Friends, Family, and Fun

Ok, seriously, this blog has been a lot of blah, blah, blah for the past month, so we are going to have fun and pictures this time!!

We've had a lot of visitors, and some really special ones!  I'm going to bookend this post with the two special family visitors....Grandpa Zimm and Uncle Joel!

In November, Dad Z came to Dumay to get things prepped for the winter work project.  As kind of a last minute decision, we made the trip in to visit him.  We went into Port on a Saturday, got breakfast and groceries at the Caribbean grocery store, and ate at a Dominos Pizza (only American chain we've seen in Haiti!).

Granola for breakfast!  Yum, yum!

Look at all those yummy veggies!!!

Really!?!?

Ahhhhh....

 Later in the afternoon we went to the airport to pick up Dad.  While we were waiting for his delayed flight, the kids entertained themselves with eating hours-old Domino's chicken wings and banging each other on the heads with them.

When they tired of that, we decided to drive out of the parking lot and find a drink.  As we were going through the lot, we saw some familiar faces!  We had to stop and say hi to some friends from home who were coming to spend the week at SEED in Cayes.

Once Dad's plane arrived, we spent lots of quality time in the vehicle stuck in traffic :) on the way to Dumay.  Grandpa spoiled the kids and had bought toys in the airport for them - a toy Delta airplane for Orrin and a purse and stuffed kitty for Cassia.  Orrin didn't let go of his airplane all weekend and still thinks it's great.  Cass sleeps with her kitty every night.

Matt was in Dumay too, and we had a good weekend being able to spend time with him and Dad.  We had church on Sunday, then went out to Tahmazoo to see the church that had gotten a new roof and lots of work last winter.  We left on Monday morning, got some supplies at the hardware store, picked up some frozen food at the food distribution warehouse, and picked up Rick and Bob at the airport who were returning from the States.  We had originally had some trouble deciding if we should go in for the weekend with the increased unrest and violence in Port (and everywhere) these days....but we were thankful for a safe trip and really glad we went!  It was a good getaway, and just nice to spend time with Grandpa for a few days without flying all the way back to Illinois!  When we got back home, Orrin looked at me as he was getting ready for bed.  "I had a lot of fun at Dumay with Grandpa," he said :)

We had a work team from Rockville, CT come to the Hospital the end of October.  They were originally planning to do a part dental/part construction team, but after the hurricane their work focus changed a bit, and they just did the construction part.  The team spent the week replacing tin roofs on about     structures around the hospital campus that had been blown off in the storm.  Rockville is a team that has come every year since we have been here.  When they came our first summer here, I was expecting Cass and super sick.  David was working with Darryl on leading the team, and so we spent a lot of time with the team and ate several meals at the Guest House.  I remember that I just wanted to eat with them all the time so that 1) I could have a little help with Orrin, and 2) that I could have something else besides the un-edible food on my plate to focus on at mealtime, and maybe I would be able to eat something instead of just looking at my plate and crying.  Then a few months later, when I was feeling like I would live again, we went out east on vacation and spent some time in Rockville with some of the people we had met in Haiti.  It has been really nice to be able to see some of the same people come back to the hospital each year, along with meeting new ones.

On Sunday we went to Cayes for an English church service in the afternoon.  David got the message wrong, and took the road into town that he was not supposed to take :)  He had a truck full of young guys, so when they got stuck going through the water, they took it all in the spirit of adventure and made memories.

Monday night was Halloween, so we dressed up the kids and kept up the American tradition of trick-or-treating.  We went up to the guest house to see how much candy the work team had brought :)  It was pretty fun for everyone.

The team got the roofs all done, and some trees cut down, and we had time Friday to go out and have some free time.  David and I took a few people down to the hydro on a hike, while the rest went out in the village to visit widows.  We had a really good time with Rockville and look forward to their trip next year, Lordwilling!

One afternoon, I had a group of kids to our home to watch the Jesus Film in Creole.  They are a group of three families, one that lost their mom and lives with an elderly grandmother, one whose mother has mental problems, and the other family's father has heart trouble and can't work.  They come to our house pretty often.  Usually they come for food or to play, and they've never been in the house before.  They had a good time watching the film, and eating bread and peanut butter and some treats and water.  There is one thing that is kind of, um, different about the culture.  Once you invite a child into your home, they think they can come in whenever they want.  So a week or so later, some of these kids were in our yard and wanted to talk to me.  I was in the house and came around the corner in our living room, and there were two of them standing in my dining room!  Never dull around here, I guess.

