"Oh, How We All Love a Nice Hot Bath"

Yowza!  When was the last time you drove down a road and there was so much dust you could barely see the vehicle in front of you even when it was only 15 feet away?  Talk about dust, this summer has been hot, hot, hot and dry, dry, dry.  So much so that people

Selling water on the street

have been wearing those little paper construction masks or covering their faces with handkerchiefs or wet wash cloths as they ride in local open-air taxis called tap-taps. These air-born, grimy little particles even have Tim taking wet rags and wiping down the potted plants on our veranda because they look so pitiful and scraggly (thanks, sweetie!)

But now, at last, the wonderful, refreshing and cleansing rains that come at night are becoming more and more frequent.  "Lapli a" (the rain) not only helps to keep the dust down but it also cools our nights to the point where on occasion we need not even use a fan.  And the children sing about giving the rain candy if only it will come:

"Lapli vini, vini, m ap ba w bon bon"

Water.  It is amazing how this precious commodity has become such an important part of our lives as we make certain we have a daily supply of purified H2O for cooking, drinking,

making coffee or tea, brushing our teeth, washing our faces and the list goes on.  We are truly grateful for this life-sustaining liquid, but we learned many years ago that it holds an even greater value than we could ever have imagined.  The lesson comes from a story shared by a friend about her powerful experience with water while living in Haiti as a missionary.  

Little water bags sold on the street

Deana is a Methodist pastor and was living here during the early 1980's as part of a program that helped with housing. Normally, she is a pretty even-keeled person but one day she wakened and for whatever reason felt "grumbly"; nothing was right that morning. She growled that she did not have milk for her coffee, she murmured about being all sweaty from the night's heat and complained that she "could not even take a nice, hot bath".  Even as she left for work that day, she was still muttering under her breath.

When Deana came home some 8 hours later, she was astounded to see a good-sized metal tub on her kitchen floor and it was filled with steaming, hot water.  The woman for whom Deana was helping to build a home had heard her complaining that morning about not being able to take a hot bath and decided to do something about it.  To accomplish this feat, the woman had to travel on foot for 1 1/2 hours one-way to a water site to get two full buckets of water. She made the trip twice and carried those heavy buckets for a total of 6 hours. When Deana learned of the woman's sacrificial gift, she began weeping until the future homeowner said "I know how you Americans love a nice hot bath and because you are building my home I wanted to do something nice for you."  Deana said she could never again take water for granted and you know what?  Her story changed our way of thinking, too.

Tim and I are well aware of the countless lives that struggle to have even the most basic

of necessities to meet each day's challenges; and realize, too, that while the amenities

Well dug by Living Waters

we enjoy might seem primitive to those elsewhere they still permit us a decent quality of life. We have learned to greatly appreciate the resourcefulness of those with whom we live and work.  We stand in awe of God's creation of the human mind and its ability to design the most imaginative of innovations.  Perhaps most importantly, we have come to understand that the world is filled with hearts that desire to give as well as receive.

“Kay koule twonpe soley, men li pa ka twonpe lapli” – A leaky house can fool the sun, but it can’t fool the rain.

                                                                                                                                       -          Haitian Proverb