When you read these posts do you feel the way we do when we write them?
There is a real sense of being on a Roller Coaster ride.
If that is how it comes across, then you are understanding a bit of what we are experiencing. Hopefully you are not getting whiplash. Life is not a straight and smooth path, being in Haiti does not change that fact, it only multiplies it.
We have been here long enough now that any silly ideas of how perfect it will all be, have gone by the way-side. Just because you go where God tells you to go and try to do something good, does not mean it will always be easy & fun. (THANKFULLY - it DOES mean His grace and love are sufficient to get you through it!)
A few of the more difficult things things have really surprised us. We were like, "What is the deal God?" But, we are recognizing that coming here did not mean no conflict, no problems and all perfect days strung together, one after the other. Even when you *think* you are being realistic with your expectations, you are probably off ... by more than just a little bit.
Today, we are tired. We've had our first shot at hosting a short term team(s). Since Feb 27th we have been in "host mode", and now we are just ready to go to the kitchen in our underwear and be able to feel less polished and less organized. If we run out of cheese, who cares! I can stop asking my kids, not to eat until we see if there is enough for everyone else. Poor hungry kids.
Have you ever had a situation where you just cheer yourself on and pray and pray until you do the thing you did not think you would be able to do? Then, after you have made it through you can physically feel yourself letting all of that pressure and build-up melt off ... (melt down might be more accurate.) Anyway, we both feel that way today.
We are looking forward to family time at the rock, a wonderful cereal dinner, followed by popcorn for dessert, and a movie with the kids. We enjoyed meeting a bunch of new and interesting people, but for tonight we are glad to be with our boring, not new, not all that interesting, selves.
As far as we know, none of our guests got food poisoning or any sort of illness as a result of our cooking. ;-) That qualifies as a successful first attempt at hosting a team, in our book anyway.
Just as things were winding down last night, chaos struck. Troy had been sitting chatting with Jason R. (one of the guys on the team) in the office, everyone else was in bed. Jason went from the office to the kitchen and said "Troy, we've got water." Who thinks you will have a flood when you live on the second floor? Not us. The whole North-east side of the house (our floor is not level, we know this now) was covered in water. Not a little water, two inches in some spots. ARRRGH. A "pipe" (the plumbing in Haiti is all PVC pipe, not exactly U.S. standards) in the laundry room snapped and the whole 400 gallon tank that sits up the hill dumped into the house.
There was a bunch of head scratching, clearly it was too much water to use towels to clean up. The decision was made to drill holes in the floor to let it drain down into the school classrooms below us. We pushed the water with a broom to the holes and then Ti-pap used his own broom downstairs, to push the water out of the classrooms.
We have come to refer to any goofy, ridiculous way of fixing things as "Haiti rigged." That is certainly what we did last night. Now Isaac can sit in the kitchen and peek down a hole and watch the 4th graders. He is getting a real kick out of it. Luckily, tile is coming next week so the holes will be covered up soon. This is good because Isaac & Paige are trying to find things that will fit in the hole to drop down onto the unsuspecting 4th graders.
Haitians have a saying "De Ga Je" (not spelled right I am sure) it means "make it work." It is their way of saying it is rigged. Not smart, not correct, not pretty, but it works. DeGaJe! ~TrpL~
