Daily Life in Haiti

by Jimmy

One day as I was completing some small chores around the house, I thought of the many small Haiti chores that come along with living here. Chores here are very necessary, but things you may never think of in the States. I took some pictures to document.

Electricity: So many things here are related to electricity including the water. We have our electronics center...

Our inverter charges our batteries (which are on just the other side of the wall behind the inverter) whenever we have EDH (city power). EDH comes on for 8 a day at the most. Zero hours per day for 3-4 days at the worst. Task for the inverter is to constantly monitor electricity usage so as to not drain our batteries too quickly, turn it off once the batteries get to low, and then move on to the generators.

At night I turn on the small gas powered generator if needed so as to not disturb the neighbors. The big one I turn on during the day to charge our batteries. Going to buy gas or diesel are probably once a week chores. Making sure we have electricity to power our fans and fridge tops out the priority list.

When we have to run off the small generator, the floor of our apartment suddenly turns into a maze of wires. (Actually it stays a maze of wires, we just have to rearrange the maze.)

And just to make sure we do not use too much energy, I had to unscrew the big round bulbs and install one energy efficient bulb.

We did experience a 4 or 5 day drought of electricity in which we received rain every day, but could not get water to the top of our two story storage tank. So we had to improvise and move the big generator around to our water pump. I was starting to get a little worried when our massive water tank in the ground got to half full, and we still could not run our well pump even with our big generator. Fortunately, EDH came on that day. One more chore though, is to make sure we have a full tank of water, and if not, run the pump when we have electricity.

And even though we have a well, I still have to go to the store every 3 days or so to purchase drinking water. If I go in the afternoon, there are a group of young boys who are glad to escort me across the busy street for "one dolla". I must insist that I can do it on my own.

There are several nightly routines that I follow. The first is to brush my teeth, without tap water of course.

Then shower with our always trickle of water. Literally we have the water pressure of next to nothing. Wash one arm and then the other...

I must make sure we have ice for the next day. No automatic ice maker, and all filled by hand.

The evening starts with a visit right at 6:00 from our night guard. I store the shotgun in the apartment until he comes by to pick it up and hopefully not use it until 6:00 the next morning. It's hit or miss whether or not he has to use it.

After the wonderful supper my amazing wife cooks I will (most of the time) do dishes. Our tiny one bowl sink will barely hold anything, so we had to adapt. Two big plastic bowls are now our sink. One for cool to lukewarm dish soap water, and the other for bleached rinse water. And after we are done, I have to dispose of the bleach water downstairs so as to not mess up our septic system.

Some nights, (not too often), we bring out the TV and watch a movie borrowed from friends. We have computer speakers now, so we don't have to lay right next to the laptop speakers in order to hear it. We did have a treat the other night and made two big bowls of popcorn. Never knew learning how to pop corn in the pan as a kid would turn out so handy.

And finally bedtime... The biggest responsibility of the evening lies in securing the castle against flying invaders. A quickly learned mosquito net lesson has turned into nightly routine. You MUST tuck in the bottoms of the net between the mattresses all the way around. Or somehow the mosquitoes who stay under the bed during the day will find their way inside.

We sleep well, secure from flying bloodsuckers, the fans right next to our ears drowning out the preacher next door who extols loudly, or the horns honking, or the roosters crowing. Wishful thinking on the rooster. He is up bright and early at 4:30, almost just in time for me to get up and accept the shotgun back at 6:00. Sunshine at 5:30 and another day of routines begins.

Live by Faith

Live by faith - song by Chris Rice

I can’t feel You movin’ inside
I don’t hear Your voice whisperin’ in the night
And I’ve never seen You with these eyes
Am I a fool, am I just a fool?
They ask how I follow what I can’t see
Why I trust in a love that my arms won’t reach
I don’t need You, don’t need You, to prove it to me
I’ll be a fool, yes I’ll be a fool

‘Cause blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin’ but never receive

Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin’ on

Holdin’ on for another day

‘Cause that’s what it means to live by faith

So I cry for Your help while the world looks on
And they laugh at my hope when all hope is gone
But I’ll just keep prayin’ when answers won’t come
Am I the fool, am I just a fool
For standing alone while they mock Your name

"Well if your God is so good, tell us why all the pain?"
I’m not sure, not so sure that God is to blame
So don’t be a fool, please don’t be a fool

‘Cause blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin’ but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin’ on
Holdin’ on for another day

‘Cause that’s what it means to live by faith

In a world where our questions are haunted
‘Cause life’s not as fair as we all wanted
Where the innocent die, we ask why
And still we await the reply...

