Interwebs

I admit, I do reel slightly ridiculous blogging about internet problems, not only because it’s a little ironic to post to an internet blog about internet issues, but also because of where I live. I live in one of, if not the poorest countries in the western hemisphere. I’m lucky to have internet at work and even luckier to have it at home! So, I will try and not complain, but just state facts. On Saturday, for some reason still unknown, our internet went out and was out until sometime yesterday afternoon. The internet will sometimes stop working when it rains but comes back within hours, so we didn’t give it much thought until Sunday evening. We wanted to Skype, we wanted to check email, we wanted to look on Facebook, you know, all of those important things. But we couldn’t.

Yesterday afternoon, one of the men that lives in our apartment building spent the better part of his day tracking down the right people and getting everything fixed and then…success! Everything was working! We could get on Facebook once again! Huzzah!

…and then a pole outside caught on fire….

Not sure what started the fire, what it burned, or what happened, but a pole on the street outside our walls caught on fire and took the internet down with it....

I don’t want any of this to sound whiney or needy because last night was such a fantastic evening. Drawn together by collective boredom, a few on-campus dwellers gathered in our apartment for several hours. We talked, we baked, we laughed, the guys tried to kill our resident mouse, we planned our weekend adventure, such a fun evening!

Now, it’s not like these evening are a rare occurrence. Honestly, we spend more time together than any other group of people I know, but there was something about just sitting on the floor, and hanging out in the middle of the week which was so peaceful and relaxing and wouldn’t have happened if we were slightly more spoiled here than we already are and had had internet.

Jeans!!

The first thing I put in the “never want to take to Haiti” pile was my favorite pair of blue jeans. It is approximately twelve jillion degrees in the shade here. The last thing I want to do is wear pants that are going to absorb all my sweat. No thanks, I’ll take my linen pants please. However, after being here for several weeks I realized that it is not twelve jillion degrees here (or at least my body has acclimated to the heat) and I miss my jeans for certain things. Watching a movie on a Friday night, going to the casual house church, non-uniform days…I missed my jeans!

Well, Watermark Community Church (my church home in Dallas) has partnered with an organization called Mission of Hope here in Haiti and they sent a team down here to work for a week. Well, I asked them if they wouldn’t mind being my mule and bringing some items to me from home. They eagerly agreed. My aunt and my old roommate put together my ever changing list of much wanted items (definitely not needed) and got them to Watermark. I met the team at the airport yesterday afternoon and got my bags. Inside I found some of my favorite movies from home, t-shirts, items I had ordered and shipped to Dallas, Peanut Butter M&Ms (best. candy. ever. No contest.), and my jeans! I wore them today and enjoyed them ever so much. I honestly have no idea why I was longing for these pants, but I was…you can’t explain crazy.

So, BIG BIG BIG thank you to my aunt, my friend, and to the Watermark team that delivered my stuff. I appreciate it a lot and appreciated the fun surprises in my bag. The team will be going around the city on Thursday and is stopping by the school to check it out. I’m excited to see them again and show them my ‘hood. Pray for their team and the work they will be doing. Also, check out Mission of Hope’s website. Sponsor a kid’s education while you’re there J

SWEDOW

Katie, a fellow QCS teacher wrote a blog about a phenomenon happening in the developing world known as SWEDOW. It stands for "stuff we don't want," and has to do with wealthier countries sending their stuff to a developing country. Great in theory, but can do a lot of harm and send useless junk to just become trash in another country. Katie did a great job on her blog and I wanted to share it here as well. Below is the link to the article (check out the flowchart) and to the blog that Katie wrote about it.

