This and That

A week ago we had four days of rain here in Florida, not a harsh rain, but gentle, constant.  I was sitting in the comfort of my home listening to the rain on the roof and enjoying it so.  And then my mind went to the people in Haiti who are still living in tents, even as the rainy season begins.  One can only pray and hope that a hurricane doesn't strike the country this year.

I splurged a week or so ago and bought a K*ndle.  I'm enjoying it so much.  One of the things that I'm trying out is one of the local newspapers.  As I was reading it this morning, there was an article about Haiti and an interview with W*clef Jean,  He left the poverty of Haiti years ago and has become wealthy as a musician here in the States.  He went to Haiti after the earthquake and "helped dig a dead friend out of the rubble.  He loaded bodies onto trucks.  He carried a 15-year-old girl whose ankles were crushed to a hospital, where her feet were amputated. 'What she said to me after the surgery defines the Haitian spirit for me', he said. She opened her eyes and asked, 'Can you help me go to school?'"

We shift our priorities all too soon.  Now all the media talks about the oil spill.  Haiti is a passing thought.
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Yesterday I had a call from someone looking for my husband to do electrical work.  That hasn't happened in a long time.  I was talking about Don to someone the other day and talked about his work was truly a calling to him.  I remember once hearing Chuck Sw*ndoll speaking about being ordained to do your work.  Don was truly an ordained electrician.  He did the work and then took the time to listen to peoples' heartaches and joys.

I read this quote in an e-mail newsletter the other day and it really hit home to me.  "If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music; sweep streets so well that all the host of Heaven and Earth will have to pause and say, Here lived a great sweeper, who swept his job well." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Some of you have asked about my back.  I had an MRI done, and it showed some bulging discs and severe stenosis...so.  I'm still having therapy.  I've told some folks that it must be getting better because I'm noticing the shingles pain again.  The back and leg pain had taken over before.  I did read about a new patch for the PHN (postherpetic neuralgia) I seem to be among the one-third of patients who develop this.  I'm going to look into it.  There is one doctor here in town who works with it.  We'll see. 

Until the next time I manage to post something...

Hats For Sale

I had a wonderful weekend at a retreat with my Sweet Adelines chorus. We met together at a local hotel on Friday afternoon for fun, rest, lots of conversation, lots of singing, and a potluck dinner before meeting with a wonderful lady from Michigan who directed a chorus for many years, sang in a prize-winning quartet, and does lots of teaching around the States.

Before I left to go to the hotel, in the mail I received a couple of CD's with photos from Haiti. One of my friends, who was also one of the missionary kids I taught while I was there, went with her dad for two weeks to help in the clinics that were being held in Haiti. She stopped by one day to visit and I looked at some of the photos, and I asked her if she would send me a copy of them.

After I came home this afternoon, I loaded some of them on my computer. I could not help smiling when I saw this particular picture. It reminded me of the children's book, Caps for Sale.

A cap salesman is walking along trying to sell his caps and if my memory serves me correctly, he takes a nap under a tree. Some monkeys come along and take his caps and climb a tree with them. When the man awakes, he looks for his caps everywhere and then looks up and sees his hats.

He stamps his foot and says, "You monkeys you, you give me back my caps." They mimic everything he does. Finally, exasperated, he takes his cap off, throws it to the ground, and, in unison, the monkeys take off the caps and throw them down from the tree. The man has his caps back. I guess that's a case of monkey see, monkey do.

A year after Don and I were married we took a trip to Haiti. I wanted him to see where I had worked and meet my friends there. We were walking down a street in Port-au-Prince, and he was looking for a hat to buy. The hats he tried on were all too small. (He had a rather large head.) All a sudden, a hat seller came running up to him.

"Pastor, Pastor, try this one." (Don wasn't a pastor, but we must have been with a missionary that the man recognized. I don't know.) Don tried on the hat, and, lo and behold, it fit. The missionary with us said later that he must have had that hat for a long time, just waiting for someone with a head Don's size to come along. That hat served him well for a good, long time here in the hot sun in Florida.

