31 Jan...8:05p

Greetings!!

This afternoon was amazing.

Being that today was our last day in the community of Bohoc, a lot of today included good-byes.  As I wrote yesterday, it's always so very hard to leave the kids we love being around so much.  My heart breaks as I know that I cannot take little Angela (pronounced An-GEL-ah) with me.  But I have her photograph, I have my memories of her (which I will hold in my heart forever), and I have the hope, too, that I will see her again soon (Lord-willing in April!).  I have a special friend in Kenya, too.  His name is Francis.  And, now that I have both Angela and Francis, I have a very special child friend in both Kenya and Haiti that I can give of my life to through prayer and, it is hoped, see at least a couple times a year.  I will post a picture of Angela at the top of the photo postings below.  (Note:  I share my story above because it is so very similar to everyone's on the team, as all of us have at least one [if not several] special kids that each of us would take home or die for in a second.)

This evening was amazing, too.

Several members of the Bohoc Leadership Council (LC) came out to the guesthouse to meet with us, pray with us, and commission us back to our lives in the U.S.  I will share more about tonight's time with the LC tomorrow.

For now, though, what I'd like to do is just post a few more photos and then go to bed.

Bendi bene ou!

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)

31 Jan...1:05p

Greetings!

This morning, we completed our last work session of this trip:  Helping our Haitian friends widen about 100-ft of road.  The process can be quite involved.

The most involved part is the removal and setting aside of the cactus fence that lines one or both sides of the road, digging out a new trench (several feet beyond the original edge of the road) so as to provide a conducive area to replant the previously removed cactus plants, removing any trees (even large ones) that stand within the travel way of the expanded road, followed by the replanting of the previously removed cactus plants.

The most fun part is the tamping of the soil around the transplanted cactus plants.  The way all of this works is as follows:

• First, the men cut several sturdy branches from the newly felled trees;
• Following this, the men give the branches to several of the women on the work crew;
• Then, some of the older men begin to "play" their digging equipment and to belt out one of three or four Haitian spirituals as the women sing along and tamp the soil in unison to the beat of the music.  While somewhat subtle, the tamping movements look a lot like line dancing.  :o)

To be quite honest, this whole "process" looked a lot more like just a bunch of people dancing and having fun than a road crew building a road.  I think we can gain a lot from such people who have learned to incorporate times of celebration and laughter into their work (as an integral part), and not just as an accompaniment to it.  I'm going to be thinking about this one for a long time.

Road widening is an extremely beneficial thing to the Haitians in Bohoc.  Most roads begin as two- to three-foot wide foot paths and then widen as farmers begin to use the paths to bring their livestock to and from the daily or weekly markets or to and from the most advantageous watering locations several times a day.

A chief component of the village vision is the creation of multiple micro-businesses, where villagers begin to transition away from subsistence gardening to small- to medium-scale farming (often in a cooperative fashion).  To do this, though, the roads must be wide enough to allow for vehicular access so that produce, farming implements, and livestock can be transported in and out in greater quantities and with greater speed.  Since four-foot wide roads are insufficient to the fulfilling of these functions, community road-widening projects are absolutely critical.

Okay...that's it for now.

Soon, we're going to head out to the Bohoc souvenir market and then back to Kris Sel Epswa for more pandemonius activity with 240 exuberant children.  I think we're going to try a large rendition of duck-duck-goose (I think they call it poulet-poulet-kanna [chicken-chicken-duck]) with the kids.  I'll let you know how THAT goes.

Until later, God's peace, everyone!

Dave (On Behalf of Team haiti 2012)

31 Jan...6:15a

G O O D    M O R N I N '   B O H O C !!  (ala Adrian Cronaur)

And a great and super fabulous morning from Haiti to all of you reading this post!!

I hope that all of you are doing well.

