Today was our first full day in Haiti. It started out a little bumpy for me this morning, mostly due to the fact that it is a HUGE adjustment to being here. I woke wishing I was at home, wondering why I came here and also very nervous about actually interacting with the Haitian people outside of our gated, gaurded guest house. We started the morning driving for about an hour and half to a village church. Next we ate lunch in a school house on the same property. Shad was so happy, we ate peanutbutter and jelly. After lunch, we drove down the road to visit a river. And by a river I mean a huge dry, rocky river bed with a small creek running through it. We took some of the kiddos from the village with us so they could swim in the water. The kids were so adorable, lovable, sweet, sassy and super fun. They stripped down to their undies (some didn't have any on) and played in the water. While we were there some of the older boys walked down and, after acting too cool for school, ended up in their undies in the water too. One thing Shad and I realized today is that kids are kids no matter where they come from. The big boys splashed the little kids and then had contests to see who could stay under water the longest.
After the river, we dropped the kids off back in the village and then we drove to Lake Azuei. We stopped at a view point to take pictures of the lake. On the other side of the lake was the Dominican Republic. From there we drove to downtown Haiti to the capitol area. This was a very interesting part of the day. Just getting there we drove through some very poor, very busy, very narrow roads. And then when we got off the bus to look at the statues, we were bombarded with men that wanted us to buy their paintings. Frank, our team leader, was very familiar with these guys and told them that we would not look at their paintings until after we looked at the statues. Two of the Haitian men spoke good English, so they acted as our tour guides and told us about the signicance of each statue and the surrounding buildings. Next, we walked back to our truck where the Haitian men began spreading our their art work on the sidewalk and extremely forcefully trying to get us to buy what they had. It was very intimidating to me, but I think Shad enjoyed the interaction and the challenge of it. By the way, we bought two prints.
We came back to the guest house and took much needed showers. We were sweaty, dusty and covered in car exhaust. It felt so good to be clean, even if the showers here are ca-old. If there is hot water, I have yet to see it. But it is 90-95 degrees here, so I warm up quickly after. We are also learning that electricity is a pure luxery. The power company supplies electricity at their leisure (about 6 am -6 pm), so there is a huge generator that runs a lot of the time and then there are back up batteries also. Tonight was a fun time. We got to have dinner with John and Beth McHoul, the founders of Heartline. Let me just tell you, Beth can cook! It was a wonderful spaghetti dinner that she cooked for about 25 people. And then there were 4 kinds of homemade dessert. But the best part was talking with Beth and learning all the details about how they started Heartline and why they do what they do. Beth and John are both so kind and gracious and it is almost surreal to get to meet them in real life.
We are now back at the guest house unwinding. We are tired but it is hard to think about sleeping since it is only 7 pm to our bodies. I want to share more details about our day, but I will wait until we get home and I can add pictures to my stories. All in all, we are both doing great and we are taking it all in. We have already learned so, so much about the history of Haiti and the people of Haiti. We are getting to know the folks on our team and the Heartline Ministries team. Also, so far, the food has been great and we have not had any gut issues. Please keep us in your prayers. Specifically, my eyes are killing me with all the exhuast and it's smokey and dusty. Thanks!
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