Disappointment

I’ve heard Haitians describe themselves as tired. Not the regular: “I want to sleep”, but

the more enduring: “I’ve been walking up this hill for the past 10 years and every time I find a place to rest something happens” kind.

The inability to trust long term plans is also part of the reason foreign investors don’t like to invest in Haiti.

As for us – we were asked to return our loaned houses last Monday. We spent Monday packing our house, office, storage, school kitchen and putting all in temporary storage. It was a long and draining day that ended by us moving with most of our personal material to the city getaway house and settling there. On Tuesday other people took out our fence, and our plants, and some of our shelves. Now the house looks almost like the rest of the empty houses in the neighborhood, which is sad to look at because we put a lot of heart and muscle to make it a pleasant place to live. Now we’re waiting for the ball to drop. Will we be able to come back? Will we move to another house in or near the village? What else will change?

Something positive has already come out of this change. The school is operating very nicely without us. It might be operating even better. The directors and teachers are taking responsibility and solving their own problems. On Friday, we came by to do some things and found a teacher vs. student soccer game in recess with the entire school cheering by. Our little corner of hope in Haiti is making me extremely proud.

Guess who won...