Speaking for the entire team...last night, WE WERE SPENT.  I'm hoping our whole team slept well.  I know I did.  Especially given that I did not get up until 4:30a this morning.  Even though for Ramsay that's still the night before, it felt like the middle of the afternoon to me.  The cool thing about waking up so late is that God's already up and about and has the coffee going.  Earlier in the week, though, I did have to wake Him a couple of times.  You know, it's really quite funny to see God in the morning all unshaven and stuff and with His Hair all mussed.

And I am kidding of course.  :op

The very kind ladies at the guesthouse are singing this morning while they cook our breakfast.  The agenda for the morning still stands:  Road widening with our Haitian friends.  I am so hoping for more music.  I'm especially hoping the guy with the kazoo is there, too!

Wishing all of you the best of days!

More later,

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)

PS...And a very happy birthday wish to my (Dave's) Mom, today.  69 and still fabulous!  :o)

30 Jan...7:45p

Today was FABULOUS!!

It began with breakfast (which I, Dave, was able to eat!!), followed by a devotional lead by Ramsay.  The scriptural references Ramsay chose were from 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Proverbs 28:27, Proverbs 21:13, and Psalm 26:12.  As a part of the devotion, we were each given a body part (symbolizing the parts of the Body of Christ) and asked to reflect upon that part in terms of how it serves the functioning of the whole body and how that part provides a means for each of us to connect with each other, with God, and with our Haitian friends.

After the devotion, we loaded into the bus and headed into Bohoc, where we worked for about three hours alongside our Haitian friends breaking up the ground for a new community garden.  "The plan" for the garden is to use it as a working lab for some of the more less fortunate community members to not just grow vegetables to provide for their families but to learn better gardening techniques.  My friend Jedlain (pronounced jez'-lan), an agricultural specialist and graduate of the university in Cap Haitian, will be the principal instructor and overseer of the garden.  In addition (and at the request of his pastor), Jedlain will also teach a 5 minute lesson in agriculture every other Sunday at his church.  Our time with our Haitian friends, while tiring, was a lot of fun.  Especially toward the end when some of the Haitians began to sing and play their gardening equipment as other Haitians (and a few of us who still had energy) continued to work.

Following our morning work session, we headed to the Bohoc open-air market, where we walked around and got the chance to see what many of the villagers try to sell to other villagers on a weekly basis.  Just for reference, you can buy a cow for $50 in Bohoc.  I'm not sure there's a FedEx anywhere close, but, if you can find one, the cost to have a cow shipped to NC might just be doable financially...but only if you have the ability to carve up a cow and you have a deep freezer large enough to store all the meet.

Upon returning back to the guest house, we ate lunch and, while some of us rested and took naps (yours truly included), some of us continued to give to the many children that immediately came out of the surrounding environs the moment our bus pulled up to the guesthouse.

At 2:30p, we loaded back into the bus and headed for Kris Sel Espwa, a primary school in Bohoc.  (For those of you who were on the trip last April, this was the school where we played the largest game of Kick the Can in recorded history.)  Our time at the school today was fantastic.  The moment we showed up, the children began singing a prepared song.  Afterward, we sang our theme song ("Here I am to Worship") for them.  Then, we all split into six or seven groups to do different "inside" activities with the kids.  We played Uno, did memory games, provided interactive English language lessons, etc.  Afterward, we headed outside where, to be quite honest, pandemonium erupted from almost the get-go.  For those of you who've never been on a mission trip of this sort, this is all common faire.  Bring eleven crazy Americans into a group of 240 energetic Haitian children and...well, you can probably only imagine.  The most difficult thing about being around so many happy, smiling faces is having to say good-bye.  Tears seem to always accompany such events.

Provided below, is something my friend Steve Adler wrote to be included in tonight's blog post.  For those of you who don't know Steve, he is one of the most genuine people I know.  This is his first mission trip.  Ever.  (And I'm kind of hoping that it will not be his last, because having both him and Allison together on this trip has been amazing.)  But...before I turn you over to Steve, I feel the need, first, to report that Team Haiti 2012 has decided to add, as a central component of our on-going outreach in this beautiful country, the provision of at least one soccer ball to every child in Haiti.  We estimate that we will need close to 4 million soccer balls.  I think we also need access to a C130 transport and some type of machine gun delivery system to accomplish this part of our mission.  If you have any suggestions as to how we could go about fulfilling this "calling," we're all ears.  Our slogan, as it stands right now, is "No child left behind...without a soccer ball."

