Random

I woke up feeling cheery and hyper ... usually that means I also have no focus. This entry will contain news, both old, new, and unrelated.

To see how we spent the afternoon celebrating PHAT Tuesday, Leslie blogged it for us over here. (Some celebrate Fat Tuesday, we think that is insensitive.) Britt and Paige bailed out on us and stayed home to enjoy a quiet, little-kid-free-house. We were late as usual - and left our friends waiting on us until 2pm. That is just one way we've embraced the Haitian culture.

The other day an applicant for the open teaching position showed up two hours late for their test/informal interview -- no apology was offered -- and why would he apologize? Watching the clock is just silliness.

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I brought my empty laundry detergent container and filled it with free sea water to drench Phoebe's infected head. Amie ... I finally listened to you. Even after a few soakings yesterday it looks a little better today. :)

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In other good Leslie and Chris news; they have agreed (foolishly???) to help with our kids while I am in the States in April. The little girls are going to spend the work week with the Rolling's. That will leave Troy with the two boys and a better chance to actually accomplish something. Chris had two conditions. 1. We need to get rid of the fungus head problem before then. 2. He wants to use Troy's B.B. gun as part of the deal. Done and Done.

Paige schemed and planned for weeks and eventually found a way to get a really awesome B.B. gun into Haiti. She enlisted the help of our friends Lisa and Dec. In December when she returned from Christmas with her dad she had the gun disassembled and hidden inside of PVC pipes. The airlines allowed it, the concern was having it taken away in the PAP airport. The gun is providing hours of entertainment as we give the Dingos a little pinch to help convince them to stay out of our garbage and the chickens gentle encouragement to cluck somewhere other than under our window.

Because we consider sarcasm a spiritual gift we've come to love the LarkNews site. It is just like The Onion (another favorite) but with a Christian twist. This story gave us a good chuckle. And below is our favorite t-shirt sold on the Lark site. (It's a joke. Don't waste time being offended.)

Troy has never received the court papers from the teacher who quit. We'd like to believe it is over and we'll never hear of it again, but knowing what we know about the culture we're sure there is more to come. The mistake Troy made was indeed a learning experience. To fill in the story - Troy walked in on a teacher beating some kids who were late. In this culture that is not a big deal. (Can you imagine if your kid could be beat by his/her teacher for being tardy?) But, even if it is acceptable in this culture there are rules here that don't allow it to happen without a process, a witness and following protocol. Troy was upset to find this and grabbed the teachers arm. No, no - no. Bad move. The employee was upset that Troy touched his arm - he quit on the spot and thought 15K (USD) would be an appropriate reward for his trouble. We had a hardy chuckle at that amount and that is what led to the judge coming out. Since then nothing has been said or done and no papers have been served. A valuable lesson was learned though. No matter how offended and upset we are, we are responsible to not let our humanness allow for an emotional reaction. Good luck to us with that. (Moral of the story: We suck, which is why we need Jesus.)

Back when our friend Fran was here a cool thing happened. If you have not checked out the blog she keeps, you should. The ministry she is working with helps children get to the States for medical care, then returns them to Haiti and their family. I have been meaning to tell tell you about the cool Godincidence that happened when she was here. Fran spent three days with us. One of the days happened to be a day that Mark Fulton had invited us to join his medical-team at the beach. When we arrived at to meet them Mark introduced us to a neonatologist that worked at an Indy hospital. Fran is fostering a baby with HUGE medical needs right now. (You can read about him on her blog if you go back to older posts.) The baby started in Indy and had surgery there before coming to live with her in Virginia late last year. The Doc she met up with happened to have access to a ton of information Fran needed to help the little boy who lives with her. Fran is from Virginia, the baby is from Port, the Doctor is from Indiana. They met on a beach in Haiti and the result of that meeting is that Fran can now better help Ched (the baby) and found a connection to a Doctor who can help her with Ched's past and his future. There are no coincidences there. God things are so cool to witness when you recognize them as such.

-Tara

"A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous." -Uknown

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle." - Albert Einstein