Friday November, 19th...

I was looking at the date this morning and wondering how November is already over half gone. I guess sometimes time really does fly. I have only a few more days until I head back to the States for a holiday with my family. I'm getting excited to see all my loved ones.

We've been pretty busy around here. I'm sure you're hearing snippets of news about Haiti lately. The reality is that there is a lot of newsworthy activity going on here, but I'm afraid most major news channels only want to cover the sensational end of the stories here. I'm not a journalist, and honestly, how could I ever know the whole of the story here, but it's easy for me to see an abundance of newsworthy activity here...

A seemingly unsurmountable occurence of poverty
An upcoming election
The lack of suitable recovery following a major catastrophic event
An epidemic that has killed more than 1000 people

And now, fighting in the streets. What I've found out in my time here, and in my relationship with this country is that the real story is not always easy to find. You have to ask a lot of questions from a lot of people, and be patient, then maybe the answers will start to come. Questions and Patience. I've been reading a lot of reporting from news entities and am sometimes upset, and sometimes offended at the way the Haitian people are portrayed. I wish the international community would approach people and situations here with a little more dignity. As people we share a commonality, and sometimes we're unwilling to share the small courtesies with each other that we expect for ourselves. But...I don't think I'll write anymore on that now, I'm far to0 opinionated and way too uninformed to try to write opinions of the greater state of Haiti for the whole internet to see here.

What I can say is this, the cholera is bad and is taking a lot of lives. Where it is hitting families and communities it is hitting hard, and many people are dying senseless deaths. It's sad. It's sad to hear of parents carrying a child to a hospital and then carrying them back home, lifeless. It doesn't make sense in my head, and it probably shouldn't, but it is a story that has been repeated countless times over here in the past month.

There is fighting in the streets...most of the fighting has been up in the North of the country, and most people are saying that it is only directed against the UN forces that the people are upset with. Yesterday there was some rioting in Port Au Prince in the downtown area. It was a holiday here and given the situations with the election and Cholera, I'm not too surprised that it happened. I haven't seen any signs of violence when I've been out in the street with one exception...and the exception that we saw was what was left after a fight in the streets, most likely after someone stole something. I've never found myself in danger, nor do we intend to. We try to make wise choices about where and how we move around the city. I talked to my dad today and told him not to worry...we play it safe, even if our daily routine hasn't been touched.

Things are going well with work at the orphanage. We got the phone call that one of our children's paperwork is done for his adoption. Now we just wait for the passport and visa...and the lawyer is doing that this time! It's possible he'll be with his family soon!

Today I have a meeting with a lady here who is helping with four of our children that are alraedy linked with families. Their paperwork is progressing as well! These things are all very exciting. So we're trucking along, trying to do what we can do. We've had a steady stream of visitors here which adds another exciting element to life around here, but Gertrude and I did find a little time for our own shennanigans up on the roof last night and tried doing the limbo with our clotheslines. It's always good to end an evening in this house laughing with Gertrude!

too tired...

I'm too tired to write. I've got great stories, and real thoughts on the cholera epidemic...and other great things to share.

but I am just too tired tonight and the internet connection wasn't cooperating earlier.

so...just checking in to let you all know that I am alive, and well, and excited to share stories with you all.

Arriving...

We have a couple teams here this week. I'm usually a team girl. Normally when I am in Haiti I have a bunch of people with me, or I'm with a bunch of people. This time is, of course, different. I'm definately not one of those "longer term" guys who things the "shorter term" guys "just don't get it." I like teams and I think they are an important part of telling the real story of Haiti back home, and hopefully their leaders are helping them begin to see the real stories here. I like short term teams...

But I can't help feeling a little bit like I'm just starting to arrive in Haiti. It's been a little over 2 months since I got here, and I'm starting to feel like I'm part of the workings here. People who work here have started to ask me questions. People in charge here are trusting me to give information to the workers. Kids come to me when something is wrong, or when they need to be soothed. Part of that is due to my slight increase in language knowledge...and part of it is because I am becoming a fixture in the lives of people around me.

