I take no responsibility for this

Chris is always telling me that I have too many shoes. I can hear all you ladies out there giggling to your selves and all you men nodding in agreement as you think of your wives closets. What can I say? I'm female and we do like to make sure that our shoes go with everything. I mean think about it. It's very rare than men's shoes are sold in a rainbow of colors. Sure, they may have color on them, but they're generally in the black, brown, gray or white range. Ladies, on the other hand... well, lets just say it's a whole other world. And then there are the different styles. Men, it's simple - sneakers, sandals, dress shoes, boots and you about have it covered. Women... sigh. Too many choices. Sneakers don't go with dresses, and heels don't work for running in. Nuf said as far as I'm concerned. 

When Olivia was much smaller people just kept giving us things for her. This kid has had more clothes than she could ever possibly wear. Amongst the goodies were shoes. Shoes of all shapes and sizes. I have made a point of making her wear all of them at least once. When she was smaller Chris would tell me it was ridiculous because she couldn't even walk. Then she started walking. And I started to point out the fact that when we left the house at least, shoes were a must. 

Then it happened. 

Our little cyclone discovered shoes. I'm not talking about me putting them on her. I'm talking about her finding them where we had left them when we took them off. Oh, it was all innocent at first. She would just pack them around the house. But, this kid is observant. She realized that we, in fact, wore shoes when we went outside. And that I would put them on her when we left. One day she came and started pulling at my shirt while I was working at my desk. Not an abnormal thing in the least. When I looked down she had a shoe in hand and no matter what I did she wasn't happy. I finally asked, "Do you want Mommy to put your shoe on?" and no sooner were the words out of my mouth and she was sitting down on the floor all ready for shoe application. 

Where. did. this. kid. come. from?

I should mention that when she started packing shoes around the house for fun I put all of her shoes in a basket on the floor thinking, and secretly hoping, that she would in fact learn to put them away. Does that count as aiding and abetting? For the record, my hopes have not been met.

 

The pink fluffy flowery ones are pair #2 on her personal list of favorites.

Olivia's Ah-ha! moment - shoes are great for running in!

Olivia loves walking around the house with just one shoe on and is happy to do so for extended periods of time. But, what she loves more than having one shoe on is having TWO shoes on. Shortly after she discovered shoes she was bringing me the second shoe. We're talking matched pairs here. Yes, she did that all on her own. Granted, sometimes she likes to mix it up a bit and wear one of each, but she always gets the right feet. I'm wondering if we have a future rocket scientist on our hands. 

And some days a girl just can't decide. Favorite pairs #1 and #2.

And sometimes the shoe just doesn't fit. 

In recent days the shoes have been put on earlier and earlier. Sometimes she barely hits the floor after having her first thing in the morning diaper change and the first thing she goes for is shoes. Yesterday morning Chris let me sleep in a bit and when I came downstairs she had two different shoes on over her footy jammies. I tried to get a picture but she was too fast for me.

Spreading the Vision

We are in fact still alive. My mother in law sent me an email a couple days ago to see if we were still around and if everything was okay. I love that no activity on the blog gets people worried. It's just nice to be missed, you know what I mean?

We do have a very good excuse this time. Last week was a Vision Trip week. We had one visitor, and because it was ONE visitor we had all sorts of fun. Naomi is Haitian-America (her parents immigrated to the US 30+ years ago) but on all her previous visits she had gone right from the airport to her family's home in Petionville and usually spent her holidays here visiting family. She had never been out in our area before so we had a lot of fun to showing her Haiti in a totally new way. She had fun soaking it all up. 

Naomi is also a nurse and is going to be starting her Master's in the fall to become a nurse practitioner and her future plans are to return to Haiti and start a women's clinic which is so needed here. Part of our week was spent connecting her with people that are already working in the health aspect of things here and providing opportunities for her to see what they're doing first hand and learn all she could. 

Sunday we went to visit our friends at Kaliko and spent a nice leisurely afternoon with them. Monday Chris took Naomi into St. Marc to visit Barb, Bev and Al and be there to help Barb feed some of the kids in her community. 

On Tuesday I got to be the guide and Naomi and I went up to Canaan in Montrouis to help our friends Bobi and Elsie in the clinic there for the day. I personally had a great day and loved getting out to do something completely different from what I normally do. It was great to be directly in contact with people. I find that because Chris and I know that our workers are more effective if we're not there we've put ourselves in the role of facilitators and just make sure they have what they need to get the work done well. We don't have that much direct contact with people, which has it's advantages and disadvantages. I liked that I was able to be reminded of why the work that we and so many others do here is so life changing for people. 

