Only slightly traumatized...

*If you aren't a fan of rodents. Or if you would like to pretend that rats don't exist in countries like Haiti. Or if you don't like discussing dead things. Or if you are going to be offended by me talking about vomit. Or if you don't appreciate people being overly dramatic.... this post is not for you* Consider yourself warned. Proceed at your own risk.



Ok. So. Here we go. As you may have guessed this is a rat story. (All of our favorites right? ugh. Gross. no!)

So here's the background story... When Daniel and Hudson came they brought numerous mouse traps and 2 oversized rat traps. In their stay here they caught, I think 5 rats and 1 mouse. They left the traps set and ready to go. (They left last Wednesday...)

On Tuesday of this week I realized the rat traps hadn't been checked. I told Boss Varis and he said he would do it in the morning... needless to say we both forgot. I've thought about it almost every day at some point, but chose to hope that if I ignored the need it would eventually go away on its own.

Last night I decided that it HAD to happen today. With the advice and encouragement of a few friends I decided I could do this. I don't need to ask for help from a Haitian. I'm a big girl. I could use a pair of medical gloves.... and cover those with a pair of gardening gloves just for extra safety. Also, I was assured that the rats would be "riggored out" and have no eye function. (I was a little paranoid that they would open thier eyes or something as I was throwing them away. *shudder*) This morning. I woke up determined to accomplish mission: Disopose of Riggored-Out Rats.

I went to the depot and retrieved said medical and gardening gloves. I came armed with an extra cliff bar to load the traps. I walked towards the location of the traps. I have never felt a more determined expression on my face. I started imagining what I would see, how it would go. Would I handle it like a champ? Or would I get all woozie and want to throw up?

I made another trip back to the depot to get the ladder. Slowly began to put on my gloves.... at this point I am feeling my stomach start to churn a little bit, and I'm alternating between being in a cold and hot sweat. Hot because its a million degrees outside, cold sweat thinking about seeing a rat, that has been caught in the trap dead for almost a week in this hot humid weather. Thinking about the complete and utter nastiness of this whole thing. Wishing Daniel and Hudson could come back and do this themselves. Or that they had never brought the traps in the first place. I mean, the rats were here, true, but I didn't have to acknowlegde them.

I took a few very deep breaths and climbed the ladder... step. by. step. When I got to the top of the ladder I realized that I would have to litterally STICK MY HEAD up in there so I could see. "ok.... deep breaths... You can do this, Noelle." I steadied myself on the ladder, just in case I jumped back, or threw up, or fainted... (I felt like I was about to do all three and I didn't want to fall down (safety first).

Timidly looked in the roof... straining to see the trap.....



..... nothing there. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! The trap had been set off but wasn't holding any rodents! I feel as though normal people would have been upset and loaded the trap again to catch the little sucker that stole the food.... not this white girl!

Today I counted that as a victory and left the trap empty! I took a deep sigh of relief and decended the ladder with huge smile on my face.

I was only slightly mentally traumatized by the scenarios running through my imagination, but I have no real rodents stories. Score one for Noelle!


Have a happy April 1st. And don't believe everything you may hear today! (Although this story is 100% non-fabricated.) I thought about writing a rat into the trap, but grossed myself out too much by just thinking about it. So I decided to keep the blog honest! I'm sorry for the the over-dramatized story with no real climax. But, I was too worked up to not share.

I wish you all a lovely, rodent-free afternoon!

10 on Tuesday

Well friends its been a while since I've gotten a 10 on Tuesday in (especially on a Tuesday!) I had a small panicked moment last night, but then I realized it was only Monday! Unfortunately my picture capabilities are still pretty spotty, so we're back to random facts and word pictures.

Today is going to be 10 on Tuesday: Current Events addition. Meaning these are 10 things that I am currently doing or thinking about.

1. I am currently in the middle of some spring cleaning and de-cluttering. After a fire ant attack a few nights ago I decided it ws high time to deep clean my house. I've been keeping it up ok, but today it was time for a good dusting, mopping, reorganizing. I'm not finished, but I'm already feeling less cluttered. If I had packing to do over again I probably would have left over half the things I brought at home. But hindsight is always 20/20 I hear.

2. The current temperature is very warm. Last week when Hudson and Daniel were here I got made fun of quite a bit for always wearing hoodies at night. One night we slept out in the hammocks under the stars and I wore 2 pairs of socks, jeans, 1 short sleeved t-shirt, 1 long-sleeved t-shirt, 2 hoodies (with the hood up), and slept with my double fleece blanket and a thick sleeping bag and was comfortable. Last night, I slept with as little clothes as possible, a sheet for the mosquitos and the fan on high... I'm not sure what happened to the weather, but it got blazing hot overnight.

