Today's Holiday: "God's Birthday"

Today is a holiday in Haiti--in French it's called Fete Dieu and in English my student's say "God's Birthday." When I ask my husband or the students about this holiday they just tell me it's a Catholic thing and that's all they know. Being the curious person that I am, that just isn't enough information for me. We have today off school and I wanted to know why.

I took matters into my own hands this morning and googled it. Apparently the translation of the French name is a bit misleading because in English the day is called "The Feast of Corpus Christi." The super simplistic explanation of the holiday is that it celebrates the presence of Jesus Christ's body and blood in the Eucharist (communion). I assume that Catholic churches and other denominations that believe the communion elements turn into the actual body and blood of Christ celebrate today with a church service and communion.

At our house, we celebrated "God's Birthday" by sleeping in and having a lazy morning. Later today we'll take some exams to the copy shop for the school and hopefully go to Handal, the Haitian Wal-mart, if they are open. And if my husband is in the right mood I might even be able to talk him into a "sandwich griole" from Giant Supermarket.

Life Straws

Last week a group of four (that originated in Florida) came to Mountain Top Ministries to distribute Life Straws. A high school chemistry teacher started a Peace Jam club at her high school this year and the students raised nearly $12,000 to purchase individual Life Straws. Their goal was to distribute the individual water purification straws to people in Haiti who do not have access to clean water.

On Wednesday the group went to each high school class to give a lesson on how to use the life straws. Then they gave one to every student. On Thursday the group presented the Life Straws to the elementary students and then hiked to the waterfall to view the water source for Gramothe. Life Straws were given out in the village of Gramothe, as well as the clinic on Friday and Saturday.

The remaining Life Straws will be taken to Dumay next weekend and given out there.

For now here are a couple of pictures from the Gramothe distribution. Another post will follow with more pictures of the Life Straws in action.

Third graders receiving Life Straws (my husband is the handsome one in yellow)

Some 8th grade students were pretty excited about their Life Straws!

Bad Blogger

Hello. My name is Britney, and I'm a bad blogger.

Last week I promised posts about the Life Straws that were passed out as well as the cement work that was happening in Gramothe. Well, I wrote the posts in the Gramothe computer lab and saved them to add pictures later... like when I got home that night. However, I forgot and the posts are still saved as drafts here on the blog. Such is life I guess.

Hopefully I'll remember to post the pictures tonight (because they are on my computer at home and not here in Gramothe with me).

I'm sorry for being a bad blogger. Maybe someday when I grow up, I'll actually do a good job!

Student Spotlight: Magalie

Magalie is very energetic young lady. She's an only child by both her mother and her father, which I find rare in Haiti. She's from Gramothe, and I think she's been in the school since it opened. Magalie is very short, but very fiesty. She always has a ready comeback for her classmates, and she can even spar with them in English! In addition to being witty, she's also compassionate. She often comes to me on the behalf of another student. Sometimes she translates their request for a pencil or pen, other times she tells me of a much bigger need. But she's always looking out for others.

Magalie is a multi-talented young lady. She can play the recorder quite well, and she taught herself with the aid of a little book she found. She's currently working with Johane to make paper bead jewelry (she came up with a bracelet design I'm still trying to wrap my brain around). And she also participated in the art class during Easter week--she had some pretty impressive art work!

Most excitingly, Magalie decided to give her life to Christ this year. She's been one of the few consistent students in Arold's new believers Sunday school class, and she's also been attending Willem's discipleship class on Monday afternoons.

Student Spotlight: Max

Max was new to the Gramothe school this year. He's a tall, lanky, quiet 8th grade student. His aunt is the librarian in Gramothe, and she asked me to put him in my computer class. I told her I was happy to do that as long as he was good in English class. It turns out Max has zero problems in that department. He's a great student! He's respectful, and he makes me laugh too.

Max is pretty tech savvy compared to the majority of my other students, and he often helps whoever is sitting next to him. He easily became friends with Rosias and Monley (Mouse and Porcupine for those of you who have been here) at the beginning of the year, and I've noticed a big improvement in his English skills even since January. I've been very impressed with this young man this year, and I hope that he continues to impress me!