A Personal Reflection
My wife, Allison, had the fortune and blessing of joining the newhope Haiti mission team in April 2011.  Upon her return, she was so excited to tell me all about the amazing people she had met.  Nothing, however, could have prepared me for what I've experienced. I have been overwhelmed by the joy and love that permeates through to the core of your soul; I cannot recall ever seeing so many smiling faces and welcoming bodies.  What is even more mind blowing and humbling is that they embody this spirit all the while living in difficult conditions every single day.  They don't let their circumstances define them as a people, nor are they content with them.  Parents, friends, community, they are all brothers and sisters, taking care of each other and working to create better lives for each other and future generations.  It has been such an honor to be in their presence; they have so much more to teach me than I, or we as Americans, could ever teach them.
Steve Adler, Team Haiti 2012

Okay...that's all for tonight!  May God bless all'y'all in ways that exceed even your wildest of imaginations.

CU in the morning,

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)

PS...On the agenda for tomorrow morning is road widening.  I'm looking forward to working to more Haitian music.  Peace...

30 Jan...1:23p

Matthew 28

Disclaimer:  The following is my (Dave's) opinion and is, largely, the opinion of Team Haiti 2012.

I'm having some difficulty with the administration of the Matthew 28 orphanage.

While it appears to be financially sponsored by a faith-based group in the U.S., it is, supposedly, run "autonomously" by Haitians here in the Bohoc area.

When we got to the orphanage on Saturday, we met a representative of the U.S. sponsoring group.  Quite honestly, I did not particularly like the philosophy communicated by this person.  His "message" did not include a lick about empowering the children at Matthew 28 to, someday, rise above their circumstances.  In my opinion, his attitude seemed a little defeatist.  Here is a paraphrased summary of what he said:  "We're taking care of the children at a level consistent with the lower-levels of care in Haiti.  If we don't do this, these children will grow up and be unable to assimilate effectively back into the impoverished lifestyles and living arrangements of the vast majority of Haitians."

While the situation is, I'm quite sure, complex, the Matthew 28 organization may be an example, at least to an extent, of an instance where money is being tossed at a problem without a solid relationship between the funding group and those running the orphanage.  There appears to be little, if any, accountability.  The U.S. representative told us, among several things, that the kids get three meals a day.  Based on our discussions with one of the older residents yesterday--a resident who'd been living at the orphanage for last fifteen years--the number of meals varies (based on available money) from one a day to, at times, three a day.  We learned that meals are typically comprised of rice and beans and that it's probably been about three months since the kids have had any kind of meat.  We learned also that the consumption of fruit and vegetables is, essentially, non-existent.  There appears to be a definite disconnect between the U.S. organization and the Haitians running the orphanage.  My question is this:  Where's the money going?  And who's watching such things?

Another concern is that the kids at Matthew 28 appear to be almost completely unsupervised.  Of great concern to me, too, are how the older boys and girls (ages 15-22+) are being housed in two buildings right next to each other without visible adult oversight and guidance.  There appears to be A LOT going on there (between the boys/men and girls/women).  And the two, outdoor "community showers" (e.g., open, single-head showers) did not make me feel any better.  On both Saturday and Sunday (yesterday), my internal systems were sounding pretty loudly.  I would not be surprised (and, of course, this may just be me) if some of the really young children at the orphanage "belong" to some of the older girls at the orphanage.

ALSO...it appears that there are some young adults (young men, mostly) from the surrounding areas who, on a regular (perhaps daily) basis, come in (some on their motorcycles) to what seems to be a very open compound "just to hang out with the kids living there."  (??!!)  This all VERY disconcerting to me.