3. Currently getting very anxious and excited!! This morning when I woke up and Guerline told me she had eaten a mango!!!!! They aren't officially ready, but she found one good one. The mangos are about to be ripe and I couldn't be happier. I want to just sit and look at the tree outside my house until they ripen and then eat them all! (If you have a good mango recipe for jelly, jam, or anything else that will keep for a while. send it to me!! This also applies to guava and pinapple recipies!)

4. Currently looking forward to May. This morning I talked with my good friend, Caitlin and she purchased tickets to come visit in May!! She will be here the last week that I'm here and then fly home with me. I have already warned her that I might be a crying mess the whole way home (and the entire last week, but she still wanted to come. She's such a sweet friend!) I know Caitlin through my health classes at Texas A&M and she is such a beautiful blessing in my life. She will be starting Physician's Assistant school at University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in June. (Thankfully she was an Aggie first, and is not too excited about wearing burnt orange, so that's good!)

5. Speaking of school I am currently on pins and needles waiting to hear from the college of nursing at the Texas A&M Health Science Center. I had been thinking I was going to be notified online, but it turns out that they only accept people through snail mail. I don't check the mail regularly when I am home, unless I am waiting for this type of thing. At this point I should be hearing any day... errr at least by the end of April. Every time my mom gets on skype I get a little bit nervous, but so far, no word. I'll keep you updated though!

6. I currently have 55 days left in Haiti. My how the time has flown! I bought my plane tickets home about a week ago. I'm not ready to leave yet, but those conversations have started coming up.  People here are saying, "When you leave in May, when are you coming back?" That's a hard question to answer. I don't know. The whole village knows the theoretical plan though... One day I'll come back. I'll live on the mountain. My husband will build a house for our family. I'll have white and black kids. I'll make peanut butter and my kids will make cassava while my husband builds our house. I'll have a clinic, and my husband will do whatever he is good at (which will probably be everything), and then in the evenings we will all sit in our hammocks on the porch and look out over the valley. The peanut butter and cassava thing has become a big joke, so when they ask when I'm coming back, sometimes its easier to joke around about my future home, than to seriously tell them that I don't know. Maybe 2 years? Maybe more? I talked with Guerline last night about a girl that came from Canada a few years ago. Guerline feels like she has forgotten about her. I tried to reassure her that I will never forget about her or anyone here in this village. I'll forever carry Ti Guniea in my heart. At the same time as I am dreading leaving Haiti I am getting excited to go back to the States. I am missing people there so much. I am SO greatful for my semi-reliable skype connection that keeps me sane, but I can't wait to be face to face with people instead of looking at their skype logo all the time! Also, I'm looking forward to non-important things like driving my own car on a "real road", wearing "real" clothes and looking human again, being able to understand exactly what everyone is saying, not just the main idea. But I will miss my friends here,  I will miss holding thier babies, and laughing at jokes I don't get. I've said this before, but its so very hard to live in two countries at once, and even harder to explain it to others!

7. I'm currently thinking about and wondering how my medical patients are going to be when I leave. And how much I wish I knew more to help them. In my head, I want to get all the medical cases wrapped up and healed before I leave, so their books will be closed... but I know in the possible two years that I will be gone more things will happen, more people will get hurt. I Pwish I could care for them all. I wish I knew how to care for them all. But I don't. Its become so very evident to me how important it is going to be for me to go back to school and actually learn how to better help these people. I'm so thankful for the progress I have made with them though. Some are taking longer than others to heal how I want them to, but its hard to put a time limit on these things.

8. I currently should be writing about 6 emails. I wrote two of them last night and then my internet died and lost my message. TIH I guess. As soon as I finish this blog I'm going to get back to work....

9. Currently thanking my Savior for being so gracious and faithful to me. I have been blessed beyond measure both with things material and immaterial. I have super great friends who are daily encouragements to me. God is so great. So loving. So faithful. I was feeling low this weekend. It was the first time in my life I've been homesick. I didn't know what to do with myself. God provided friends (and a mom) who don't roll thier eyes when I complain or get annoyed when I cry. I am so thankful for the text and skype hugs I got this weekend. Monday dawned and the sun was out! I spent time yesterday just sitting with my friends, and feeling normal again. Thank you Jesus for all your blessings!

