The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful

You know the saying “the good, the bad and the ugly?”  Well, I’ve decided to tell you what’s been going on in our lives lately…the good, the bad and the beautiful.

The Good…David went on a day trip Easter weekend to visit a fort (or their ruins) and go on a hike/swim.  The water came out of a cave and so it was crystal blue and cold.  He could see fish swimming in it, and the water was so beautiful.  He had a great time enjoying seeing more of Haiti. 

The Bad…After they left the fort, a couple men blocked the exit and wouldn't let them through.  Then when they got back to the vehicles after the hike….6 tires on two vehicles had the air let out of them L 

The Good…There was a pump in one of the vehicles, so they could air up the tires.  Otherwise, it would have been a really bad deal.  Also good was the rest of the Easter weekend.  Orrin and I dyed eggs with Komari and kids.  We had a good Easter Sunday with a Brunch and church service.

David and me at brunch...it was hot out!!  David says these are our hayseed disguises :)

The Bad…Orrin’s sleeping.  We thought we had moved Orrin to a big bed.  But after weeks of him getting up multiple times per night and then up before dawn in the mornings, we decided this wasn't going to work.  Especially with Cassia still needing to eat about every three hours.  So we moved Orrin to Cassia’s room (closet) and Cassia now has the biggest room of the house. 

The Good…Orrin’s new room is dark, quiet, and he sleeps through the night and sometimes even until 7am!!  Also, for the past few weeks, I’ve been laying Cassia down when it’s time for her to sleep and she goes to sleep by herself!  And she’s been doing great at night too!  Sometimes 7-8 hours!!!

The Bad…that was so totally last week.  Sigh.  I guess kids just want to keep you on your toes.  Never know what to expect.  Orrin’s new thing is not wanting to sleep in his room anymore.  Cassia’s new problems are that she is starting to freak out when I leave the room, or rolling over and thinking she can’t sleep on her back.

Maybe we should move the rocking chair to his room and he would sleep...now there's an idea...

The Good…Singing group.  One day I was talking to Miss Margaret in the Hospital, and told her how I thought her singing group was really pretty.  She said they wanted us to come teach them a song in English.  So Joan, Komari and myself started going to sing with the group on Wednesday afternoons.  I love my Wednesday afternoons with these ladies!!  Usually we practice a song in Creole or French that they want to sing, and then we’ve been working on teaching them the song “Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken” in English.  They did great and now they want to learn another English song J  And I love singing their songs too…they’re so beautiful!!  It’s also really great Creole practice for us and a good way to get to know more of the ladies around Bonne Fin.

So if I was going to do the Ugly category, this would be the story.  But for now, here’s the next Bad…The Day of The Slingshot.  Yes, this is capitalized for a reason.  It will forever live in my memory.  Short story is that some kids wanted to kill a bird in a tree in our yard.  I told them no.  I spent about an hour in and out of the house “playing” hide and seek with them and telling them I didn’t want them to kill the bird, and I didn’t want them shooting the slingshot because sometimes Orrin is playing in the yard.  They would leave and then come back when I’d go in the house.  They would send a different boy to try other tricks (like, it’s my pet bird).  After I locked the gate, Orrin went outside to play.  And they shot a rock up into the tree when he was outside, playing near that tree.  I tore out of the house, ran toward them, plowed through a hole in the fence, and chased them as they turned and ran up the hill.  The only reason I stopped was that Cassia was still in the house, lying on the couch or somewhere I felt unsafe leaving her.  You feel like you really blow it when you chase kids up a hill telling them that you’re going to beat them if they do it again.  Security came after I called David telling him to come RIGHT NOW.  They came but the kids were gone.  And they haven’t come back.

The Good…We started getting a rainy season again in April!  One day it rained 2.3 inches in about a half hour!

The Bad…We got flooded.  We have a line coming into our house that occasionally lets water in when it rains a lot.  But this time it was about an inch in diameter, just pouring into our dining/living room.  Me and my great critical thinking skills didn’t think about putting a bowl or something under the stream of water to catch it coming in.  Instead, I had seen David go out and dig a hole to let the water run out before, so I went out and started shoveling away in the pouring rain.  David told me later that it didn’t do any good, but it was a good effort J  Anyway, after another terse phone call to him to get home right now, he drilled a hole in the pipe and that was what really let the water drain out outside the house so it didn’t come in.  But after all that, we had a floor full of water.  So we proceeded to “jete dlo” (bail water) out of our house, using a dustpan.  We bailed about 15 gallons out of our floor.

The Good…We’ve been having company for supper!  We had Guito and Kerline Augustine and their kids, Clyde and Maiva.  I made American food because they’ve spent time in the States before, so I figured they would be used to it a little.  When we asked them, they said, no they didn’t eat American food in the States!  Oh no!  But I think the food went ok and we really enjoyed our evening together eating and visiting.  Clyde is about a year younger than Orrin so they played and fought over toys together.  Maiva and Cassia are about a week and a half apart in age.  We are so thankful to be able to start making more friends here and are blessed by this beautiful family!

A few nights ago we had Dr Mario over for supper.  It was also a really great evening and we enjoyed getting to know him better and laughing over some funny stories.  He was impressed that David had helped cook the meal :) .

The Good....  we were blessed by visitors from our other home!  David Mueller and Ted Bachtold came down on a quick trip to do a repair on our water system.  They got done in two days!  We had them over for supper and the evening one night and really enjoyed it.  There’s something about having people from back home see where we’re at…we recommend it more often J

The Bad…we went to Port to take them to the airport, and they arrived an hour before their flight.  They were told they were too late to check their bags, and so they tried to put everything in their carry-on and left their suitcases L Then going through security, a bunch of stuff got thrown out.  Saaaad. 

The Good…Madam Ino suddenly got a large order of peanut butter for us to take back to the States.  It should be a help to her financially.  She hopefully will not find out that the other peanut butter was (hopefully!) dug out of a trash can at the Port au Prince airport J

The Beautiful…We had the HL Board come down for a visit recently.  Sunday we all went to Zanglais to a retreat center to have worship services, fellowship, and Communion together.  The Communion service was Beautiful.  We looked out at the water and were reminded of how Jesus called fishermen to become fishers of men.  We looked out at a distant hill and thought of how it would have been to look out and see three crosses on a distant hill, knowing that people were going to die there, but maybe not knowing that one of them was dying for us.  And it’s not just that Jesus died.  People die every day.  But people don’t usually die for someone unless they’re a great person.  No one dies for someone who is bad, evil, wicked.  But that’s what Jesus did.  That’s what He came to do.   And in so doing, He gave us life…and that is beautiful.