Wednesday, September 12, 2007

My goodness, today I got up at 5 and was so excited to go running. I did not know that I was going to be stood up by both Roland and Wisley, who had equally lame excuses for not getting up. Wisley, who suggested 5 am in the first place, said he did not get up because he has to help his wife get the children ready for school. I would have been ok with that excuse except for the fact that the children do not get up until 630. Roland on the other hand did not have an excuse I was ok with. He said that I was supposed to have woken him up. He is 36 years old and has a cell phone with an alarm clock on it. Oh well, at least I got to see the whole waking up process today, what chaos that is. At 10 Roland and I went downtown to the Digicel store to see if they got a shipment in since last week, so I could buy the phone I wanted. They, of course, did not and were still not interested in making a sale, so we went to Voila (another phone company) to see what they had to offer. The branch we went to did not have the phone I wanted however, he called their other store to check with them. They had it in stock so we walked to that store to purchase it. When we got there and got the paperwork done, we started to enter in the two phone cards I bought, only to find a new “fly in the ointment.” Apparently with the new versions of the model I had, Viola and Digicel are having a problem with a cord in the phone that is making it not possible to add minutes. That is really not that big of a deal in Haiti because only the caller gets charged minutes in a phone call, never the receiver. He told me that he thought the problem would be fixed by 3 so I took my new phone and two phone cards and we headed back to the Orphanage. On our way back we saw Larry, his wife, and a couple of guys going to work with a street ministry we are trying to start. We got about 2 3rds of the way back and decided to take mopeds the rest of the way. This I think, even though is considered the most dangerous way to travel, is the best. We got back to the Orphanage at about 1 and most of the kids were done with school and hanging out in one of the trucks sitting in the courtyard. I went to upload some pictures to my website and put my phone and camera away and then went down and sat in one of the trucks with the children for a couple of hours, talking, laughing, and being children, it was really relaxing. At 4 Roland and I took a walk through some territory that we went through the other day but did not have a camera so we were doing in with film this time. Plus Roland had never been to these parts so we were checking out new territory for him, expanding our knowledge of the place. The scenery was AMAZING, and the views of the villages, towns, and Port-de-Paix were unmatched. It was because we were above everything; I mean standing on rooftops and all. We walked for about an hour and a half, taking pictures, talking with people, and enjoying the land. It started to rain so we turned and quick footed it in the direction of the Orphanage. It quickly stopped raining though so we went through town to stop at a Viola shop and ask them how long they thought it would take to fix this issue, because I still could not put minutes on my phone. They were not sure but were optimistic it would be before Friday, so we thanked them and moved on. We had two other reasons to be downtown, one was for popcorn oil and the other was for Haitian Bibles. The store that we went to did not have either of those things but gave us a good suggestion as to who may. When we got to suggested market, he had cooking oil but not popcorn oil and no Bibles, but it worked out to our advantage anyway because one of the mission trucks passed the market as we were leaving so we did not have to walk back to the Orphanage. We passed quite the fender bender on our way and it was amazing to see the poor UN Police guys trying to direct traffic, deal with the accident, and keep pedestrians moving instead of gawking. We got back to the Orphanage a little after 6 and I went to the apartment to say hello to my new temporary roommates and see if they needed anything. Larry Owens and his wife are staying at the Orphanage for a few days while they are here so they are, of course, staying in Janeil and Heathers home. It is ok thought because I like them a lot and as it turns out they do need me to do some things so it’s all good. Larry told me about this street ministry he is trying to start called, “Waves of Mercy.” It really sounds like a great opportunity for community outreach and I am looking forward to helping in any way that I can. After dinner and trying to get the internet and TV working the Owens, Roland and I went to the 7-11 to check one last time for popcorn oil. Unfortunately, we did not find any so I had nothing to give the kids tonight and they were sad. By the time we got back I was pretty beat from all the walking and being up early and doing a bunch of things at once, so I kicked off my shoes and called it a night. Peace