Yesterday, Byron took Alex, Nadege and I to where Nadege's mom has been staying so that we could level a spot for a tent for her and set it up. Her mom is a paraplegic and has been for 5 years. She uses her arms to move herself around. Even if she had a wheel chair I think it would be useless to her on the streets around where she lives. They are too steep and too uneven, I had to watch where I was walking or I'd fall on my face. Finding a flat place was hard; the roads here are just a maze. Byron said he would probably get lost finding his way back, he didn't. I think he was just being dramatic and giving Nadege a hard time.
Byron needed to do some shopping so Alex and I told him to do it while we were working and save time. We picked a spot and started digging a mote around the tent so it wouldn't flood when it rains, hopefully. We built up part of the spot so it was mostly level. Then we set up the tent. There were a bunch of people watching us. One guy who was completely ripped started trying to order me around and tell me how to do things. I was not about to take that from someone who was sitting down and completely capable to do it himself. I pointed at the pick ax and told him to get to work. Everyone laughed, but he got up and started helping, made things go a little faster. People here laugh a lot -- I really like it. It is a lot of fun when people get up and help out, the mood seems to get lighter.
After we were done I had to go to the bathroom and Byron wasn't back yet and I didn't know when he would be back. So I decided to be brave. I asked Nadege if there was some place I could use the facilities. She looked a bit worried when I asked her and I started having second thoughts that maybe I should just wait till Byron came back. Then I thought about how bad the roads were and decided that whatever the place looked like it was worth it. She took me to a neighbor's house. There was a woman giving a baby a bath on the front porch in a bowl. They showed me their bathroom and it wasn't as bad as I expected. It didn't smell bad and the house was really cool. However, there were no doors in the house so all the rooms were open to each other. The toilet was sort of around the corner but you could still see everything, lol. Then I realized that there was no toilet paper. I'm glad I realized that before. I don't really care where I have to go to the bathroom but at least in the woods there are leaves if you need them. I asked Nadege if she had any and she was like “o yes" and said something I couldn't understand as she hurried away. She came back with a roll. The toilet didn’t have a tank or a seat it was just a bowl. You flushed it with a bucket of water, it worked pretty well. I thanked the women profusely and went back. As I walked around the corner who should be there but Byron. Of course.
Clifford (the guy that I told to get to work) wanted to show us his house. We walked through the gate and he proudly presented us to his wife and pointed at the baby in her lap and said "that's mine" with a big grin on his face. There were a few boys running around that followed us in to the house. He moved some heavy stuff out of the way of a door and brought us into a room that now had a nice view. The wall on most of the side of the house had fallen off and there were big rocks in the room. Clifford told us that when the earth shook his baby was in there and possibly someone else (it was hard to understand at times). He told us that he ran in and grabbed the baby and ran out just in time. I think he is a good dad. I'm so glad, Haiti needs fathers that love their children and will raise them up and not just forget about them. Nadege has never met her father and I can tell that it hurts her. I don't think that he was ever married to her mom. Nadege said he left when she was a baby and never came back.
When we got back to the truck another guy came up to us who had a crutch. He wanted use to pray for him. He told us he had a lot of dreams for what he wanted to do. Like he wants to start an organization for disabled people and that he had been going to "theological school" and studies languages like Hebrew, Italian, and Portuguese. He proceeded to tell us what all of our names mean. He tried to tell me that Roosendaal meant something other than what it does. Whatever. We gave him a ride to his house and he took us inside because he wanted us to convert his dad from Catholicism to Baptist. We asked him questions about his faith and compared them to his son's. We all started chuckling because they were exactly the same -- the names were just different. I told the guy "he sounds Baptist to me". We prayed for them that they would keep seeking truth and that they wouldn't just believe things foolishly but would Study the Bible and find its truth. I will keep praying for them. The son seems to think he knows everything and I'm sure that is putting strain on their relationship. I will keep praying that if the dad is not theologically sound that the son will be able to point him in the right direction lovingly and not just tell him he is wrong.
Later that night I made popcorn on the stove for the first time. It turned out really good and I gave some to a few of the nurses who were still at the house talking after dinner. Brittany told me this morning that they really appreciated it; that made me feel good. I took my bowl upstairs and took a shower and watched a movie. I had my head phones on and didn't hear the truck driving past. My bed started shaking and I thought it was an earthquake. I ripped my headphones off and was at the door with my mouth open ready to scream at everyone to get out of the house when it registered and realized that the house was not shaking. It took me less than two seconds to get from my bed, when things started shaking, to my hand being on the door knob. I laughed at myself and went back to my movie. While eating dinner one of the women said that there was an aftershock then. I don't feel so stupid now. It's nice to know that if an earthquake happens my body will run out of the house voluntarily without me telling it to.
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