Naomi spent the morning working with Elsie, who is also a nurse, and the other two Haitian nurses that work at the Canaan clinic seeing patients. I could tell that she was loving all of it. I spent the morning working with Bobi and seeing the first Medika Mamba patients of the day. Medika Mamba is a vitamin pumped peanut butter supplement designed to help kids recover from malnutrition. Kids 6-59 months (just under 5 years old) can have the damage that malnutrition causes to their development almost completely reversed if it's attacked full force. The peanut butter is a combination of peanut butter, sugar, oil and lots and lots of vitamins. 

How does the program work? It's so simple that even someone without any medical training can administer it. It's very user friendly. Before a child is officially entered into the program they have measurements taken. Those measurements are compared with a chart. If they fall in the red range they are "severe" and are admitted. If they fall in the yellow they're borderline and are admitted. If they fall in the green they are not malnourished and the parent will be consulted about good nutrition etc. The measurements used are height and the MUAC - middle upper arm circumference. Apparently the arm circumference in this particular spot will always be a good determiner of malnutrition, even if the child has Kwashiorkor, a swelling that happens with severe malnourishment. The starting weight is recorded and each week the child should gain a certain amount of weight.

Once a child is in the program the parents are counseled about how the program works, that they need to only feed the peanut butter to the child in the program, not others in the house, and they need to commit to coming to the clinic every week for the check up. If they agree to those things they have to sign a contract. When the children come for their weekly check ups they're weighed. If the child hasn't gained enough the parents are spoken to again, and the foundational information is reinforced. If a child loses weight or isn't gaining properly over the long term, like three weeks or so, they can be kicked out of the program. In those cases it's generally that the parent is giving the peanut butter to others in the house and not enough is going to the child that needs it most. Each week the parent is told how many spoons of peanut butter the child needs to eat each day and they're given enough peanut butter for the week. 

The afternoon on Tuesday was all Medika Mamba patients and it was pretty busy. Bobi, Elsie and Miss Elise, another nurse, were all seeing patients. I got to be the organizer and make sure things went in an orderly fashion, which is like giving me crack. If I knew what that was like I mean. :) I came home that night after 8 hours on my feet and felt very tired, but had a great day.

Naomi watching as Elsie does a consult with a Medika Mamba family.

Wednesday Naomi and I went back to Barb's community so we could walk around a bit and Naomi could get a better feel for what most people live in. I felt like the pied piper as we walked and the kids hung off my hands. 

Thursday Naomi and I had plans that fell through so we did some quick calling around and made new plans to go into Port to see Beth, Sheila, Lisa and Brittany at Heartline Ministries Women's Program. It was pre-natal day and there were about 20 ladies in all stages of pregnancy there. I love this program and Naomi was ecstatic to be there because it's exactly what she's thinking for down the road. 

Agathe translates for Beth.

The ladies come each week and have a short, about 45 minute, lecture on various things. Last week it was about what people eat around the world, nutrition and family planning from the perspective of planning your family size so you know that you'll be able to feed all of your children well. Each of the ladies in the program are given a baggie with prenatal vitamins for the week, and milk and eggs to drink and eat during the class. Each week several women are given a check-up to make sure everything is going well. Beth is training to be a fully certified mid-wife so she can eventually deliver the babies for the ladies. Before each woman is done her check-up one of the ladies prays with her. It was great to be able to see this fabulous program in action. 

The ladies in the sewing school working on their projects. The sewing school is another part of the Heartline programs. The ladies are sewing up the bags mentioned in a previous post.

Friday was a bit of a lay low day finished off with dinner out at Moulin Sur Mer with Elsie and Bobi, and Saturday it was off to the airport, with a stop to look at a roof top garden on the way. Chris and I are starting to get our ideas and plans together for our little space and we're getting excited about it. I have to say that once again Chris has surprised me with what's in his head. We've talked about the roof being a great space to go to get away where no one will be able to see us. We've had a railing built around the whole thing so no one falls off, and because we had to raise up our water tanks we decided to build a little building instead of doing it with steel and use it as a storage room. There's electricity and water. Chris had mentioned having chairs etc up there but his plans are much more involved than even I had thought. He really wants to turn it into an outdoor lounge area, which is so very cool. It'll be fun to see it all come together over the coming months. 

So, another week gone. Another visitor come and gone. Each week is so different because of the people that we have coming in. That's one thing I love about the Vision Trips. And, the more we do them, the less work they are for us. Now we're finding they're more about just letting people into our lives than they are about arranging everything and making sure all the details are taken care of. We would love to encourage you to come on a Vision Trip. If you want more info about them you can click on the "Vision Trip" link on the left or email me at office@cleanwaterforhaiti.org.

