Sometimes I wonder what our life would be like if we weren't
in Haiti. What would my “other self” be
doing right now?? Would I be more stressed?
Less stressed? Would I feed my
kids healthier food or not? Would they
be spending more time with other kids their age or less? Would they sit still better in church…or not J
Obviously I will never know, but it’s fun to think about
sometimes. I really think it’s a neat
opportunity for my kids to spend some of their growing up years in Haiti, and
with all the different experiences.
Sometimes cultural differences can be, well, different, but for the most
part that’s all they are.
I want to relate a few instances of differences in our life
now compared with what it may have been, but that’s not to say it’s worse. Just want to highlight a few things….
The first Sunday Cassia went to church, it was raining. During the service, of course Cassia
got hungry and wanted to eat. With
Orrin, I would take him out to the babyroom at church to feed him. But here, there’s no baby room, just a cement
“bench” by the front steps outside. But
with the rain…. I leaned up to Jami and whispered, “What do you do when it’s
raining in the babyroom?” You feed the
baby sitting in the church bench and nobody thinks twice.
Orrin’s potty training isn’t going so well, but he knows how to go. So, I’ve taken to letting him run around with
just a t-shirt on. If he has a diaper on
(OR underwear!) he will use them. If
there’s nothing but air, he will use the toilet (or “the outside”, as he
says). I can’t see myself letting him run around the
yard in the middle of Forrest, Illinois (especially in March!) with no bottoms on, but it’s working
out pretty well here!
One major factor that makes our past and present lives so
different is the weather. Here there are
rarely coats to worry about, there’s never snow to wonder if it will slow down
your traveling (it’s just demonstrations here J). Right about now, I would be REALLY REALLY
REALLY ready for spring, for planting my garden, for going outside for a walk,
pushing the kids in a stroller. Here, my
tomato plants are about a foot tall, and hopefully will produce some tomatoes
soon. I’ve got lettuce growing, and
watermelon plants look promising if I remember to water them. There is not much option for using a stroller
here with the mountain we live on. But
it’s so nice that we can go outside and be comfortable most every day of the
year. Some days, it’s my sanity-saver! Orrin can go outside with his little TONKA
truck, push it all over the yard (and in the garden), fill it with leaves, dirt
and rocks, or watch the other neighborhood kids ride it down the “hill” in our
yard. It’s really helpful if he can be
out of the house when I’m trying to get a crying baby to sleep!
Carseats are another thing that is so different here. I never would have let my kids ride around in
the car without a carseat in the States.
(For one thing, I would get majorly in trouble if I got pulled
over). But (gasp!) down here, we rarely
use one. Most of the vehicles we use are
made for getting as many people and/or equipment in them as possible, so the
back seats are side-facing and it’s not real easy to strap a carseat in. We did the other day when we went all the way
to Port to get a work team…8 hours is a long time to hold a baby in the
car! We don’t have seatbelts in back, so
David had to rig it up. The
result was that Cassia had her own “oh no” bar to hold onto around the curves J
One thing I don’t think I’ll ever get used to is the plethora
of advise that’s freely given J One day in town, David was in a store buying
paint, so I decided to do a little clothes shopping in the street by where he
was. And as I walked around, browsing
the clothes with Cassia in my arms, there was a constant chatter. And in English, this is what it would sound
like. “Sun, sun, sun! The sun is bad for the baby’s head! Sun, sun!
It will make her sick! Don’t hold
her with just one arm. Don’t hold her
across the stomach.” Then when she
started fussing, it was “Hungry! The
baby’s crying! Sun, sun! Cover her head! Breastfeed!”
In about 5 minutes, my nerves were completely shot, so I went back to
the vehicle and when we drove away, Cassia fell asleep, which was what she
needed after all…not to eat or have her head covered or lay down flat, which she
despises, by the way J
