Whoo-hoo for Wednesday!!

Dear Blog Readers,

My family comes in three days. Whoo-hoo!!! I'm so excited. God knew that I would need my family, in the flesh, at just this time. He is so good to me.

I'm all in a tither. I've been baking and washing and cleaning and prepping and making all kinds of lists...which I'm sure will prove utterly pointless in the long run. Haiti has a fabulous way of ruining even the best laid plans. It helps to be extremely flexible because things never work out exactly the way you think they should. But, I did need more food. I don't think my family would appreciate eating peanut butter sandwiches for two meals a day and cinnamon/sugar bread for the other. Sometimes I eat eggs or oatmeal since they take me longer to eat than to make (my standard for how long a full meal prep should take), but I don't really keep excess groceries lying around. And, I needed to clean. We haven't had a cleaning lady for a while, and Haiti is very dusty and web friendly. It doesn't take long for the house to be truly dirty. The rats eat almonds out on the porch and make a big ol' mess at night, and the spiders are diligent in their quest to create a beautiful little death traps for all the insects that fly around our humble abode. In any case, we hired Jete, a very nice woman who works for the Gutweins on most days, to help us clean during the week. I think it will be an excellent arrangement.

Thanks to all of you who wrote me such nice notes and prayed for my healing. I am feeling better, but I still have this little phlegmy cough and my voice is not ready for Carnegie Hall. It's not even shower ready, but I'm feeling much better, and that's what counts. I spent the first part of the week resting. I went into work Monday and left at noon. I stayed home on Tuesday and tried again on Wednesday. I think I was driving them crazy with my barking cough followed by gagging phlegm. I was driving myself crazy! So, I rested Wednesday afternoon, but I wanted to go to Bible study that night. It was Tess' last night in Haiti, and I wanted to spend one more evening in worship with her. She flew back to the States on Thursday and promptly had a job interview on Friday. She's so talented, I know she'll do great and meaningful work wherever she ends up.

Life goes on. On Friday, I took my afternoon to shop in town and get the aforementioned food. I tried to find the yummy things, but the choices are always limited. I love to look at cookbooks (which is baffling since I have very little intention of ever really cooking, but they are creative and useful, two qualities which I deeply admire). As I look, I have to keep in mind the ingredients that are available to me. We don't have the "regular" fruit here, so pies are pretty much out. You can't find brown sugar, which by the way, is what makes cookies soft. Yeah, I learned that little fact when I exchanged brown sugar in an oatmeal raisin cookie recipe for white sugar, since that was all I had, and ended up with oatmeal crisps. Like crunchy cookies with raisin accents. Very poorly done. It's a big treat to find cream cheese and meat is questionable. I have a hard time distinguishing between spam and ham when it's in the fridge wrapped in paper, so I generally pass. But, it is amazing what you can find in town considering it's all shipped in from around the globe.

Friday evening, Sheila and I went to a single ladies waffle night at Beth and Suzanne's house. Suzanne made pudding, the kind you have to cook. I always thought pudding came in those little pudding cups or was whipped together out of a box with cups of cold milk. It was delicious! When I put that thick, vanilla pudding on my waffle, it was just like eating one of those donuts filled with Bavarian cream. Mmmm....donuts....

Anyway, Saturday was a baking day. I made peanut butter cookies (executed poorly), soft chocolate chip cookies (executed brilliantly), muffins (bag mix-add water), and a chicken casserole in which I took great liberties with the ingredients and amounts (we'll see). Saturday was also Tim's birthday and Andrew's last free day in Haiti, so we went to Pan Dora. It's a little restaurant in Cayes that serves hamburgers and pizza. I think I embarrassed Tim when I whipped out a cupcake and candle while we forced him to endure "Happy Birthday." The restaurant staff caught on and starting pumping their version of the song through the speakers. A good time was had by all... (That's kind of an inside joke in our family. At the Fiechter reunion, someone always reads the minutes from the last year and ends with "A good time was had by all." Did anyone else ever notice that?)

Today, the gathering at Renault was the biggest I've ever seen there. It was a special day because the Wray's were distributing bags of rice pilaf and cans of turkey to celebrate Mother's Day here in Haiti. There was easily 1000 children there. I tried to count children on benches and multiply that by the number of benches, but it was simply too overwhelming. All in all, it went very well inside the gate. It got a little physical outside the gate. It's difficult for the children to get home with their treasures because the older children or adults outside the gate will push them down and take their food. Rod and some of the older teens created a human gauntlet of sorts that allowed the children safe passage through the crowd. Upon receiving their bags of rice, the smart kids immediately stuffed it into their pants or under their shirts for safety. And, the Wray's started using hard plastic plates today and real spoons! It's more economical...and more colorful (!)...and creates less waste now that the kids are trained to return their utensils. It was a very satisfying way to spend a Sunday morning.

I'm so excited to show my family all the things and people and places that I've been talking about for the last 10 months. Now, when I say I'm going into Cayes or stopping at Madam Util's or heading to Rainbow beach or Port Salut, they'll know what or where it is. I'm just so thankful to see them again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aheartforhaiti/May20095?feat=directlink

Lots of love,
Abby