Do You Ever Stop to Think?

When you turn on the tap, are you thankful for clean water? When you lie down to sleep at night in a comfortable bed, are you thankful? When you walk into your home after a busy day and are sheltered from the elements, are you thankful?

My friend, David, a former missionary kid from Haiti, is in Haiti now along with Samaritan's Purse. He is there chronicling the work of those who have gone to help relieve some of the suffering of the Haitian people. Above is one of his photos. To see more, go here. Click on the photos to see them enlarged.

Haiti

What more can be said about Haiti? I will not even try. Anyone who has ever visited there for a time or lived there takes with them a piece of the country in his heart and never forgets the people of this poor country.

Facebook has been a wonderful medium for leaning news first hand of things going on, as well as blogs. E-mails have come with news that one doesn't necessarily see on TV, even though there is plenty to see.

One blog I would refer you to if you are interested in reading some first hand experiences about the earthquake is Pye's in Haiti. This young couple went to Haiti about four years ago and established a children's home in Jacmel, one of the cities away from the epicenter of the earthquake and yet very damaged. They are updating every day their activities and you can get a glimpse into what many people are doing. If you go back to older posts, you can read Leeann's account of the day of the earthquake.

I was going to put links to some documents that I've received that give some really good information, but I realize I don't know quite how to do it.

Carmi's Theme-Travel #2

When I saw Carmi's theme yesterday, I hurriedly posted a photo from my days in Haiti that showed my traveling on a motorbike. I looked back through my files from Haiti and found these photos that also fit the theme. The truck seen above is very typical of public transportation in Haiti. There's no assigned seating. If you don't fit inside, you can go on top with the chickens and other livestock being transported.

Traveling by horseback, mule back, or more often on a donkey is very common. On market days, the "marchandes" (sales ladies) can be seen going to market on the back of the donkey which is also laden with baskets filled with goods to sell. I shared in one blogpost how, one day, when Jackie and I had gone to the airport (cow pasture) on my motorbike to greet some people flying in to visit, that on the way back, we sideswiped a donkey on the way back to town. My side mirror caught on one of the handles of the basket that was on the donkey. We were riding on a dirt road that had become heavily rutted from the rains. We were in a rut and couldn't just move over. I obviously thought that we had room to get by. Fortunately, we were none the worse for the wear.

Traveling by foot (a pied) is not necessarily the easiest or the most efficient, but it gets the job done. I never ceased to be amazed at the stamina of these ladies who made their way along, carrying their goods on their heads and walking over the rocky terrain in their bare feet.

Haiti Days

I've been spending considerable time scanning slides from Haiti and other places. These pictures date from 1969-1972. Those are the years that I spend teaching missionary children in Les Cayes, Haiti. I was considered a missionary. I went to Haiti with a mission that was known at the time as West Indies Mission. The name has since change to WorldTeam since the work to spread to many other places.

My assignment was the junior high kids. I had been teaching primary grades in the States and so this new responsibility was quite different. I enjoyed it immensely, but there were times, especially in algebra, that I stayed a step ahead of them. By the time I reached there, "modern" math was the vogue, and that was not how I learned algebra. We survived.

The school was primarily for children of missionaries, but as time went on, we welcomed other children into the school. The only requirement was that they speak English. One family entered our school from Belize. The father was a worker with the UN, working on mosquito control. Some other children who joined our school were Cuban children whose parents had lived in the States in the Miami area and then came to Haiti and worked in a large sugar mill that was not far from our center.

I've been posting these photos in albums on FaceBook, and they've been quite popular among these kids. They're not kids any more, but adults with their own children. I'm not sure if any of them are grandparents yet. One of the Cuban girls, who, when she saw these photos, wrote to me and said that she couldn't thank me enough for posting them because she had so few photos of her childhood when her family worked in Haiti.

