
I think I have shed tears in quantities to rival a Caribbean thunderstorm in the past four weeks.
A few weeks ago, my maternal grandmother passed away. She was sick and we knew it was coming, but it has still been very difficult for me being so far away. Then, this weekend, my paternal grandmother passed away as well. She had also been fighting cancer. All three of her children were with her this weekend, and I know they were glad they were there.
As I'm sure you can understand, this has been a very difficult few weeks for me, especially the past 24 hours. I will be going back to the US on the 23rd for the memorial service for my mom's mother, and will probably stay in the US until after my dad's mother's service, although we don't know for sure when that will be.
I ask now for your prayers for myself and my family, that we would be given strength and comfort in this time of sorrow and grief. I ask your prayers specifically for me, as it has been extremely difficult for me as I have struggled to deal with their deaths far away from my family, and for the last two weeks, without anyone I can really talk to about it.
I think I have shed tears in quantities to rival a Caribbean thunderstorm in the past four weeks.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Up and Down (or the other way around)
Yesterday was sort of an up and down day. Mark and Marsha left for a couple weeks of vacation yesterday, leaving me here as the only American, which isn't really the end of the world. The hard part is that all the things that we were sharing responsibility for, now I have to do. Which, again, isn't really that much. The biggest part of that is supervising the library with the computers and the internet. Whenever someone is on the internet, one of the three of us needs to be in the library supervising. And to make sure all of the kids get time online, we set up a schedule where each kid gets one hour a week online. Which means the library has to be supervised for six hours a day, six days a week. Which is kinda a lot of time for me to be in the library.
In the last hour yesterday, I was getting tired and bored. I was ready to get out of the library. Its a handful to try to maintain some order in the library with teenagers coming and going for six hours. I decided to write in my journal a bit. As I wrote, I got just got more frustrated. Thoughts that had come up earlier in my time here began to creep back. "What am I doing here?" "There's no point in me being here." "I'm not doing any good, I'm just taking up space and consuming resources." (Yes, not eating food or drinking water, consuming resources. Thanks Swarthmore.) My writing began to morph from journal entry into prayer, asking God for direction and a renewed sense of purpose here. (Its something that I've struggled with in the past month or so, and keeps rearing its ugly head.) So I closed the library half an hour later, then, after a quick supper of Heart to Heart cereal, I went to check my email.
Before I go into all the details, I need to describe one of the boys for you. He's not really the easiest one to deal with. Since I've gotten here, he got into a fight with one of the other boys and hurt the other kid's eye. He's come close to getting in fights on other occasions, and generally doesn't understand his own strength. I wouldn't hesitate to say he's got some aggression issues. Since I've been here, he hasn't really been friendly with me, more quick to poke fun than show anything close to compassion. He's kinda a tough kid.
So I was quite surprised to find an email from him sitting in my inbox last night. It didn't say much, and it was in Creole, so I'm still not sure what it all says. But, for starters, HE reached out to me. It expressed admiration for me, and he said "I'm happy to write you and have you as a friend." A much softer side to this kid, and a wonderful place to begin a relationship from.
And maybe the coolest thing of all, I think he wrote this email about five minutes after I wrote my journal entry/prayer. Pretty quick response to a prayer, if you ask me.
In the last hour yesterday, I was getting tired and bored. I was ready to get out of the library. Its a handful to try to maintain some order in the library with teenagers coming and going for six hours. I decided to write in my journal a bit. As I wrote, I got just got more frustrated. Thoughts that had come up earlier in my time here began to creep back. "What am I doing here?" "There's no point in me being here." "I'm not doing any good, I'm just taking up space and consuming resources." (Yes, not eating food or drinking water, consuming resources. Thanks Swarthmore.) My writing began to morph from journal entry into prayer, asking God for direction and a renewed sense of purpose here. (Its something that I've struggled with in the past month or so, and keeps rearing its ugly head.) So I closed the library half an hour later, then, after a quick supper of Heart to Heart cereal, I went to check my email.
Before I go into all the details, I need to describe one of the boys for you. He's not really the easiest one to deal with. Since I've gotten here, he got into a fight with one of the other boys and hurt the other kid's eye. He's come close to getting in fights on other occasions, and generally doesn't understand his own strength. I wouldn't hesitate to say he's got some aggression issues. Since I've been here, he hasn't really been friendly with me, more quick to poke fun than show anything close to compassion. He's kinda a tough kid.
So I was quite surprised to find an email from him sitting in my inbox last night. It didn't say much, and it was in Creole, so I'm still not sure what it all says. But, for starters, HE reached out to me. It expressed admiration for me, and he said "I'm happy to write you and have you as a friend." A much softer side to this kid, and a wonderful place to begin a relationship from.
And maybe the coolest thing of all, I think he wrote this email about five minutes after I wrote my journal entry/prayer. Pretty quick response to a prayer, if you ask me.
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