This is me venting

There are a lot of things that I think about, or that we talk about, that never get discussed on the blog. If you could hear conversations around here as a fly on the wall you would know that there are definitely times when I get really worked up. I don't often blog about certain things, and for various reasons. 

Today I'm worked up about an email I received that had an article written by the sender, someone that I've never met and have no relationship with and that I've only been contact by once. I think at the time they were looking for info about Haiti or something like that and I either didn't have it or wasn't interested in getting involved. 

The article got me annoyed. It was about Haiti and the bottom line intention was to get people interested and motivated to be involved. What I take issue with is how this person went about doing that. 

First off, they came right out and said that one of their goals of writing the article was to get people thinking differently about Haiti, to change some of those preconceived mindsets that people have. Fine, I'm all for that. The methodology of doing that sucked. 

Within the first few paragraphs this person was talking about their visit to a hospital in Cite Soliel, where they were told that it was the only hospital within a 50 mile radius. And they were quoting this as fact. Um, what?!!? Really? 

After reading through most of the article I felt compelled to write this person back and let them know that I appreciated their desire to raise awareness, but that their facts were wrong. First off, in Port au Prince alone there are at least three major hospitals - Canape Vert, Hospital Generale and CDTI. There are any number of smaller ones, along with clinics etc. Aside from that, a 50 mile radius is pretty darn big in a country like Haiti. I mean, we live 40 miles from the airport and in that distance a person drives through Titayen, Cabaret, Williamson, Luly, Archaie and Montrouis. There are clinics and small hospitals in many of those places. There were also things mentioned about the police force, or lack of one. Again, while Police Nationale D'Haiti may not be effective, they do exist. 

I know these issues seem minor, but when you work in development/non-profit/missions you hear about this kind of thing all. the. time. In many cases, not all, it's from an individual that has come in for a few weeks, met some people and gone back feeling like they have a ton of answers. Or that they understand the culture. 

It really grinds me. 

I got a response back from the article writer this afternoon. I was told that their "facts" about the distance to the nearest hospital was from the hospital administrator and he was actually told it was 20 miles, not 50. But that he was going with what the hospital administrator said. Huh? Also the other things that I had mentioned got dismissed because they were more sure of their sources. I was also told that yes, they had in fact dramatized and romanticized certain things in the article so that the target audience (college students) would wake up and take notice and get more involved in Haiti. 

Wow. about. that. 

I really struggle with this kind of thing because I find it insulting and disrespectful. I could really care less about the response I got to my thoughts and comments. What irks me is that this was sent out to a wide group of people with the intention of raising awareness about Haiti and the needs here. The writer not only embellished things for dramatic effect, but didn't even get basic facts right. I know that if this thing was read by anyone living and working here this individual would never be taken seriously. Yet, because they're sending it to an uniformed audience, people may believe it and assume that the information is fact and that the writer had done their research. One of their goals was to help change the way Haiti is perceived. How on earth is that possible if they aren't telling the truth? 

In my opinion this kind of thing is incredibly disrespectful. It's disrespectful to Haitians because their lives are already hard, things here are already difficult etc, but it turns my stomach when people play off of that, even if their intentions are good. By dramatizing or romanticizing things this person is using the poverty and overall state of affairs to manipulate people into supporting the cause, and they're doing it knowingly. There are reasons why people don't want their pictures taken here, one of them is that often the pictures that get taken are of the dire state of poverty and people feel exploited. One thing we try to be very careful of with everything we do at the mission is to respect people and their state of living. We don't tell sad stories of families that will make people want to give, we don't post pictures of people that will wrench at heart strings, we don't embellish. We try to focus on the progress, the way lives are changing, the things that bring people hope. We want people to have dignity and try to help them do that by making the filters affordable (through our subsidized program) so they can make a choice for themselves to better the health of their family rather than taking a filter because the foreigner says they should and because it's free. When people get their filters you can tell they're proud that they did it, not us. We're just the facilitators. 

I think this kind of thing also disrespects all of the people that are giving of their lives, time and resources - Haitian and foreigners - to help Haiti. What about all those people that have given everything they have to make those hospitals and clinics functional, the ones this person won't even acknowledge are there? This person talked about who funded what but didn't even regard the fact that CDTI - one of the newest hospitals - was completely Haitian funded (not government, private) and Haitian run. And it's a great facility. 

