Two for One

You are getting two days's updates at once because the Internet was being incredibly temperamental yesterday, so I just gave up and watch a movie instead.

The last couple of days have been roller coaster rides emotionally. At times I feel really good about what I am doing, where I am, and what is going on.  Other times I feel incredibly lonely and out of touch.  The last two nights have been hard.  Other groups are here, and they have their own connections, so at time they often get together and socialize.  It's not that I'm not invited to join, it's just that I don't know their families, their children, or the people in the stories they tell.  It's that sense of being loneliest in a crowd.

I've been thinking of home a lot lately.  Things that I miss.  Things that I want to do.  Be with my dog.  Having American food.  Diet Coke.  Take a hot shower.  Not sweat.  Being with friends, people who know me.  Having time to myself.  Not having to think so hard to talk with most people.  Feeling semi-competent.  Reading as much as I want.

These thoughts hit me most at night or when the days are slow.  Too much time to think.  I don't think I realized just how busy life is in America until I came here.   Because I don't have to do all the shopping, cleaning, laundry, cooking, shoveling, lesson planning, grading, attending meetings, paying bills, etc., I have much more down time, and it's hard to fill all that down time.  I space out my reading so that I don't run out of books.  There's no television.  I'm not a huge music person.  So, I'm learning to be still.  Two of the devotions that I've sat in on have focused on stillness, and it is good for me to hear that message.  I love the passage from Scripture that reads "Be still, and know that I am God."  It's hard to live those words in the States, but God is challenging me to live them in Haiti.

That's enough of the serious stuff!  Today was a blast.  I was invited to go with a visiting group and 11 kids to the national history museum and then have lunch at Epidor.  The kids were great!  They put on their Sunday clothes, used their best manners, and did Gertrude proud!  Oh, and before we left, the women in the group made the kids pancakes.Some of them don't remember ever having pancakes before, so it was a big treat.  The kids barely chewed, they were so excited.  About 16 kids ate through five boxes of pancake mix!

                            

Lunch at Epidor was also an experience.  Some liked their food, others didn't.  We gave them a choice between a hamburger and fries or chicken and rice.  The chicken and rice came with cooked cabbage, which I think only one kid ate (I don't blame them for passing on it!).  And one boy didn't like his hamburger, but the other kids shared their rice and chicken with him.  For a bunch of kids who don't ever go out to eat, they handled themselves beautifully.  Gertrude can be very proud of the manners her kids are learning.  The kids also wouldn't eat until they had prayed.  Pretty cool.

Group Shot

Christell ate more rice than any kid I've ever seen!

Gus loved being included!