I would like to push for us to be able to continue visiting the kids at Matthew 28 during successive trips, as these kids are quite literally starving for attention, human contact, and the love of God.  I think, though, that we need to have a facilitated discussion with the older kids about love and respect and God and sex and disease and pregnancy.  These discussions would need to be broken-out into male and female sessions, and, as such, would require both a male and a female interpreter.

AND ANOTHER THING...

Where did the 40 additional children, who were at Matthew 28 in April, go? And what about these adults who seem to have free and open access to the children living at the orphanage?  Ummm (and, again, this is just a personal conjecture)...but were some of the "missing" 40 kids taken?  Again, this is all very disconcerting to me.

Please keep all of this in your prayers, my friends.

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)

PS  When we get back this evening, I'll write about today's activities, which have been marvelous so far.  God's peace to all'y'all...

30 Jan...7:49a

Hey, everyone,

We're heading out to work in the Bohoc community garden.  I'm wroking on some stuff about Matthew 28, which I will post later.

CU soon!

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)

29 Jan...6:05p

More pictures from Haiti...

 

29 Jan...4:05p

Whew!!

We're back from our second afternoon at Matthew 28.  I'm not going to write much about today's experiences until tomorrow.  Having spent several hours at Matthew 28 over two successive days, we have experienced and learned a few things that are not particularly flattering.  What I write tomorrow may be difficult to read, but it is our feeling that these things need to expressed.  Just so we're all clear, Matthew 28 is not affiliated with The 410 Bridge and is not under the leadership of the Bohoc Leadership Council.  All of that said, I would like to give out props to everyone on the team as they all so graciously gave of themselves today.  BTW...the balloons and the bubbles were huge hits (not unexpectedly, of course).

Quote (Drake-ism) of the Day

I can't imagine how much bad I'm going to have to do to make up for coming along on this mission trip. -- Drake Triplett (Age 17), Senior Slump Extraordinaire

Note:  The above was spoken at lunch, today, in answer to a question Drake asked of himself:  How is this trip affecting the moral compass in your life, Drake?  Ummm...about all I (Dave and, most likely, everyone else)  have to say about all of this is this:  "Beware Iowa."

The International Mission Trip:  Is it an Effort to Help, an Effort to Serve, orBoth?

My answer (as always) is...it depends.  While I do think that "help" is needed at times of crisis and emergency, I am much more interested in the long-term development of people in finding greater and greater healing and reconciliation in life.  As such, I want to live a missional life of selfless service.  My prayer is that God will continue to forge such things in and through me.

Regarding trips, the most common question I get upon returning home from a trip to the developing/re-building world is this:  "So what did you do while you were there?"  Despite what you might think, answering such a question can be a little difficult.  Mostly, I answer with something akin to the following:  "We just spent time with our new Haitian friends…praying and worshiping with them, listening to them, playing with them, and working alongside them."

"How many wells did you dig?"  Ummm....none.

"How many latrines did you construct?"  Zero.

"How many people did you see come to faith in Jesus?"  I haven't the foggiest notion.

Sometimes, after I provide such answers, I get a variety of reactions from blank stares, to “That’s nice,” to “Well...did you have a good time?”

I understand a little of the frustrations of those asking me about such a trip.  I really do.  We in the U.S. tend to value time, efficiency, and the bottom line over just about anything else.  This can be seen in our Monday morning quarterbacking and in our emphasis on P and L statements, church attendance counts, website stats, and the number of "widgets" produced last month in factory x.  Not that such things aren’t valuable, because they certainly can be, it’s just that many cultures outside of the U.S. tend to place a much higher priority on things that are not necessarily reflected in the efficiency measures we value so highly here in the states.  For instance (and this is not intended to be a slam on the U.S. [for I am in love with the U.S.!]; rather it is an attempt, simply, to illuminate a difference between the U.S. and some of the cultures I've visited), the Haitians and the Kenyans, two people groups that I have grown to love dearly, place a much higher priority on togetherness, community, and the building of lasting friendships than most of us do here in the west.  For those of us experiencing such things for the first or second time, the "shock" of such exposure can be difficult—especially, upon returning home after such a trip.  Re-assimilating back into the culture of central North Carolina after hanging out in Bohoc, Haiti, for a week or two can be very challenging.  Just ask anyone who’s ever come back from such a trip.  :o)