The bottom line issues that I'm struggling with are that so often people have good intentions about wanting to help places like Haiti, but I think they're off in how they approach it. I get really tired of people coming into the country for a few weeks, then going home and telling people how to solve all of the problems here. I know people that have been here for almost 40 years and they say they understand things less now than when they first came. I totally get that. I feel like the more you learn about Haiti, the less you know. There are too many layers. You can't take what people tell you as fact just because they're nice. You need to experience, take time to learn, talk to a bunch of people that are in it every day. What I do respect is people that come to Haiti, whether it's for a week or a year or 10, then go home and tell people about their experiences, their first hand learning moments. I believe those things will speak more to people that articles and papers written. What I do see is that a lot of people come here and have a really hard time processing things so they feel like they have to fix it all, and in that they feel like they need to have answers, that they need to get people interested. From my experiences people are attracted to what is personal to you, not what you pretend to know. If I want to do the most good for the people of Haiti isn't it better for me to talk about what it's like for me here day to day, the good and the bad, and let people decide for themselves if they want to be involved? I mean, the people that are passionate make the best supporters. 

This was a vent session. Thanks for letting me let it out. I really want to see people helping Haiti, I just really want them to do it in a way that is ethical and that respects the people here. I think we have a responsibility to present Haiti, or places like it, in a manner that is truthful and sincere, not manipulative and dishonest. We need to remember that for many people we are the gateway. When things are our personal opinions we need to state them that way. When we state things as fact we should at least take the time to know what we're talking about. 

There, that's my two cents worth.

Part Two

Sorry for not adding part two to Chris' little escapade over the weekend. This is a prime example of what's normal for us. We just talked about it a lot, got annoyed, and tried to think about other things. Then we started getting emails from family and even phone calls from worried parents. Monday evening and yesterday brought more calls from missionary friends here that had either been at our house for the missionary meeting on Sunday, or had read the blog. Thanks for all the love people!

Okay, I'll try to give a nutshell run down as best as I understand it. 

Chris went to court on Monday morning. I guess things were slow in getting started so while he sat there the other guy, surrounded by friends and family, took every opportunity to tell passersby that the white man had hit him and yada, yada, yada. Chris said he just sat there listening and not responding. 

When they were finally able to go in front of the judge they each had their turn to speak. Chris felt pretty good about what he said and the entire court room was quiet while he spoke. When that was done the judge decided to defer the case because he didn't feel he could make a good judgment based on what was presented. That's a good thing by the way. From there the other guy could choose to send a paper to summon Chris to court again to try and make him pay for the bike and medical bills. When Chris heard that he asked the judge if he was able to summon the guy for threatening him with a rock and the judge said yes, he could. Chris told the other guy to think hard before he did anything because if Chris was served with papers the other guy would be too. At this point we've received nothing. We're wondering if after hearing Chris' side of things in court the other guy's friends and family, mainly his mother, were able to talk some sense into him. 

From the outside these things don't make much sense. Heck, from the inside they don't either! What we do know after living here is that all the trash talking and lying is a normal way of trying to save face in front of people. Not only did the other guy know that he was at fault, he had his pride wounded with getting into such a crummy accident. Everything he's said to others is an attempt to not look bad. We get that. It just sucks. Hopefully he'll just walk away and leave it be. 

As for the license? Good news. Apparently when a license is taken here it first goes to St. Marc, then gets sent to Port au Prince. Jean, our main guy at the mission, had to go to St. Marc for some other things yesterday so Chris asked if he could stop by the St. Marc police and see if he could pay the fine and get Chris' license back. Jean called a while later and said he had been successful on both counts. So, fine paid, license back and no traffic school in Port for Chris. It's all good. 

When Jean got back he told us that a friend of his had called and asked if Chris had been in an accident. When Jean asked why his friend said he had been riding a tap tap and there was this guy on it that was trash talking a white man that had hit him and the judge that hadn't ruled in his favor the day before :) 

If you want another side of the story and some pictures visit Dan and Sheila's blog.

I'm trying to be philosophical about this...

Today some friends from Port au Prince came by to get Eugene's old motorcycle. Their truck broke down and it's a bit of a convoluted story but where is gets to is that I was driving Sheila Lynch and her kids to the road by Kalico where they would meet up with Dan (on the motorcycle) and Curt Golden, who would tow them back to town. 

Traffic was bad, so I went down the small road at Moulin Sur Mer to meet up with the Montrouis bypass road. The road is single lane, and at the beginning is a blind corner curving left. As I entered the corner, a motorcycle came towards me going the other direction. I can't judge exactly how fast he was going, but the bike was leaning at about 30 degrees from vertical: too fast to make emergency avoidance menouvers as you come out of a blind corner. I slammed on the brakes and stopped at the same time the rider dumped the bike and rolled out of the way. The bike slid into the van on its side. 

I got out of the van, and looked at the riders to see if they were injured. Surprisingly, the rider only had a nasty scrape on his leg and his passenger was fine. The van was fine - the bike pretty messed up. I told the rider he should go see a doctor, but because the van was fine, I was going to go. Predictably, the rider began to make noises that I should pay for his motorcycle. His bike slid into my stopped van, but he wasn't interested. I told him we could get the police involved if he wanted, but it probably wouldn't do him any good. 

