My Bananas Are Thirsty

It's funny all the random things I'm learning to do here. I have waded through a book on raising goats, because I had to figure out how to remove their horns. They really do get nasty with each other with those darned horns.

Not only that, but we also have this yard full of baby banana trees, which, by the way, need water by the bucket-load. . . lots of water. This means that rain is a splendid thing for those poor bananas. But since the hurricanes ceased, there hasn't been a whole lot of that. Now, everyone else is pretty thankful for this. The people who lost their stuff and/or families and/or homes and/or livelihood in the flooding in September- they fight tears and trembling fear when they see or feel a drop of rain. And at that thought, I could care less about the friggin' bananas.

The only creature indifferent to the rain, or any other circumstance for that matter, is the rat. And Haiti has more than its share of those. I am now the household pro at catching little mice. . . and quite large ones (the kind that eat poor little cats for breakfast. . .yes, quite large). One day we cleaned out a depo and there were so many, I had to give up all of my humane methods and get the machette. I told you this tool is a catch-all for Haitian work, and indeed it is. I killed ten rats that day. Wow.

And then it was back to the paperwork. The truest thing about this work is that it never, ever, ever runs out. And all the little things, like rats or goats or any of the other random things that have to be attended to, are at times a hindrance to getting the "real" work done, such as time with the kids or getting the paperwork done or contacting other churches and schools. It's truly beyond me how any of it gets done at all- petty tasks or real ones. I've never known a more perfect example of living a life that "rolls with the punches."

Random or not, I do love it. Actually, I think the random factor is what I love the most about it. The rule for my entire life has been this: I'm not great at anything, but I can do a satisfactory job at a lot of random things. Jack of all trades and expert at none. Yep, that's me.

Love.