Woush. (Wow.) What a weekend!
Saturday morning began like a typical day of work here in Leogane, I took a taptap with two other volunteers to a school site that we have been putting a mural on 3 of its walls. We were doing the finishing touches in the early morning sun, and everything was going wonderfully. Some local children had come by to watch us work, to color flowers for us and to help us paint. At lunch time, I took a moto back to base, ate some rice and beans and then dressed for a meeting. The meeting was a local womens' cooperative, and we went to discuss how best we as an organization could assist them. The meeting progressed from 85% of the women saying that they could easily handle 100 chickens each in their current living situations, to telling me in individual interviews that for their 5 kids they buy 3 eggs a week, they don't have any jobs or skills, they're unmarried and they eat chicken when they can find the money. They had waited all day in a makeshift conference room of tarps and thin tree trunks salvaged from the nearly treeless mountains and here we were asking them if they cared about how much food was being imported into Haiti each day. (Rough estimates put egg importations from the Dominican Republic and one million eggs per day). It was a heart-wrenching afternoon to ask these women personal and potentially embarrassing questions and then walk away at the end of the day with them thanking us for the little installation of hope in their lives. We came home to base to dinner, which of course, was chicken.
Haiti is a difficult place, but there is beauty in gratitude for a simple thing like a plate with a piece of chicken on it, and the opportunity to talk with people and give them a taste of hope for a better future.
Sunday, I went to church, a Baptist service (that I understood about 75% of) on love and the verb tense in John 3:16. God loved us and still does. Good stuff.
After returning to base, there was a group who went to the beach, the 5 other people I went with decided to go as cheap as possible by walking across Leogane, to take a taptap to Gran Goave, to take motos to Paradis Beach. When we arrived, the other people who had left after us by machinn prive (private car) were there waiting, but out quite a few more goude than us. We spent a wonderful February afternoon floating in the beautiful Caribbean and soaking up too many rays. I had borrowed two mismatched sandals and we had quite a a good laugh walking up and down the beach looking for other sandals that might fit and match. No such luck but we caused quite a scene and entertained quite a few of the locals. Silly blan.
The afternoon was winding down and we were getting tired. We tried calling the motos who had brought us but the number didn't work. Instead, two of the girls I was with went and asked the restaurant to call motos for us. They said that they did but 15 minutes later it was a taptap that arrived not 3 motos. The chauffeur was less than friendly and wanted to charge us an absolutely ridiculous rate. A friend of some of the local volunteers, a wealthy man who was admittedly rather drunk, decided to step in and help us barter, even though Robinson a volunteer from Gonaives, was there already bartering for us and soberly. So here's what went down: drunk man called already-angry chauffeur some nasty words people didn't want to repeat, and then angry chauffeur man decided to go to his taptap and take out a tire wrench to start beating up drunken man. It got bloody very fast and loud and rather scary. A crowd gathered and broke up the fight, another local volunteer, also a little drunk, arranged for us to ride in the back of an NGO's pickup, but promptly after pulling out of his parking spot got the fastest flat I've ever seen. Eventually we crammed 10 people in the back of a short-bed pickup and drove back to Leogane.
When we got to Leogane, I thought it would be a good idea to go to a local restaurant with music and food. We walked over there, there wasn't any music and the food came very slowly. I messed up the order, and when my ham and cheese arrived it was soaked in mayonnaise and far less appealing. There was also a drunk man in the streets who kept pestering us for food. Meanwhile the music had started and we couldn't hear ourselves think, so we walked the rest of the way home, I was exhausted and it didn't help that I was trying to speak French with the two Canadians who were there. Woush. What a day.
This morning, the exhaustion continued with a conversation with two of the local volunteers about values and politics and the problems with NGOs and the need to be paid for work done. A similar conversation at lunchtime, about Haiti's need for a dictator who can kill people who are opposed to development, the problems with NGOs, and the exhaustion kept mounting, weighing my heart down. Thankfully, this afternoon I got to go "rubble" (sledgehammer and shovel) for 3 hours, and this made everything better.
Praise the Lord for physical labor.
Woush.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
It's Been A While...
