magical and bizarre

When we have guests coming for the very first time I am never really sure what to say when they ask us what to expect.

It is hard when the media says so many bad things, friends and family say other things and if you read the state departments website you may never come.
John always says you should know what God says.

"That was magical and bizarre all at the same time".....
is what Claudia said to describe our walk on Thursday. I took her down to the ravine. The people are sweet and wonderful, but very poor even by Haiti's standards. It is a really good place to experience what life is really like here for the average family. I explained that so many of our ladies live just like these families.

Tuesday was a hard day. You can't really prepare for a three pound baby to show up at your door with a mom who says she is thirty-nine and looks fifty-nine. The week before the mother had come with complications and we sent her to the hospital. As she was leaving she asked if she could be in our program after she had the baby.
Sure, we said.
Honestly, I was shocked to see her. I didn't think she would have delivered a baby that would live with the kind problems she was having. While doing the well baby check-up we asked the babies name. She said she didn't have one. Well, she did but the dad named her and she forgot.
Yet, another thing that is hard for a visitor to prepare for.
In the States mom's are planning the name of their babies for months in advance, making sure the initials look good and don't spell out bad words. Not here.

We heard the same thing today from another mom who came for a well baby check-up. This time with a six pound baby.
I was glad Claudia was taking a break. The good part in all of this was we really saw what a difference eggs, milk and vitamins make in the life of a woman every week. Healthy babies and mom's are what we are here for.

I guess if Claudia is like most people that visit for the first time, she is still trying to figure out why they don't fix the roads and pick up all the trash. She will need a few weeks to process what she has done, seen and heard this past week. I often say that either you love it or the minute you are up in the air with a diet coke and a glass of ice denial sets in and you want to believe this didn't just happen. There is no middle.

Now that you are wondering if you would love it or hate it. We love having people come and visit. If you would like to come and see what we are doing in Haiti we would encourage you to come.

But, like John says, ask the Lord what He thinks before you say yes or no.