A team last night was talking about the work being done here by big aid groups, and I had to keep my emotions in check, because it's hard to drive around here every day and see big aid groups with fancy cars and big budgets, and then see the people unwilling to leave tent communities that are unsafe and unsanitary because they really feel they have nowhere else to go. I can't point fingers...totally. I know that there are no easy answers to Haiti. I know that this is not an either/or situation. It's complex and it's difficult. What I do know is this, it is great to watch the work of people here who love and respect the Haitian people and don't come at it with an Us vs. Them mentality. I'd rather be a We.

Had a great visit with my brother while he was here. It was fun to drag him around to lots of parts of Port Au Prince...next step, getting my parents here!

Sometimes I come up with CRAZY ideas...

If you've ever spent time in Port Au Prince, it's no secret to you that it takes a long time to get things done here. Part of the reason is that it can take hours to drive across town. We've been without a working car for quite some days now...almost a week I think. We had a bunch of kids that needed medical tests, and I figured if we were dropping big money to rent a Tap Tap for the day, I should make it worth my while. So we found the children we needed to run blood tests on and made our lists.

This morning I knew things were going to be crazy when we couldn't even get out of the house without some elements of chaos. 10 children total. We had 10 children ranging in age from 2-9, one with what I think is Down Syndrome, one with a pretty big case of what we think might be autism, among other things, and one child who can't walk, or sit up on her own.

I got to the lab with two nannies and ordered tests for all the kids. They were so nice to me and offered to send the lab worker out into the hall. This was great, because I knew I would have some screamers. Since some of the children we had were difficult to manage to say the least, I had the two nannies stay with the group at the entrance to the hallway and I took the children one by one down to their tests. These were all blood tests and TB tests...all of which involve needles. Yikes.

Now, I'm not a mother, and I don't know what it's like to watch your child get shots, or have blood drawn. But I can imagine that one of the only things worse than holding one child through something like that, is holding 10 children through something like that...especially kids that can't all communicate with you. It was not easy. There was kicking, screaming, crying, chewing on my arm, yelling, a couple kids swatted the needles out of their arms. Basically, we were pretty much a circus...me, the crazy white girl, torturing children. A couple kids I had to wrap my legs around as well as my arms to hold them. I only had one child not cry...she was the youngest one. No children peed on me this time, but my clothes were soaked through with sweat...partly mine, partly theirs.

There must be some bonding process that goes on in these things. The children were all so happy to go one by one with me...then terrified that the needles stuck them...fought kicking and screaming...then unwilling to let go of me after it was all finished. Tonight I went down to see them before they went to bed and the kids who went with me today were asking when they get to go with me again...and other kids want to go along next time. Apparently they've forgotten the traumatic moments.

After we were done with test results, I had to have identification photos made of a few of our children in the adoption process. Think passport photos. This was ridiculous. First of all the put the boys in oversized suit jackets. Hilarious. The one boy threw a huge fit and it took us about 12 photos to get one we could use. The young girl, after witnessing the boy crying started to get afraid. The photographer did not like the outfit I picked out for her (which was totally hip and cute!) and asked me to find her another shirt. So I had to go out to the car and leave another of my girls half naked so the other girl could take a photo that satisfied the photographer. I sat the young girl on the seat for her photo and went to soothe the boy who was crying, only to turn around and see that she had peed all over the photographers stuff...either she was scared...or mad that he didn't like her outfit!

We got all that business sorted out and I made it home in time to help a young lady here with her Spanish homework. I still remember a little Spanish...enough to help her with what she's learning now. But her books are in French to teach her Spanish. So I had to take the Spanish, translate it to English so I knew what it was saying, then translate it to Kreyol so she knew what it was saying, and then help her translate it back into Spanish...all while following directions in French. There's part of me that's pretty excited I was able to pull that off...there's another part of me that just has a big headache!

Just another day in Paradise. My brother comes tomorrow. Can. Not. Wait!

Sanctuary...

You know...sometimes life is surrounded by chaos here. Tonight I was reading reports of cholera spreading all over the country. We just had a hurricane dump rain on most of the country and tear apart homes and lives in other parts. And now...more cholera. Seriously. Sometimes I wonder how much people can endure.

