Staycation

I’m drifting in and out of consciousness this morning as the pig family grunts next door when I realize that something is not quite right. I feel a little nauseous, but I can’t really tell whether its real or if I’m dreaming. A few minutes later I decide I should probably fully wake up and determine which is the case. Upon doing so, I realize that I really need to barf, in real life. I go into our bathroom and, ya know, but then feel a gurgle in my stomach and remember we don’t have toilet paper up here… so in search of paper and a little more privacy I race downstairs into our old bathroom. I would be ok with going into detail with what happens next but I’m not entirely sure of who you are and your comfort level with this so we’ll just suffice it to say that while on the potty I have to reach for the shower bucket to catch what is coming from my face. Wow, a bonafide double whammy. What the heck did I eat?!

So anyway, I slept a lot today and ate some crackers. Its evening and I’m feeling a lot better now. I just tried some carrots and fruit snacks with no negative results, so that’s optimistic. But I’m still sitting around the house and am bored. I figure it’s a great time for a blog post.

The last couple of days have been real treats. The big team from BR left early early Tuesday morning so we decide that Tuesday and Wednesday shall be our weekend as we worked straight through the real one. Megan, Josh, Wesley, and I go into town for the day for a bit of a staycation. Its only been, oh like 3 and a half weeks since we’ve gone to the grocery store as Josh has been away. Wesley takes us to this restaurant called Magdoo’s. I am skeptical of this place because of the name that I find to be a funny combination of Skip-Do (Megan and mine’s fave card game) and McDonalds. Turns out Magdoo’s is fabulous. So fabulous that I would like it in America. Then we go to a grocery store that I have never been to before – Giant. Or BigGigantic as I like to call it. They have a stinkin’ car garage and deli at BG! I get a quarter pound of deli-sliced turkey as I have been dreaming about turkey sandwiches on and off since arriving here. Yum. After the turkey victory, I spend most of my time trying not to cry about the prices. A box of Life costs something like $8, wahhh. So I settle for some very, very off brand honey nut O’s. I also buy a can of green beans, skim milk, and some cheese. Pretty exciting stuff there. Following BG, we head to this place called the View. It has a great view (go figure) of PAP, Petionville and nearby towns surrounding the bay. And, more importantly, it has sushi. Yep, I totally forgot where I was for awhile. Magnificent.

The car trip home is fun thanks to listening to “Call Me Maybe” for the 50^th time on this cool CD I made for us and two anonymous people in the car both having ridiculous gas. I spend half the time with my head out the window because the stench of Haiti smells better than what is going on in our car. There must have been a secret ingredient of beans or something in the sushi. Good times J

Yesterday, the whole team took a trip to Taino beach (the pretty, fantastic, totes beautiful beach that I went to over Christmas). It was magic, as usual. God truly gave me a day of rest. At one point, the combination of watching Megan journal, Wesley read Rohr, the jam box playing Radiohead, and the fantastic palm canopy above me sent me deep into a moment of introspection and reflection. It is the first time in a very long time I can actually remember truly relaxing and mediating on my own thoughts.

Then I decided to go for a snorkel. I have yet to snorkel in Haiti because I’m a bit of a snorkeling snob and didn’t think Haiti would have much to offer. However, right off the beach at Taino there is a 20-30 ft high reef with gorgeous fish! I felt like I was swimming in God’s aquarium and he was right there with me, happy to be with his kid enjoying his creation.

I spend a lot of time in the tension between recognizing and being sensitive to the suffering and hardship around me versus enjoying the good and beautiful things around me. It’s a delicate balance for me, especially in Haiti. There is suffering absolutely everywhere and its easy to get caught up in it and feel overwhelmed. But then sometimes, I numb myself to the jarring stuff and focus solely on the good. It is difficult to sit with two and balance them. Lately, I have been caught up in the dark, bad, and difficult. So I was very thankful for a day to truly relax and just be with the Lord, who is so good, in his beautiful creation.

So now I just have to finish kicking this stomach bug and it’ll be back to work tomorrow!