Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Next Phase

Having been here four months now, I am seeing the different phases of my stint marked by very visible changes, mostly in relation to my company.

Upon arriving, I was naturally overwhelmed yet graciously in the shelter of guidance with Wilckly here to regulate things. But when things turned and he was carried away to prison, my dwellings were paralleled by the shift from shelter to the tent of independence. Praise God, I was not fearful of that condition, but savored Wilckly's presence in the weeks following his release. But then, from shelter to tent, I was introduced into the open skies of loneliness in leadership when he travelled Stateside.

Now, it may sound as if I'd been booted into the condition against my will, but I assure you that Wilckly's sabbatical (if it can be called that) was more necessary than I can describe to you. In saying this, though, I will not deny its difficulty. But in its difficulty, I can not also deny the necessity of this dwelling place for me. Without this time of orientation (in the extreme of the word) and if I hadn't learned the things I did during it, I would be the worse for it.

It is a privilege to be so honored of the Dorce's to have me sit in such a position in their absence. And to trust a person as they have trusted me is no small thing. Even further, God carried out His perfect, though uncomfortable, plan of accelerating me to the understanding I have now for this ministry, this people, this type of leadership and the things that are necessary to carry it out. I will be much more valuable to them in the rest of my time with here than I would be if Wilckly had stayed and cushioned the work for me.

Though I'm sure they didn't anticipate this time to be as it has been (and who could possibly do such a thing?), God knew since my first thought of this work, my first conversation with Dee, my first taste of the responsibility in this ministry that this would be His reckoning of it. And who can argue with sovereignty?

Anyway, I'm thankful for the whole lot of it. I have been refreshed by the conversation and fellowship of my visitors (though they have left me now). I am ready to jump back into the swing of Wilckly's presence and am taking a deep breath as the work begins again, as Wilckly always attracts more activity when he's here.

A few things I've noticed about Wilckly already:

1) he's more annoyed by the rats than me.
2) he has a higher standard for bananas than me.
3) we tend to drink more lemonade when he's around.
And 4) people generally respect him more than me, which is to be expected when you stand, in Haiti, a 40-something married Haitian man who founded the mission next to a 23-year-old white girl with no husband, no kids, no Kreyol, no experience and no idea what she's doing.

All my love,
C

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Really?

I've always wondered why cars, trucks, vans and all other other motorized vehicles seem to fall apart, not just in my possession, but in my very presence.

My first car was previously driven by my brother and sister and their friends, but of course did not reach its end until the worst possible moment when in my possession. My second vehicle was, granted, as old as my first (both built in '88), but had its own set of problems that waited until the car was called mine before they surfaced.

You name it, I've had to deal with it- flat tires, bad engines, needing to start the car from its exterior, radiator problems, broken hoses, coolant leaks, noisy belts, pump failure, faulty horns, shatter-prone bearings, no heat, no gas, no wipers, no lights, no working gauges, the works.

Well, here in Haiti, my past seems to be repeating itself in all the ways I would have liked for it not to.

Since we got our "new" pickup, I've driven it for maybe a total of 8 hours and sat in the back waiting for it to be fixed for a rough total of 28 hours. The same tire has gone flat twice, the first of which was the first time I ever sat in the friggin' thing, and the time I tried to get a woman to the hospital so she wouldn't have her baby in the dirt a bearing shattered, which caused my serpentine belt to rip to shreds, handicapping the truck in the middle of nowhere with a screaming pregnant lady in the back.

We put her on a tap tap to the hospital and 6 hours later she came riding back toward home with a little baby girl. 4 hours after THAT, we finally got the truck pulled back to my yard and fixed a few days later, only for the radiator to break the next time I drove it. Holy crap.

So as you can imagine, I am wary of taking it too often, hoping that when I do need it to go to the city, it won't break again. So I ride tap taps or a bus instead when I have to go to Port au Prince.

I went in a bus on Monday, on which there was no sitting room. So I practically stradled the gear shift and held on to what was left of the rear view mirrior for an hour. Then we hit a motorcycle. Thankfully, the Haitians on the motorcycle were smart ones and instead of gripping the moto for dear life, they did the right thing- they bailed. And that was the end of the moto. What was a 2 hour trip turned into a 3 hour one, but we were fine.

I went to the city again yesterday and everything was perfect. Sitting room on either vehicle we rode- bus or tap tap. The whole trip was smooth, until about a mile from home...when the tire exploded.

Only God knows why it happens to me. I've got no explanation.

Happy New Year!

Love you.
-C