Journal Entry – Tuesday August 2, 2011
Wow.
Indescribable day.
Five observations, plus my favorite moment of the day:
Observation #1: The shower at Visa Lodge is quite possibly the greatest shower on the planet. Either that or I’ve just been hotter and sweatier than I’ve ever been in my life. Ok, yeah, that probably has more to do with it. But that being said, having a bunch of lizards living in your bathroom is very, very cool.
Observation #2: Carl Lancaster is without a doubt the coolest 83-yr-old on the planet. He can take all the good-hearted joking and ribbing anyone can throw at him, and sling it right back as quickly as it comes at him. Talk about a great guy to be able to hang out with on a mission trip – Carl is truly an amazing human being.
Observation #3: The absolute cutest thing on the planet is watching a bunch of Haitian teenage girls laughing, squealing, and giggling just like teenage girls in any other culture.
Observation #4: The absolute funniest thing on the planet is watching a bunch of Haitian teenage boys doing Michael Jackson impersonations.
Observation #5: There is something endemic to the Haitian culture that breeds a level of athleticism that may very well exceed that of any other culture. To watch a group of Haitian boys play a game of soccer- even though I don’t even like soccer – is nearly breathtaking in the exquisiteness of skill and precision and agility they possess.
Absolute favorite moment of the day:
Afternoon athletic games and activities. I’m in one of the open-air classrooms that’s overlooking the activities – partly enjoying watching what’s going on, partly working on my lecture for tomorrow.
All of a sudden this crowd of Haitian girls comes spilling into the room. I find out later that this has all erupted spontaneously, which makes it all the more precious and delightful. Apparently, this group of about nine Haitian teenage girls has grabbed a female translator and then grabbed Bethany, Hannah, and Rebekah, and basically want to interview them and find out everything in the world about our three high school girls. It was like they were rock stars. I don’t know what all the questions were, but it seemed to pretty much cover the gamut.
The moment that just about brought me to tears, though, was shortly before this all wound down, I heard a Haitian girl say something in Creole, and then the translator gave us the English:
“They say, ‘They are so happy, they have so much joy that you talk to them.’”
So why would anyone want to come to Haiti? I can’t even begin to put it into words.