10. Currently listening to the windmill as it is spinning along. For those of you that don't know the windmill saga, I will spare you all the gory details, but today we had a victory! The light on the battery is GREEN! Not only is it working, but it has already worked! Praise God for His beautiful nature. He has given us gorgeous mountains in our backyard, with wind we can harness and use for power. He has given us mangos and guava for food, and His beautiful creation just because he loves us! Thank the Lord for the wind and the windmill that is saving us tons of gas money!

Saturday: Week in Review

Well I haven't been online much this week because my internet has been so painfully slow. Also, my dad and sister, Grace have been here all week, so we've been hanging out too! I've enjoyed them being here so much. They brought a little bit of home with them along with lots of laughs.... and chips and salsa!!

The weather has been strange this week. Pouring rain. It has made lots of mud that slowly and steadily crept into my house. This morning I did some major cleaning because I just couldn't handle it anymore.

My dad has been such a help around camp. He built 5 amazing picnic tables, some really awesome shelves for our storage area, and designed a linen closet for all the sheets and blankets that we are beginning to accumulate. I'm so glad that he got to come and meet the people I spend my time with and see where I am and what is actually going on here. Unfortunately, because of the rain, the school was closed or finished early every day, so I only had class once this week. They got to meet my older, and much smaller class and observe me teaching a class.

Gracie has been so fun to have around too! He has been helping me with random things that need to be done, and provides the humor to get me though the day. Today at breakfast she made me laugh so hard I almost choked on my peanut butter. She happily made valentines for my entire class on Wednesday afternoon, but then when we showed up for school all the kids were gone. I am planning on giving them their valentines on Monday, but I wish they could all formally meet Gracie and my dad too! The other nice thing about Gracie being here is that she is taking lots of pictures!! Which I love!

Last Saturday I traveled to Port Au Prince, so that I could be there to pick them up from the Airport. I think this was my first time to travel solo in this country, but it went really well. Thankfully my Kreyol is getting better. While we were waiting for my plane to leave I decided to bust out the camera and take some photos. Last week I printed some pictures that I had on my camera of me, and some of the other team members with some of the Haitian Staff here. I didn't realize how everyone else would get jealous... or at least pretend to be. So here is the picture I'll be printing out for Boss Varis... along with the one from when he retrieved my keys!

On Sunday afternoon after getting Daddy and Gracie from the airport. Gracie ran so fast to hug me that she forgot to not headbutt me in the process. Although it gave me a headache, I took it as a compliment, and a sign that she missed me!

This is Tuesday afternoon preparing for school. I made Daddy and Gracie help me make Valentines for my students. I printed out a few Bible verses on paper and then we decorated!!

Jan 3:16 "Paske, Bondye sitèlman renmen lèzòm li bay sèl Pitit li a pou yo. Tout moun ki va mete konfyans yo nan li p'ap pedi lavi yo. Okontrè y'a gen lavi ki p'ap janm fini an."

 

1 Jan 4:7  "Mezanmi, se pou nou yonn renmen lòt paske renmen soti nan Bondye. Moun ki gen renmen nan kè yo, se pitit Bondye yo ye. Yo konnen ki moun Bondye ye."

 

1 Jan 4:10 "Men kisa renmen an ye: Se pa nou menm ki te renmen Bondye, se li menm pito ki te renmen nou, ki te voye Pitit li a pou nou te ka resevwa padon pou peche nou yo, gremesi Pitit la."

 

I decided to teach on family relationships in honor of my family being there. I taught them words like Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Cousin, Grandma, Uncle, etc. Whenever I got to Uncle and explained that Bobby, (who is wildly popular in the village) is my Uncle they were all beside themselves with excitement. So, Uncle Bobby, if you are reading this, please know that you are missed...and they may all call you "Uncle Bobby" instead of "Bobby" from now on.

I know it looks like I am forcing these little girls to take a picture with me... We are still working on smiling for photos instead of frowning.

Or maybe they just like Gracie better?

On wednesday I showed up to teach school, (with 60 valentines that Gracie made) only to find out that they were let out early, so everyone was gone. We stayed and played with the 5 or so kids that were there for a while, then decided to  head home. While we were there I was taught the ancient game of "roll the wheel using only the stick." I'm really pretty terrible at it... If we are being honest.

Also this week I got to learn how to make the best jam/jelly in the world. It is made out of the rind of grapefruit, and I am obsessed with it. I've been dying for Alicia to show me how to make it for like 3 weeks now, and yesterday and today she showed me... Here are a few pictures that I made Gracie take, (So glad she's here!), along with some basic directions. These are not exact. TIH.

Soak rinds in water overnight, or until they are a little clear-ish.

