2 Things

1. She came back. Jeff removed her and I'm working on a chicken-proofing plan. Adding this photo is against my better judgement but if it placates her, maybe she'll get out of my hair...

2. Decided to white-wash the blog... it felt cluttered. One can't wear the same thing for ever.

An Office!

OK, I have to preface this post with the following: IT WILL BE DISGUSTING. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ ABOUT YUCKY STUFF, THEN DON'T READ THIS POST.
Seriously.
I wanted to share about my new office space the minute I was told I it was mine (except for 2 weeks in May when I will have to move out and let some team use it to sleep because we are overbooked - sigh of frustration here).
Previously I had been meeting with young people in Rachel's office or in Abby's classroom (whichever was free at the time I needed it). Things here require lots of adaptation on a daily basis.
Anyhow, I was told 2 weeks ago I could finally start to use my office. Unfortunately, there was no key for the lock on the door so I waited another week for a new lock and then, in the middle of last week, began moving stuff into the room.
I had gone in the week before to clean the washroom, sweep the floors, re-arrange the bulky bunk beds that have to remain there until after May. It was dusty but not so bad. In the washroom I found a chicken who seems to enjoy room 14. She has been known to lay eggs on the beds. I decided she would make a suitable secretary.

I was given the new key to room 14 and excitedly gathered my first load of art supplies for the office. As happens in an area with any of 61 kids wandering around, I quickly had some helpers who wanted to carry items to the new office. We opened the door and found a pile of animal poop. Rotting in the heat as though it had been there a while.

Please note the stain from liquid run-off. This will help you to imagine the smell of this welcoming sight.

I remember thinking wow, this poop smells really bad. Almost like a dead animal. Then I remembered Mdme Poul, my creepy washroom secretary, and went to look for her. She was sitting on her shelf, looking, frankly, quite stupid, and on the floor below were the remains of 3 eggs that she had, I can only surmise, laid and then let roll off the shelf. Another layer of the odor in the office.

I recall thinking wow, it smells like a sketchy dairy aisle... but somehow worse... and not just because I could still smell poop.

By this time the kids were squealing and laughing at the discoveries. I was deep in thought, formulating a plan of action that included firing Mdme Poul, when, as I walked back into the main area in the room, I sensed an intense cloud of decay. I was pretty much right between the washroom and the entrance, smack in the middle of rotten eggs and nasty poop... but the air was just a little bit thicker in a way that eggs and feces just don't add up to. For some reason, probably the Spirit's leading, I thought to look under the shelves in the main room. And that's where I found it, deep in the darkest corner of the room, lifeless in the shadows, a dead rat.

Now I'm going to post a picture of the rat. It is still in the trap and doesn't look too big in the photo. Using a broom one of the girls got it outside and that's where I took the picture, so you could get a better sense of the decay. You're welcome. Keep in mind that the rat trap is as big as my shoe - it's not little like a mouse trap.

What you can't see in this photo are the tufts of fur that were scattered around the rat under the shelves. Many thanks to our plentiful ants who will, within minutes, find anything dead and begin to disassemble it - promoting the decay process. Apparently they don't want the fur, and so leave it behind, scattered around the carcass.

And so, that is how my move into my new office began. Under the heavy cover of stank, and with the trills of kids (me included) losing it at each new discovery of grossness, I began my move in :)

A couple of end notes:

- Photos were taken on my blackberry and so have lower resolution. You're welcome again.

- I hired 7 kids for 4 candies a piece to do the cleaning (those who followed through got 6 candies each). It's true, labour is one of Haiti's greatest resources.

- Mdme Poul was removed by brave, but slightly nauseous (note the face covering), Monsado using a Mickey Mouse sheet. Apparently she belongs to Jeanson. She was asked not to return to the office. We will have her belongings sent to her new address. I considered adding a photo of her but decided not to give her the satisfaction.

*this post is dedicated to Jenn Mitchell. Jenn, please use your considerable library on poop to help us determine who left the 'gift' - if possible. Keep in mind we have many wandering goats and dogs around the orphanage. I know because they, and the roosters, yell at each other all night.

Another Stamp on the Passport of Reality (quite possibly the lamest blog title ever - You're Welcome!)

