A Baby Changes Things

Babies, babies everywhere!  When Tim and I get ready to back our truck out of the courtyard area where we live we have to first check that our landlady's 2 puppies are not

Tim, puppies, mama and grandma

underneath.  Kekette will make a "smooching" sound with her mouth to try and get them to come to her and if that doesn't work she pulls out their little tin feeding dish and they come running!  Next we have to do a search for Jean Lamour's four toddler-age peeps before moving the truck because as soon as Tim starts the engine they will run across the gate area and right behind our behemoth.  Finally, we make certain that baby-girl, Daya, is either on her mama's lap or with another adult who will keep her safe because it is amazing how quickly little ones can move when we are not paying attention.  Check list completed we are at last able to depart the busy gathering area.

Daya

Not all little ones in Haiti have the opportunity to be so well cared for as families struggle to meet a multitude of needs in their daily lives but, thankfully, there are programs to support families as they prepare for the birth of a new baby. For example, our friends, John and Beth McHoul of Heartline Ministries and residents of Haiti for 24 years, set out to build a "birthing center" after they saw a tremendous need to provide a clean, sterile facility with well-trained midwives and nurses for expectant mothers and their unborn babies. The result was not only a good and safe place to deliver their infants but also a program that encourages mothers-to-be to take part in essential prenatal care before giving birth. Solid health care is only one component in raising healthy children and the strongly relational people of Haiti know that the support of community is key as well.

For that reason we were delighted to read a recent blog written by Beth McHoul in which she says, "Part of the deal when moms deliver with us is that they stay in our post postpartum until they feel ready to go and then we take them home.  Home can be a USAID tent, with or without a roof, or a cement house that looks pretty okay.  We have women at different economic levels in our program.  I've noticed regardless of their economic status our ladies are rich in community.  As we wind down a dirt road barely big enough for the vehicle and come to a stop people come out of nowhere.  Squeals of delight meet us. 

The mom and baby are welcomed, hugged, prayed with, hugged again and mom is swept off her feet as she is ushered into the house, be it a tiny cinder block house or bigger house. Grandma grabs and inspects the baby and declares the child perfect. Siblings grab at the baby while they ooh and aah.  There is delight all around.  Recently one crowd [even] erupted in worship.

I am seeing this over and over again.  Post postpartum depression doesn't have a chance  

Jeanette holding friend's baby

in these neighborhoods.  Women like each other, they support each other, and they watch each other's kids. Family is extended and they raise each other's children. Relationships are close.  They fight, sure, but all families do.

Yesterday we drove a bunch of ladies home who live in the same neighborhood.  The ambulance, the all-important somber ER on wheels, was transformed by a howling, laughing, joking group of silly women. We drove from house to house, had to get out, take photos, meet the family and the onlookers and then move on.  Each lady was gracious and proud to have us.  Poverty lost its power to joy and community.  Love pulsated in the air. Our differences melted away."

A baby does change things.  Each time a new life comes into our world we are reminded of God's awesome power and magnificent love and especially so in this season of Advent as we focus on the coming birth of God's own Son, Jesus.  "Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us" (Matthew 1: 23).  Halleluia and halleluia.

Pumpkin Faces and Wondrous Places

It's that time of year again.  Friends and family have been sending us fall photos from the U.S. which include brightly colored scenery and creative, carved pumpkins.  They have also sent pictures of little ones in their

different costumes and we have even received some sharings from friends living in other parts of the world.  We have chuckled over “Mario” of the Mario Brothers video game, Angry Birds, and Jake and the Never Land pirates and "ooohed" and "ahhhed" over Renaissance princesses, fairy princesses, and Little Kitty characters.

