Chris and Cathy's Haitian Adventures ...our daily walk with God: At the quarter pole, some Reflections...

Today marks three weeks here in Haiti for Cathy & I. Its been busy, with a Leadership Conference, teaching, getting up to speed and then having two big teams here, the second of which departs Tuesday. I think we're figuring this out and doing OK. There is a tremendous amount to do, or that we would like to do, but not the time to do it. Kind of reminds me about the harvest being plentiful and the workers few... This is now a pretty big operation and it will be good if we can get some stuff organized prior to our departure, to help things run more smoothly and assist future workers. We've built some bridges with staff, and as we learn more Creole the connections grow and you really start to understand the people. Language is a huge thing.

Today we worked this morning on the Technical School floor pour, then hit the beach for the afternoon. I love the beach, and being able to revisit snorkelling the same waters each week allows me to see and get to understand the wildlife even more. Today I spotted another, mini Lionfish, out hunting the same as the first, which was still in its hunting spot too. The new thing today was the Pipefish, or two of them which hang suspended upside down and slowly move up and down among the reef. It was pretty cool. A couple of the younger adults of the Nelson team had never snorkelled before and they were amazed at the reefs and life there, so that was kind of fun to hear their perspective.

I think I may be losing some weight to date, at least the pants seem to fit looser which is always a good sign. This is a good thing and hopefully will continue throughout our stay. The food is generally very good, but the variety is lacking and we're through 3-4 passes of exactly the same dishes. I'm starting to reject certain things, like mystery meat in a can (more mysterious than SPAM) and white bread so I guess that bodes well for continued losing weight...