What he really wanted was for me to enter into a long, drawn out discussion which eventually ended in me giving him some money. I realized I would have to get the police involved, so I told him I was going to get the police and I'd be back. He picked up a softball sized rock and told me not to leave, I had to talk to him. 

As a matter of personal policy, I don't have discussions with people who are threatening me, so I left and went to the Montrouis police station. The police came, a discussion happened in which the man put forth his manufactured story about the accident. I didn't really pay much attention, because I assumed I would be questioned about it myself. The next part is a bit of a blur, but I think I can describe approximately what happened. 

We all went back to the police station in the van: me Sheila, 2 kids, 2 cops, biker and passenger. The local chief was there when we returned and got a quick description of things from the other 2 officers. He said (in Creole), "It's simple - have him take him to the hospital." The implication was that I should also pay any bills. I said that I hadn't gotten a chance to explain what happened yet. Sheila eventually found alternative transportation and left, but before she went she explained that the van was stopped when the bike slid into it. After some discussion, one of the police asked both the rider and me what we wanted. The rider wanted me to pay for the bike, and I wanted the rider to spend some time in jail for threatening me with a rock. 

The police explained to me that the man was defending himself because I said I was going to leave (to go get the police). They said I shouldn't have left the scene of the accident. I pointed out that the police in Montrouis have no vehicle, so how would they get to the scene of the accident without a ride? They asked if I had been hurt by the rock, and they said voila, you weren't threatened. I said you don't need to be attacked to be threatened, that brandishing a rock is a threat and a form of intimidation. 

The local cheif eventually said I had to take the man to the hospital. I said that if he wanted any money out of me he would have to take me to court. The cheif didn't like that, and said he would write me a ticket. (In Haiti, that means your license is taken away, and you have to go into the central office in Port au Prince to pay the fine, in addition to attending a 3 hour traffic school. I asked the cop what violation I had made and he said they would tell me once I went in to pay. I looked up the codes later - one violation for speeding, and one for stopping in the roadway. I'm pretty sure he picked them randomly. 

Monday morning at 10 I have to go to the courthouse where theoretically the stories can be heard before the judge and some sort of action taken, or not taken. In addition, I have to deal with the ticket, which is going to be a major pain. If I manage it right, I might be able to pay the fine, go to traffic school and get a tooth filled all in the same trip to Port au Prince. 

I'm trying to be philosophical about this. After all, if Haiti has a functioning police and justice system, it would likely have a functioning economy as well as a functioning government. If they had all those things, they would probably have a large part of their water problem figured out too and they wouldn't need me. Buy they don't, and they do need me and the other missionaries who are here. 

The obvious question here is why didn't I just take the guy to the hospital, get a bandage put on the scrape and go be done with it? Well, there are some very good reasons, although at the moment I'm only seeing what a pain it's going to be to deal with. First and most important, I feel that I can't ever let it be seen that I'll respond to physical threats. It's a small community here, and if it's seen that I respond to physical intimidation then I would most certainly be exposed to more of it along with my family. I wouldn't really want to drive a rock-weilding guy to the hospital, or anywhere, either. Also, there's a question of justice. The rider is the cause of the accident, and the driver of the vehicle his bike slid into isn't responsible for his injuries, no matter what his skin colour is. I can guarantee that if our roles were reversed, and I dumped my own bike going too fast coming out of a blind corner, that I would be paying for my own first aid. In addition, if I threatened a Haitian driver with a rock, I could very easily wind up in jail. The anti-foreigner and specifically anti-white sentiment in Haiti has roots so deep and so strong... 

As an aside, and a little glimpse into an aspect of life in 2009 rural Haiti, while I was in the police station having our bizarre discussion, a group of people came in with a plantain theif tied up with a rope. The local cheif said "Oh, he's stealing plantains again, eh? Get over here!" He grabbed the man by the rope, which had his arms awkwardly tied up behind his back, kicked his legs out from under him and then tied his rope up to the cell door. The man has obviously been beaten up, and he was having a pretty hard time. One of my impressions was that he was going through withdrawal symptoms of some kind, but I could be way off on that. 

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent about my tough day. Hopefully I'll be able to get to sleep now.