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe
And blessed are the hands that keep givin’ but never receive
Blessed is the heart that gets broken but keeps holdin’ on

Holdin’ on for another day
‘Cause that’s what it means...it means holdin’ on for another day
‘Cause that’s what it means to live by faith
Yes that’s what it means to live by faith
That’s what it means to live by faith, to live by faith...

This is what we talked about at church today. Active faith. That moves from our head (believing He exists) to our hearts (trusting him unconditionally because of his character and judging all circumstances by what we know of Him, not judging him by our circumstances) to our wills and hands and feet (obedience to him being more important than any other pursuit in order that we would bring Him glory)

Don't we all need more faith?..... The righteous shall live by faith. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed you can move mountains. Faith is confidence in what we hope for. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

A few prayer requests:

Jimmy and I have been focusing more on studying Creole and our goal is to have a good grasp of it by Christmas. Pray that we would be committed to putting in the work and for God's grace to help us learn.

We have been praying since before we came that the Lord would make it clear if he has any particular work for us to do in addition to teaching the Heartline children. Please pray for wisdom as we continue the think through this question and remain open to whatever he may have and for faith to obey in anything he would ask.

There is a team of 10 in from Austin this week helping with some different projects. Pray for them and a fruitful trip.

Pray for the teen mom house. 3 of the moms just had their babies!

School Update

Tomorrow begins week 5 of our school year here in Haiti.

We are so thankful for the job the Lord has given us here. Teaching really has been a joy.

Teaching highlights so far:

-A couple students who haven't really enjoyed school before are enjoying it and excited about what they are learning possibly for the first time.

-A student that began the year really struggling with reading has already made so much visible progress!

-Our curriculum has a focus on teaching students to be able to speak and present so that they can one day be comfortable sharing all the things they have learned with others. A couple students that were very nervous and uncomfortable with speaking in front of people the first week have made very successful "presentations" and are getting more comfortable with this difficult task.

-One precious student that never fails to tell us at the end of every day "Thank you so much for teaching me today!!"

-Seeing the kids make connections on their own between the different subjects and what they are learning and reading. Watching them share with others confidently things we have learned.

-Most of the student's love for art. We have been doing a drawing unit and they have just been eating it up. They so enjoy it, are so proud of their work, and really talented.

-Having students who respect us and not having to spend all day fighting crazy battles and chaos. I am still often shocked by their quickness to be corrected or obey. They are not perfect, but their obedience is definitely different than what we experienced in the public school system. They also really love one another and take care of each other which is sweet to see.

-Seeing the students struggle through things that are difficult. Some are being challenged in ways they never have been before. Sometimes our tendency as people is to want to try and remove these struggles for kids or help them enough to make things easy. But a quote we heard before the beginning of the year that has really been a reminder to us is "You must prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child." So it has been neat to instruct and walk alongside in some of the difficulties and struggles without making things easy or comfortable knowing that the end result of the challenge will be growth.

-Having parents that are involved and supportive and thankful for what we're doing with their kids.

-Getting to be stretched in new ways as teachers. It is fun to teach all different subjects to all different ages in a setting very different than we are used to and we are sure it will make us better teachers. We still have lots to learn.

Each day we have a short recreation time with the kids. The first 2 weeks we had these nice balls to play with. However, they were quickly destroyed by all the thorns and glass and rocks in the school yard. Last week the kids were entertained all week with a random piece of old rope they found and converted into a jump rope. Below are a few pictures of jump roping in the pouring rain after school one day.