Tet chaje! It's been quite a bit of time since I've updated you on my happenings. I've been in Leogane for almost two weeks now with All Hands Volunteers. It has been absolutely incredible to see what living with over 70 other people has been like, and how much work it takes to keep things running smoothly. We had a bit of a sickness outbreak, the most educated guess was dysentery but no one really knows for certain what had, at point, 17 of our people lying on thermarests near the bathroom for days on end. I'm grateful to announce that aside from over a week of diarrhea and only one day of falling asleep while working, I made it through the epidemic unscathed.
The days are filled with manual labor, but also lots of laughter and telling stories. The beauty of becoming more and more fluent is that I don't miss out on the stories from half of the volunteers and I have gotten to become good friends with several of the local volunteers. One girl, Fredna took me to her house last Sunday for dinner, we took a moto way out into the countryside as the sun was hiding behind beautiful, voluptuous clouds. We rode past churches and little shops and fields full of plantains and bananas and all sorts of plants of unknown names and purposes.
When we arrived, we sat under a huge kalbas tree as neighbors and family members gathered to talk to the blan who spoke Kreyol. When I looked uneasily up at the gigantic fruit looming above my head, I think I was comforted with a "don't worry they won't fall, they're not ripe yet," but of course, when you want to hear something, you hear it! Either way, nothing fell, and after a delicious dinner and a Coca-Cola and a fresh coconut off the tree, we sat and told riddles and laughed until the sun began to set and Fredna and I took a moto back into town, through the dirt roads, passing the soccer fields and loto shops and the little tables with their candles being set out for the night's games of chance.
There is a bar next door to the Base where we stay and I've been going and learning how to kompa and showing the other blans that you don't have to be drunk to have a good time.
The hardest part has been hearing the news that a little girl died at the orphanage last week from cholera and that two of the other kids were sick in the clinic. Everyone was very somber and many people joined in an impromptu prayer circle that night. The two children are back at the orphanage and were running around happily this morning when we went to sing and hold them and fill their physical touch quotas as best we could.
The best part has been the freedom of travel and the opportunity to go to Jacmel this past weekend! There was a group of volunteers who wanted to take advantage of the 2 day weekend (every other weekend is a 2 day weekend) to travel to Jacmel to see Carnival and to take a little break from the sledgehammers and cement mixers. So of course I tagged along! We shared a minibus there and due to some political manifestations the road was blocked between Jacmel proper and the hotel everyone else was staying at - so they team decided to wait it out at the beach. This very quickly led to the idea of taking a boat to the hotel and avoiding the roads entirely. I helped negotiate their certain death and off they went, leaving myself and Robinson (an international volunteer but from Gonaives, Haiti) dancing on the beach with a bunch of adorable little kids.
We walked up to Marika's house, through all of my old stomping grounds and then went and visited PP and spoke with him and Mr. Noel for a little while, enjoying the laughter and story-telling that always happens in the company of friends. That night, I went to dinner with Marika and the kids to meet the same team coming in that I came in with when I first came to Jacmel. It was wonderful to see them and to spend the evening relaxing and then sleeping in a real bed after a real shower and waking up to real breakfast! What a joy!
The best part was going to church with Jeanette and Mami Doune and Robinson and PP and Patrick and so many of the children from PAZAPA - what a blessing that was! After church, lunch and then walking through town again, the whole gang Jeanette, Robinson, PP and Patrick and Carnival too! Every corner we took there were more colored costumes and people covered in syrup and charcoal running through the streets dancing and lovingly/drunkingly threatening passer-byers. The day ended with a joyful goodbye and a ride to the bus depot by a friend of Robinson's - Haiti is a wonderfully small country - everywhere you go you're bound to see someone you know! Home again to the base and dinner at a little shop in town.
It's been a busy past week and a half and it's hard to believe I've only got a week and a half more before I head off to my next destination of Terre Blanche (near Gonaives in Artibonite).
Time is flying!!! Much love and many thanks to you all.
Lanmou,
Ana
The days are filled with manual labor, but also lots of laughter and telling stories. The beauty of becoming more and more fluent is that I don't miss out on the stories from half of the volunteers and I have gotten to become good friends with several of the local volunteers. One girl, Fredna took me to her house last Sunday for dinner, we took a moto way out into the countryside as the sun was hiding behind beautiful, voluptuous clouds. We rode past churches and little shops and fields full of plantains and bananas and all sorts of plants of unknown names and purposes.