School Wide Party

The Philo class (grade 13) has been hosting events throughout the school year to help raise money for their graduation festivities. Since last Friday was Flag Day in Haiti (a pretty big deal) and there wouldn't be any school, the Philo students hosted a school wide party on the 17th. Each student was asked to pay $10 (Haitian of course) to help fund the party and the rest is set aside for graduation. So last Thursday was a no uniform day. There were no classes. Philo provided a bottle of pop at lunch for each student. (Click on the pictures to see them in full screen view.)

 

The students set up a sound system outside and everyone gathered around.

 The DJs did a good job of keeping the scheduled events moving--my favorite is Jean Eddy in the sheriff's shirt.

 There was a rap battle/show at one point. There were several groups that danced. And the little kids had a sing along session at the beginning of the day. Here some of the students are dancing. (This picture was taken from the cafeteria.)

All in a Day's Work

Here's what happens when the rain washes out the road to the guest house.

Electricity, and the truth about me

We've had lots of issues lately with the electricity. Sometimes the power plant doesn't give any electricity for a few days. If it goes too long, our inverter looses its charge and we're left with no power. This happens very rarely. We don't use a lot of electricity to begin with, and we try to pay attention to how long its been since we've had public power. It's a different life than living in the U.S., land of constant electricity, but it works.

However, the past couple of weeks have been rough. There was a problem, still is a problem, with the power coming into our street. We noticed the public power hadn't been on for a while, but when it did return our street was still in the dark when everyone else had power. We could see other people's lights taunting us from our candle lit living room. The neighbors had been calling EDH (the power company), but weren't getting any luck in getting someone to come out. Finally Willem found and EDH guy and asked him to come and check it out. Apparently the wire to our street isn't the right gauge. The EDH guy rigged it so that it will work for now, but it could go out again in the future.

In addition to that, our landlords had some electrical work done on our apartment, and apparently we are getting four more batteries for our inverter. This should double the amount of electricity we can hold in reserve for the times there is no public power. That is awesome. Except the batteries aren't connected yet and our inverter lost power last night around 8. I almost had dinner on the table (this is our normal dinner time), so we got out the flashlight and ate in the semi-dark. We adapted and enjoyed just talking to each other before we went to bed.

All these recent issues with electricity have made me realize something about myself. I get grumpy when there's no power. Really grumpy. Having no power makes me alternately want to cry and feel sorry for myself or throw rocks at something. In my desperation I might even write things like, "Life was so much easier when I lived in Indiana." in my journal. But I guess you'll never know that for sure. Ultimately this grumpiness is selfishness; I'm irritated that I didn't get my way.

Here's the problem with being selfish about electricity... I know it's not constant. I know I won't always have it. I shouldn't get grumpy about something that I know isn't guaranteed. If I lived in the States where electricity is a constant thing, I could understand being upset when it's out for several days. But I live in Haiti, where the only thing guaranteed about electricity is that it's not going to be constant! 

But more importantly than not being selfish about inconsistent electricity is the fact that I live in a country where there are people living in tents because of an earthquake that happened 2.5 years ago. They don't have electricity. They don't have clean water, let alone running water. They don't even have rooms in their dwellings. They get wet when it rains, and swelter the rest of the time. How can I complain about the lack of power for a few hours when these people lack...almost everything?

Lord, open my eyes to more important things than electricity and help me to see what's really important.

Graduating Class

What a good looking group of students! This is the Philo class (grade 13) and they will be MTM's first graduates in less than one month. We're so excited to see what God does with them.

The ever changing road

The road from the guest house to the riverbed can get pretty rough during the rainy season. It's bumpy right now, but that part isn't as bad as it has been in the past. The bad part is the fact that there are huge holes on the side of the road, and with each rain more of the road washes away. Here are some pictures.

Here you are looking at the road. There is a sink hole thing to the right.

Here's a picture of the giant hole next to the road. The picture does not do it justice. It's really big and really deep.

Here's a view of where the water washed the road away. We made a ramp with some dirt so the truck could go up and down. It was washed away too and now there are some rocks there, but we have to add more rocks after each rain.

Here's a view of the riverbed. This big trench is where we use to drive to get to the bottom of the road to Gramothe. Now we have to go off to the right and around a little ways before we can get to the base of the road. 

Traveling to and from Gramothe can be a little tricky these days. Please keep praying for us as we make the trip daily until school is out in mid-June.