A couple of years ago, Benji Kelly, the Senior Pastor of newhope church, asked me to write a "two-year game plan" for international missions at newhope.  In that document, I wrote what I believed to be "our" missional philosophy.  Provided below is an excerpt from what I wrote.  The same can be found on the newhope curch website at the following link:  http://www.newhopenc.org/Serve/HOPEmissions/International-Missions.aspx.

While there are many ways to engage in mission, it is our intention at newhope church to pursue international missions activity by partnering with very discrete and specific communities as they seek to follow Christ and to do for themselves that which they feel must be done to create flourishing communities devoted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

The provision of disaster recovery (the rehabilitation that occurs after "the bleeding has stopped") or development resources that are not community based (basically, initiated, driven, AND managed by the community) will fail—PERIOD.  History teaches that this is the case.  Once "the bleeding has stopped," the community directly affected must be intimately involved in and with their own rehabilitation and development.  As servants of the King, we must do all that is in our power to come alongside those who are hurting and who are trying to recover and develop themselves; but just as a physical therapist cannot make someone do his or her shoulder exercises, we cannot (nor should we EVER) do for others what they can (and must) do for themselves.  To try to do otherwise is completely disrespectful, creates dependency, leads to 'unhealthy giving,' and, quite literally, hurts everyone involved.

To be good stewards of that which God has given us—time, talents, gifts, financial resources, etc.—it appears to me to be the most God-honoring when what we have to give is given in the context of a committed relationship, where we come alongside our brothers and our sisters in a specific place as they work together, under community leadership, to follow Christ and to develop communally from within.

Currently, we at newhope are partnering internationally with the following two communities throughThe 410 Bridge:  Bohoc,Haiti (where we are right now in this VERY moment), and Kiria, Kenya.  To date, we have visited Kiria twice (July 2010 and 2011) and Bohoc twice (April 2011 and, of course, right now).  And it is our intention to visit both communities at least twice a year for the foreseeable future.

The plan for the 2012 year (following this trip) is as follows:

Bohoc, Haiti (April 2012)
Kiria, Kenya (June 2012)
Kiria, Kenya (September 2012)

If you are interested in going on a missions trip in 2012, please contact me at thatdaverbling@yahoo.com.  Please note that we still have space on the April 2012 trip to Haiti.

If you would like to pray for teams or be a part of sending them, please e-mail me as well.  AND...if you will be so kind as to do this, please go to the Prayer Requests blogpost last week and consider praying for the team that's right now serving our Master and His people here in Haiti.

More later...(including some pictures!)...

Jezu l'aime ou,

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012 and HM/I [newhope church])

PS...It looks like tomorrow we will be working with our Haitian friends at the Bohoc community garden.  Keep all of us--especially our Haitian friends in your prayers.  If you'd like a guide for praying for our Haitian friends, consider using Psalm 91 and turning it into a prayer.  Mesi!!

PPS...Okay...something really funny just happened.  A rooster showed up, walked into the guesthouse, and Allison just chased it in to the kitchen.  Perhaps I'll be able to eat dinner after all.  :o)  Peace-out, y'all!!

For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord.  "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a future and a hope." -- Jeremiah 29:11

29 Jan...11:48a

BONSWA!!

"Bonswa" means Hello after 11a; from midnight to 11a, the correct greeting is "Bonjou."

We just got back from attending the Sunday service at Maranatha Church in Bohoc.  If I am recalling correctly, Maranatha is a Baptist Church.  Maranatha, though, is unlike any Baptist Church I've ever been in.  This morning was "Children's Sunday," so we were graced with lots of kids, including a children's choir.  The music was delightful (even though I hardly understood a word).  Perhaps, once my Creole improves, I'll be able to understand the sermons a little more.  That might also help with understanding what the chickens, roosters, donkeys, and dogs are trying to say, too!

