Merry Xmas?

Happy Sabbath! Seven weeks have been a blur. Thursday and Friday were pretty abnormal days for me so I’ll give you a little run-down. It’s kind of been like Christmas, maybe that’s a stretch, but they’ve been abnormally [insert positive adjective here].

Thursday morning I woke up earlier than normal, ditched the morning meeting and went to Phil’s house for breakfast. Had toast and eggs and fresh fruit! DELICIOUS! We all so got to talk about a lot of stuff including his opinions/observations on “The Irresistible Revolution”. After breakfast we drove into Petion ville to supply hunt and drop phil off at a meeting. The supply run was successful, but expensive (more that $2 US per 3in. chlorine tab). Upon arrival at the hospital I discovered that Brooke had arrived! Throughout the day we got to catch up little by little. I also got to talk to sit down and talk with Herold and Aimab (the supply guys) about work, life, etc [I did the same with a few of the translators on Wed. good talks, good times!]. At the end of the day I went outside and hung out the kids for a couple hours. We played this game that can be best described as a mix of “hot-potato”, “four square”, and “the roof game”. It was crazy and fun. The night was filled with arguing about who was “out” or not, different displays of physical ability [arm wrestling, “mercy”, etc], making bodily noises, and laughing at people who made the bodily noises. It’s amazing how much people [specifically boys 11-17] are the same no matter where you go. Their circumstances are different of course, but if you stuck a group of ten American 11-17 year olds together without a computer or XBOX and gave them a ball, I’m sure the night would go the same as ours did.

Friday, after getting up at 5:30 to make sure people left for the airport and the normal running around with supply, Richard and I drove out to Water Mission International. I got to meet Julio, learned some new information about the hospital water, and acquired more tabs as well as test strips. We also played every Adventist’s favorite game, “Who do you know that I know?”. He lived in Corona for years so it wasn’t hard [sings: “It’s a small world after all”]. The drive was long because of the rain, but I got to see places I’d never been before. For the 1st time in Haiti I saw land that wasn’t occupied by buildings and people. It was green and nice… [side note, the other day…Tuesday; I think I broke the Haitian land speed record: 45 mph!] As we were driving back we began to get multiple calls from volunteers who were still at the airport waiting to be picked up. Twenty-three people in all. It took a lot out of us, but we got them and all their supplies in bus and the car and made it to the hospital in one piece. When we finally got back I was immediately pulled in 3 different directions, but things got resolved. Everyone got situated, all the supplies are now in the hospital (not in order yet, but c’mon baby steps), my guys finally got better hours and the Sabbath off, and Samuel got the water supplies. Success! I ended a fairly long and tiring day kicking back in the office with Luke. Good end to a crazy couple days. Sabbath is more than welcome.

Enjoy the long weekend for me!
Also: LET’S GO LAKERS (Clap, Clap, Clap-Clap-Clap)