That kinda day

Today is a good day. Yesterday was not.

Yesterday just didn't have a hope. You know it's not going to be good when it starts raining the night before, continues all night and all day. If it was just the rain, I probably would have been ok. I decided to stay home and work instead of slopping through mud and tiny rivers to get to the university. That was going well, until we learned that we had no running water. Turns out, some hooligans in the community decided to break a bunch of the water pipes for the community water system. There are deeper issues at play with this, but in the mean time, the majority of the community does not have access to running water. Turns out the ridiculous amount of rain was a good thing as we were able to fill every bucket, basin and bowl we own with rain water to get us through the next couple of days.

I kept working at home, but eventually the batteries died and we were left without power. There has been a shortage of gas and diesel for the past week so we only had enough to run the generator for a little bit in the evening. Suddenly being. home, sitting in the dark without power or running water didn't sound so appealing. I decided to get out and take refuge over at some Canadian friends' house at the university. A cup of tea, a funny movie and friends can do wonders. By supper time, I was ready to come home.

Today I woke up to sunshine, EDH (electricity) and the news that gas and diesel were available again! Funny what these simple things can do to change your attitude. I got up, ate, showered (which approximately 10 cupfuls of water) and went to work! I feel great! Nice that it lines up with Valentines Day.

Life in Haiti has a lot of bad days and a lot of good days. Somehow the bad days have much more power over my attitude. It's easy to fall into a trap of frustration, anger, self-pity and sadness. When those days come too close together, it's not good and its easy to lose perspective of the big picture. If you focus too much on details in Haiti - you will go crazy!

So today, I'm choosing to be joyful and celebrate Valentines Day with those I love. Cal and I will go "out" to dinner at the little resto down the street for your choice of spaghetti with chicken or hotdogs (I know you are jealous) and after if its not raining, to a party where Cal's brothers are playing.

Yep, today is a good day.

We're Back!

Back in Haiti! This past Saturday we returned from the DR after a lovely holiday in which we spent a couple of days in Santiago with good friend Tammi and then a week in Puerto Plata at a resort with my parents. It was great to see my parents and enjoy a week relaxing and eating way too much! We had a number of cloudy/rainy days, but the last few days were glorious. While my parents and I enjoyed the sun, Cal got his fill of soccer on the 5 or 6 dedicated soccer channels on tv - his heaven!

I always look forward to getting away from Haiti for awhile - to enjoy some of the conveniences of life that I used to take for granted - electricity, hot water, cheese, smooth roads, reliable transportation, reliable internet, ice cream (the list could go on). But I also find by the end of my breaks, I'm ready to come back to Haut Limbe - to speak Creole, to see my family and friends here, to climb the mountain behind our house (much needed now so I can fit back into my pants!) and enjoy the slow paced life again. I know that in no time the cultural frustrations will come back again, but after a little break, I'm ready to face them again. I've come back with more energy (even though Cal and I both didn't sleep well in the DR) and a drive to get back to work and ready for the groups that are coming.

I also got my computer back! It had crashed in December, so I sent it back to Canada to get it repaired. Turns out I needed a new hard drive and nothing could be recovered - boo! But, it's repaired now and I also was smart enough to get an external hard drive as well for back up!

Cal's mom just had cataract surgery yesterday in Cap Haitian. Everything went well, and she'll be going for a check up today again. Please pray that the surgery helps with her vision which has been deteriorating a lot in the past year, keeping her from her favourite pass time - sewing! She had a cataract removed from her other eye a year ago, but the recovery was very slow.

I'll try to be more regular at posting again now with my computer back!