Wow! The past few weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of activity. Emotions have been exaggerated, stress tolerances and patience tested, limits pushed, curiosities piqued, and energy levels tapped out to say the least.
First my intern went home for a 5 day weekend 2 Thursdays ago. No biggie, but I have turned quite a few areas of responsibility over to her and she has made several changes that I haven't managed to keep up with. Questions came up and I wasn't able to answer them. We managed, but just barely. It's amazing how quickly you can come to rely on someone.
While she was gone we had guests, Jason, who is part of the Detroit Muscle Crew, and his wife Courtney, who decided to spend their wedding anniversary here. They came on Sunday. Courtney said that Haiti was the only part of Jason's world that she hadn't yet shared and she wanted to see where his heart kept getting called to come. While they were here we went for a loooong walk to escort one of our girls to her family's residence, in a tent city. It was eye opening to walk that much through Delmas 33. When they say "walk a mile in another man's shoes..." they really aren't kidding. It was a good experience for us all. We got to see the conditions of her home and how her family makes due with such humble accommodations.
On Monday we also received a visit from Dr. Nellie Williams, one of the original benefactors of the mission grounds. She was the angel responsible for raising the funds that paid for the building of the guest house, which includes my "apartment". She was escorted by her grandson, Neal Porter, who was an Army mortar man. He fit in nicely with our other intern, Josh, who was an Army paratrooper. We swapped war stories and regaled the rest of the crowd with tales of our bravado and silliness that is military comradeship!
Our intern returned on Tuesday. That night we went out to eat in Petionville. In honor of our guests we decided to try Magdoos, Lebanese fare. I was so delighted! I've been wanting to check that place out since I moved here last year! The ambiance of the place is worth almost twice what the menu prices were!
On Wednesday we said good bye to Jason and Courtney and got back to business in the school. Our other guests stayed until Friday. Saturday midday we greeted Mitch and his wife, Janine, along with Patty and Jeff Alley. The Alleys were here to check out the place while they consider where God is calling them. Hopefully we will see them moving down here to help out. It will be nice to have a father figure and male role model here, as well as having a nurturing mommy to cuddle with the little ones.
An hour after they arrived we escorted the second truckload, Anachemy, Cara and Cara's son, Jesse. Anachemy is Haitian born, US raised and educated. She just completed her degree in education and will be staying with us for a year to teach in the school. We are so excited to have her joining our team. She will be here full time in July, to run a summer school program to catch up the 6 new kids and make them ready for our school in September.
Cara, as most people know by now, is the other half of my brain. She is the rock star who writes all of our lesson plans and directs our curriculum and provides me with a sounding board for all of my ideas for the school. Jesse, her eldest son, is an aspiring movie producer. He was doing some filming to accompany Mitch's speaking engagements to help fund-raise for the upcoming year's budget and hopefully the expansion of the school.
Oh, and then we had a third trip to the airport to pick up our good friend, Nedal Tamer, the plumber. He missed his earlier flight, but we won't fault him because that man worked from sun up til sun down and fixed and completed so many jobs and projects around the mission. What a blessing to have such talented and skilled tradesmen who volunteer to come work here and help us keep this place running in the best possible shape!
Our company all departed by Monday evening and we are slowly working our way back to normal. Well, as carry puts it, what passes for normal. This is, after all, Haiti!
Love and stuff,
Michele
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