I haven’t gotten sick since I’ve been here, but my stomach is making a last ditch effort at trying to make sure I don’t make it through an entire summer in Haiti without getting sick. I wouldn’t call myself sick at the moment, more like on the verge of sick. But last night, I laid in bed listening to the very awkward, uncomfortable churning noises my stomach was making. They were loud enough for me to hear quite easily. So, I am spending most of today in bed (and in the bathroom.....), reading Salman Rushdie and trying to write a sermon. My preaching date has been bumped up from the 17th to this Sunday, so that I won’t be so rushed leaving Bayonnais on the 17th. Instead, Vital and I are going to leave Bayonnais really early in the morning on the 17th, and drive north to Cap-Haitian where there are apparently some really spectacular beaches, and then drive back to Port-au-Prince before nightfall. I’ve kind of regretted having spent this long in Haiti without having traveled more (I haven’t ridden in a car since May), so this little road trip will hopefully give me a chance to see some more of Haiti.
Around the time I first got here, Jonel took me to meet some of his friends about a mile from OFCB. And since then, Jonel and I have gone to visit them every Sunday afternoon just to sit around and talk in English/Creole/Spanish, and the group has steadily gotten larger and I seem to have met everyone’s extended families. But this past Sunday, we didn’t make it to their house. On the way, it became very apparent that something unusual was going on, as we passed hords of people walking very rapidly in the opposite direction towards where we had come from. I had never seen this many people out and about before, and it was even more unusual considering it was starting to rain a little, which usually clears everyone out of the road. So we ended up following everyone to see where they were going (also considering we passed Madame Sabine, who verbally harangued Jonel and myself for walking in the rain and commanded me to immediately walk back to OFCB). Along the way, whenever I saw someone that I knew spoke some English, I would try to ask what was going on, but I got very confusing responses like “There was noise in the sky….” and “something attack the children….”. It turns out a little girl had nearly been struck by lightning and had been somewhat injured since it struck the ground very close to her. And hundreds of people were pouring out of Cathor to go to this little girl’s house to see how she was, and her father was sitting outside the house with her on his lap telling everyone that everything was alright. I had expected to find something a lot worse than someone nearly getting struck by lightning, considering the large numbers of people that were coming out of the woodworks, in the rain, to assess the situation. But, I guess this is just a testament to how much community is valued in Bayonnais. Hundreds and hundreds of people, some living over a mile from this girl’s house, dropped whatever they were doing and rushed over in the rain to make sure that this little girl was alright.
Besides that story, I have nothing new to tell. Nothing really new or exciting has happened in the last week or so. Everything is going as usual: morning walks, classes, reading, eating, sleeping. I am more than ready to be back in the States and back at Davidson, but those feelings aren’t as urgent as they were a couple weeks ago. I only have 13 days left, which is a far less daunting number than 82.
(I have no new photos. But upon looking through some of Aaron’s old photos, I found this wonderful photo of Limareste looking very mysterious…..)
Around the time I first got here, Jonel took me to meet some of his friends about a mile from OFCB. And since then, Jonel and I have gone to visit them every Sunday afternoon just to sit around and talk in English/Creole/Spanish, and the group has steadily gotten larger and I seem to have met everyone’s extended families. But this past Sunday, we didn’t make it to their house. On the way, it became very apparent that something unusual was going on, as we passed hords of people walking very rapidly in the opposite direction towards where we had come from. I had never seen this many people out and about before, and it was even more unusual considering it was starting to rain a little, which usually clears everyone out of the road. So we ended up following everyone to see where they were going (also considering we passed Madame Sabine, who verbally harangued Jonel and myself for walking in the rain and commanded me to immediately walk back to OFCB). Along the way, whenever I saw someone that I knew spoke some English, I would try to ask what was going on, but I got very confusing responses like “There was noise in the sky….” and “something attack the children….”. It turns out a little girl had nearly been struck by lightning and had been somewhat injured since it struck the ground very close to her. And hundreds of people were pouring out of Cathor to go to this little girl’s house to see how she was, and her father was sitting outside the house with her on his lap telling everyone that everything was alright. I had expected to find something a lot worse than someone nearly getting struck by lightning, considering the large numbers of people that were coming out of the woodworks, in the rain, to assess the situation. But, I guess this is just a testament to how much community is valued in Bayonnais. Hundreds and hundreds of people, some living over a mile from this girl’s house, dropped whatever they were doing and rushed over in the rain to make sure that this little girl was alright.
Besides that story, I have nothing new to tell. Nothing really new or exciting has happened in the last week or so. Everything is going as usual: morning walks, classes, reading, eating, sleeping. I am more than ready to be back in the States and back at Davidson, but those feelings aren’t as urgent as they were a couple weeks ago. I only have 13 days left, which is a far less daunting number than 82.
(I have no new photos. But upon looking through some of Aaron’s old photos, I found this wonderful photo of Limareste looking very mysterious…..)
3 comments:
James, you are stronger than any bug Haiti has to throw at you. And your facial hair only makes you stronger (at least thats what Ive found).
that's an awesome photo.
I hope you get better.
God is good. Enjoy His love.
haha i like the mysterious photo. wow. that sounds like a bible parable story or something about the little girl. good luck with the sermon and hope your remaining DAYS there are spectacular.
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