(Almost) 10 on Tuesday

Well hello friends and happy Tuesday to you!

I must admit for half of the day I forgot it was Tuesday, so I wasn't taking pictures. The other half of the day I didn't have my camera handy, and then when I did something worth documenting my camera didn't have the memory card.

So, here is my (almost) successful 10 on Tuesday. Which is really an 8 on Tuesday because I'm going to draw two word pictures.

*disclaimer* Not all of these photos were actually taken today. BUT, when I took them I had the 10 on Tuesday in mind... so I'm going to use them. Keep your blogging judgement to yourself! I'm still new at this!

1.

Meet my neighbors. They live just across the ditch from me. The little one is the Kendy (the one I wrote about earlier, but misspelled his name... oops!) Every morning when I walk by they greet me,"Bonjou Norell!! NOrell!! noRELL!!" and they continue to yell until I come over and talk to them across the ditch. They always ask me to cross over to their side, but so far have had no luck. its not that I don't want to go play with them all day, but honestly I'm a little scared of what is living in the depths of this very large ditch.

Either way, I love to have such great neighbors! (and cute too!)

2.

This is the little baby that I wrote about last week that I held forever and then missed getting peed on. Yes. This is her. Doesn't she melt your heart. She is the daughter of one of the security guards at the school. I don't actually know this little one's name, so we call her "piti lafimen" "The smoke's baby". The entire village calls her dad "the smoke". Not sure why... he's not a smoker. I'm learning that nick names are a big deal in this culture. Maybe I'll get one soon... oh wait. they already call me "blanc" (white). I'm working on letting everyone know that I'm not white, I'm Noelle. baby steps.

3.

This little guy keeps me company all day (and night). He is tied up behind my house feels the need to let me know how he's feeling at 4 in the morning. Its a close relationship! It will be even closer when he turns into dinner in a few weeks...

4.

Same baby as in picture two. Lafimen knows how much I loved having her around, so he brought her to "play" the other day and give mom the afternoon off. We walked around camp and then laid down in the hammock for a while. You can see how that ended. Adorable. Also, she grew a little bit of an attatchment issue with me (which, if I'm being honest I'm ok with), whenever I would try to put her down she would grab my legs and lean on them like she didn't want to stand up. Or if I tried to let someone else hold her, she would grab my clothes and wimper. I was ok with it :)

5.

 

The veiw from my front yard. The house with the chair on the porch is mine. Don't worry, I have plans to take pictures of everywhere and everything and post a photo tour very soon. Also I have plans to climb that mountain on Saturday!!!

6. 

This is the best picture of my room that I could get in one photo. My bed complete with aggie blanket, my shelf that Greta graciously left me for my books. The shelf has handy little nails to hang Daniel's headlamp that he let me borrow and my fanny pack. The laundry basket is authentic Haitian, purchased in Limbe last market day. The other shelves are from mommy. She told me I would thank her every day for them and so far they have been WONDERFUL. They are outfitted with my clothing and colorful baskets from Target. You can barely see my colorful curtain in the far right of the picture. It divides my room from Guerline's. Guerline is my roommate. She is great! Pictures to follow!

7.

 

This is my desk. No I am not in 2nd grade. I was making flashcards today, color coded with my crayons. I color coded verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjectives, etc.

8.

So earlier this morning I mentioned to Tala, one of the ladies that works here that I wanted to go up on the mountain today. I went up yesterday and it was so beautiful I decided to go back. Now yesterday I went on a decent hike with Gersan and Betty to look at the property and I claimed my land for my future permanent house. It is beautiful. Soon, I'll go back and take a picture of the view from my future wrap around porch so you can be jealous! So after I mentioned that to Tala I got called away to do something or another and totally forgot about it. Tala went home for the evening, she lives about 2 miles away, she caught a ride in a truck that was going in her direction. About an hour after she left I hear her voice on my porch. 'Madmwazel, nou ale la mon!" She had gone home, changed into clothes better suited for walking, and came back to go hiking with me. It was the most precious thing ever. It came at the perfect timing as it was just starting to set in that I was alone here at camp. Betty and Gersan left this afternoon to go back to Port Au Prince, so now I'm the only English speaker. I've been the only whitey for about 5 days now and its been fine. And honestly tonight went well on the communication front, at least I thought so. I got the general idea at least of what everyone was saying. So anyway, this word picture is a little scattered, but its the picture of a friend at perfect timing, and how she came back to get me and walk with me to a special, beautiful place. (I tried to take a picture, but my camera didn't have the memory card. Sorry!)

9.

This.... not a high point in my day. Here is the story. So. We have doors on our cabins, they have locks, sometimes they lock behind me when I don't intend for them to. There is only one key per cabin... and when that key is inside... we have problems. So that's what happened tonight. I was in my cabin, not wearing my ball of chain of the key set (look how many keys I have. Its like 30 for those of you that can't see. I almost need to walk crooked because there are so many.) So... I put my keys down to work at my desk and went on the porch to talk. The door closed. :(  Boss Varis and I removed the screen from my window, good thing Richard showed me how they work when he was here, and Boss Varis went fishing for my keys. Last time this happened Boss Tchaly just climbed through the window. This method was a little easier, and produced a great picture. Doesn't he look like a little kid with his first big fish?

10.

This just happened as I was in the middle of writing the description of picture number 8. I got called outside by Windel one of our security guards because he needed me to turn on the inverter for the camp to have power. (Now don't forget this isn't all in English, so there was some charades involved.) so we go out, he tunrs off the generator, plunging the camp into deep darkness. Have I ever mentioned I'm not a huge fan of the dark? Well thank goodness I wasn't alone and I had remembered to grab my trusty headlamp. I usually just carry the headlamp, but tonight I decided to put it on my head. So Windel and I walked to turn on the inverter and I was wearing my headlamp and feeling like a coal-miner, which made me laugh to myself and decide to include the word picture of Noelle, the coal miner!  It made me laugh.

So I hope you've enjoyed this 8+2 on Tuesday. I'll do my best to get all 10 pictures next time and actually take them on Tuesday.

I have lots of prayer requests right now, but not enough time or brain power to type them out fully.

-Mainly be praying for English classes which will begin tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, but then again what's the worst that could happen? Failure? I can deal with that. I'm white, they will still love me.

-Pray for my language. I'm working very hard on my kreyol and its starting to pay off, but just barely. Most things are still charades or pictionary on my whiteboard.

-Pray for the church in the area. They are having some problems. (More to come about that later.)

-Pray for the people. I'm currently listening to voodoo drums and chants that sound as if they are very, very close. I'm 99% sure I know where they are coming from.

-Praise!!! The voodoo drums have been silent most of January. I have been here since Jan 5th and this is my first time hearing them. This is because Gersan told them he was going to be having people here to stay and to do ministry in the church. They did not beat their drums or chant like this out of respect for Gersan and for our God. Praise Christ! Pray for their hearts.

- My ministry here is one of relationships. Pray for those.

I'm going to write a more detailed prayer update very very soon!

Love you all!