Living Haiti

Updating:

It seems like I am always lacking time, energy, or internet signal to get this blog thing to work out. The last month has been frustrating with internet connection, and usually I sit in front of my computer for 20 minutes of so waiting for the blogger to load only to have the power switch over, the signal get lost and have to wait again. I'm afraid my patience just hasn't been up to it. I apologize. I would love to write more! I always have plenty of thoughts to share, and getting them out of my head here is always helpful too!

Merry Christmas...Happy New Year everyone!

So...here's a quick update.

Christmas in Haiti was hard for me...I didn't see it coming. Well, I saw Christmas coming, but I didn't see how emotional I would be being away from all the trappings of American Christmas, American Church Christmas, and my family and friends. Wow.

I spent two days in my future brother in laws house. They have four children. Needless to say, they did not leave me alone for two minutes. I made beaded necklaces and achieved super star status. Loved it! No one there speaks English. That was interesting.

I ate lobster on the beach, 10 feet from the beautiful Carribean water. Awesome. You can be jealous.

New Year's Eve was pretty much my best one ever. It involved many things that I miss from the United States, including a cocktail and pasta, a man playing classical guitar next to my table (while that rarely happens to me in the US, that was a nice touch)....and all sorts of Haiti fun. Like riding on motorcycles, hanging out with fun people, dancing to Haitian music, and great food. Totall worth it.

I was able to get the medical visa for the little girl after working for it for an entire month. Thank goodness. Then the stressful time of trying to keep the mom here for the other hoops we have to jump through and signatures we have had to get has also been a bit trying...but hopefully we will get to Social services on Monday, and the little girl will leave on Tuesday. I'm praying that all goes smoothly!

The little girl that I helped with a medical visa a few months ago had surgery this past week in the United States. She had a tethered spinal cord. they don't know if releasing it will help her walk, but I feel like she is in AMAZING hands and I am happy to report that while we won't know for a long time if the surgery was successful, that all seems to be going according to plan. This is GREAT news.

I have been trying to figure out how to build a chicken coop...nothing in my life has prepared me for this moment. Lord have mercy.

I have a group here in PAP right now. It's been great to have them around. We worked on building the wall at the guesthouse that had fallen down. They are also working on the chicken coop...I have put it in their hands.

Nannies are being a bit of an issue around here. If you pray...maybe you can pray that we can find the staff that we need, and that will love the children well. We have some super AMAZING nannies here, but we also have some pretty serious slackers.

I still don't have a new check card...getting things here to Haiti can be interesting. Which means I still don't have my paypal working. I know a couple people have tried to send stuff through there. I'm sorry. Banks are a pain sometimes, and it's more of a pain when you are in a differently country where communication is not always easy. I'm working on it. (In all my spare time)

I'm hearing alot of rumors of when election results or updates will be coming out again. I can't begin to imagine how you sort out what rumors are true...what rumors are not true. I guess we'll just know when we know.

I love Haiti. I've had some hard Haiti weeks...but the fact remains that I love Haiti.

I also love Gertrude. Her ability to roll with the punches in the midst of incredibly hard and frustrating things is beyond amazing. I can't imagine working with a better partner here in our home! She repeatedbly says to me..."Rachel, I understand, but I don't think you need to be this frustrated about it." Basically what she's saying to me is, "Rachel, I understand, but you can't control things here the way that you're used to controlling them. sit down...let it be."

So...we're off for another day. I'm hoping that I can update again more regularly. Our internet around here has at least been better in the morning and late at night. So...maybe I'll start blogging then!