The Now

As sit here to start writing about our present life in Haiti, I can't help but chuckle. Why? At this moment I am sitting at my kitchen table with our very noisy generator turned on because we haven't had power in almost 23 hours. Is that a complaint? No, it's just our life in Haiti. And when our power does come, if you want to see kids scream like its Christmas just come on by for a visit. It's really quite amusing. Maybe one day I'll be able to catch it on video just so you can hear the pure joy and excitement of such a simple thing like getting power.

This morning we got running water and as soon as it comes on, one by one we each take a turn to go and enjoy a shower. Even though we don't have running water on a regular basis it doesn't mean we don't get to wash ourselves, it just means that our baths include a lot of lugging water back and forth from our water jugs to the bathroom. Honestly, I sometimes wonder what it will be like to go back to Canada and have running water all day. Will I forget and just assume I have to wash my clothes by hand? Now that I started talking about washing clothes. Let me tell you, I purposely DO NOT wash my clothes while our cook and assistant is here. In no way do I wash my clothes like a Haitian. They scrub those clothes and get them cleaner than a washing machine. Me, I am lucky if I can make them smell decent. I apologize for anyone that visits me and may think I stink, but you just get to the point where it doesn't really matter cause all you do all day is sweat anyway. Is that a complaint? No, it's just our life in Haiti and well everyone sweats.

Now talking about sweating brings me to our next topic about our life here. Transportation. I really have no words to express it. I'm just happy that I can get to where I need to go and make it back safe. We currently have no vehicle except our moto but we haven't mastered putting 5 people on it yet. You may think that might sound crazy, but come to Haiti and you won't think it's so crazy anymore. So our other form of transportation is called a Tap-tap. It's kind of like a bus/taxi service but about 17 people maybe more or less depending on the day, pile into a back of a truck and we get to where we need to go. It gets very hot and you sweat a lot. If you're going to Port-Au-Prince you can take a big school bus but again they put as many people as possible on it and off you go. The other I thought I might actually pass out from sweating so much. So after this summer we are going to start looking into getting a truck. It will much more convenient and then we can do family activities, like going to the grocery together.

Food. What do we eat you might ask? Well we live in Haiti and before we moved here Chris and I both decided that we wanted our kids to experience as much as a Haitian life as possible so we agreed we would hire a cook and eat Haitian food. We were a little worried about the kids, but again you want to see a child scream like it's Christmas. Come watch the expression Katya gives when rice and beans are put on the table. They have adjusted so well to eating their food and we love it. Plus it's super cheap to feed our family. It cost us $100 a week to feed us 3 meals a day for 5 days. The weekends we use to go the grocery store and buy Canadian type food but I was spending the same amount we spend for 5 for just 2 days and that wasn't sitting well with us. And well we have so many "restaurants" down the road for us that we decided on weekends we eat from there. So we can feed our family of 5 lunch for under $5 and still have leftovers. Saves us money and I get of cooking everyday, sounds good to me. Chris is always the one to get the food and he has built so many great relationships by going out and doing this.

Just 10 minutes ago our Pastor next door was sticking his head over our wired fence calling for him so he can give him some home-made honey and freshly picked cherries. Our other neighbor has been such a blessing to us, in whatever way he can help, you can count him in. And I'm sure everytime Chris goes to get drinking water someone picks him up on their moto and drives him home for free.

We also have build great relationships in a community called Grand Savann. This is where we spend our Saturday mornings with about 75-90 kids. They literally cram into a one bedroom home and learn God's truth then they have some play time and we enjoy some lunch together. Recently we announced that we are starting a feeding program for these children to make sure they are getting meals every Saturday. If you want to learn more about it send one of us a message we would love to share with you more.

This is also where I am going to end. Here was a glimpse of our right now and tomorrow I am impatiently waiting to tell you about our future. We are so excited for what's God being doing in our lives. Even the kids are excited and in the words of Katya "I.JUST.CAN'T.WAIT."