We had no TV's, no VCR's, no video games, and so books were very popular. Everyone was a reader. Even the children who struggled a bit in reading skills were seen with books in hand. Playing outdoors was a given, as well. There all sorts of places to explore and all kinds of bugs to find. The boy in the photo above was famous for catching lizards and keeping one or two in his shirt. He could be seen pulling one out of his shirt, giving it a kiss, and then putting it back. He was also our tarantula hunter. I brought one home with me one year to have on display. It certainly did garner all kinds of comments.

In the newspaper today there was an article about how iguanas are taking over in Florida, eating turtle eggs, burrowing owl eggs, and many plants. D. lives in Florida now. I wonder if he ever goes hunting. I think he could have quite a business.

Motorbikes were a favorite means of transportation. With the roads as they were, a motorbike was the best means of getting around. I sometimes accompanied the kids into town to have diner at the local hotel, and I generally was left in the dust. This was not the best thing since I wore contacts, and my eyes were often red from the dust.

The three and a half years I spent in Haiti were rich years. Many of these kids that I taught are missionaries themselves today. I have always considered it such a privilege that I had a part in their lives. Now that we are as old as we are, we are almost contemporaries. Now, when they see me, the say, "Hi, Bev." No more "Miss Wright."

Carmi's theme - Kitchen

How would you like to work in this kitchen? This dear lady did our laundry every Monday at our house in Haiti. With five women living in the house, we had quite a pile. We had a wringer washer that she used, and we were so grateful for the time that she put in helping us.

When my husband and I visited Haiti the year after we were married, one of my housemates took us out into the countryside to visit some of the Haitian families. At every home that we entered, the first order of things, after the warm greetings, was to have coffee.

My husband was not a coffee drinker, but he graciously swallowed it with a smile.Do you think you would be gracious enough to offer coffee to someone if this is the way you had to make it...roast the beans, grind the beans, heat the water, pour it through the bag, finally serve it, smiling all the time.

When we arrived at the fourth home, and the lady of the house excused herself to make coffee, we said, "Oh, madame, we have had three cups already at other houses. You really don't have to make us coffee."

Her response? "Amen, amen." She was so relieved.

The next time you scoop out the coffee, put it in your coffeemaker, pour in the water that has come from your faucet, and push the button, think about what it could be like.

Visit Carmi's site to see other links to "kitchens," his photographic theme for this week.

A trip back in time

A few weeks ago when I was grocery shopping at P*blix, I stopped by the deli, one of my favorite places. The lady who waited on me spoke with an accent, and I asked her where she was from. "H*iti," was her reply. So I spoke a few words of Creole to her, and we conversed a few minutes before I told her what I needed. In our conversation, I told her that I had taught missionary kids in Ha*ti back in the early 70's, and then she told me that she was a pastor's wife and invited me to attend a service at her church.

She told me that they were having a dinner on Thanksgiving Day, but I told her that I would be with family, but I would try to come at another time. The holidays came and went, and I ended up going today. I took my English Bible since I wasn't sure where my French one was. I have a hymnal that we used in Ha*ti, but I didn't take it along with me. I arrived at 11, the time that the service was to begin. By the time everyone came, it was around 11:30 before the service actually started.

The church was filled with young adults and lots of children. There were about ten musicians on instruments and a praise team made up of a couple of the women of the church. A lady sitting across the aisle from me loaned me her songbook and showed me where the songs we that we were singing. What fun it was to sing in Creole again. The theme of the songs was that during hard times, God is faithful and is always there. It really spoke to my heart.

The pastor introduced the guests and asked each one to say something to the congregation. He told me before the service started that he wanted me to speak Creole, so I did. I shared with them how I had lived in Haiti a long time ago and how, once you have been there, it always stays in your heart. And I shared with them about the hard times that I have gone through and how I never have doubted the faithfulness of God. I hope they understood my bumbling. I think they did, and if they didn't, they would be far too polite to say so...to my face anyway.