No name post

I keep trying to think of a witty title but nothing is coming to me. Probably because the stuff that's going on around here is only really exciting for me. And even then, exciting would probably be a stretch :)

The windows for the apartment got installed Wednesday and Thursday. For the last few weeks I've been feeling like we hadn't really made much advancement on things because everything still looked the same. The bosses had mortared the upper halves of the walls and the ceilings in all the rooms and left the lower halves to be done after the electrical was run. Thony spent about two weeks in there with a hammer drill just digging trenches in the walls so Evens could run the conduit and wiring. That job literally took about two weeks and it just looked the same every time I went in. I make a point of only going up a couple times a week just to stay out of the way. Wednesday we went up after the window guys left for the night and walked around. I realized that all but two rooms were mortared completely. No exposed conduit, no trenches in the walls, electrical boxes ready to be hooked up. Today they started mortaring the windows in (the installers just screw them in and our bosses fill in the cracks and smooth things out) and it looks good. We can actually see what the place is going to look like now. The end is in sight and it's exciting! It's been such a long process and rather than talking months we can start talking in weeks until we think it's done. The nice thing is we're not pressed for space at the mission right now so we can make sure absolutely everything is done before we move in 

I did a *little* project this week. After having months on end of visitors last year the last couple of months have left me less than enthusiastic about cooking. I still enjoy it, but I haven't wanted to put too much effort into it. This week I did two things. First, I went through all the scrap papers with recipes on them and printed off some new ones. Then I cut them down to recipe card size and laminated them and shoved them into a recipe book that my mom made for me. It's just a photo album with slots to slide pictures into, but instead I slide in the recipe cards. Laminating them means I can wipe them off when they get all gunky. The second part of the project was actually making a meal plan. I went through all of my recipe books and wrote down the name and page number of the recipes that I wanted to cook for dinner (breakfast is easy here, as is lunch). From those lists I planned about a month or so of meals, then just repeated for another month and a bit. Now I have about 3 months of meals planned. 

It might sound silly to some, but I had two big reasons for wanting to do this; a) We want to eat better, and eating better meals planning better; and b) I want to try to lower our grocery bill. Right now I tend to buy what I think I want to use, then try to use what we have in house for dinner. Not such a bad plan, but there are definitely things that sit on the shelves for a while. One criteria for the recipes that I chose was that they had simple ingredients that we usually keep on hand, like basic veggies, basic meats (chicken, beef or ground beef are our staples and fish when it's in season), and basic spices etc. No extras that we can only get occasionally because I don't always know when the next shopping trip will be. Now, when we are going in I can look at the meal plan and write a very specific shopping list from it so we're only buying what I know we need. Obviously there will always be little extras but I don't want to just buy stuff because I *might* use it. 

I'm interested to see how this works out. So far I can tell you that I like looking at the calendar on my fridge and thinking "Okay, I JUST need to take this out of the freezer and defrost. Perfect!" I tried to pick things that were pretty simple to prepare as well. The last couple of days dinner has been so easy. We try to have salad with dinner and I'll usually make a big bowl of it that we'll eat over a few days. I've also become a big fan of making big batches of labor intensive things, like fish cakes or fried fish and freezing the leftovers in pre-portioned bags. What is usually an hour long process each time now becomes about an hour once and then a case of just taking a bag out of the freezer and throwing them onto a pan in the oven for 30 minutes. It almost seems wrong, it's so simple. 

Right now Olivia is throwing things out of her toy basket onto the floor. We're in that phase where "no" and hand slapping isn't so effective when Olivia is touching things she's not supposed to. It can get exasperating so we've been looking for new methods of discipline. Enter the socks. Yes, I said socks. When we've told her that she's not supposed to do something and she keeps doing it we put socks on her hands. It's very frustrating to a very inquisitive one year old when they can't pick anything up. The key is making little fists inside the socks and putting rubber bands around the wrists so they can't be pulled off with her teeth. I have to admit, the sock torture, as Chris likes to call it, is pretty entertaining for us as well. 

Speaking of Little Miss. She has some sort of flu bug. I used to have a weak stomach and wondered how on earth I would deal with kid vomit, but I think this amazing thing happens to moms and all of the sudden you become a vomit super hero, especially when it's literally all over you. Like I just put these clothes on and now I'm soaked right through and I didn't know you could hold that much in you type of all over you. Like this morning. She had a fever of 104 F at 1 am and is still a bit warm, but can hold everything but her milk down so we'll just avoid that for a bit. Apparently there are all sorts of flu bugs flying around right now. For the most part she's still herself, just a warmer self. I've had a cold all week and managed to step on a nail on Monday and was finally walking normally yesterday, so we've had fun this week!

I should go. I keep trying to type, with the computer on my lap, and a one year old trying to lay across my arms. That takes a lot of talent, just so you know. Hope you're having a good weekend.

~Leslie

Old Website

I don't feel much like posting today, but fortunately there is a bunch of old material I can point you towards. It's probably enough to spend several hours reading, if you like. Back in the day, before blogs existed, Rob Haskell helped me to set up a website where I could write about what I was doing in missions. For several years, all the update letters went on to the website. If you have a lot of time on your hands, you could learn all about the details of my existence from late 2001 until 2005 or so. www.chrisrolling.com is the link. It hasn't been updated in a long time now.