When we arrived, we sat under a huge kalbas tree as neighbors and family members gathered to talk to the blan who spoke Kreyol. When I looked uneasily up at the gigantic fruit looming above my head, I think I was comforted with a "don't worry they won't fall, they're not ripe yet," but of course, when you want to hear something, you hear it! Either way, nothing fell, and after a delicious dinner and a Coca-Cola and a fresh coconut off the tree, we sat and told riddles and laughed until the sun began to set and Fredna and I took a moto back into town, through the dirt roads, passing the soccer fields and loto shops and the little tables with their candles being set out for the night's games of chance.
There is a bar next door to the Base where we stay and I've been going and learning how to kompa and showing the other blans that you don't have to be drunk to have a good time.
The hardest part has been hearing the news that a little girl died at the orphanage last week from cholera and that two of the other kids were sick in the clinic. Everyone was very somber and many people joined in an impromptu prayer circle that night. The two children are back at the orphanage and were running around happily this morning when we went to sing and hold them and fill their physical touch quotas as best we could.
The best part has been the freedom of travel and the opportunity to go to Jacmel this past weekend! There was a group of volunteers who wanted to take advantage of the 2 day weekend (every other weekend is a 2 day weekend) to travel to Jacmel to see Carnival and to take a little break from the sledgehammers and cement mixers. So of course I tagged along! We shared a minibus there and due to some political manifestations the road was blocked between Jacmel proper and the hotel everyone else was staying at - so they team decided to wait it out at the beach. This very quickly led to the idea of taking a boat to the hotel and avoiding the roads entirely. I helped negotiate their certain death and off they went, leaving myself and Robinson (an international volunteer but from Gonaives, Haiti) dancing on the beach with a bunch of adorable little kids.
We walked up to Marika's house, through all of my old stomping grounds and then went and visited PP and spoke with him and Mr. Noel for a little while, enjoying the laughter and story-telling that always happens in the company of friends. That night, I went to dinner with Marika and the kids to meet the same team coming in that I came in with when I first came to Jacmel. It was wonderful to see them and to spend the evening relaxing and then sleeping in a real bed after a real shower and waking up to real breakfast! What a joy!
The best part was going to church with Jeanette and Mami Doune and Robinson and PP and Patrick and so many of the children from PAZAPA - what a blessing that was! After church, lunch and then walking through town again, the whole gang Jeanette, Robinson, PP and Patrick and Carnival too! Every corner we took there were more colored costumes and people covered in syrup and charcoal running through the streets dancing and lovingly/drunkingly threatening passer-byers. The day ended with a joyful goodbye and a ride to the bus depot by a friend of Robinson's - Haiti is a wonderfully small country - everywhere you go you're bound to see someone you know! Home again to the base and dinner at a little shop in town.
It's been a busy past week and a half and it's hard to believe I've only got a week and a half more before I head off to my next destination of Terre Blanche (near Gonaives in Artibonite).
Time is flying!!! Much love and many thanks to you all.
Lanmou,
Ana
Friday, February 11, 2011
Not Just "All Hands"
I have internet! But not on my own little computer, I have to use the group laptops as they come available, but regardless, this is a great blessing for all of us. (Hopefully you feel this way too!)
I am in Leogane, safe and sound and living with 70 other people in a large open air cement palace. It feels like Eugene in the co-op sense and the compost bins, but very much still like Haiti in the heat, mosquitoes and the work!
Every morning we wake and eat a simple breakfast of instant oatmeal and hot water or corn flakes and instant milk. We are ready by 7:28am to go to work on one of many different projects - laying a foundation for a school, rendering walls for another school, demolition (more technical), rubbling (far less technical ~ sledgehammering), BSF (BioSand Filter creation), and other various projects like compost duties, Baby Orphanage, or whatever else some one has the initiative of doing. The organization is called All Hands and they really are just that! The physical labor feels wonderful after weeks of primarily working just my mouth, but of course, I am still working with that too. My Creole is getting so much better and it's an absolute joy to be meeting more and more people everywhere I go.
Most of the people here stay for months and my 3 weeks, I've been told, will pass quickly. In the meantime, I feel like this a time for me to practice the faith I have been so dependent on the past 6 weeks and actually be honest about it with the people here who are looking for grander purpose in their lives.
