- Holly Foy is adorable and funny, you just don't know it because it is hard for her to get a word in edge-wise when her dad is around. Those who know him completely understand what we are saying.
- Haitians are not accustomed to seeing Asian people. They stared and stared at Holly and then asked if she was Jackie Chan and waited for her to do some sort of martial arts trick for them. All the kids are amazed by her.
- Robenson (our English-speaking mission interpreter) said "I did not know you had Chinese people at your church!" (She is Korean.)
- Dave explained adoption to them, which made us realize that people out here do not understand why we have Hope and Isaac or understand what adoption is. They were surprised to hear we don't get paid to take the kids.
- Everyone has a full understanding of "Degaje" and are ready to take it to the states and put it in practice.
- Tomorrow we will tour an orphanage and love on some babies before we head to the airport to drop the gang off for their trip back to MN.
An interesting thing happened at the beach today, it stands in total contrast to what a lady from Florida said to us a few months back.
Back in October a lady was leaving anonymous comments (we later learned who she was and had a private e-mail exchange of ideas) and went as far as to say, rogue missionaries and missionaries in general are what is "holding Haiti down." Needless to say, after a few exchanges we finally agreed to disagree and went on our merry way.
I am the kind of person to really stop and think about things that are said to me, even when I disagree I will consider it and check my motives. If I learn I was wrong, I am happy to apologize and alter my position.. All of that is just to say, this lady in Florida made me think. I was trying to figure out if there was any truth to the accusations she made against missionaries.
Today, we heard the exact opposite from the Haitian owners of the beach resort. We talked with them at length about the state of the country, the past, the future and their businesses. They said that they appreciated the way missionaries aided the people and (exact quote) "Missionaries are what is holding this country together right now."
The only reason I share this, is to point out that somewhere in the middle, lies the truth. And to accuse someone who is here to help of being the reason for the problems is just narrow-minded, misguided, and/or jealous. Don't worry, the lady in Florida assured us she dislikes us enough to ever stop back to our blog again. She won't see that I said she is misguided. :)
We ran into some fellow country-ruiners (aka missionaries) at the beach. Licia was celebrating her birthday and the Brumley's were hanging with visitors. Last week we had J & J Ackerman over for a little bit and got a chance to know them a little better --- we've enjoyed meeting all the wise old ones (or not so old) that have gone before us.
Merci pou gade nou, fanmi mwen renmen ou.
