Take a Look

Tim saw the funniest sight the other day as he was waiting to cross a busy intersection near our apartment:  two men were walking along the road with a pig that had a girth of nearly 72 inches (we got out the tape measure and put it around one of our room fans to get that measurement).  One man was pulling the pig by a rope from its front end while the other fellow was attempting to "boost" the pig from behind.  The “kochon” (pig) must have been hot or tired or both but it simply decided it did not want to go any further and put the "brakes on" by dropping its hind quarters and the men nearly tumbled one over the other.  Of course, it was one of those times when Tim did not have his IPhone with him but still and all I could imagine what a picture it must have made.

This incident reminded us that when we write to friends or talk with family via Skype we tend to forget that some of our everyday experiences and activities are really out of the norm for those with whom we are corresponding.  Like the way we get our water.  Firstly, we keep an eye out to see if the little blue window shutter is open at our neighborhood watering hole.  We then drive up to it and take a couple of our 5-gallon containers to the window where the fellow places each one under the nozzle of a plastic PVC pipe.  For a mere 60 cents a bottle the pipe funnels water out of a huge storage unit on the building's roof and into our jug and we're on our way.

And bathroom accommodations…over the years and across the countries we have seen just about every type of “loo”, “water closet”, and “wash room” one could imagine.  In fact, just a few days ago when we went to Croix des Bouquets to look at some of the UCC-Fuller Center partnership houses, Jimmy, the young fellow overseeing the construction, drove us to the various building sites. He took the time to show me how they place re-bar and the kind of mountain sand they use for the foundation but he especially wanted me to see how they dig/build a latrine.  As I approached the 2-ft. square hole, I saw a fellow pulling a bucket of dirt up from its innards and when I peeked down into the hole I was greeted with a big smile from the fellow who was putting all that dirt into the bucket.  He was so far down in the ground, maybe 15-feet, I almost could not see his face and…he was still digging!  Now I have to tell you, being married to a construction man I have seen my fair share of latrines but I still have great respect for anyone willing to go down into the earth’s bowels on a 98 F. day so a family will have access to sanitary facilities.                  

The different ways we look at things are not unique to people in the States because our Haitian friends get a tickle over some of my antics (Tim is so much more dignified!) They actually laugh out loud when they see me runnin’ for the hills whenever I come into contact with a prehistoric-size roach or a spider that could have been used in any one of the old Godzilla or King Kong movies.  Haitian women will simply grab a broom or something similar to chase the unwelcome house guest away while I, like Elvis, “have left the house.”

We have truly enjoyed learning about various cultures and how each adapts to life in their particular part of the world.  Most are so practical and down-to-earth that we sometimes ask, “Now why didn’t we think to do that?” while others are so peculiar and so very different from our experiences that we simply stand wide-eyed and scratch our heads.  Nonetheless all have reminded us that the good Lord loves diversity and variety.  We do, too.

Walls

Friends wrote today to remind us that the Berlin Wall was built on this day over 50 years ago in an attempt to keep countless East Berliners from escaping their Communist-held homeland.  The article also said "the Wall" was the most protested barrier in the world.

Tim and I were able to see some of those protests first-hand when we visited East Berlin and its infamous stronghold in 1985.  The Wall was actually two walls:  an inner wall around the city itself and an outer wall that was across a "no-man's" expanse and faced West Berlin.  It was the outer wall that West Berliners covered completely with protest graffiti and that East Berlin officials periodically whitewashed during the night as they tried to mask the West's dissatisfaction with their stranglehold on countless lives.

Yes, a visit to The Wall was, indeed, an unsettling experience made even more so by having a rifle pointed at us from across that "no-man's" expanse.  We had climbed a West German built tower with a handful of teens from our church and were looking at the barren land where Hitler supposedly committed suicide in an underground bunker when we noticed a guard in a tower on the East Berlin side with his rifle pointed at us. We believe it was nothing more than an attempt to intimidate but nonetheless we got the young people back on the ground in a hurry.

