Now that Troy is back, I can safely say, I HATE when he is gone. I used to bawl when he left for Madison for five days. That was when I had eight million sources of entertainment and family right at my fingertips. Having him six hours of flying away, instead of six hours of driving ... that is NOT for me. All of this is just to say, Hurray God for bringing Troy back healthier and happier. God is good.We have learned that our dead generator needs to go into Port for some love from the professionals at their location. 16 small men were able to move it to the truck this afternoon. We will bring it in to get some love tomorrow. One cyliner bit the dust. It only started with two. No good. For now we have two tiny generators. The Hoppa's have one and are doing all the refrigeration for both families. We are mainly eating foods that don't require refrigeration. Now that we've got our own small generator too, things are looking up. Of course, we have excellent priorities and have used our new found power source to get on line.
My granny died this morning so I really wanted to be in touch with my family and this (on-line) is the best way we can do that.
The new generator that God dropped in Lifeline's lap at just the right time, may be a bit longer. Customs has a way of keeping the stuff you really want. The stuff that does not matter at all, will fly right through customs. Murphy's Law or something. We have decided not to estimate when we will be fully functional again, that way no one gets disappointed.
The hardest part of our lack of a big generator is the water thing. Most everyone in the Livesay family enjoys a shower one time a day. 98 degree days encourage that level of dedication to bathing. Right now we are getting five gallon buckets from the hand pumped well outside the gate and using that for dishes and "bathing," if you want to call it that.
The laundry situation will be dire by the time a generator of any size returns to LaDigue. Not sure what we will do, but I don't think I am woman enough to go wash them by hand in the canal with the village ladies ... who knows, maybe I will surprise myself. It would make for good laughs for the Haitian people. Luckily, Troy arrived with six new pairs of underwear for Isaac, so he is all set up.
Tomorrow (Friday) is the day we go meet both Ike and Hope's birthmothers at noon. Troy has never met them, I did once in 2002. We are hopeful that it will be a positive experience for everyone. Isaac and Hope seem happy about the plan to go meet them, we still don't know how much they really get it.
We will be in Port a lot this weekend but will do our best to update the blog as internet access and time allow. Have a really good weekend!
~Tara, for all of us