Squeeze excess water out of rinds and set rinds aside.

Add a ridiculous amount of sugar (about 5 cups). Maybe that's why it tastes so good!

I'm not sure wheather this sugar is white or brown. Its the color brown, but has the consistency of normal sugar... like beige sugar maybe?

Add about 5 cups of water, stir together and put on to boil. I'm not sure how long these were left to boil, but it was until it had the right consistency for jam/jelly. Not too soupy, but not too thick either.

It has been a wonderful week and, like I said, I have immensly enjoyed having my family here. They have been a total blessing!

I'll be posting a prayer update very soon.

Be looking! Thank you for all your prayers!

Laundry Lessons

A while back I texted my mom this message, "I'm going to start a list of lessons I learn here. Lesson number one: check the weather before doing laundry in a country where you rely on clotheslines"

Well... Today I learned lesson two.

When you leave your clothes on the line overnight shake them out because animals sometimes make them their new home.

Ever found a big frog in your bra??

....I have.

I love this place... I love it even more when my bras are frogless, but it provided a good laugh nonetheless.

remmeber this post!? Glad it wasn't in her bra!


(Have I said "bra" too many times in one post for this to be considered comfortable reading? Are any of you blushing? I hope so.... I'll try not to do this again.)

Lets compare and contrast....

Ok. So I know we've all written compare and contrast papers. I am a little out of practice, so I thought I'd choose something easy with lots of differences. How about.....                           ... Yesterday and today?

EASY. here goes.
Yesterday... awful.
Today... awesome.

need details?

So yesterday I woke up (later than I had hoped), I wanted to go up on the mountain to do my quiet time and pray, but it was too hot by the time I woke up to go, so instead of really enjoying my time, I rushed through quiet time. I spent the morning working on my kreyol and preparing for school, but preparation was difficult because I still wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Around noon I headed to the school for my first English class. I was pretty excited, but also a little nervous. I mean, I can speak English, but that doesn't mean I can teach it! I struggled through class, the kids didn't really understand what I was trying to teach them. (Good morning, how are you?) I mean. I didn't really think it was THAT difficult?! There were about 30 students in my class, maybe more. (I took a picture, but accidentally deleted it.) I ended class after about 30 minutes because I couldn't think of anything else to say. (When you have a limited vocabulary its easy to run out of things to say!) I trudged back to the camp compound where I live with a somewhat heavy heart. I was a little discouraged, I mean, I didn't think "Hey how are you?" was that hard. But whatever. I got home and this lady said something in a rude tone to me in Kreyol like she was mad at me. Having no clue who she was I brushed it off and decided maybe she had me mixed up with the other white girl that lives in the village... (for those of you new to this blog... I am the only white girl for miles around.) Well I was informed about 15 minutes later that she was here to see me. So I walk back and ask her what she's here for. Turns out she was one of the patients that we treated last week at the clinic and she had a diabetic ulcer on her foot that she wanted me to put a dressing on. "Ok. no big deal. I can do that!" As we were walking over she said a few things that were not very nice and hurt my feelings (remember, I'm already a little hypersensitive because of school not going well.)

here begins the mood. This mood affected my understanding of Kreyol somehow. I couldn't understand anything that anyone was saying to me. Maybe I wasn't trying anymore. I don't know.

I spent the rest of the afternoon halfway between Eyore and Oscar the grouch. Except Oscar only said mean things in my head in English. Janet, the lady who makes food for me was there, she got upset and impatient when I couldn't understand her, then a few other people came and tried to help translate. This escalated into me feeling like they were talking to me like a little baby alien. They were using baby Kreyol AND treating me like I was from outer space. I had to fight tears for 4 hours straight. It was awesome. I knew that I was in a bad mood and just needed a good 10 minute cry and an attitude adjustment, but I am supposed to stay in the kitchen when Janet is here, which, yesterday was for 4 hours. So the mood just got worse and worse. I started crying 6 times...
Finally she finished and I told my roommate that I was tired and going to bed. What I wanted to do was go be somewhere alone and cry forever. Mostly because I was frustrated because I was in a bad mood. I struggled a lot with the "why am I here" question and came up with no answers.
Anyway. the night ended with me going to bed at 5pm. I decided it was best just to sleep it off. Which I did. 13 hours later I woke up feeling much better. Which brings us to TODAY.