The Hospital Lumiere fundraiser auction was held in Washington, IL in November.  There were lots in attendance, and we were sorta there...by computer!  We went up to Plattner's to watch on FaceTime, and it was fun to feel like we were kind of still a part of it!  The auction did very well, thanks to everyone who put in time and effort and $$ towards the event!

We had some really special friends come to visit right before Thanksgiving!  The Hartzler family all came back to Haiti!  It was really great to be able to see them here in Haiti again and spend time together.  The kids had lots of fun playing together.  So, so special!

Thanksgiving we spent the day at home, cooking good food, eating and relaxing together!  Well, Orrin was with us after school...cuz it's an American holiday and he didn't get out of school ;)

 One afternoon, there was a knock at the door.  When the young boy said he wanted to play, I told him that Orrin was going to take a shower, so he couldn't play.  Did he want the toys to play with in the yard?  (We have tow Tonka dump trucks that are the toys that go out the door and get much much love).  His response shocked me.  He said, "No, I want to play with Orrin.  I go to school with him."  Seriously, my world rocked.  I hollered to Orrin.  You don't have to shower!  One of your friends is here to play with you!

Just recently, I had a conversation with someone who spent 5 years in Jamaica as a missionary.  She had a lot of similar things to deal with, being a mom, in a foreign country.  She said in that culture, it was as though their house was almost always open.  People would just walk into their home and sit on the couch.  She would be trying to take care of her family, get things done, homeschool, take care of a baby.....and people would come into her home.  (From the story noted above, this would not go over well in our home!!)  But then I asked her what they wanted.  Why did they come?  And she said they just wanted to talk.  They wanted relationship.  They wanted to be friends.  And I simply.  Cannot.  Imagine.

For almost three years, I've wanted someone to just come to my door and say Hi, my name is ______.  I like you.  I'm sure you're lonely, you don't have family here.  I want to be friends.  Have a nice day.  Is there anything you need?  Want to come to my house for a visit?  But, well, it is not the way it is.  There almost always seems to be some need that sooner or later comes up.

So when he said, "No, I want to play with Orrin.  I go to school with him," I couldn't believe it.  Someone wanted to play with my son, not because he is the rich kid with the cool toys, or the nice yard, or the access to food.  No, he wanted to play because they knew each other.  They had relationship.

The other night we had an evening of celebrating Patty's birthday with some brownies and handmade ice cream.  Yes, handmade, not homemade.  You put the ice cream mixture in a ziplock bag, then take ice with salt in another ziplock bag.  You wrap the two up in a towel, and shake it for about 10 minutes, and viola!  Ice cream!

The kids have been having a lot of fun recently too.  There's puddles to jump in, food to help cook, markers to color with, bikes to ride, and books to read over and over again!

Last but not least.  Joel came to visit!  There was some work for him to do at the Hospital, and we coordinated the dates with a small nursing education work team that was coming in/out so he would have someone to travel with.  For the week before Joel's arrival, Orrin kept asking.  "What's tomorrow?"  "Tomorrow is Monday."  Then he'd say, "Then Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday, then Saturday."  When he got to Saturday, he'd always stop and smile a secret smile.  He knew what was going to happen Saturday.  Then when Saturday came, it became, "It's 1-2-2-4 (12:24).  It's 1-2-3-1.  It's 1-2-4-4."  When it finally got to 1:00, we were able to get in the truck and go down the mountain to meet up with Uncle Joel!!

He spent the days working up at the Hospital, doing internet and other computer projects.  We even got a container while he was here, so he got in on unloading that.  In the times not at work, there were fun things to do like a 4-wheeler ride, reading books to the kids, playing games, going up to see where Madam Ino lives, working on our computer (thanks!) and going to the beach.

On our trip to the beach, we even brought along the newly-purchased-at-the-HL-auction drone from one of the family's here.  We went to Saint Louis, and took a boat ride (complete with bailing bucket) to an island with an old fort.  David had fun flying the drone and took lots of cool pics!

It is really special to have our family and friends come see where we're at and spend some day-to-day time together in our lives (it's not sugar-coated, you get to see the good and the bad - yikes!).

The other night, Orrin was asking me when Grandma is coming to visit.  We all like our visitors :)  I started listing off all the fun things we Lordwilling have coming up in the next few months, and wow!  I think we may be able to make it after all :)