Madame Meristel's (our house help) Burns

Borrowed from Ben and Katie's blog. Check out on a regular basis!

 http://www.benandkatieinhaiti.com

Not great photo. Blame the photographer.

This is Madame Meristel. She cleans our house. You may remember that just a month or two 

ago, you guys bought her a new roof after hers was blown off in Hurricane Sandy.

This morning I saw her on campus. I heard her call my name, turned around, and 
literally gasped.

In her tank top, I could see that her chest is covered with a large, yellow, raw burn.

Spread out your fingers and put your hand on your heart. That's how big the burn is.

 It was disgusting. Her wrist was also burned, about the size of a half dollar. That burn 
was oozing yellow. I smelled it, and my scent-brain told me it smelled like the earthquake.

Her first words: "I cannot come to work tomorrow."

No kidding.

I asked her what happened, and she kept saying "kouran", which means electricity,

 so I pointed to the electrical wires above us and tried to ask if it fell. She said a bunch of words

 I knew but I couldn't make a meaning. I asked if she had medicine and she said something that 

sounded like kind of like amoxicillin. I walked her down to the nurse's office and thanked God 

that Miquette was on duty.

Miquette got the story. She was ironing and somehow fell. The scalding iron fell on top of her. 

Miquette asked if she had been to the hospital, and Madame Meristel just looked at the ground.

 We can all guess the answer, and we can all guess why. Miquette

 said, "You are going to the hospital right now."

Here I am on the first day of school, walking around campus in new clothes with my Mac, 

helping 11th graders decide between genetics and French 3. Then all of a sudden I'm slapped in 

the face with the knowledge that I'm on an island of wealth, smack in the middle

 of the poorest country in the world. 

This was about twenty minutes ago. I'll keep you posted. 

K

"For He who Promised is Faithful"

I am loving teaching 2nd grade this year. God has given me a renewed joy as I teach in the classroom!  

I was reminded of God's love and faithfulness yesterday after school. What a beautiful reminder of God promises!

Dominican Vacation

(Borrowed/ Stolen from Amber's blog) 

http://alertsfromamber.blogspot.com/

When most people visit the Dominican Republic, they fly from their home to Miami and then from Miami to Punta Cana or Puerto Plata. When you come from the other side of the island, you do things a little bit differently. 

November 1st and 2nd are recognized as "All Saints' Day" and "All Souls' Day" respectively. I'll be honest, I don't know what those days are really about, but I know we got two extra days off of school and a long weekend. Jill and I needed to get out of the city and rest a few days. Thanks to Groupon, this was possible (if you've never looked at Groupon's getaways, do it now! They're worth it and very easy to use). We found a great deal for a 3 night stay at an All-Inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic. We booked the Groupon and began to look at flights. There is a bus you can take, but with such a short amount of time, we chose to fly. We booked on an airline I had heard others use before, TortugAir. I could use this blog as a long and bitter diatribe written against Tortug, but I will try and exercise some self-restraint. Let's just say, for those of you who would live in Haiti and want to fly to the DR (or anywhere else they fly) and are considering using Tortug, don't. There, that's all.

We left on Thursday afternoon and flew from Port-au-Prince to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. I knew the plane would be small, and I thought I had prepared myself for that, but I hadn't. I didn't know that I would be close enough to the pilot to tap him on his shoulder and ask him why certain buttons were flashing red and another screen kept flashing the word "ALERT." (In case you're wondering, I didn't tap the pilot on the shoulder at any point, though I was close enough. I was too busy checking the propellers outside the plane to make sure they were still turning!)

Sweet laminated boarding pass....

Teeny little plane.

What's up pilot?

We landed in Santo Domingo a terrifying mere 45 minutes after takeoff. The airport was nice, but located far outside of town (with this airline you don't fly into the main airport in Santo Domingo). We were ale to share a cab with a nice couple in front of us who were staying in a hotel near ours. The first night of our trip we stayed in the Zona Colonial area of Santo Domingo. This would be considered the historical district as well as the arts district I think. When we walked into our hotel we were greeted with a blast of cool air and a glass of champagne and knew we had made a good choice of hotels. The staff were warm and welcoming and the rooms were great. 

Old church/mission near our hotel in Santo Domingo.

Outdoor patio restaurant things. 

Our next stop though had to be food. We had passed a road a couple blocks from our hotel that was in front of an old church and had restaurant after restaurant lined up, each with an outdoor patio seating area. Our eyes stopped on one particular restaurant and, without discussion, knew we needed to eat there: The Hard Rock Cafe. 

Now, some people will judge us at this point..."you went to another country and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe?!" Absolutely. Try as our cafeteria might, they just can't make a cheeseburger that will compete with an American cheeseburger. We wanted something in English and something that tasted like home. Enter the pulled pork sandwich with french fries and a coke. Delish.

'merican food. 

Still decorated from Halloween the night before. 

Sooooo good. 

