As I just sit
here and pull up my word document to write, I can’t believe it has been three
months since we’ve been back in Haiti.
I’m sorry to those who have been disappointed in my lack-of-blogging,
however life has just been crazy (seems to be thematic here).
We hit the ground
running since the moment we touched down arriving back from our Christmas trip
in the United States. Our time there was
enjoyable, but also very busy. We spent
about a week and a half in West Palm Beach, a week and a half in St.
Petersburg, and two and a half weeks in Sioux Falls. We got a lot accomplished, spent a lot of
time with friends and family, and put on some very needed weight.
The year 2015 has
proved to already keep us on our toes here in Mission Haiti, as we learn to
dodge and roll with the punches. Our
director announced she was, and now is currently, taking a sabbatical and is
currently in Africa at a Bible school for a few months. She left with our full support here in
Mission Haiti, however, as we said many times, it is now time to put our
big-boy and big-girl pants on. And that
is what we have done. We’ve adjusted to
life without Pam and together Paul and Tim make the majority of the day-to-day
decisions for Mission Haiti. It’s been
working quite well. Paul has quickly
become the go-to though, and barely makes it through a meal without being pulled in
one direction or another. As long as I
have known Paul, though, he has had opportunities put in front of him and he
has risen to them. This is no different. It really is kind of fun to watch.
Meanwhile, with
the shifting of jobs and responsibilities, I have taken over the
school-sponsorships on the Haiti side of things. For those of you who are unfamiliar,
Mission-Haiti sponsors over 2,000 local kids to go to school, through setting
them up with sponsors from the States.
We still have about 300 in our program that are still in need of
sponsors, and a whole myriad of others on a waiting list to get in the program. It is $100 per year to send an elementary
child to school, get them a backpack, a pair of shoes, and some simple school
supplies; and $200 for the same for high school-ers and VoTech-ers. If you are interested in becoming a part of
the program, feel free to contact me or take a look at the website
Mission-Haiti.org. Anyway, shameless
plug over, I am the manager of the database, and we currently are in process of
taking all 2,000 kids photos. What makes
Mission-Haiti’s program different from others around the world is 1) you get an
updated photo of your child every year 2) you can send a gift down to your
sponsor child 3) and if you find yourself on a trip here in Mission-Haiti, you
will have the opportunity to meet your sponsor child, to hug them, take
pictures with them, and probably even meet their family. It really is an amazing thing to be a part
of.
Now, we are in
the thick of team season, which is always paradoxical time of exhausting and
energizing. As I write this, we just
sent our third back-to-back team off. We
often say it’s kind of like having 16 guests staying in your house, a lot of
fun, but also a lot of work. However,
the teams have been amazing and we really do love the interaction with many
different kinds of people.
Life here
otherwise has been going well. It’s
mango season here, and mangos are life.
Many times in the middle of the night you will hear one fall on a tin
roof and you would swear it was gunfire.
I wonder if it was like when manna used to fall from Heaven when the
Israelites were in the desert. However
if manna hit you on the back, I’m sure it didn’t leave as big of welts as the
mangos do (you can ask Tim).
We also have the
new teacher housing rising up on our compound.
This building will house the teachers we hope to have come from overseas
to help teach in our new Christian Academy that will be starting next year (We
are currently looking for Preschool and Kindergarten French-speaking
teachers. If you know of anyone
interested, please contact us). With
this construction project means we’ve had a busy compound of a local
construction team. It truly has been a
pleasure getting to know these men, watching their diligence and insanely hard
work. Just even watching how they are
building this house from the ground up without modern power tools or fancy
trinkets, it’s fascinating. One day they
were moving rock from the entrance of our compound to the site of the
foundation, and I thought to myself that I’d like to help. So I asked the boss if I could help move
rock. Now, you need to understand that
our boss is a very no-nonsense, hardworking man who looks like Carl Winslow,
the father on the show Family Matters.
He shrugs and tells me in Creole, “You can help move rock, but I’m not
going to pay you.” The whole crew
erupted in laughter and proceeded to watch the little white girl try to keep up
with these champions moving large rocks.
Let’s just say that my time on the crew only lasted one day, and but the
soreness in my arms lasted much longer.
Other random
stories: one day as a mission team, we decided we needed to get out, so we took
the 45 minute trip to a nice beach.
While we were placing our orders for lobster and cokes in glass bottles,
a gentleman walked up carrying a sea turtle!
It was probably a 3-5 year old, beautiful green sea turtle. He proceeds to try to sell it to us- I assume
to make turtle soup? My
marine-biology-major-heart leapt into my throat and my eyes pleaded with Paul. With his loving support (yet shaking his
head), I ran after the man and paid him the equivalent of $22 American and
bought myself a sea turtle! I proceeded
to take a walk with my husband and latest purchase down the shore a-ways and
released him back into the ocean.
Truthfully, I don’t know if he made it after that, but I couldn’t just ignore
that this guy was legitimately selling a sea turtle! Now, in moments of boredom, I turn to Paul
and say, “Hey, remember that one time I bought a sea turtle.” Always causes a good chuckle.
We’ve also been
trying to make some movements toward getting an eye clinic set up, so I can use
my background in ophthalmology to help the people of this area with their eye
issues. Dr. Sheldon Vander Griend of Sheldon,
Iowa, (with the help of his brother, Gene) donated a slit lamp so I can take a
deeper and better look into the eyes to treat issues of the eyes. We are working toward getting the vision part
off the ground as well. My old practice,
The Eye Institute of West Florida, has been doing a great job of collecting
glasses. I am awaiting a few more pieces
of equipment to help me read glasses and people’s prescriptions before we can
really move forward in this part. We are
praying that the Lord makes this equipment available. However, we have had our first customer in
this area, despite waiting for the equipment.
His name is Richardson, and he is an 11-year-old who has never had a
pair of glasses, despite having over a -20.00 prescription. Optometrist Joel Marantz of St. Petersburg,
Florida, heard of this young boy, and he and his team made a special pair of
glasses for this young, awesome kid. We
won’t be able to help everyone, won’t be able to meet everyone’s needs exactly,
but that doesn’t mean we can’t do something.
So that’s what I am trying to do.
If you’d like to know more, you can check out an article written in the
Largo Leader a few weeks ago at: http://www.tbnweekly.com/editorial/health_news/content_articles/022615_hth-01.txt
Thank you again
for taking the time to read about what we’ve been up to. Thank you so for all of your support. We truly feel so supported by all of you and
are grateful for your prayers. We love
you all. Blessings until next time!
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