I've been able to have one really good conversation already today, over lunch dishes, about how and why I wound up in Haiti. I am feeling very led to doing this type of work in the future - being a missionary to the missionaries of sorts. I say "of sorts" because we are all truly missionaries in one sense or another. We are certainly not all preaching the same gospel, but we are all preaching something.
So many aid organizations have such good intentions and yet the end results fall short and the root issues remain. Perhaps I am here for such a time as this, to learn what works best and to spread that method one group of well-intentioned missionaries at a time.
(Of course, I'm still learning what this method is - but that's why I've still got a month to go!!)
Thanks for the prayers and emails and love - you're all wonderful!
Until the computer is free again,
Ana
I am in Leogane, safe and sound and living with 70 other people in a large open air cement palace. It feels like Eugene in the co-op sense and the compost bins, but very much still like Haiti in the heat, mosquitoes and the work!
Every morning we wake and eat a simple breakfast of instant oatmeal and hot water or corn flakes and instant milk. We are ready by 7:28am to go to work on one of many different projects - laying a foundation for a school, rendering walls for another school, demolition (more technical), rubbling (far less technical ~ sledgehammering), BSF (BioSand Filter creation), and other various projects like compost duties, Baby Orphanage, or whatever else some one has the initiative of doing. The organization is called All Hands and they really are just that! The physical labor feels wonderful after weeks of primarily working just my mouth, but of course, I am still working with that too. My Creole is getting so much better and it's an absolute joy to be meeting more and more people everywhere I go.
Most of the people here stay for months and my 3 weeks, I've been told, will pass quickly. In the meantime, I feel like this a time for me to practice the faith I have been so dependent on the past 6 weeks and actually be honest about it with the people here who are looking for grander purpose in their lives.
I've been able to have one really good conversation already today, over lunch dishes, about how and why I wound up in Haiti. I am feeling very led to doing this type of work in the future - being a missionary to the missionaries of sorts. I say "of sorts" because we are all truly missionaries in one sense or another. We are certainly not all preaching the same gospel, but we are all preaching something.
So many aid organizations have such good intentions and yet the end results fall short and the root issues remain. Perhaps I am here for such a time as this, to learn what works best and to spread that method one group of well-intentioned missionaries at a time.
(Of course, I'm still learning what this method is - but that's why I've still got a month to go!!)
Thanks for the prayers and emails and love - you're all wonderful!
Until the computer is free again,
Ana
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Growing Pains
Bonjou tout moun!
M poko pale kreyol konn yon rat men m'ap apprann toujou!
I'm writing primarily to share with you what this past week has brought before I leave the beauty of wireless for 3 weeks. I think I will still have occasional access, but God only knows and I don't want any of you worrying.
I have spent the past 5 days in Port-au-Prince withe Morquettes at King's Hospital. During this time I have been doing minimal amounts of work and it has been a struggle to accept each day that passes without feeling like I have accomplished anything. However, yesterday afternoon some old friends of the Morquettes showed up, Steve and Margaret Johnson. What a joy it was for the Morquettes and of course, I always enjoy meeting new people! So this morning, I was sitting in Dr. Morquette's office with Margaret waiting to hear what job he had for me to do today, and instead was blessed with time to simply sit and be reminded that wherever I am is where God wants me to be. And whatever I am doing, can always be for His glory and I can always be learning more.
I've been surprisingly tired this week- it feels like growing pains- I have been learning so much!
I'm off to Leogane tomorrow, Lord willing, and will be meeting entirely new people and having entirely new experiences.
I'll try to keep you informed as I can!
Mesi pou priye yo, (thank you for the prayers!)
Ana
M poko pale kreyol konn yon rat men m'ap apprann toujou!
I'm writing primarily to share with you what this past week has brought before I leave the beauty of wireless for 3 weeks. I think I will still have occasional access, but God only knows and I don't want any of you worrying.
I have spent the past 5 days in Port-au-Prince withe Morquettes at King's Hospital. During this time I have been doing minimal amounts of work and it has been a struggle to accept each day that passes without feeling like I have accomplished anything. However, yesterday afternoon some old friends of the Morquettes showed up, Steve and Margaret Johnson. What a joy it was for the Morquettes and of course, I always enjoy meeting new people! So this morning, I was sitting in Dr. Morquette's office with Margaret waiting to hear what job he had for me to do today, and instead was blessed with time to simply sit and be reminded that wherever I am is where God wants me to be. And whatever I am doing, can always be for His glory and I can always be learning more.
