Wednesday started much like Monday and Tuesday: drag yourself out of bed after a long night of trying to not kill Floyd the rooster and head down to the most delicious breakfast before getting ready to go to the job site. Pastor would show up (for some reason he showed up earlier and earlier each work day) and we'd pile in the van for our death defying ride to begin work. Once on the job site we'd begin with a short meeting, prayer, and typically a worship song.
We planned on a short day on Wednesday because we are Americans and we get tired much quicker than our hard working Haitian friends. Oh! And, we like to take time to get out and see Port-au-Prince while we are here. Since Grace was sick this day, I stuck close to Tim and helped him out. That decision had nothing to do with the fact that I was so tired and could no longer lift a wheelbarrow full of dirt and rock. No... nothing to do with that ;)Tim and I readjusted some of the previous truss work and laid out the short trusses on top of the long ones. Soon we realized we really had no more work left. We stood back and saw all the Haitian volunteers busy working away and leading their individual stations. It was awesome to see, but then also made us feel a little useless.
Soon we were back in the van ready to take a little sight seeing tour of Port-au-Prince. I was really interested to see the white house... or what remained of it.
We told our guest house managers that the juice we had at this restaurant was no where near the juice that their staff makes. They of course passed on the compliment and the next day told us how excited they were to hear that their juice was better than the nice restaurant in town.
We snapped a lot of pictures during our drive around Port-au-Prince. And, as we would get back to the guest house and see Grace, we explained "once you've seen one street, you've seen them all." This is a particular beautiful shot of some of the houses on the hill. They literally build these houses straight into the hill. We saw numerous scenes like this on Sunday during our drive up the mountain, but couldn't get a good picture (you know... since we were driving approximately 90 mph).
Honestly, driving the streets of Port-au-Prince was much like what I anticipated. I don't know if I was overly prepared or just desensitized, but I wasn't shocked or horrified by the poverty as people have described I would be. Yes, everyone is impoverished there. Their living conditions are horrible. But, if you look past that, you see people. Real people who are loved by God whose poverty is actually a lot like mine. They need to be in a relationship with God. We need to look to God as our provider and sustainer. We need to look to God as the one who is righting all wrongs and reconciling this world. And, when you look at the world through the lens of the Gospel all of a sudden poverty isn't the biggest issue, being reconciled with God and one another is. And, as we drove through the streets of Port-au-Prince I think that's what I saw... not the poverty of stuff, but the poverty of heart that makes us all equals.
Because of this I'm hesitant to post anymore pictures or videos of our time driving around. I don't want to stir your heart towards their lack of stuff. It's so easy for us, in our wealthy state, to look at someone cleaning and selling our old shoes and think how much better we are than them. Or, the noblest of us, go and want to help them by giving some of our money. Yet, what if our money is the very worse thing we could give them?
After our tour we came back to the guest house to clean up and get ready for church. Since it had dried out much during the day, we were able to drive straight to the tent where church is held. This was an experience we all detested. As you might imagine, people don't often drive through the tent city; especially large van loads of white people. Every time before this we walked, which did in fact draw a lot of attention to us, but we were able to at least interact with everyone around us. We could say "bon aswe" or smile and wave at the children begging for our attention. In the van we were in a moving fish bowl for people to stare at and even throw rocks at us, and one guy stood in the middle of the road stopping us from going forward until Pastor yelled at him. Needless to say, we requested to never do that again.
At church we once again choose to sit in the back in order to better participate in the service, but of course we were called up to the stage and asked to speak a little about what we were going to take home. We were given certificates and pictures as thanks for our time with them. Then it was off to Pastor's for dinner. Now, these guys know how to celebrate!!
The table was gorgeous! We sat around as honored guest with pastor and his wife. We enjoyed an amazing meal of BBQ chicken, rice and beans, salad, potatoes, and my favorite, fried plantains. I was so sad that lunch was so filling that I didn't have much room for this delicious meal. Other leaders from the church joined us, but sadly they either sitting behind us or outside. Even though it was sweltering hot in the kitchen, I didn't want to go when it was time. I think I was the last one out the door as I said goodbye to the Pastor's wife.
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