In other news, I signed up for facebook yesterday. I don't know how I feel about it yet. I decided to do it as a networking thing to help us in our efforts to recruit missionaries for Clean Water for Haiti. We have some very promising cantidates at the moment, but we definitely need to keep putting the word out. Anyway, I added a bunch of pictures and friended a bunch of people. 

Bill Clinton visited Haiti a few days ago. He said, "I have followed Haiti for more than three decades. It is the first time I have ever really believed that the country has a chance to escape the bottoms of poverty and escape the heritage of oppressive governments and misgovernment and abuse of people that has held people down too long. We cannot allow the forces of nature which ravaged this country last year to derail the progress that has been made and that can be made just ahead of us.”

It sounds very optimistic, doesn't it? I'm skeptical, and I think the cycle Bill spoke of is likely to stay with us for many years yet. Thank you for the optimism though, Mr. President. Myself, I'm dreading the day that the UN stabilization mission leaves, and I hope they stay for many years yet. Haiti is pretty good right now, but 2003,4,5 and 6 were rough.

 

Please Check This Out

People often ask us who we're adopting through. It's Maranatha Children's Home, under the umbrella of Heartline Ministries. Heartline Ministries is run by John & Beth McHoul, two people that we like a lot. John is the kind of guy you look at and think "this guy is a missionary?!?!" which we LOVE and Beth has the biggest, sweetest heart ever. They've been in Haiti for almost 20 years and have developed a wonderful ministry where really loving people is the base line of what they do. 

I love the way they've set up their children's home and it was a very big part of our decision to adopt through them. But, they also have an amazing women's program unlike anything that I've ever seen in the country to date. You can read more about what they do on their website.

One aspect of their program that I think is very cool is their sewing school. They take the ladies that have gone through the other parts of their larger program and give them an opportunity to learn some skills that will give them a life where they can support their children. It's fabulous! Part of what they do is give ladies that have graduated from the sewing school a chance to earn money by sewing purses that get sold to visitors, and now anyone who wants one in the US. 

They JUST launched their new website at www.haitiancreations.com. On there you can read a bit more about what the Heartline Women's program does, and you can learn how you can support it by purchasing a handmade purse. 

I really want to encourage you to check this out. I've visited the sewing school many times, I've seen the ladies hard at work and I've held and tried on many a purse. Sheila and Dan Lynch (sewing school directors) have been working hard to get this baby off the ground and it's working. These women are making a life for themselves that would never have been possible if it wasn't for Heartline Ministries. Please check out the site, maybe buy a purse, and definitely tell others about it. 

Updates, updates, updates

APARTMENT UPDATE

People keep asking me if I'm getting excited about the apartment getting closer to being done. I usually try to give the response that Chris and I have practiced - "I'm looking forward to it, but we're not rushing anything to get it done. We want to do everything right and we don't have any volunteers coming any time soon so we're not pushed for space."

What I'm really thinking?

I absolutely, positively, CAN NOT WAIT until the last bits of our stuff have been moved in. That's how I feel. The reasonable part of me agrees with the statement in the first paragraph, but my heart is screaming about being excited that we're seeing more progress on the finishing end of things. I honestly didn't think that I would be so looking forward to taking a trip into town in the big red truck to do a day of errands like we have to do this week. Oh, but when said day of errands means getting some of the major components to continue finishing the place, I will so be there, and I will so be happy about it. 

I think for me it's just a personal space thing. As in I need some. I feel like my day is this crazy game of trying to emotionally balance the pull of motherhood, wifedom, and working. When I live and work in the same place I feel like I need to be doing all of those things simultaneously. And it isn't easy to do that. I personally, am looking forward to having a home, and having an "office". There will be a place for Chris to go to in the morning to get the day going, and to work out of. A place that doesn't have dirty dishes piling up or laundry that needs to be done. When I feel like I've got stuff under control at "home" I'll be able to go to "work" for a few hours and get what I need to get done that day, rather than feeling like I need to be doing it all at the same time. I'm looking forward to having some separation between our stuff and mission stuff, our space and mission space. I'm looking forward to having some firmer lines between work time and non-work time. I know it's going to be so good for our family. 

So yes, I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks for asking!

And it's getting closer. 

ADOPTION UPDATE

I think I've shared that we're definitely in IBESR (Haitian social services) and have been for a few months now. We're just letting things move at their pace and are staying busy in the mean time. We're fortunate in that we have Olivia living with us while we wait so really, the only thing is that we can't leave the country with her until we're done. We'll just put in our time. And try to keep our sanity in the process.