Blog: http://www.benandkatieinhaiti.com/2011/10/swedow.html

Article with fabulous flowchart: http://buildingmarkets.org/blogs/blog/2010/05/17/swedow-flowchart-send-sell-or-trash/

Come Home Running

This morning in chapel we sang a beautiful song by Chris Tomlin called “Come Home Running.” This song essentially tells the story of the prodigal son and is an amazing picture of God’s love. As we sang this in chapel I wanted to cram the words inside of the skulls of these young people and force them to understand the truth. However, God works differently than I do (which is good news for these kiddos’ skulls). He takes each of us on our own path and lets us choose Him. I pray that each of these kids chooses Him, chooses Him soon, and doesn't stray. Pray that along with me.

Come Home Running

By: Chris Tomlin

Oh heart of mine, why must you stray?

From one so fair you run away

And one more time you have to pay

The heaviness of needless shame.

Oh heart of mine, come back home

You’ve been too long out on your own

And He’s been there all along

Watching for you down the road.

So come home running

His arms are open wide

His name is Jesus

He understands

He is the answer

You are looking for

So come home running

Just as you are.

Recent Happenings...

I’m not good at being consistent with this thing. Mostly because life here is not too different than it is from life in Dallas. Sure, it’s hotter and I have more mosquito bites than I have ever had in my life, but the routines are very similar. Go to work, teach, grade, plan, hang with friends, rinse and repeat.
Here are some random photos from what we have been up to the last few days…

On Friday our school, Quisqueya, had a game against another school in our league.

Quisqueya campus was crawling with students all night long on Friday night with our high school all-night camp out. There were movies, smores, volleyball, capture the flag and more. Several teachers chaperoned. I got lucky and had the early shift so I was only part of the action until about 1 am.

Saturday, a fellow teacher took Jill, Kellyanne and I up to the Baptist Mission in the mountains. You enter a completely different world when you go up the mountains. Beautiful, lush farmland and green as far as you can see….green!

They have a little restaurant with very American food, a gift shop with handmade items, and a bakery with the best cinnamon rolls I’ve ever had. Afterwards, we went to a little restaurant in an area of town known as Petionville. This is the nicer area of Port au Prince and the price of things reflects that. Still, the ice cream was delicious and it was great to see more of the city.

Monday was a rainy day. So, what did we do…Played in the mud. After a long Monday of meetings and teaching, what better way to unwind than throwing a football around in the mud with two good friends.

Yes, another post on community....because it's awesome.

One thing that my church back in Dallas taught a lot about was the idea of “What is the church?” What is it? The church isn’t a building; it’s people. A church isn’t built out of wood, cement, and stained glass; it’s made of arms, legs, and hearts. It’s a big mind-shift to go from the question “Where is your church [building]?” to “Who is your church?” I understood that concept of the church as the body of Christ in Dallas but coming to Haiti and experiencing the rich community here, I have begun to really grasp that concept.

If I had a nickel for each time myself or someone on campus said that they were thankful for the community that God has placed here, I could fly all of my friends to Haiti and back several times. Everyone in our little commune is blown away by the goodness God has shown us in how he has brought each and every specific person to this place at this time. We are not a bunch of eyes, or a bunch of ears, or a bunch of feet, (I Corinthians 12 reference). No, we have an eye, an ear, a foot, an elbow, a lung, a shoulder, a kneecap, etc. Each has their own role and we all fit together so well. Each person has their own unique gift that they bring to this fabulous puzzle: cooking, singing, hospitality, baking, singing, sports, intellect, compassion, wisdom, and the list goes on and on. This is the body of Christ.

Last night was a perfect example of our “church” here. Many of us “on-campus” dwellers walked to the house of another teacher to eat pizza. This is something they do every Saturday night and everyone is welcome. We went, broke bread (covered with cheese and marinara), talked, laughed, and ended the evening sitting in the cool breeze singing to God. Later that evening, when everyone was back home, Katie and I heard our neighbors singing and playing guitar so we invited ourselves over and sat for a couple of hours singing, talking, drinking tea, and worshipping God with our voices and our friendship.

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God…” Acts 2: 44-47.