I've been surprisingly tired this week- it feels like growing pains- I have been learning so much!
I'm off to Leogane tomorrow, Lord willing, and will be meeting entirely new people and having entirely new experiences.
I'll try to keep you informed as I can!
Mesi pou priye yo, (thank you for the prayers!)
Ana
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Pride and Joy
Hello February - when did you get here!?
The time certainly flies when you're having fun and what could be more fun than spending a week digging fence post holes in the sun and scooping up sewagey mud with your gloved hands?
It may sound like complaining but I am being 100% honest! This week was absolutely full of JOY! I cannot tell you how many times each day I found myself bursting into laughter; whether it be at one of the numerous Chris Farley references, at an impression of a football player by a football player, the security guard Bob whining at getting a zit popped by a passing female friend, or the overall contagious joy that seeing my church in Haiti brought to me. I went to bed every night with a smile on my face, praising God for another day of laughter and another night sleeping under his stars (and once under his rain!)
Despite the energizing joy and leaving the team today feeling SO filled with peace and faith and passion, this week did present me with a new struggle. The struggle isn't necessarily what is new, but my recognition of it in my life has been of fairly recent origin: Pride.
C.S. Lewis calls it "The Great Sin...the essential vice." He says that "it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began" (Mere Christianity, 108). Being in Haiti and reading this means quite a bit more than reading it in the comfort of our U.S. democracy. Is this sin in me the same thing that has historically brought Haiti to its violence and corruption?
Before this week I was proud of my comprehension of the conversations I had and the success and maneuvering through a Haitian marketplace, it's true. But this week, I felt needed. I was translating for people other than myself and it was actually working! I was able to help explain parts of the culture and situation here for the team and answer questions for the strangers who watched us work. I wish that I could say I handled this all with the grace and humility Jesus would have had, but I did not. I let it get to my head and found myself losing touch with the servant's heart I hoped I would always pursue. But as confession is a rather humbling experience, I knew I had to tell all of you what really impacted me most this week, not simply about the wonderful people and activities that have certainly touched my life.
So there you have it, my Pride and Joy. Both stemming from my God-given ability to learn Kreyol - something I will always praise Him for - so long as I don't get caught up again in my own praise.
Glwa a Dye (Glory to God)
The time certainly flies when you're having fun and what could be more fun than spending a week digging fence post holes in the sun and scooping up sewagey mud with your gloved hands?
It may sound like complaining but I am being 100% honest! This week was absolutely full of JOY! I cannot tell you how many times each day I found myself bursting into laughter; whether it be at one of the numerous Chris Farley references, at an impression of a football player by a football player, the security guard Bob whining at getting a zit popped by a passing female friend, or the overall contagious joy that seeing my church in Haiti brought to me. I went to bed every night with a smile on my face, praising God for another day of laughter and another night sleeping under his stars (and once under his rain!)
Despite the energizing joy and leaving the team today feeling SO filled with peace and faith and passion, this week did present me with a new struggle. The struggle isn't necessarily what is new, but my recognition of it in my life has been of fairly recent origin: Pride.
C.S. Lewis calls it "The Great Sin...the essential vice." He says that "it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began" (Mere Christianity, 108). Being in Haiti and reading this means quite a bit more than reading it in the comfort of our U.S. democracy. Is this sin in me the same thing that has historically brought Haiti to its violence and corruption?
Before this week I was proud of my comprehension of the conversations I had and the success and maneuvering through a Haitian marketplace, it's true. But this week, I felt needed. I was translating for people other than myself and it was actually working! I was able to help explain parts of the culture and situation here for the team and answer questions for the strangers who watched us work. I wish that I could say I handled this all with the grace and humility Jesus would have had, but I did not. I let it get to my head and found myself losing touch with the servant's heart I hoped I would always pursue. But as confession is a rather humbling experience, I knew I had to tell all of you what really impacted me most this week, not simply about the wonderful people and activities that have certainly touched my life.
So there you have it, my Pride and Joy. Both stemming from my God-given ability to learn Kreyol - something I will always praise Him for - so long as I don't get caught up again in my own praise.
Glwa a Dye (Glory to God)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)