TODAY was great.
I woke up early enough to go up on the mountain to do my quiet time, but we found 4 inches of water in the pantry... I guess we found the lowest spot on the slab! Oh well, TIH-this is Haiti. We spent the next hour or so trying to get all the water out of the pantry. At least I was working with friends. P.S. I did work when they let me, I think there is a rule that whiteys can't sweep... little do they know what a great sweeper I am (inherited that trait from my mom.)




So here we are sweeping water out of the pantry. Don't be fooled by the iceboxes... not plugged in. haha.

So after this little hiccup in the day everything was smooth sailing. I felt like I could understand almost everything said to me and actually had a few conversations that weren't pertinent to life. Like, just hanging out and talking type of conversations. It was great. Before school I called Gersan and Betty, my Haitian parents, and they prayed with me over the phone. It is such an encouragement to me to know that they (and my American parents) are in full support of what I am doing. Even when I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything here. Or I feel like I can't do anything worthwhile, they tell me they are glad I'm here and that they KNOW I am blessing people and loving people. So after praying with Gersan I headed off to school. Guerline, my roommate, and Tala the lady who climbed the mountain with me on Tuesday said they would miss me. As I was leaving Guerline yelled at me, "Mwen renmen ou, anpil!" (I love you a lot!) That made my whole trip worth it!!
I went to school all prayed for and feeling more confident. Today school went much better, probably because the students were older, or maybe they just hid their confusion better than the little ones. I'll never know.
After school I came back to camp and did some more hanging out and chatting with my friends here. Today I understood almost everything! And I learned some new words...which is always a plus!

Overall. Today was much better! God is good. So very good. I'm trying to keep myself not focused on what I see myself actually accomplishing (I mean, its ridiculous to think I can have the whole village speaking English in 3 days.)


 I decided today that my motto, at least for the week is:

"Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart." Prov. 3:3

"This is Haiti"

Ok. Now it feels real. I don't think I really believed that I was actually staying here when the team all went home. I mean, I told the kids that I would be back Sunday, but it didn't feel real. Now it does. I said goodbye to my last pieces of America about 6 hours ago. I hugged everyone once, then once again. Then one last time, I hugged a teary-eyed little sister and as they were all leaving I kinda wanted to scream out, "Wait!! Take me with you!!" It feels real now. I wiped silent tears from my eyes as we drove home from the airport. I'm not sure why the tears were there, but they were... There are so many reasons. I laughed and told Betty that I didn't expect to cry and I was suprised that Hope cried and she said, "Well. This IS Haiti."

I couldn't help but smile knowing that was true. Of all the tears I've cried in the last year, 99% of them were for this country. Sadness and grieving over the quake. Missing my Haitian people. Joy for them when I heard good news. Rejoicing with tears over lives saved from death and darkness. Hopeful tears when I see the changes in my village and thankful tears when I see my kiddos singing praises to our Savior.

So, this IS Haiti- TIH.
Haiti has a way of opening your eyes. Shaking you up. Messing with your heart.

...And making you want nothing more than to live in a village and have your name pronouced wrong  forever(NOwaa or nOelle) because that means you can hold the hands of your little black babies and kiss them and hug them again and again and tell them over and over that you love them and that they are special.

I wish with all my heart I had a picture to put up to illustrate what I'm feeling, but I either misplaced my camera or it got relocated by one of the locals and I lost my pictures from last week... I'll be sure to take another one, but I'll describe the specific picture I want you to see.

One of my babies... she's nine years old, but is about the size of an American 4 year old. Missing one of her front teeth and waiting for a grown up tooth to replace it. Poofy pigtails in her hair with bows at the end. Brown striped shirt. You can tell she is going to be BEAUTIFUL when she grows up. We are talking. She is holding my hands and touching my hair and face like I'm some kind of novelty... (which I guess I am because not only am I white... I am SUPER white... like almost clear! But that's beside the point.) She kisses my forehead and tells me she loves me. I wanted to cry right there but instead I gave her a huge hug and told her I loved her back. Later I get my camera to get a picture with her. First picture, no smile. Typical for Haitian kids. Second picture, I tell her to smile and get the tiniest smile you've ever seen. Third picture, I say, "Big big big smile!" I get the most adorabe, one-tooth-missing smile you've ever seen as I hold her on my hip and she has a death grip on my neck. Jessica is why I'm here.

I want to just love these children forever. Spend time with them. Kids are so easy to talk to. I don't have to worry about my grammar, or sentence structure, or even vocab because they are so happy to be touched and held.

I love my babies. And I can not wait to see them tomorrow when I get back to Ti Guinea!
I don't know what I will do with my life or where I will be in 20 years, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is what I was created to do from now until May.

Love God's Children. This is Haiti. This is why I'm here.