Easter update

Update on Events:

Travel:

Quisqueya offered a France and Spain tour for our students this carnival break and I got to go as one of the chaperones! It was a wonderful, beautiful time (except for the times spent in a bus.. those were bad days) and I got to see a few things I had previously only dreamed of. The big highlight was seeing the Sagrada Familia up close and personal. I may have just wandered around, quietly touching the stone pillars every now and then, just to remind myself of the reality of the moment. The church itself is still in construction, but it is simply breathtaking. Gaudi built it as a living breathing prayer and you do feel the sensation of worship as you wander through.  The other highlight was actually walking on the Camino Santiago for about 15 minutes in Bordeaux and again in Pamplona. I may have whispered a 'we will meet again' into the ear of the bronze shells marking the path. 

Change of Directors

We had a sudden upset a few weeks ago, when in the middle of accreditation year, our director stepped down and the high school principal took over. The transition was sudden and rocky, and it has repercussions I'm not sure I've considered yet.  For a while I was unsure as to wether I could stay at the school, but I am still committed to being here for two more years.

Loss of Teachers

This year also saw the loss of a bunch of teachers. We had two teachers leave because of a child's health complications, another 2 leave over the ZIKA virus scare.  Others left for other reasons and it has left our school short staffed. People are filling in, and covering other classes. I am personally babysitting a calculus class two hours a week and teaching French literature and history for another two hours. This replaces the sewing class I was teaching. If you know of any teachers interested in teaching abroad, please direct them to our website!

Change of apartment

I moved in with friends.  The school's vehicle that was allocated to the apartment complex broke down once and for all, and it just became too complicated to get to and from school. I had thought I could walk back and forth when I first moved, but since then, the political situation has made it a bit more difficult. We'd had one murder on our street, and three robbers were shot a few streets down, so I was not feeling very safe commuting back and forth. The move has been great! I love my new room, and it comes with a porch, so I can sit outside and grade. 

Belgium

Among all the other crazy of my life, I woke up last Tuesday to the news that the Zaventem Airport had been bombed.  It was a strange few days as I knew the size and location of the blasts meant the likelihood of there being anyone I knew being in the vicinity was almost non-existent, I did have one friend who was on the next metro in the Maelbeek station.  The images on the news were of places I was very familiar with.  It was hard for me because it was so far away for so many of my coworkers and friends. They did not immediately connect the news to me, and I had to tell people over and over again that it was my hometown.  There really are no words for what happened, so I will leave it at that. 

I had already had a chapel prepared for the next day. Ironically, it was about forgiveness, and I had meant to use the Rwandan forgiveness project as an example, but instead I used the news I had received.  No matter where these bombings take place, no matter who is involved, a part of me hurts for those who initiated the attack. They are so far gone, so lost in their fear, pain, hatred.. that this seemed like a good idea.  I pray for the one who didn't detonate his bomb. I pray he's given a chance to face himself and his past.

Easter Break

This last weekend was Easter Break and with all the previous stuff, I realised I needed to get out and have a break.  Two friends and I drove to the Artibonite valley, the breadbasket of Haiti. We planned to stop by Sodo, (Saut d'eau) a major waterfall and historic site in Haiti, on our way in. Well, we did get to see it, but the car decided to act up, threatening to overheat multiple times, so we pulled over three times to refill the radiator.  It was clear the radiator had a leak, but we were hoping to make it to our destination and get it looked at there. We made it to about 20 minutes away from Desarmes, when we pulled over for the last time.  Although the engine had not overheated, water was pouring out the bottom, and we couldn't find a leak.  When anything like this happens in Haiti, you're surrounded by a crowd of helpful onlookers, and we were soon discussing how to fix this problem with not just the three of us, but a small group of questionable 'mechanics'.  We did eventually decide to try to catch public transport to the next town and I would come back with a mechanic, if we could find one. (or find one qualified to fix it.. not always the same thing) As I said this, my friend pointed out that she'd seen no TapTap's or Moto's drive by in a while, and I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach that I'd really done it that time. Just then, a shiny BMW pulls up, and a short dominican guy jumps out. He tells me in heavily accented Spanish (or maybe it was MY Spanish that was accented) that he's a mechanic and promptly pulls out a double decker toolbox. I surreptitiously peeked in and saw that he had both WD40 and electrical tape prominently displayed.. so I knew I could trust him. He actually hopped up on the toolbox to look into the engine and promptly asked for 'Agua' so I gave him that.. 

After a little more poking and prodding, he asked for 'tres huevos'. I know enough Spanish to know that means eggs.... but it really wasn't what I expected to hear from him. I clarified a few different ways. 'huevos.. para comer??', 'huevos, de un pollo?' and he patiently repeated 'si, tres huevos' each time. So I relayed it to my friend, who translated it into Creole, and each step of the way we had to work through the thought that this might be a cultural misunderstanding. But eggs were brought and eggs were promptly cracked into the radiator, and he started the engine up and told us we could get where ever we needed to go, but once the engine was turned of, to get the car looked at.  We got into the car and drove off.. trying to digest the strange incident of the three eggs and the radiator.  They got us to our destination, and we called a mechanic who came the next day and took the radiator away on a moto and brought it back nice and fixed.   The rest of the weekend was relaxing and beautiful.  We enjoyed breathing fresh air, and walking around without worrying about our safety or being shot at.  The car drove well the rest of the weekend, and we made it home safe. It was a rewarding experience to have figured out how to get by and problem solve in Haiti. It can seem daunting, trying to communicate and travel around, but it turned out that people are super friendly when you're in trouble.

Summer Plans

I have just bought tickets for the summer! I will be spending June in Belgium. I have two unscheduled weeks, and three where I will be working on a farm, trying to improve my French. The second month I will be in France, doing some hiking, camping and general lesson planning and scheduling for the next year. I am exited to be going back home after only a few months away! 

Prayer:

Struggles:

• Faith: I am listening to quite a negative script in my head, and I am actively looking to rewrite it. But changing ingrained thought patterns is hard, and I do not always do this gracefully. I forget to practice trusting, and my faith suffers from it.
• Security: Last update I confessed I struggled with being single. I thought I had turned a corner, but I find it's still a painful struggle to find contentment in life.  I won't let it sap my joy, but each time a dear friend leaves,  or there is sudden uncertainty in my life, I find myself wishing all the more for someone to share the burdens with.  As far as I am aware, there is nothing I can do about the situation, other than remind myself that this is where God has seemed to place me.
• Peace:  That one's self explanatory.

Interesting Developments:

• Rewiring my mind: I am reading two books that are radically shifting how I view the world. 
• Surprised by Hope, by N.T. Wright: This book gives me back the reason for our faith. 
• The Body Keeps the Score: A book about PTSD, and while I have no idea why I qualify for that category, the book reads like a how-to manual for my entire personality.  I have found in the pages of the book quoted conversations in which patients explain their thought process, and it is almost verbatim words I have at one time or another used to explain myself. They even have a chapter on the Vagus nerve and what it is responsible for.  I mean, a whole chapter!!!! It gives me so much more information to work with, and helps me understand myself in ways I had not even known I could. I highly recommend that book

Ok, if I write any more, I will just lose most of you anyways. Thanks for reading this far!