A couple of weeks ago I planned and executed a solo expedition to the wild and unpredictable land next door.
I took a bus to the Dominican Republic.
It was an adventure and I definitely added a lot more bullet points to my list of "Rookie Mistakes" (to be embarassingly published at a later date, I suspect), but it was a good time and a good thing for me to do.
I won't go into all the ups and downs of the trip, but I will say that I found the Dominican people to be exceedingly patient, kind and generous. I used the phones of 3 strangers in the first day of my trip and none of them wanted to be reimbursed for used minutes. I don't speak Spanish and almost everyone I met had no English, yet I enjoyed multiple interactions with people I met.
I was there to visit 2 friends (one planned visit didn't work out), but also to visit the countryside of the Island of Hispaniola. I saw a lot of the country, many towns and some of Santo Domingo from my bus. I landed in a town called Higuey for a couple of nights and saw a few things like:La Basilica de Higuey Nuestra Senora de la Altagracia (a church and shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary), and met Haitian children begging for pesos in the streets. I had fresh fruit and juice and burritos and even a Domino's calzone. It was just good to get away for a bit. To have time alone to reflect, to pause and listen to what's been running around in my head these last many weeks, to sort out those racing thoughts, and then to return to MOH having had an experience separate from what is happening here - and there is always a lot happening here.
This week I've been house-sitting for a family who live at MOH full-time. The Van Der Mark's (there should be a link to their blog in the column to the right) went on their yearly vacation to the Dominican Republic. It's been kind of surreal to stay in their house because it's actually like a house. It has a kitchen and living room with appliances and couches and televisions. It has bedrooms without bunk beds and washrooms with hot water and without a million mosquitoes or a family of mice, and a washing machine(!), and power all the time. It's quite luxurious actually. I'm anticipating it will be difficult to move back down to my mosquito-netted bunk in the room without floor to ceiling walls, where there is zero silence (seriously, if the noise ever stops there, between the 61 kids and teams living in Hope Village and the dogs that howl at night and roosters that crow any hour of the day or night and the giant generator that powers this place roaring in a nearby building... well, I'd worry that I'd missed the Rapture or something!). It has been like a mini-vacation while staying on campus. A break from reality.
I'm not sure if you've had this experience before, a break from reality is often a good thing spiced with a little not-so-good. I'm going to have to fight again for quiet and peace, but there have been a bunch of days together where it's been easy to access those things - so maybe it will be easier...
I think life should be sprinkled with little escapes from our regular life, time-outs from our realities, alternate endings of our usual days. I hope we don't have to fight too hard for them because they are refreshing and have such potential to help us re-set for getting back to all that's waiting to be done - and there is much to do!
Working to do it well and praying you are too, KL

Roomies!

Just wanted to introduce you to the lovely ladies I share a room and loo with:

Abby and a puppy -- "It's so FLUFFY!"

Abby is from Jacksonville, Florida and teaches English to the Hope Village Kids and Mommies. She also works with the ladies at *3**Cords (see new link at right), and is developing a Young Life program here at MOH.

Clockwise from top left: Star, KL, Megan, Blaire

Star is from Witchita, Kansas and is part of the team who takes care of and leads the groups of North Americans who come to work here for a week or two at a time.
Blaire is from North Carolina and also helps with the groups.
Megan is from Toronto and is a Nurse who is finishing up her Master's in Community Health. She's been writing the curriculum for the MOH Community Health program while she's been here. Sadly she leaves on the 22nd of March.

Those are the girls I live with!
:)

DUSTEEE

It's amazing what you can find when you venture out of this dry and dusty area here in Titanyen.
Saturday morning I went to church with the Hope Village Kids and Rachel and Abby. To be quite honest, it wasn't the best service. There was a kind of unnatural feeling of chaos in the place. Usually the worship, while often seeming chaotic, is actually beautifully covered in a sense of joy and the praises are sweet and overflowing with the Holy Spirit - living water in action: singing, dancing, clapping, shouts of praise. But last Saturday felt somehow dry.
Maybe it was just me. Maybe I was in a stuck or dry place.
Anyhow, after church we walked up for lunch and then a group of North Americans on a team were heading into the mountains to a place called Saut Deau. There is a waterfall there and teams are often taken up to enjoy the place.
When I was invited to join I turned the offer down - I was feeling tired and maybe stuck in that dry place mentally - but one of my roommates persisted (Megan is a gift to me!) and I decided to go with them.
It was about an hour's ride in the back of a canter truck (picture a cube truck or small U-haul with a screen door on the back... for air flow) up into the mountains. UP in to the mountains.
Did I mention how dry and dusty it is here?
After about 15 minutes I tied a towel around my face to shield me from the dust. I was sitting at the very back of the truck so that I could keep an eye on the horizon and try to prevent motion sickness. The result was a fine coating of Haitian dust on every exposed area. Even the inside of my sunglasses needed to be wiped off every 20 minutes or so in order to see anything.
But see things I did. Though the road remained dry and dusty, the landscape began to change. Lush growth covers much of the mountain areas. Farmers are working successful crops. Small villages and towns were active with children playing, women chatting together or doing laundry, men walking around town or working on projects at their homes. There were big shade trees, fields of sugar cane, cattle and horses here and there.
The air changed too.
And when we got out of the truck and paid our $1 and walked down some stairs to behold a hidden waterfall... Well, despite my coating of dust, I didn't feel so dry anymore.
It's easy to think of this land as desolate and barren and desperate and dry. But it wasn't always and this waterfall in Saut Deau is, I think, a glimmer of what this land used to be. It reminded me as well of the hope in God's promise of restoration. Restoration of dry and dusty and barren and desolate lands, okay, but of our desperate souls even more so.

Lush Mountain Vista



Maria's Dusty Braids...
It was a beautiful walk up around and along the water.



Old Lady Hair & a Beautiful Waterfall



Covered up on the way back to MOH... lesson learned :)

 Blessings from a dry and dusty and lush and lovely land!