Last night in the middle of the night, Keziah woke up to snuggle but then quickly announced that she needed some water. I told her to help herself, so she quietly tip-toed into the kitchen and returned to non-chalantly let me know that when she had gotten water from the water cooler a giant cockroach and come out of the spicket and crawled up her arm. She sleepily crawled back into bed and was out.
I have to ask myself what kind of kids am I raising? What kind of six year old isn’t phased by giant cockroaches, plays with the 30 chickens in the backyard, speaks three languages, knows about poverty, destruction, death, and tragedy in a way that most adults aren’t familiar. It will be interesting to see, as she gets older, what kind of teenager and adult she turns into. I am so proud of her for who she is and who she is becoming. An old soul- my Keziah.
On another note- our car crumpled to it’s knees for the fifth time now, and I do mean crumpled… because when the axle breaks and the wheel is on it’s side, it looks like it is bowing down in some chivalrous, but pathetic sort of crumple. After an estimate of $5K to get it fixed, we decided that we don’t really need a car after all. I have been learning how to get around by tap tap and moto-taxi and I do have to say that a new world of Haiti has opened up to me. Riding on the back fo a motorcycle through downtown Port au Prince never gets old. I am still just as surprised by the destruction every time I see it. The dirty wind blowing through my hair, the smell of garbage in the streets, the grit on my teeth… ahhhh love it! I made an appointment with my moto-taxi driver to learn how to drive a motorcycle myself on Saturday. We’ll see how that goes.
Changing the subject again.. we have a team of 7 here right now who are beautifying our literacy classrooms. We will have a printer, projector, computer, textbooks and 6-8 students for our literacy school that will be starting next month! So excited about this opportunity! If you are interested in sponsorship, let me know… a simple way to change a life! Especially for the girls- who often are overlooked for their educational opportunities here!
Things that are going well… PAPERMAKING! So cool! We had an impromptu helper- John- who came for a month and got a couple of the local young men making paper from bead scraps and other used paper around the house. The result is about 10 of our first completly handmade journals! We are so excited abou this new program as the journals look SO cool! Let us know if you are interested in hosting a party to sell these or our ever-popular jewelry collection.
On of the rooms in our artisan houses is currently being converted into a salon for Shelley (me)! So excited about this opportunity as well. It will be great to have my “tent-making” skill be right in the middle of our artisan facility as it will give more exposure locally to what we are doing here in Haiti. Almost every haircut I give ends up with a jewelry sale- so it is a win-win situation! We will also hope to be training some Haitians in basic hair-dressing/ beauty treatments. Any kind of skill helps! We are stumped for a name of the salon.. so let us know if you have any suggestions!