Today and tomorrow are holidays for us as Haitians, too, celebrate their particular “fall festivals”.  November 1^st is for the Catholic community All Saints Day or All Souls Day and is a day of alms giving and prayers for the dead; the belief is that such offerings from the living help to assist those in purgatory. While their focus is not on the dead, members of Protestant churches attend all night prayer vigils, sing traditional hymns and offer thanksgiving for the Lord's blessings and goodness. Festivities continue through November 2^nd which is the Day of the Dead for those who practice vodou with followers going to grave sites to light candles and pray with food and drinks.  Traditional offerings at cemeteries include coffee, candles, bread, alcohol, corn, printed paper and fresh flowers.

Remembering loved ones who have passed on is also a part of life in Asia and one of the most memorable holidays is the “Hungry Ghost Festival” which our Chinese friends celebrate as a day dedicated to their ancestors.  It is usually held in August and families travel to ancestral burial sites where they lay out a wide range of food and drinks for their deceased relatives.  It has an almost picnic-like atmosphere as people sit on blankets near the graves and talk, socialize and reminisce.  Wondering what would become of the meal offerings, we asked some of our colleagues, “What do you do with the food when you go home?  Do you leave it at the grave?” and they responded with laughter, “We are Chinese and we waste nothing!  We take the food home and eat it!”

In more recent years, we learned of the St. Joseph Festival while living in New Orleans and working with the Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.  Sicilian immigrants brought the tradition to the Crescent City during the 19^th century as they sought to honor St. Joseph to whom they had prayed when drought nearly destroyed their homeland.  Tradition says the rains came and the people were saved and their elaborate offerings of food on the altars in their churches are a remembrance of answered prayer.  The variety and presentation of the various foods, breads, desserts and such are truly a sight to behold!

Haitian hand-crafted metal cross

Multitudes of practices, traditions, beliefs and superstitions abound in the world and are indeed fascinating.  Observing other practices also serves as a reminder to us as Christians to examine our own faith traditions and in doing so we are grateful for the message of the Gospel which reveals how love came down to set us free.

Jeremiah 31: 3 – “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.”

"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

                                                                                           

Granny, You Would Have Loved Haiti

We had just passed a cemetery and our interpreter was saying, "I don't know why you want to go into a cemetery.  You need to stay away from there because there are zombies

(zome-bies) in there!"  Our laughter prompted Fritz Marc to say, "Hey!  Haiti is a mysterious country. We are different from other countries."  Courtesy kept me from saying aloud what I was thinking but it was something along the line of, "Yeah, yeah. It's not so different from other countries we have known who have their own unique histories."  

But you know what?  The more we spend time here, the more we realize that Fritz Marc was right.  Haiti is like an onion and what you see on the surface is not always the reality. Indeed, one has to peel back the layers to even begin to understand the people of this Caribbean nation.

As Tim and I have become immersed in folklore tales ("kont") and songs during our Creole studies, our eyes have opened to the challenges, joy, concerns, spirituality, and fears of Haiti's denizens.  Both words and music stem from an "oral tradition" which has been passed

down from generation to generation and in a time when people in the countryside would sit on their steps on a Saturday evening and chat, gossip and relax after a hard week of work.  Soon some off-hand comment might prompt a thought which would inspire a story and adults, teenagers, children and toddlers would gather around.

The storyteller would call out "krik!" (creek) and if the audience wanted to hear her or him they would respond with "krak!" (crack).  However, if the audience did not want to hear that particular storyteller they would withhold their shout of "krak!" and the storyteller could not continue.  

It was not that the audience was trying to be rude but rather their commitment to a story and its teller was so great they would shout out remarks about characters and events; sing songs that were a part of the story; and encourage the teller with comments about their talent.*

Such times are not too different from my own childhood when our "Granny" would gather us in the kitchen to make a sweet, doughnut-like treat which she called "Hungarian donuts" (nope, we are not Hungarian).  Each of us had an assigned task and as we set about doing those tasks we would talk about our day at school or about some activity in which we were

involved and soon our Granny was telling us a story from her own childhood or one she had learned from a friend.  We were simply entranced by her vivid accounts of swimming across the Ohio River with her brothers in the early 1900s; of the time she and one of her sisters were trapped in the basement of a funeral home with a corpse; and how the gypsies came to town one day and her family was afraid they would kidnap her youngest black-haired and brown-eyed sister and how they set about to hide her.

