My Third Trip to Haiti - Part 2

8-15-08

I forced myself to eat breakfast this morning. I didn’t like it, but I have to get over stuff like that. It was prepared by gracious hands so I cannot refuse. In a country where everyone is starving I shouldn’t complain.

As I was taking a shower it wasn’t working right so I adjusted it. The shower head came off in my hand. I had to smile. I shrugged and thought, “C’est la vie.”

I was asked to speak at church on Sunday. Lord, give me a message from your heart.

Some of the doubts I had last night are going away. It’s wonderful what a new day can bring. It is funny how some physical inconveniences can cause me to doubt my Lord. I didn’t know where some things were and things were dirty, so I was upset.

The Haitians are such a joyous people. A song or smile is quick to their lips. The girls are cleaning up after the rain and one of them just burst into song. It’s beautiful. The low thumping of a UN gunship circling above breaks the spell of the song.



Later – I need to learn Creole. I’m completely cut off and ineffective without it. Lord, I need your power. I must learn. I must make a list of goals. And accomplish them. Lord, please help me.

Later – The children are... what’s the word? Animated. Every once in awhile I have some other words I would like to call them, but I shall refrain. I’m kidding. I love them all. Even when they are evil.

Angelo left me alone in Deli Mart. I navigated it fairly well. No cross-cultural incidents. We saw Bill the American who runs a boys orphanage.

Lunch was very good. It was some type of rice and spice mixture that is served with a nameless fish. Very good. Landa came up to me and put her arms around me. A couple of the smaller girls did the same. It got a bit overwhelming. A surge of parental love almost brought me to tears. But I held it together until they had to go and do some things.

Later – I had to lay down for awhile because I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I didn’t really sleep, but I wasn’t really awake either. I was possessed by strange chaotic dreams. Barsoom (I’ve been reading Edgar Rice Burroughs) melded with dreams of glory and me professing love to girls I’ve never met.

I’m sitting on the roof now covered by God’s canopy. Gloom is closing in as the sun sets. Just a minute ago the reflection of the sun on a cloud bank lit up the world painting it red ochre. A restless breeze stirs the air. It’s quite cool.

The thing I must get use to is the outdoor lifestyle of Haiti. In America we are inside most of the time cut off from the world. Mountains, sunsets and Mango trees will make it easy. Heat, insects and exertion will make it hard.
I had thought about sleeping on the roof, but lightning is now playing in the east.

The girls are singing hymns. I have no words for the beauty of little children singing praises to the Lord.

It’s now dark. I can feel the rain coming.