If that had been the extent of our visit we might have gone away with a sense of "those poor people having to live under such oppression" but that was not the end of the story.  We had the opportunity to pass through the Wall's borders and to meet several residents of East Berlin by sharing ice cream cones of all things.  You see, we had to exchange a number of West German Deutchmarks (about US $5.00 worth) into East German currency and were not allowed to bring any of their money back with us to the West.  Once inside East Berlin we could not find anything to buy as store shelves were nearly empty but we did find ice cream vendors on the streets.  

Soon we were asking people if we could treat them to the frozen cream's delight and nearly all responded with a resounding, "Yes!"  The conversations were simple with explanations about some of the city's architecture and questions about where we were from but it was still a time of warm sharing and learning. NOTE:  One fun architectural story we learned later from our guide was about a tall, Seattle Needle-like structure with a dome at its top that reflected all over the city the cross from a nearby cathedral. East German leaders had tried numerous ways to stop the reflection (such as sanding the dome's sides) but to no avail.

Walls.  We've learned there are countless numbers of such barriers in this world and that not all are physical ones.  For that reason we have prayed and searched for ways to surmount these obstacles in an effort to bring about communication, understanding and reconciliation and in doing so we have realized some of God's truest riches.

Tree Climber

Bet you would have never guessed it but I used to love to climb trees when I was young. Hey, I was raised with 6 brothers and sometimes we would climb trees to see how far off we could see into the distance, China maybe...; other times we ventured up to pluck some (sour!) apples that we thought were just the best tasting fruit ever; and on some nights we would climb trees and shine flashlights into cars as they passed by (I know, I know...who woulda' thunk she'd grow up to be a pastor!)

This morning I was once again greeted with a unique Haitian sound:  kerplunk!  Our landlady's nephew had climbed one of our neighbor's trees and was chopping coconuts off of the tree and tossing them to the ground surrounding our house. Who knows what our friends will make of these tropical fruits?  They could use them for their "milk" or they could chew the hard inner white fruit as a sweet treat or they could even use the outer husks to weave a "Welcome mat".

As the young fellow continued in his task i could not help but to remember Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.  Tim and I had lived in this island nation when we first moved to Asia and Tim later went back to help with the country's rebuilding following the devastation caused by the tsunami.  We knew that the coconut was a staple of the island and that people used every part of the unique fruit in their everyday living.  We were most impressed by the "King Coconut" which is large in size and orange in color and encouraged overheated mission team members to drink its liquid to help cool their body temps. Additionally, we encouraged mission team members to drink the liquid as it would also help to settle their upset stomachs.

During one of our return visits to Sri Lanka we met a young woman with two very young children who had lost her husband in the tsunami.  With her limited education and her inability to find someone to care for her little ones so she could look for work, this young woman was dependent upon her 82-year-old grandfather to bring in some source of income.  The way he earned a living for the family was by climbing 80-ft. coconut trees and cutting the coconuts down and selling them. 

So, you see, Tim and I have great respect for this particular tree which provides a source of income for families of limited means.  I also like it because it is a reminder of childhood days and a reminder that God's provision surrounds us in the most amazing ways.

Starting the Day Haitian Style

Early this morning Tim headed to Croix des Bouquets to check out houses being built through a partnership with the UCC's One Great Hour of Sharing and the Fuller Center while I stayed behind to work on my Creole studies.  I appreciated having the apartment to myself so I could better focus on "present progressive participles" and "duplicated verbs".

With Haiti's summer heat, our doors and windows are always open and I could hear the typical morning sounds of roosters crowing, the babies at the next door orphanage "goo, goo, googling", and dogs barking at some unknown in the background.  Today, however, another sound joined the mix as our landlady, Kekette, turned on her radio to a local pastor and began to actively participate in the message in our shared courtyard.  She sang, she danced, she shouted out "Merci Seigneur" (thank you God) and banged one of her metal cooking pots with a wooden spoon.  It is rare to hear one so totally immersed in praise and adoration and I was humbled and blessed by this opportunity to listen in as Kekette totally surrendered herself to her worship of God.

I must admit, "starting the day Haitian style" has put a lilt in my heart and a livelier step in my walk.  A pretty good way to begin a new day, eh?