When I got there, the pastor's wife greeted me. As we were sitting there, I asked her what denomination the church was...Baptist, Pentecostal, or ??? She told me that it was a Church of God. Now in my church people raise their hands if they want, and we clap our hands quite a bit, but these folks really got into it. They ended up literally dancing in the aisles...even the pastor.

The service started at 11:30, and I slipped out at 3:30. The pastor was still going strong. No one was asleep! Many were dutifully taking notes of everything he had to say. Children were sitting still; there was no children's church to entertain them. I was impressed. A young woman translated everything from Creole into English for those young people who are not as fluent in their country's language as their parents.

The photos here are some that I took when I was in Hai*i. The little girls in the red dress were daughters of one of the pastors of one of the large churches in our association. The little girls down below were the daughters of the pastor of the little church that I went to while I was there. I've been working on scanning my slides, but the device I bought didn't work quite right, so I returned it. Hopefully I'll get more done in good time.

The aftermath of Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike

I wrote briefly about Haiti this past week and the devastation of the four storms on this very poor island nation. I received an e-mail that contained a link to a video journal from the Miami Herald. I challenge you to watch it. It is not for the faint of heart.


Another blogger posted this.


Besides showing the sorrow and feeling of hopelessness of these people, the photographer has work here that, if I were nominating for an award, he would surely win it.


I think of the people in Texas today who are steeling themselves for Ike, either by fleeing or hunkering down. I know how I feel whenever the season starts and that first storm starts to form in the Atlantic, wondering what its path will be. It isn't a good feeling.


My heart breaks for these dear souls in the Caribbean who lose everything they have during the storms...homes, food, means of livelihood, and lives.

Sunday evening

When I looked at my last post, I see that it has been almost a week since I posted. A couple of you have commented and asked the hurricanes and Florida. As I've mentioned, I live on the west coast of Florida below Tampa, and we have had just a little rain and wind from the storms that have passed by.

TS Fay was headed for us, but it went inland further south, as Charlie did back in 2005. Some of the photos from the east coast showed quite a bit of flooding. One blogger who lives above Tallahassee in the panhandle said that they got 21.5 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. So while Fay was not a hurricane, it brought a LOT of rain.

Gustav, as you know, passed us by and went on to Louisiana and Jamie wrote about Gustav in Arkansas. Hanna also made her appearance, but again, here where I live, we were not affected at all. We are now watching Hurricane Ike which has caused evacuations down in the keys. It has weakened some to a category three (still a very strong storm, but now as I look at the map, it looks like it could head toward Louisiana as well.

When you look at those maps, the storms look they cover such a wide area, but the outer parts of the pictures might mean a little wind. David called me once a year or so ago and asked if we were having a tropical storm because it looked that way on the map. I looked out the window, and there was not a leaf moving...so goes life in Florida. It's a waiting game and always causes some anxiety, I must confess.

Not so fortunate are the islands in the Caribbean. As you know, I lived and worked in Haiti for three and a half years before I was married, and while I never experienced a hurricane, I saw devastation that heavy rains could cause there. I have been receiving e-mails from there which have been telling about the deaths and destruction from Fay, Gustav, and Hanna.

This photo was sent to me in an e-mail from Haiti. I think this is the town of Gonaives toward the north of the country of Haiti. Three years ago, this city was flooded like this. Trucks could not get in with aid. The bodies of animals were floating in the water, and sometimes, even bodies. I'm reading the same thing about these storms that have hit recently.

Compassion is an organization which helps provide relief to countries like this. One can sponsor a child through this organization for $32 a month. This helps to provide food for the child and helps with the schooling. My son and his wife sponsor a child in Uganda. I sponsor a little girl in Haiti. Vicki is an advocate for Compassion. Visit her blog and you can read her heart. Compassion has made a plea for funds for relief for countries like Haiti where food prices have soared in recent days, and incomes have not.

When you look at the weather maps and read about the storms here, think about those poor people in Haiti who really have no place to go from the storm. Have a good week.