Yes, we can learn a lot about people (and ourselves!) through stories and, perhaps, that is why Jesus used parables.  Although His hearers oftentimes could not figure out what the story was saying (the Disciples, too, had to occasionally ask what they meant) I think Jesus gathered followers and would-be followers around Him in an effort to get them thinking and to begin peeling away the layers that would ultimately lead them to a sense of Whose they are.  For once we know Whose we are, we will know what we are to do.

*Thanks to "The Magic Orange Tree: and Other Haitian Folktales" by Diane Wolkstein

From "En, De, Twa" to "Happy Birthday"

They each have very distinctive personalities despite their young ages.  One voice overshadows the others and appears to be a natural-born leader, we call him "The Director"; another sounds a little younger and tends to cry more easily; and still another offers comfort to those who have accidentally bumped heads on the trampoline. 

Who are these little voices that permeate our day with shouts of "Daddy" when home owner, Brian, drops by each morning; with songs of "Praise Ye The Lord" (complete with competing voices that get louder and louder) and "Happy Birthday" when it is someone's special day; with lessons of "en, de, twa" (Creole counting) and "ABC"; and even with tears of "boo boos" or "someone took my toy"? They are the ten little people living in the next door "house orphanage" ranging from 2- to 5-years-old and who remind us that each day holds something new and exciting.

Orphanages are a fact of life in many developing nations and contributing factors include national history, wars and natural disasters.  Some child care programs are designed for children who have lost their parents while others are organized to house children whose families live in extreme poverty and simply cannot afford to keep them.  Additionally, the children's homes run the gamut in what they are able to offer in the way of accommodations, food, clothing, education, health care and nurture.

Tim and I very much admire those ministries that are proactive in reaching out to young people and their families. For that reason, we thought to share with you a little about three programs we think are very good and while not residential facilities each is trying to address issues that will reduce the need for children to go into orphanages in the first place.

Of course, first on our list is our partner, CONASPEH, whose focus is on education.  Patrick Villier, his wife, Francoise, and other leaders are very aware of the need for good and affordable education and have developed a ministry in partnership with Global Ministries

that offers "classical study" (primary and secondary level) educational opportunities; a School of Nursing; a Seminary; a Vocational School and work opportunities while studying; and, most recently, a University.  Additionally, meals and scholarships for school tuition are provided for the children (and adults) as funds are available.  

Another Global Ministries partner is the House of Hope which works with "restavek" children.  These are children whose very poor families send them to live with other families who offer to educate them in exchange for help around the house.  In reality, the young people in many cases do not receive an education and are abused physically and emotionally.  The House of Hope provides an intensive educational program that permits the young people to catch up with their studies by offering a 3-year course of study that would normally take 6 years. Director, Polycarpe Joseph, also extends educational opportunities through a vocational school that includes: a school of catering with a great kitchen (we can vouch for the food which is delicious!); a hospitality course with restaurant facilities; carpentry, electrical and plumbing classes; computer classes; a sewing course; and a beauty school.

The final program is called "The Apparent Project" and while not partnered with Global Ministries it is one we like a lot.  Understanding that there are a multitude of factors that affect low-income families and their ability to provide for their children, this

ministry trains and employs parents to make beautiful handicraft and jewelry products.  As mothers and fathers are able to earn a living, the risk of not being able to feed and educate their children is minimized and children remain in their homes.  The Apparent Project also educates and cares for street children with an ultimate goal of "redeeming family situations."

The babies next door?  We delight in knowing they are well-fed, rocked and loved, educated, taught Christian values, laughed and played with and will be in homes where they will know hope and possibility.  We and our partners want the same thing for all children in Haiti and, indeed, the world.

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?