We did get some good news this last weekend. And got to see God move a bit. 

We have started the process of transferring our citizenship to Olivia once the adoption is done. In Canada you can now start this process before the adoption is finished. The first step is to verify that at least one of us is a Canadian citizen. We had to send in all sorts of documents via some friends that visited last fall. I was contacted and they needed a copy of our marriage certificate to finish things off. I was planning on sending that back with my family, but it slipped my mind. The next opportunity was Chris' sister, who took the document and letter, and accidentally sent it before I could get our file ID number for her (I couldn't remember where I put the hard copy of the letter that contained it). They say very specifically that they cannot process anything without that number. To rectify the situation last Wednesday I gave another copy of everything, with the number this time, to some missionary friends of ours to be mailed when the got back the US last week. On Friday night my mom emailed to tell me that she had received a letter for us stating that our file had been approved. What that means is that regardless of not having the very needed ID number, the documents still got to our file and they finished things up. 

Now, once Olivia's adoption is done we simply fill out the second stage of the application and take it into the Embassy in Port so they can send it on to process it and decide if she'll be granted citizenship. I'm excited because this stage being taken care of means we've knocked about 3-4 months off the process of getting her citizenship and therefore a Canadian passport.

It feels like something. 

OLIVIA UPDATE

For the fan club... Hee hee.

Today Olivia figured out how to dismantle a package of dental floss. And destroy the floss itself. Maybe she just really wants good dental health?!?! She has also destroyed the fastener I had on the bathroom cupboard, which is how she got the dental floss. 

She has figured out which pocket Chris keeps his cell phone in. He let her play with it a few times while we were watching movies. Until she managed to take the battery cover off the back. And change his ring tone. And turn off the vibrate. Now she gets mad at him if he doesn't let her dig in his pocket. Doesn't matter if he's standing up. One time he switched it over to the other side. I had visions of the "terrible twos" running through my head. I just got a new phone and it looks like Chris'. When I was talking on it this morning she was yelling at me from the floor because she  couldn't play with it. I swear this kid will be calling Canada and the US as soon as she figures out how to dial the right phone number. Heck, she'll probably be calling China and India before we know it.

She can say "Hi" in context. The other morning I went in her room because she was very much awake. I opened the door and flicked on the light. She was standing up and had managed to get her head out of the mosquito net. She looked at me and said, "HI!" in a very chipper little voice. It made me melt. She also likes to follow me into the bathroom. I generally know she's coming so I just leave the door open. Leave the door open! Ghads! It's because she comes toddling in, says "Hi!" then closes the door behind herself so we can have some privacy (she is very into opening and closing doors these days). I remember the days of going to the bathroom by myself. They were nice. 

She seems to have days where she is getting good at entertaining herself. Mind you, said entertainment usually means she's destroying the house, but who am I to complain? I love listening to her babbling away to herself as she's wandering around the house getting into things. I often wonder what she's saying. 

We just got our new diaper bag yesterday. I know, it's not that exciting for you, but it is for me. Our old one just had a flap with velcro to close it. The "I can break into the bathroom cupboard" kid decided that it's really fun to take everything out of the diaper bag and spread it throughout the house. If the diaper bag was within her height range (read: even about a foot over her head) it would be all over the floor. Within nano seconds. We resorted to hanging the bag up out of arms reach. Then I got really smart and ordered one with a zipper. That should prove to be a challenge for a few weeks. Or days. I haven't been brave enough to leave it on the floor yet.

We have a window behind our desks that sits only about 10 inches off the floor and has a sill that's about 10 inches deep, perfect for climbing on and looking out the window. Or dropping things out the window as I've been discovering. Sippy cups? Out the window. Yesterday we were getting ready to go to a missionary meeting. I had Liv all dressed and ready to go. I went to the bathroom. When I came out she had only one shoe on. We couldn't find it anywhere. We changed shoes. When we came home I just happened to look out said window. There was the missing shoe, along with it's mate that had been found on the change table in her room, after we got home. And two pairs of work gloves, a book, shoelaces, and a bolt.  

WEATHER UPDATE

Last night at about 11 pm it started raining. We had a sprinkling the night before, but last night it rained. All. Night. Long. So not normal for the first good rain of the year. Usually it just sort of "tries" and then gives up. It's been raining all around us at different times over the last two days. And, because we're whiners, we are already complaining about the humidity. Seriously though people, it went from not humid to humid in 24 hours. It's enough to keep me asking "is it humid or is it just me?" wondering if I'm having crazy hot flashes with lots of sweat. I'm already groaning thinking of July. Sniff, sniff. 

Okay, I need to go stop burning dinner and feed the sad little girl with cute hair right next to me so she doesn't have a melt down.