Everyday Life

Well, I’m officially out of tourist mode and into actual living mode here in Haiti. I didn’t take a single picture last week which is why I skipped my Sunday blog entry. Let’s see if I can remember what happened...work, language lessons, tarantula, work, rain, massive thunderstorm, work, crafting, marketing, language lesson, work...pretty standard fare for two weeks in Haiti.

The thunderstorm was really something, though. I was at the Childcare office. just working away, when BOOM!! I have never heard anything like in my life. The sky was just beginning to look a little threatening, but no rain had fallen and I hadn’t heard any thunder, yet. It was like a single bolt of lightning struck Childcare. A ball of fire came shooting out of Marie Lucie’s electrical socket! Needless to say, we scrambled around unplugging computers. It poured sheets of rain after that and during the night, the lightning actually hurt my eyes and the thunder was absolutely deafening. It was WILD!

That night at church, it was hilarious to hear everyone’s account of the random lightning bolt. We all thought we had been directly hit. A computer monitor and light bulb blew out at the school, and that’s on the next hill over!!

Sheila and I decided to do our own marketing this week, so Miss Beth drove us into town and helped us haggle with the merchants. It’s a good way to practice Creole and establish some good relationships with the local venders. I need to find the best places to buy our food – I bought some oatmeal last week to make oatmeal and raisin cookies for ladies tea on Tuesday. They were terrible, but I couldn’t figure out why. Then, the ladies at tea told me that I should never buy oatmeal at a certain store. They spray all their products with a chemical that kills bugs, and it infects all the food that is not wrapped in plastic. The next time I went in, I could smell the spray. My cookies tasted like bug killer!

Today, we attended the Charpentier church which started at 7 AM. We got home in time to listen to the Sabetha morning service and the Bluffton North afternoon service. It’s always refreshing to hear a voice from home. We were invited to the Reinhards for supper along with Christina and Irene, two German missionaries. Miss Beth dropped in later for dessert. It was a regular party!

I’m looking forward to starting a new week. It’s a nice feeling to be refreshed in body and spirit. Thanks for your prayers and many blessing to you all!

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