Anyway...

Before Pastor Telius (who is also on the Bohoc Leadership Counsel) preached from Matthew 21:12-22, Leah introduced the team (in Creole [which the congregants loved!]), and then we all introduced ourselves:  "Mwen rele [my name is]..." Alison, Steve, Yours Truly, Brooke, Ryan, Ramsay, Kimberly, April, Necie, and Drake. ).  After the introductions, we did a repeat of yesterday's "Here I Am to Worship" in both English and Creole.  The congregation seemed to like that, too!  On a side note, we all seemed to think that Sol was at the church we visited today.  He even led some of the worship.  If it wasn't Sol, it sure looked like him.  Anyway, for those of you who don't know, Sol is the local agronomist and, in my estimation, has probably forgotten more about plants than most college professors know.  We met Sol last year, and, from what we could determine, he's been an absolute Godsend to the people of Bohoc.  His knowledge is, to say the least, extensive.  Even though Sol is extremely gracious, he's one of those types that, when you have a question for him, you wonder if it's a good enough question to merit his time.  :o)

This morning's devotion was fabulous.  Leah shared from Philippians 2:3-8 and from John 13:1-17.  The focus was on service to others.  During her talk, she shared two definitions from Websters:

To help:  to aid, assist, or contribute strength to save or rescue.

To serve:  to act as a servant to others.

The question Leah had for all of us was this:  Can you see the difference?

Sometimes, in our culture, seeing any difference between helping and serving can be quite difficult.  Usually, because we often think that helping is serving when, more often than not, it's not.  As such, I am going to use this morning's devotion as a spring-board for writing a little about poverty, poverty alleviation, our missional philosophy at newhope church (as it manifests in Haiti and Kenya), and the roll we as Christians in the United States can play.

Poverty

Whenever I think about poverty, the first thing that comes to my mind are the poor and marginalized who live in developing and rebuilding nations like Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and many of the war-torn nations on the African continent.  While being "materially poor" is only one aspect of poverty (and a huge one at that), it is NOT the only aspect.  Far from it, in fact.  We in the west (those who, by every worldly measure, comprise the largest conglomerate of "the materially rich" in the world) tend to define poverty in terms of A LACK of material goods, such as money, food, clean water, education, jobs, medicine, or public infrastructure.  The materially poor, however, while they do mention such things, most often define poverty by the ways in which their impoverished conditions MAKE THEM FEEL.  Unseen words such as shameful, hopeless, inferior, powerless, humiliated, terrified, depressed, socially isolated, abandoned, voiceless, and taken advantage of are all apt descriptors of ways in which the materially poor often feel.

Broken Relationships

Life is all about relationships:  One’s relationship with God, with oneself, with others, and with the physical world.  As Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert write in When Helping Hurts:  Alleviating Poverty without Hurting the Poor...and Yourself (Note:  The reading of this particular book is required reading for anyone going on an international missions trip with Hope Missions/International [HM/I] at newhope church.), the above are considered the four foundational relationships of life on earth.  The fall of man, unfortunately, damaged all four of these relationships.  Corbett and Fikkert argue that poverty, when viewed systemically, is really the result of a breakdown in all four of these relationships.

As a human being, I suffer from the brokenness about which Corbett and Fikkert write so candidly.  But...because of my material affluence (or relative affluence compared to most in the world), I tend to discount (or, perhaps, hide from?) the depths of my brokenness.  How does this happen?  Well...if (and when) I'm feeling badly about myself in one or all of the above relationships, it is very easy for me to distract myself with the many things I have around me.  For example, I live in an 800 square foot apartment, and yet I have one computer (the laptop I'm writing on now), two TVs, two DVD/VCR players (not including the DVD player that's integral to my laptop), two CD players, over 100 movies, and over 300 CDs.  I probably have enough entertainment media within arm's reach to distract me for months on end.  If I'm feeling lonely or cut off from human contact, all I need to do, sometimes, is just log-in to my Facebook account and "interact" in some manner with others, who (just like me) are probably sitting at home alone or in a coffee shop somewhere surfing the net.  I have discovered, though, that instant messaging with someone on-line is NOT the same thing as having an in-person, heart-to-heart conversation with that person...especially, when such a conversation takes place within the context of an intimate friendship that has been built over time, where that person knows the messy details of my life and where that person can say the same about me.

