Cleanliness in a Fourth World Country...

Saturday, April 17th, 2010 10:00 a.m.

Another difference we deal with here in Haiti is the topic of cleanliness...I've decided to focus on one aspect of it: bathing. Though at the beach we sometimes had running water, even there just taking a bath required more energy than we often wanted to put out. Now that we are at the uphill property we are back to taking bucket baths. Let me enlighten you on the amount of effort a "bucket bath" requires:

First we decide we want to expend the energy bathing takes...usually this means either the heat has become completely unbearable and the only relief we'll get is pouring cool water over ourselves, or we just returned from a long ride in the truck and are covered with dust and exhaust smoke from other vehicles on the road.

Next we gather our clothes and begin the search for a towel and soap. We have places for these things, but when eight to twelve people use the same shower these items are easily misplaced. Twenty minutes later we walk behind the house, laden with our accessories, and upon seeing the padlocked door, realize we forgot to ask for the keys. After a few minutes of searching for the person who last had them, we open the door, place our items on the 1 ft. by 1 ft. "table" inside, and look in the bucket...no water.

Then the battle begins...is there water in the barrel? Not enough. Does the reservoir have enough water? Yes. Is the hose connected? Not yet. To connect the hose someone must go around the house, outside the gated yard, up the driveway to the reservoir. Once the hose is connected, and the water is slowly flowing out into the bucket, we wait about twenty more minutes until it is full. Finally our bath is ready. Once the door is shut behind us and we are sure nothing else can delay it we look into the bucket once more and realize there is no cup with which to dump said water on ourselves. By now we are too exhausted to look for one on our own, so we call out the door for a "gode" and wait for someone to find one, clean it, and hand it in to us. Now our bath is ready.

And finally, fifteen minutes later, we emerge clean and cooled off...at least for about seven minutes.

Internet in a Fourth World Country...

Saturday, April 10th, 2010 12:15 p.m.

For a switch, I have decided to give a brief description of one of the differences brought about by living in a country such as this. Through this, I hope to provide a better understanding of what it takes for us just to send an e-mail or update a blog.

Around 2:00 p.m., after we have eaten lunch, since it's the hottest time of the day, and some people have finally left the yard for a while, giving us a small break from meetings, distributions, cleaning, and supervising construction, we decide we'll be able to spend some time on the coveted internet, which at times is our only access to the "outside world." First I have to find the keys so I can open the office where we keep the inverter. I unlock three concessive doors to reach said office, only to discover that the inverter is out of juice. The next step is to find two or more of the boys who can roll the huge generator outside and start it to give us electricity and also re-charge the inverter. Most of the boys are helping with the construction work or uphill, so half an hour later, they finally make it down to the yard to commense the "delco."

After making sure the inverter is set to charge and the extension cord is plugged in I go back inside, again unlock two of the before mentioned doors to retrieve the internet modem, printer, and computers and cords. Carrying all of these items, I mosey on out to the back of the house, where we have a screened-in tent for our office, complete with two desks, two plastic chairs, and a power strip for all of our devices requiring electricity. I take both laptops from their bags and plug them in, then fit all four wires into the back of the internet modem, plug it into the power source, and connect it to my laptop. Just as I sit down to turn on my computer, the generator shuts down. I send for Smith again to come find out what is wrong with it, and he works on re-wiring the starter while I type out an e-mail using the last fifteen minutes of charge on my computer.

Another twenty minutes goes by, and finally we have energy again. It is now 4:00 p.m. I click on the little "e" icon for internet access, and it refuses to connect me. I turn off the internet modem, restart my computer, and repeat the above step. Google.com miraculously appears on the screen! Ten minutes later my e-mail account has loaded, and I am able to begin reading and replying to my mail. When I am finished with my work, I call Dee and she is able to spend some time on the internet herself. Just before dark we close everything down and turn on the inverter, now fully charged so the yard can be lit during the night...another chapter in the saga of our internet activites has come to a close.

Easter weekend...

April 5th, 2010 2:00 p.m.

Believe it or not, Easter is celebrated in Haiti. In fact, the Haitians are more serious about this holiday than most Americans. Everyone had the entire weekend off, which means all of our construction projects came to a standstill, something we weren't quite prepared for, since Easter seemed to come upon us so suddenly this year. But it turned out for the best, as we all got a much needed rest from the constant meetings with people, running errands, and disributing food and supplies.

Sunday morning dawned bright and early, and though we didn't have a sunrise service like I am used to from my home church, our church begins very soon after the sun has risen over the tip of our mountain. I had spent the night before copying Bible verses into Creole on slips of paper and placing them inside twelve Resurrection eggs (plastic eggs containing little items and verses that tell the Easter story) that we had amazingly found inside the container...we found them just in time, too. God is so awesome. Dee used them to teach Sunday school, and the kids had lots of fun walking one at a time to the front of the class to open the eggs and read the verses inside. In the morning service we sang quite a few songs that I knew, including my favorite Easter hymn, Because He Lives. It was just as beautiful sung in another language. After church we handed candy out to all of the people...no Easter egg hunts, but they still got candy!

That afternoon a group of us drove to the beach and swam, relaxed under the shade of the coconut trees, and ate a picnic lunch on the sand. It was the first time I had been anywhere for more than two hours without Dee, Crash, or Wilckly, and I was very grateful my Creole has improved so much. However, I greatly enjoyed that time spent with the people...even in those few hours I was able to build relationships with some of them who before then I had only said "good morning" to each day. God is definitely using this time to bring me closer to the people, as well as to Himself.

Of course the weekend was over all too quickly, and this morning masons and welders are all over the property, generators are running, hammers pounding, and ground shaking all over again. Back to work it is! Praise God for the rest and calmness of the weekend, and for the time we had to meditate on His sacrifice for us. It is so true, that "because He lives, we can face tomorrow" no matter what it holds.