It's easy to look around here and see the harsh reality that makes life hard for so many people. And yes...I realize that I have NO idea what most people go through here on a daily basis. I have a comfortable bed, pillows, clean sheets, three meals a day, indoor plumbing, showers whever I want, electricity, soap, and coca cola! But I have eyes that see, and ears that hear.

Sometimes it is easy to look around and only see the hard stuff. And yet, I see so much beauty. Tonight I am sitting on my porch. The temperature is really comfortable. I have wireless internet that let's me write this here. In the distance I can hear a church and her people singing. I sang a bunch of babies to sleep. And it's in those moments that you realize that there really is a sanctuary where you can go and rest. Tonight I can relax here...tonight I can sleep peacefully.

Today has been a hard day for me. Trying to work in the midst of Haiti, and still try to communicate to people that things here and things other places work VERY differently. I've been angry, sad, happy, upset, frustrated, joyful....all sorts of things today. I'm missing my loved ones...a lot.

And yet...there is rest...there is sanctuary.

Tomorrow I take 10 kids for a bunch of medical tests...better get some sleep!

Response...

I came to a realization this morning. Well...it's been building for a few weeks now. I have a much more heightened sense of my responsibility to respond when a neighbor is in danger or needs help here.

Last night I got an email from an aquaintence I had met back in Chicago. We met around Haiti stuff. She works with the Lutheran church out in Jeremie. I work with the Lutheran church in Port Au Prince. We really didn't have much in common in our work in Haiti, except for the fact that it was in Haiti. Somehow I ended up on her email list.

She was saying that there was some significant damage out in Jeremie revolving around the people they work with there. I immediately emailed her, and any other contact that might know the pastor there, to see if I needed to help out, bring supplies, do anything since I am living here in Port Au Prince. Now I wait to hear back.

I was thinking about it as I sent out more emails this morning. I am so quick to respond to my neighbor's needs here. Death, Cholera, Hurricane... Why am I quicker to respond here? Maybe it's because I'm less distrated by MY life here. And I have a bit of the sense of, "If I don't do it, who will?"

I guess I'm hoping that this desire and need to respond to my neighbor's needs would be something that follows me every day. How great would our communities be in the United States, or in our churches, if we were quick to respond to our neighbor's needs. It's not that I think that this doesn't happen in the life I knew before Haiti. I remember last year when my grandparents fell sick and passed away my parents' community of friends and church gathered around them in a wonderful way. I watched the kids I worked with in each of my congregations love homeless people in shelters or soup kitchens. I watched my brother's desire to respond to the needs of his community after a tornado. It happens...a lot. Maybe it's just easier to see the need here in Haiti. Maybe the needs are more Front Page here and less easy to ignore or be distracted from.

At any rate...I hope that when I'm not in Haiti my eyes will be just as focused on the people around me and how I can be a part of responding to their needs. Maybe today we can all spend a little more time getting to know the people in our community and how we can best serve them.

Good Day Sunshine...

It rained again last night. This morning it was grey...but it didn't take long for patches of blue to pop through the clouds and for the sun to follow. I'm hoping that the hot Haitian sun dries up all the flood waters.

I still haven't been out of the house and have no reports of what things are like out in the streets of Port au Prince. Our car here isn't working. Our staff has been able to get in and out for work, so I'm figuring that's a good sign.

Staying in the house for three days has made me a little stir crazy, but it's given me the opportunity to get a lot of paperwork done, especially since the electricity has been working and we didn't lose internet during the storm (miraculously!)

I was able to send off a bunch of paperwork for kids that are in the process of adoption and get sponsorship letters sent off from 15 of our kids. These were all things that needed to get done and just weren't happening with all the other things going on, and sometimes uncooperative internet signal. It's nice to feel productive.

It's going to be a big week this week. I have lots of papers that I need to hunt down for kids, and we have a couple groups coming. My brother comes on Wednesday. There are no words for the excitement that I have at FINALLY getting to share Haiti with someone in my family. This is will be the first time that any of them have made it to Haiti, and I can't wait for them to start seeing what it is that I always talk about. Should be fun.

I'm a little sad that I won't be experiencing "fall back" tonight. I love getting that extra hour of sleep, but Haiti doesn't change time...so I'll go to bed on Central Time and wake up on Eastern Time.

For all of you that get to change time...happy extra hour of sleep! Lucky.