All too often, it seems, we settle for a counterfeit intimacy simply because we won't allow ourselves to feel our disconnectedness with God, with ourselves, with our friends and neighbors, or with our social and physical environments.  And so, rather than working on becoming genuine friends with God, with another person, or, even, with ourselves, most of us run to our addictions to anesthetize the almost overwhelming feelings of sadness, loneliness, and disintegratedness that characterize our inner lives.  And then, when our familiar addictions start to fall apart (and they ALWAYS do eventually), we look for something else to distract us, be it alcohol, food, sleep, pornography, sex, religious activity, work, or any host of things that "promise" comfort or pleasure or, simply, just a change in state.  Or we pay a "professional friend" hundreds—if not thousands—of dollars to listen to the waves of unexpressed feelings, pent-up hurts, and unmet relational needs as they crash upon the shores of our souls.  This is in no way my attempt to disparage the counseling field or anyone who avails himself or herself of such services, for, as I have experienced in my own life, talking through things with a trained counselor can be extremely helpful.

We in "the west," while we tend to feel a lot of the very same things the materially poor feel (for such feelings are endemic to the human condition), we have the means to run from or blot out such feelings, at least partially.  The materially poor, though, rarely have such options.  (And I think that's a good thing in many ways.)

Okay...that's it for now.  This afternoon we head back to Matthew 28 to love on and to blow bubbles and make balloon animals with about 50 kids.

Bendi bene ou...

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)

29 Jan...6:57a

S'ak pase?  That's Haitian Creole for What's up?

The typical Haitian response to "S'ak Pase?" is "Nap Bule" (No worries).  Literally, though (and we just learned this from Ronald last night), "Nap Bule" means I'm in the fire but not burning.

This morning, the air has been filled with a veritable choir of echoing roosters.  Thankfully, the very kind rooster who, last year, roosted about an inch-and-a-half outside our room windows, appears to no longer be around.  (I didn't want to say this yesterday as doing so could have jinxed the whole thing.  But...this morning, I feel safe in saying that he is most definitely not here.)  To say that our rooster friend of last year was a bit confused would be an understatement.  Roosters are supposed to sound their "cockadoodledoos" as the sun rises not EVERY hour, on the hour, and THROUGHOUT the night.  Speaking for the whole team, we are all very glad that Mr. Rooster, like Elvis, has left the building.  Had he reappeared last night, I am quite confident that Allison would be gutting him this morning so that we could all eat him for lunch after church.

I'm feeling a little tired this morning, and, I imagine, most of our team is.  The past two days have been fabulous, but they have been long.  Today is the Sabbath; hopefully, we will all get a chance to take a little down-time before we launch into project-work tomorrow.

If I recall, our agenda has us working in the community garden for most of the day tomorrow.  The people of Haiti are excellent gardeners.  One of the most intriguing things I've discovered about some of their techniques is their method of fertilization.  There is a plant called Madelem, which is not native to the island of Hispanola and, as such, is quite invasive.  The interesting thing about this plant is that the Haitians have discovered that burying the plant's leaves fixes nitrogen in the soil.  So...rather than using animal manure, which creates a host of water quality problems, the Haitians use an invasive plant to enrich the soil.  There are other plants that are used similarly, specifically Ligiminez, but Madelem is the one they use the most.

Okay...breakfast is in a few minutes, followed by Church at 9a.  Stay tuned as more is certain to come later!

Jezu l'aime ou!  (Jesus loves you!)

Dave (On Behalf of Team Haiti 2012)