Saturday, Day 2, 27 Apr

Saturday (Day Two), 27 Apr

1147a...

Greetings, everyone...

We just got back from hanging out all morning in Pignon (prounounced PEEN-yown), which is the nearest town next to Bohoc.  While were were there, we tried to visit the Hospital Bientaisance De Pignon Hres Devisite (basically, the Pignon Hospital), but they weren't allowing visitors today.

After leaving the hospital, we walked through the market in Pigon, which takes place every Saturday morning.  This is where the locals bring out their animals and display all their wares--all in the hopes, of course, of making a little money.  Some of the "vendors" acquire many of their items from other such village markets throughout Haiti and then come try to sell what they've acquired at the local Pigon market.  Some also bring there things over to the village market in Bohoc, which takes place every Monday morning.

After walking through the market, we visited a bakery and a moonshine stillary.

Okay...lunch is about to start soon, so I'm going to end this entry and pick things up later.

Bondye bene ou!!  (God bless you!!)

Dave

P.S.  So there's this dog that's been hanging around Haiti Unlocked that I can't figure out.  His name is Rete, which, in Creole, literally means "wait" or "stay".  When I call to him--"Vini (Creole for "come"), Rete...Vini, Rete", he starts to take a step toward me but, just as suddenly, sits right back down.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

544p

Bonswa!!  (Good afternoon!!)

We just got back from a wonderful time playing with the kids at Kris Sel Espwa across the street.  I think we're all a little tired and just looking forward to a little down time followed by dinner and our evening debrief.  Speaking of dinner and our debrief, one of the things I really love about trips like this is being with the teams.  I love it that we get to eat every meal together at one big table, that we get to do morning devotions together, and that at the end of the day we get to debrief the day together.  This morning was our first devotion on the trip, and Leslie Love, one of our precious team members, led us in a little centering prayer and a time of meditation upon Colossians 4:5-6, which reads, Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.  Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.   

Oh...so I asked Jedlain about Rete, and this is what he said:  "You just need to work a little more on your Creole, Dave.  When you say things like Vini, Rete, if you stop and think about it, to him it's almost as if you're saying Here, boy--Stay!...Here, boy--stay!  No wonder he seems a little confused."

28 Apr, 505a...

Last night at our debrief, we talked a little about poverty and what the gospel might mean to a Haitian caught in the web of such a thing.

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, Eastern Europe, 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's 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.

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, 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 quite persuasively 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's 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 am writing on now), two TVs, two DVD/VCR players (not including the DVD player that's integral to my laptop), two CD players (again, not including the CD player that's integral to my laptop), 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 one of many social media accounts 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've relearned, 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's been built over time, where that person knows the messy details of my life and where that person can say the same thing about me.

All too often, it seems, we settle for a counterfeit intimacy simply because we won't allow ourselves to really 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 reconciling with our environment or becoming genuine friends with God, with another person, or, even, with ourselves, most of us run to our addictions and unhealthy attachments to anesthetize the almost overwhelming feelings of sadness, loneliness, and disintegratedness that characterize our inner lives.  And then, when our familiar refuges 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, by the way, in no way my attempt to disparage the counseling field or anyone who avails himself or herself of such services, for, as I've experienced in my own life, talking through things with a trained counselor can be extremely helpful.

While we in "the west" tend to feel a lot of the very same things the materially poor feel (for such feelings are common to the human condition), most of us have the means to run from or blot out such feelings--at least partially.  The materially poor, though, rarely have such options.  (And, in many ways, I don't think that's a bad thing.)

Later, I'll write a little more about such things.  In fact, I'd like to focus specifically on what I've been praying into where the redemption of Haitian culture is concerned.

Enjoy God's people, everyone.  CU soon!

Daver