Hello friends! Wanted you to know I am in Haiti safely. We are staying in Carrefour, which is a district of Port-Au-Prince. We have been here the last few days, and were lead by bus down this extremely narrow, rubble-filled neighborhood to our home for the month. It is an empty home of a woman who is currently staying in Boston. Our translator, Pastor Pierre, lives across the street from us. It is crazy here. It's like Americans are all animals you'd gaze at in the zoo or supermodels. Everyone stares. EVERYONE. Man, woman, child… it's hilarious. We walk among the vendors and people traveling to work or school, many people just sit outside their homes or out in the streets with nothing to do.
We play with the kids in the street, our two little neighbor boys are constantly in our home – Jean Kelly and Kevins. And our home is pretty much always full of Haitian friends from the street church we are working with. They cook us all of our meals, and I had probably the most exceptional Haitian meal I could have asked for the first night – Seasoned chicken drumsticks with raw onions, a delicious spicy coleslaw, spaghetti with olive oil, onions, and spices, and a delightfully cold 7UP!
It is very hot here. I know now that I will never take for granted electricity or running water again. Our electricity goes off for days at a time, and it is hit or miss whether we will have showers or have to do 'bucket' showers. It is so crazy the things in America we don't even think twice about. Most people here confirm that life is day-to-day in Haiti. You work for your next meal or a bottle of cold, clean water… not to save money to pay off a house.
And they say that most Haitians perceive Americans to be in heaven and to have no problems. My translator lost his sister and his niece in the earthquake. Talk about hardship – most people have been personally affected by the earthquake, if not by typhoid, cholera, or a set of other poverty-related difficulties. But I LOVE the hope that I see in our pastors and our translators. They are like strong pillars in this community, vocal and brave about the faith they have in Christ. They love people hard and deeply, and are known in this neighborhood for their willingness to always stop and pray.
I attended my first church service last night with them. It is in the street. They block off an area for passage, and there are two big blue tarps set up above us. Chairs are set up, and the prayers are incredibly passionate and powerful. People here believe in the power of prayer. They have seen it do powerful things among their families, and they know that God is present with them. How often in our American lives do we minimize God's presence in our lives because it is so easy to take matters into our own hands?
