beach dreamin’ and the blues

As you can imagine, it’s been a week.

Some of you may have seen that cholera has spiked this past week. Which exponentially means more hours, more work, more of everything. When the numbers almost quadrupled overnight last week, my heart fell. I didn’t think we had the reserves in us- both emotionally and physically- for another full scale response. I told Justin that night that I wasn’t ready to be a “cholera widow” and never see him like last time. But this time is a bit different in the way that we’ve trained our Haitian staff to be able to work at night so our international staff doesn’t have to, and also because we have done this before so we know exactly how to run this machine.I think the weather is affecting my mood. It’s been gloomy and mooky for days now and I just keep thinking about how more people will be getting sick, and the miserable living conditions of those in the camp when it rains. I wondered today if I have malaria because of how crummy I feel, but I dont have a fever. So I’m chalking it up to the weather and to bad sleep because of the workload this week. Let’s hope it’s just that.

Before more on this, I should rewind to last weekend where we took Plumpy and his family to the beach. This took way more logistics than we realized, gathering towels and water and snacks and loading up the van, etc. Justin insisted that everyone wear seatbelts which was really comical, since none of them had every worn one before. They put them through their legs and over their heads and tied them up… I had to jump back there and fix them all. It was really endearing. We finally got moving an hour later. We were exhausted before we even got there.

It’s about a 45 min ride from our base to the beach, and the fam was quite excited, looking wide-eyed out of the window. They hadnt been to the beach in a very long time- at least one that wasnt scuzzy and filled with needles and trash.

When we got there we found a nice little table in the shade and Valene and dad went running in- and they were like two kids again. Splashing and kicking around, this sense of feeling free and unburdened by the weight of their circumstances. It almost brought tears to my eyes and I realized what a treat this was- to have a break from their hard, monotonous lives.

I babysat Rose and sat in the shade while Justin took Plumpy in, who was a bit skeptical of the water at first.

He decided he was more comfortable sitting on the rocks and letting the water tickle his feet.We didnt have anything for the kids to play with besides a ball (i was really wishing for a sand pail and some other beach goodies), but Peterson seemed quite content playing with the sea pebbles. Kids in the developing world are quite entertained by natural toys it seems.

Justin took turns watching Rose while I helped Petersonwith his walking. Seriously, I love my husband. He’s such a sport.

Justin got back in the water with the other kids and I got Plumpy all wrapped up in a towel to get ready for home, his two middle fingers in his mouth. A woman walked by and said, “Seriously, he is the cutest child.” “I know!” I said proudly, and quickly said, “But he’s not mine.” Justin looked over at me and smiled, knowing how much I’d love to scoop him up and take him out of this harsh place. But instead, we’ll just enjoy the little outings he takes with his “blanc mamma”.

This week I also had my Bible study again, on John 3. Even though it was pouring rain, over 20 of us still met in Valene’s damp and muddy tent. It was a bit more chaotic this time since all the kiddos were in there, but we still learned about the Spirit and about eternal life from this important chapter. I pray for lives to be changed as we learn each week.

Now, back to the reality of the day. We’re sure tired, but are sustained through prayers and God’s strength. But we are human,  and life here brings unexpected things each and every day. Our entire team could use prayer to weather this second wave, which we are unsure how long will last. Justin and the other medical staff have been putting in serious hours.  We’ll be heading on our next R and R a week from today (whoop!) so we’re hanging on til that. Curacao anyone? Yes please.

Love from the chaos- R and J