Leadership Conference preps

Tuesday at 5:10 in the morning and the Leadership Conference starts in a few hours.  Dead quiet here as no one is awake yet, though the security guard did come through to check out the lights an hour or so ago.  One of the main speakers got bumped off their flight yesterday so things have shuffled up, with Cathy speaking this afternoon and Chris Thursday.  Cathy was on computer most of yesterday putting the finishing touches on her presentation, titled "Strategically Leading Your Marriage and Family", while Chris got relegated to the iPad and got his message mostly together, entitled "Vision-Yours, God's and Mine" which still requires finishing touches, translation to Creole, notes and etc.

The last two days have been somewhat restful for us, as it been relatively cool at night and sleep has gone well.  Cathy's still recuperating from a nasty flu but otherwise all is well.  Yesterday we got orientation done and got a makeshift office set-up, print drivers loaded, files updated and all the other stuff that normally comes with our technologically-focused lifestyle, even here.  Unfortunately, the internet is slow (do you remember dial-up?), actually its not that bad and we make do, but its not the blazing 50MPS downloads I've grown accustomed to back home.  Talk about being spoiled.  Got to re-learn appreciation for the finer things in life, like water, light and good food... 

We've been  in our own little world preparing, while the Haiti Arise Ministries site has been a beehive of activity.  Meetings, construction crews, getting rooms ready for pastors, worship practice, and of course the food.  There is a lot that goes into a big conference, especially when you're feeding about 500 pastors and visitors twice each day.  Everything gets "super-sized", including a huge sack of bread buns from the market bakery and truckloads of baskets filled with fruits and vegetables.  The main topic of conversation, though, was the cow.  

Marc had indicated Sunday he'd be buying a cow for the conference and it wasn't clear at first if this was some sort of prize or what?  Dinner, to be exact.  Haiti is quite a bit more back to nature than back home, or maybe it just never left nature in the first place, but having beef doesn't mean running off to Costco or Safeways and getting a few shrink-wrapped meat packs to stick in the freezer for the big feast, nor ordering up caterers or plans at a fancy 4-5 star conference hotel.  No, here you do it yourself, literally.  After Marc brought the subject of the cow up at dinner the other night, the conversation quickly turned to "what's the best way to kill a cow?"  Without ready access to more modern but not necessarily humane (?) North American methods, it came down to a knife, a blade or a hammer.  Not really being country boys ourselves (though I've done in scores of fish, hunting trophies and more than a few chickens in earlier days...) Pastor Ed and I were very interested and determined to scope out and photograph the process, but alas the cow was dispatched with a quick hammer blow between the horns early yesterday and before we knew it the beef showed up in two wheelbarrows covered in palm leaves.  A few hours later, the butchering was complete and the meat was being marinated with fresh lemons in large vats ready for cooking today.  You’ve got to be quick around here, 500 hungry souls don’t leave a lot of time for photos or extended discourse.

Although the meat may be a bit out of the norm for Canadian city-folk, we could certainly learn a few things relative to the fruits and veggies here.  Everything is FRESH, pretty much ripe off the tree or vine, and oh my, does it taste great!  Because its not picked green, bathed in chemical preservatives and shipped across the continent/ world to our Canadian super-jumbo supermarkets the vine-ripening allows all the sugars and full flavor to come into the fruit and you won’t believe the taste.  Heck, before eating tropical fruits many years ago I never knew bananas, for instance, actually had taste!  

Well, things are stirring here so I’d best be getting this finalized and get back to my presentation.  I think the title needs a little bit of work...