After dinner we wandered the neighborhood where an artisan fair was going on with all kinds of crafts from Colombia. When we had seen all we wanted to see we went back to the hotel, sat in the air conditioning, and watched TV. Simple pleasures.

The next morning we needed to catch a bus from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana. I knew the name of the bus-line and the address. We got a taxi from our hotel and were dropped off at a very sketchy building. But, at 6:45 the doors opened and we were inthe right spot. We paid $375 RD (about $10 US) and hopped aboard. The bus left at 7am and as we drove through the streets of Santo Domingo, something just seemed....different. It finally hit me: no walls. There were no walls around the houses, buildings, businesses, nothing! In Haiti, EVERYTHING has a wall around it. The streets are not a mixture of different porches or houses with different paint or different brick. It is all a jumbled mx of different kinds of walls. 

We drove through the countryside on this very nice bus for about 4 hours. No, we weren't exactly sure of where we were supposed to get off. Any Spanish I picked up in high school had been violently shoved out of my brain when I began learning Creole. When we reached the last stop and everyone was getting off, I figured we should to. We were dropped off at a gas station parking lot and immediately swarmed by taxi drivers. We found one, and fifteen minutes later arrived at our resort. 

The next few days involved very little physical activity (aside froma very diverse volleyball game played between Americans, Dominicans, Chileans, Russians, and a Canadian). We ate, sat on the beach, read, ate some more, read some more, and slept. It was great! 

View from our room (semi-blocked by the tree).  

Another shot from our balcony. 

The last day and night we were at the resort both Jill and I were feeling kinda crummy and not entirely looking forward to the trip back. However, the transportation to return to Santo Domingo worked out all right. We arrived in the capital with a few hours to kill so we took advantage of the several American food chains in the area: a bacon cheeseburger at Wendy's and an ice cream cone at Baskin Robbins. There was also a grocery store nearby so we bought a few items that were much cheaper than our local stores here in Haiti. 

On the way back to the airport we attempted to figure out the Metro and did so semi-successfully. We made it back to the airport, had one more fight with Tortug Air, another terrifying fight, and safe arrival in Port-au-Prince. 

Restful weekend and another country stamped on my passport. Win. 

October- the month of no groceries

This month we have decided to not go to the grocery store. We are eating the food that we already have and buying the rest off of the street. We are almost half way through the month, and it has proven to be a lot easier than we had thought. 

It is nice to not worry about going to the grocery store, buying unnecessary food items, and planning out extravagant meals. It is fun to be creative with the things we have and eat locally grown vegetables. 

Here are some items we regularly buy on the street: 

Mangos

Avocados

Tomatoes

Green peppers

Zucchini

Carrots

Onions

Oranges

Potatoes 

Eggs

Chicken (already cooked)
Rice

See there really are so many options! Nathaniel and Josiah have joined us in our Street Eating Adventure Challenge. It may or may not have become a friendly competition! :)  

If you have any recipe ideas, we would love to try them! 

Madame Joseph

Last year around this time we met Cassandra and Fidelca on the streets. Since then they have been enrolled in TeacHaiti and are now successfully going to school. I love spending time with the girls and the rest of their family. The Lord has blessed our friendship, and it has continued to grow. 

Remember this sweet family?! 

Last week I went down to visit Madame Joseph and her family. While I was there Madame Joseph asked me if I knew of any place where she could work. We continued to talk and my heart melted. I so badly wanted to figure out a way to help her get a job. 

I went home and talked with Amber. We put our heads together and thought of what we could hire Madame Joseph to do around our house. Amber and I already have a Haitian woman come to our house 2 days a week to clean and do our laundry, but there are 7 days in a week! 

We have decided to hire Madame Joseph to work 2 days a week around our house. She will help cook dinner, wash vegetables, and clean around the house. 

It might seem silly to hire another woman to help us. Amber and I do not need someone to clean our house. We do not need someone to wash our vegetables and make dinner. But we are so excited to provide a job for Madame Joseph! 

Madame Joseph started working for us today. She came at 7am and was ready to begin her day. This is her first time working for foreigners, so I showed her how the oven worked and where everything was in the house.  She washed, bought vegetables, cleaned, cooked, and cleaned some more. She is SUCH a hardworker! 

My prayer is that this job (as small as it may seem) will create self-worth and purpose. On a practical level, I pray that she will acquire skills that will help her find a more substantial job in the future.  What a blessing to be apart what God is doing in her life!  

I'd love your help! Would you consider helping support Madame Joseph? It would be wonderful to have someone pay her monthly salary of $50. 

If you would like to help out by supporting Madame Joseph, please send me an email at jrutz@quisqueya.org! 

Madame Joseph and her youngest daughter! 

Friday a few of us spent the night up in the mountains. It was incredibly refreshing to spend time away from the city enjoying God's creation.

 Beautiful View

 Blessed by great friends here in Haiti.

 Breakfast over the fire

I was reminded of my need to rest in who is Jesus and find strength in the God of the universe! 

The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  Psalm 19:7

Welcome to 2nd grade!