Haiti Living

Hey everyone! Thank you so much for all your encouraging words on my last post! They were much needed today!  Things are still going very well here.  Cassie and I are starting to get tired, but we are still enjoying our time here.  Entertaining kids all day is hard work!  We still do not have city power.  Samuel (Dorothy's driver) went to the electric company yesterday morning but they were closed for the Holiday.  Luckily they came by today and tried to fix our cable.  Apparently something is wrong with our line only, but there was no city power on the block when he fixed it so we're not really sure if the problem is solved yet.  We also ran out of propane on Sunday.  Lets just say that made for an interesting day/night.  The nannies called while we were at church because they had no idea how to make lunch for the kids without power or propane for the gas stove.  Luckily Dorothy had a small kerosene burner they used, and while it took forever, the kids had lunch!  Samuel was able to go get a small tank yesterday to allow us to have enough fuel to cook with until they could come refill our tank today.  It's been an interesting few days!  Every night around 4-6pm, depending on when we turn the generator on that morning, the power goes out and we start our adventures in the dark.  We turn the inverter on before going to bed and it lasts us until about 6am. Fortunately we have not had any more mouse chases, Nala Dorothy's dog caught him the other day, so for now we are good to go!

Let me give you a little taste of our life here with our daily schedule:
-We wake up at 8am, brush our teeth and get ready for the day.
-Around 8:30am we eat breakfast (usually cereal or granola bars)
-9am we go outside to play with the kids.  This usually involves the kids fighting over who gets to sit in our lap next, lots of hugs, kisses from Johnny, picture taking, defending our water bottles from the sneaky kids who want to take a sip, and playing outside.
-Around 10 the kids go inside to brush their teeth and change out of their pajamas
-10 to 12pm varies a little each day.  Sometimes we stay outside to play more with the kids, and sometimes we come inside with Richardson (sha sha) and the older kids to play games, and sometimes we use that time to entertain guests or help Dorothy around the house.
-12pm we eat lunch (usually rice, beans, and some type of sauce)
-After lunch from 1-4:30ish we watch movies, play with the older kids inside, take a nap, or like today update on the computer.
-5 o'clock the kids eat dinner and we start making our own dinner.  This is always my saving grace because its American food.  I've had macaroni twice (thank you lord!), we had chicken last night, spaghetti, and when the power goes off we have PB&J and fruit.
-6-7 the kids go down stairs for baths, and devotion time.
-7pm the house is quiet as all the kids sleep and we usually hang out talking with Dorothy in the living room
-Around 7:30 Cassie and I head to our room for showers, bed, and occasionally a movie.
-9-10pm we go to bed
-8am we start all over again!

Yesterday's schedule was a bit different.  Instead of playing with the kids, Cassie and I took a break and painted our bathroom for Dorothy.  It went from a terrible pink to a light blue-green. The paint here is like whitewash so it took about 4 coats, but luckily the bathroom is small so we finished in a few hours.  After lunch Samuel took us and Dorothy sight-seeing around Port au Prince.  We saw the airport, the Palace, all the tent cities, downtown, and a bunch of back roads.  Then he took us to this overlook at the top of one of the mountains.  It was the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen.  You could see the mountains to the right, Port au Prince in the middle, and the ocean to the left with more mountains.  Words and pictures simply can't do justice to it.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  It's so hard to believe that this country, so littered and damaged by people, is that stunning from above.  Dorothy put it best when she said "What God put here and what the people did with it do not match."  This country really is beautiful.  I've never seen anything so amazing before.  We dropped Samuel off near his house and Dorothy drove us home from there.  We got to see little bit of night-life here in Haiti.  There are people everywhere at night! There's music playing and everything keeps going.  The best part was that as we came home, Giant, the biggest grocery store I've ever seen was open!! We didn't think it would be due to the New Years/Haiti Independence day Holiday but it was!  We got all kinds of American goodies from an air conditioned store! Oh it was amazing!  We got stuff to make little pizzas with a few of the kids one night this week and brownies!  So exciting!  Having a place like that definitely makes it easier to be here and for the missionaries to live here.  What a blessing.

As far as the kids go, they are simply precious.  I have fallen in love with Johnny and one of the babies Taina. Johnny, who you can see on my pictures from my last Haiti visit on Facebook, is absolutely wonderful.  He's got a smile that is so contagious.  He is always ready and willing to shower you with hugs and kisses.  He loves to cuddle and ride his tricycle.  He will sit in our arms any chance he gets and loves to be around people.  He and another boy Myson have this system down where one rides the bike while the other sits in our lap and then they trade. It's really cute to watch.  And then Taina (I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right) is this little 6 month old girl.  She is trying so very hard to walk.  She is constantly pulling up on everything and loves when one of us will hold her hands and walk her.  She reaches for me every time I go in the room, and I can't help but pick her up.  She loves to be around people and know what's going on at all times.  She cries when I put her down or one of the nannies takes her from me.  It breaks my heart, but it is so sweet.  She will cuddle when shes tired and is absolutely beautiful.  I keep telling Dorothy I'm going to take them home with me!  Unfortunately, that is not an option but I keep showering them with love anyways.  I hope they will find an amazing adoptive family to bring them home one day.  They deserve the world and are SO precious! 

Well I think that is all for now.  Sha Sha is waiting for me to come watch a movie.  Please keep us in your prayers! I will update again in a few days!  And fingers crossed we'll get city power back tomorrow!  Love you and miss you all!