A Day In The Life
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the
cheese. I’m content being the second mouse.
I am usually the last to wake up, awoken by Stacey Hume (the early
bird) tickling my feet. Believe it or not, it’s kind of a pleasant way to wake
up.
Next we eat breakfast. Breakfast is usually oatmeal or
scrambled eggs, with a side dish of bread and bananas. When the cooks are gone
on the weekends, its warm powdered milk, with off brand Corn Flakes.
After breakfast we gather up the paint supplies and walk to
the house we will be painting. On the walk to the site, we are greeted by just
about every child that catches a glimpse of us, screaming “Blanc! Blanc!” (which
means white) I often wonder how Caucasians in the US would react if little
black children yelled out “White person!!!!” every time we walked by. It used
to annoy the shhhugar out of me, but I’m used to it now.
I’ve come to realize that it is completely acceptable for
people to be Peeping- Toms around here. Every time we are painting houses, we
will look over our shoulder to find Haitian people peeking over the fence
watching us, as if we were some sort of comedy show. Who would have thought
that white people painting houses could be so entertaining? Next time I’m going
to bring them popcorn.
When we come back, we eat avocado and bongu-cheese
sandwiches. They are delicious. If we are feeling energized, we will go
back out and paint another house, if not, we take bucket showers followed by
team devotions, dinner (rice,beans, and either chicken or goat.) and rest up
for the next day. Painting in 100+
degrees, on top of humidity is extremely draining. I sleep with a bug net every night;
I’m quite paranoid of mosquitoes.
At the beginning of the month, our main job was to deliver
houses, meaning we would carry large pieces of wood up mountains, where trucks
are incapable of driving. Since the houses are constructed of wood, the
painting we do is to weather-proof the house from rain, not for looks.
As boring as this
lifestyle may sound, I’ve been having an absolute blast with my teammates, and
growing in Christ significantly in the process. Haiti is beautifully broken,
and it’s so apparent that God is present -everywhere, while the damage is being
repaired.
