Today was a “beach day.”  I have not had this experience of Haiti before, and frankly I was not super excited about it.  But after having lived this day, I see the wisdom of NVM in sending teams to this kind of experience.  One of our team members admitted that he had lobbied at least three people (me included) to not do this day, and he found out he was wrong.  I did too.  We were able to see a lot more of Haiti on the bus ride, we were able to slow down a bit and start to think about heading back, and we were able to do some shopping to get some keepsakes for ourselves and others in a safe and controlled environment.  But more than the stuff we did, we were able to participate in the vision of NVM in a totally different way.   It was a very different day and it was a good day.

Tuesday Stories:

Countryside IDP camp

Haiti isn’t all disaster.  In a way, we got to see a glimpse of the potential that NVM is trying to realize today.  On our way out, we passed by the largest IDP camp in Haiti.  It was different from the ones in Port-au-Prince in that it was spread out all over the countryside.  There were thousands living in it however, and it was vast.  We stopped at a market near Cabaret and got some fresh mangoes for lunch.  You can buy about six mangoes for a dollar here, and they taste amazing.  We arrived at the beach and we began to see the beauty in the blue water, the majesty in the mountains, and there was even a waterspout/funnel cloud of sorts across the water by La Gonâve.  Haiti isn’t all disaster…and frankly the disaster only made worse the poverty that was already here.   But there is great potential here, in the people and all around.

Market where we bought mangoes on way to the beach

Funnel Cloud

It ended up being a great team thing as well.  We had some time to think about what we had experienced.  We were able to swim together and play volleyball together.  We shopped and saw a huge crab and some large lobsters that were for sale.  And we even bonded in pushing the bus together.  That story in just a minute.  We talked about our day today first in our evening team meeting, and God did all kinds of things in our team.

Race for the Cure

Secondly we talked about what it will be like to enter back into our “normal” lives after an experience like this.  It will not be easy.  When you have smelled poverty, it leaves a lasting impression that can make our suburban life a challenge. We believe this is a good thing of course, but we are all praying we can wrestle well with God in what he would have us be in coming home.  One team member actually summarized well.  He was reflecting on how he had a  major business waiting that was worth a lot of money, and in comparison to the work of hanging a door with a couple other guys…it seemed to hold little value.  The question he was wrestling with, and the rest of us all heard and are wrestling with to one degree or another, is: What has eternal value? Hanging a door seemed to have great eternal value.  Lots of what we did this week seemed to.

The End of the Bus Saga

Did I mention that I didn’t have one issue with the bus when I drove our medical teams around in February/March?  Sigh.  Today was the longest distance and time I have driven, and it was without incident, until we were rolling into town.  The engine started to sound different and I was suspicious we were out of gas.  We were still going along, and I was asking our translator if he thought it was the gas…and he did.  We were right next to a gas station that didn’t look like it was in operation.  Come to find out it was, it just had about 100 Haitians standing under the covering because of the rain.  I had already driven by when I decided there was no way we were going to make it to the next station, so I quickly pulled a U-turn where there was no U-turn to be had.  Lots of horns honking, but we rolled up into the station and promptly ran out of gas about six feet from the pump. We ended up pushing the bus the last little bit.

Amazingly enough, we saw the police officers that showed up at church on Sunday.  Did I mention there were four police officers that came to church per Pastor’s invitation?  Anyway, we felt very safe as they immediately recognized us and were so excited to see us.

One windshield wiper

So we are driving home, it is raining, and because of no action of my own, other than I turned the windshield wiper on a good 45 minutes prior, the wiper flies off.  It just flew right off.  We happened to be dropping our interpreter when it happened, so Thomas jumped out to try and fix it.  He declined my offer to have him ride on the hood and manually wipe it for me, so instead I peered through the one inch line the former wiper was clearing.  Ahhh…I’ll miss this bus.

Thomas in the rain

The team sure had a good time recounting all of my adventures with this blue beauty.  Thomas drove the bus for a little while tonight, and for some odd reason the team became really nervous when they saw him take over . I thought they would be relieved!  Thomas did a great job, and I took us home through the city.  Have a mentioned I will miss the bus?  I am thinking the team may not have the same feelings.

We leave bright and early tomorrow (Wednesday) for home.  God is so good to us!

Team minus Thomas & Nathan