I don’t know about the temple courts, and as of yet no one has had to sell anything to help the body, but I know that if there was a need, that need would be met in an instant. My words cannot fully express the awesomeness of this community, but I am thankful for how God has provided for me here in this way and the way he is using these people to show me His love.

Volleyball

Outside of little kid city league volleyball, I can count on one hand the number of times I have played volleyball. And now, here in Haiti I find myself part of coaching our school’s volleyball team! Thankfully, I am only assisting. There is a much more qualified individual here who is in charge of the actual coaching of the team. My role is more to help with the fitness and conditioning aspect (much more up my alley) and to be an extra set of hands and eyes. I never thought that this was something I would do. Despite growing up as a coach’s kid, I never saw myself as a coach, but I am really enjoying being a part of this team. We have had over 20 girls come out and bust their butts the last few weeks and tonight we are choosing the final members of the team! Wish us luck!

Waterfall/Independence Hunting

One of the most difficult things to adjust to here has been the lack or at least the lessening of independence. Thankfully, the school where we work puts absolutely no limitations on what we can do. Some Americans are here with NGOs who don’t allow them to walk on the streets or ride in taptaps. We don’t have any of those kind of restrictions, just the ones that naturally come with living in a new, unfamiliar city where you don’t know the language, roads, culture, or have a car.

Over the last couple of weeks a few of us “new kids” have felt the cabin fever rising up in us and the need to get out and explore (explore even more than where we have been exploring) had become too great. So, we decided that we would go on a waterfall hunt. We knew there was a waterfall about a 20 minute drive away and, with some directions, landmarks, and a general idea of how to get there, we were sure we could find it.



We tried to find where we were headed on the map,
but it wasn't on there...usually not a good sign.



So, off we went on Saturday. After fueling up with a delicious cinnamon roll from baker-extraordinaire, Tiffany, we walked down the street and hopped on a taptap. We were lucky to have a Haitian friend with us who knew the taptap routes and knew Creole. We rode a ways and hopped off when we got to a busy street, Rue Frere, where we began walking. We walked and walked and walked. Occasionally we would check our map to see if we had passed any of the known landmarks and then continue on. Our map (hand drawn by one of our crew) was not drawn to scale so we weren’t exactly how close or far we were from our destination at any point. We got to a split on the road where one way was paved and the other was rough and rocky. After checking with several locals we, in true Robert Frost fashion, took the road less traveled.

When we turned onto this road it was as if we immediately entered a different world. We had left the world of concrete and dirt and entered a land of lush green grass and thriving tropical plants. We walked down this road for a bit, stopping every once in a while to ask someone what direction the waterfall was. As we were walking down a thin, muddy trail we heard the sound of running water and, a little farther down the trail we entered a large river bed. There was a thin current of water running down the wider river bed and peppered along the way were women doing their laundry in the clean, running water.

We made friends along the way!

Following the water to see where it leads.

We followed this for a while and after a small bit of climbing we turned the corner and saw what we had been searching for…the waterfall! Success!

Josiah and I wanted a better view and a little more adventure, so we climbed the slick muddy trail to the top of the fall. We then slipped our shoes off and climbed further up to see the several smaller waterfalls that fed into the first. When we reached the end (or what was our end) we saw a slick, steep wall that looked impossible to climb. Josiah gave it a good try, but had to admit defeat. We made the climb back down (much more difficult than going up) and rested at the bottom.

Climbing to the top of the waterfall.

View from the top.

Using some of my rock-climbing skills to move up the falls.

Katie and I took a little shower under the falls and it is hard to imagine anything more refreshing.

We had a snack and dried off a bit and then began the long trek back. Going back, we took a taptap for more of the trip and decided it was much easier than walking.

We arrived home very tired but very satisfied with our day and our adventure. Any venture outside of our walking zone is a small step toward a little more independence. It was great to get out and see a bit more of the city and relax in a nice, cool oasis nestled in among the cinderblocks and smog.