Long Days...

Wednesday:

Things have been pretty rough around here today. If you ever thought politics in America were bad…nothing compares.  Their elections have pretty much been ongoing for about a year now. They were scheduled last February but because of the earthquake postponed until November. I don’t know all the detail I have read up on some of it.

                “Due to the January 2010 earthquake, election was originally been indefinitely postponed;^[6] although November 28 was then decided as the date to hold the Presidential and legislative elections. Following the earthquake, there were concerns of instability in the country, and the election came amid international pressure over instability in the country.^[7] The election was termed in the media as a "seismic" one. This would be the third democratic election in Haitian history.”

On Tuesday, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti warned employees that the security situation could deteriorate Wednesday and they should make preparations.

So they announced that the first round results would be today. No one knew at what time, but just sometime today. So we have pretty much been on lock down around here. I mean nothing is bad in the town we are in, but we definitely cannot travel ANYWHERE. Not for a while! A couple of us were supposed to go to the chiropractor this afternoon , which at that time no results had been announced. But Pastor Henry said if we went we should be prepared to maybe have to spend the night there. No thank you!!! I received an email from the travel embassy that I signed up for when I came over here saying how unsafe it was to travel today and throughout the coming week. All the banks and most businesses closed early today so they could go home and be safe. There has been rioting in the town of Port and a few other cities. We are lucky to live in the country and there is really nothing near us. It just means we can’t travel anywhere. The airlines even shut down.

Thursday:

The voting results came down to three candidates. There were a lot of issues deciding whether it would come down to three or two. They announced the three, and spent all night making the decision, which was announced this morning, that only two would be in the final running. It’s really a lot of randomness. I am not sure what “rules” or “laws” they are following, if any. But apparently the two candidates left make the majority of the people happy. So last I heard the rioting has not been so bad. I believe businesses opened back up and things are sort of settled. Then Monday another issue hits. The current president was scheduled to step down Feb. 7^th. However the second round of voting will not be done until March 20^th and those results are not scheduled to come out until April 16^th. So they still have a long way to go before another president is appointed.  The “laws” that I have heard are, the current president can stay up to 3 months longer because his inauguration took longer than expected in 2006, (not sure of that full story). However if he steps down on Monday, the next highest ranking person in office would take his place for no less than 45 days and no more than 96, something ridiculous like that. Everyone’s guess is that the current President will stay; which is going to make a whole lot of people unhappy. Apparently they hate him so much that when he does finally step down, he will have to leave the country or probably be killed.

On top of the current president and trying to get a new one, we have “Baby Doc” who was President in the 80s and was exiled out of the country. He decided to come back on January 16^th, which caused riots and chaos. He was arrested the following day, facing possible charges for embezzlement. On January 18^th he was charged with corruption and will be held before a judge in Port-au-Prince for trial. So amongst his return there is also another former hated president trying to get in the country. It just goes on and on. Just so thankful I am nowhere near Port. We are settled in quite Canaan.

Well besides all this political drama, I got to see new things yesterday.   We went for a walk through a local village. I have driven past a lot of the homes and people, but never walked past to really see how they live. First of all they rarely EVER see white people and just stare you down. It’s very awkward… They yell BLANC, BLANC, which means white. Everyone is very nice and all say hello. It is really hard to communicate when you don’t speak their language. I wish I could send mental pictures…but it still wouldn’t sink in, it’s not the same as being here. Most of the people were barefoot, not many clothes, bathing in buckets, a trail of about 12 people were walking down the mountain to get water. One boy came charging down the road on a donkey, which was pretty hilarious. We walked past where they have market. It really is like a farmers market in the states, just a lot more sketch… There was this beautiful mural for a Kindergarten class, and then I looked inside. It was a stone wall and a door, through the door was the classroom. It all outdoors, small benches and a roof made of branches from palm trees, sort of hut-like. Not what I expected to see behind the beautiful painting. But that is how they are down here. The streets are so colorful with signs and paintings. The inside is the sad part. We walked through this village and it took us to the main street of Montrouis, from there we could walk back up to Canaan. On our way we stopped at another Orphanage just down the road. There were a lot more babies and most of them were very sick. One boy had cerebral palsy, he was four and SO tiny. Another boy had swelling in his brain, his head was sooo huge. We are lucky to have been able to save most of the children that come through Canaan and have the funding to make sure they are taken care of. I am not very familiar with this other orphanage, but I know it is run by a doctor so I assume they are pretty well taken care of as well. That’s probably why they have worse case children than us. So on our walk back up the hill to Canaan, we met with the regular children that hang out just outside of our land. The one’s who don’t have shoes and barely have clothes. We talked with them for a while, thankfully Kendall knows some Creole. On our way up Elise was driving through, so we got in the back of the truck. The kids asked if they could ride along. I REALLY wish at this point I had a camera. There were about 5 little boys and they all hopped in the back of the truck. We drove them up the hill just where our property starts, it was maybe a 30 second ride, but the faces of those children were PRICELESS. The happiest I have seen a kid! A 30 second ride in the back of a pick-up truck made their day! It was a good ending for me to yet another shocking day…

Joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.

- Leo Tolstoy