Today we took mom to visit Open Arms, the very first organization we started distributing food to. You know, the place we stole Sonya from.. across the river. We went there so my mom could meet those kids out there, they are so precious and sweet. She was hilarious to watch as she would just sit down next to them and started talking to them. I kept reminding her that they don’t speak any English-but I finally stopped realizing it was more fun to just let her chatter away.

The best part, for me, was as I was pointing to where Sonya lived, she offered to take her into her house. I was so excited. We walked up a small hill, and stepped inside. Her house was made of brick, with a tin roof. It was two rooms, the first was a kitchen/dining room. It was so neat and tidy, with pots hanging all around. She had fake flowers on the table (a very Haitian thing is fake bright flowers everywhere) and my personal favorite, a large picture of Jean Claud VanDam.  The next room was her bedroom, with a nice big bead, and little closet. Everything was so tidy and perfect. Most Haitians homes are like this too, they are very proud of their homes, and take such great care of everything.  She then took us right next door to meet her mother in law and sister. I loved meeting her family, seeing her house, and being allowed into her life a little more.

As I know we’ve said before, it’s tough to get anything done in Haiti. Everything takes about four times as long as you think it might, and we have finally come to accept that. For that reason, I was shocked when a truck pulled into our campus today with a special delivery. Bibles. One of the members of the team that visited us back in October, Darchelle, had sent Bibles! When she visited, she learned that the school that nwhcm mission operates, right in the campus where we live, really wanted Bibles. She knew the Lord had her name on that from the moment she heard about it. She asked me how to get Bibles delievered to Port de Paix, and I was afraid my answer had possibly discouraged her. It’s not easy. In fact, we’ve been trying to get Bibles to the prison for months, and the few times we head to Port au Prince, we are never able to walk away with more than ten or so at a time, for one reason or another. But, that didn’t discourage her at all, and in fact spurred her on to make it happen. She did it all on her own. She researched organizations, how to buy them, how to deliver them, everything. She went home and told her home church all about her idea, and they came behind her and gave her enough money to be able to purchase a Bible for each kid in that school-plus some for us to hand out as well to those we know needed one. Over 400 Bibles!!  I was able to go around to each of the classrooms as they passed the Bibles out, which was great. They were all so excited that they had their very own Bible. The best was since I know Darchelle, and the whole story surrounding her getting them, I was able to tell tehm who had bought the Bibles for them and why.

This was the truck we took to deliver the food. My mom wanted a photo by it so my brother could see all the mud caked on the sides since he likes to off road. Well, mom has come to realize that each and every ride in Haiti is off roading, and her poor body has come to realize that it’s not as fun when you are sitting in the back on a wooden bench! So, from now on she’s been more willing to sit in the front, in the cab, in a normal seat. It’s still is very bumpy there too though!

In fact, my proudest moment of Lami was about two months ago. We had just hired him on the recommendation of our kitchen manager, Edril. We weren’t sure if OTB needed more staff, besides the two cooks. He had been working a few weeks for free, trying to show us what a great worker he was, since he really wanted a job. He helped the women load up the buckets, he went out with the distribution of the food to help off load the buckets, and helped wash them when they got back. I trusted what Edril suggested, but that hot day in December really sealed the deal for me. We were crawling along in the downtown area of Port of Paix, halfway done with dropping the food off. The back of the truck was mixed with full and empty buckets. (We make each organization give us the old buckets before we give them the new ones with food in them, otherwise they disappear cause everyone in this country needs a bucket!!!) We were stopped for whatever reason and as we started to go again, some guy walking buy stuck his hand in the back of the truck and grabbed a bucket. I was sitting in the back too, but too far to reach him or do anything about it. But, Lami was there. He grabbed the other side of the bucket. We started to move again, as the driver didn’t see what was going on, and there was Lami, standing up yanking the other side of the bucket as this guy walked alongside the truck. Finally, Lami grabbed another empty bucket with his free hand and whacked the guy on the head with it! I was so happy I cheered for him! The stunned guy stopped and scowled at us, mad he didn’t get a sweet clean bucket. And Lami sat down with a huge grin on his face. I already liked Lami, and that moment he dug even deeper into my heart.