Choosing to remember!

Life is hard in Haiti. You see it on the news. We see the news every day in real life. It is easy to get tired of seeing the hard, smelling the sewage, cold showers, power failures, being drenched in sweat, rain on laundry day, turning away beggar boys... and how that makes the heart ache. 

How just a walk outside the gate makes the heart ache. 

We don't like to take pictures and post about those things. 

But we have decided to choose to remember...

that Haiti was once called "the Jewel of the Antilles"

and that there was a reason for that...

and even though we usually see the hard and it is easy to forget

that we are living on a Carribean island...

Just a little farther beyond our gate

And through several street rivers...
(That's us in the vehicle and Eric driving in Haiti for the first time!)

...we can find that reason.

These waters and the mountains surrounding them are what greeted Christopher Columbus when he discovered the island known today as Hispaniola and set foot on what would become the nation of Haiti.

Columbus discovered paradise...and so did we!

And very large crabs!

And rocks covered in sea slime!

And how much fun Aunt Emee is!
Elisabeth's sister Emilee surprised us by flying in on Friday which was another good reason to spend Saturday here.

And to play water Frisbee!

Until someone gets stung by one of these!

And everyone got out of the water to see (and touch if they were brave enough)!

That poor someone stung by the very large jellyfish was Eric! 

So then we stayed closer to shore!

And on shore

And off shore

where brothers and sisters played in the jellyfish free waters!

For a long time...

Until it was time for lunch!

Our beach buds (other teachers from our school)

For Betsy

Our girls ate two heaping plates each and this fish didn't stand a chance!

Time for more play!

Come and get Dad!

And line up...

to be thrown in the air

and caught

and taught how to swim

and to enjoy this paradise!

We saved you a spot!

And to drive home later than planned...cause who wants to leave paradise?

And to sleep all the way home...

until we got back into Port au Prince 

where there are way too many roadbumps  gaping holes and ravines where a road should be to sleep.

And as we drive through river streets and try to avoid those ravines in the dark with no street lights and finally get home to cold showers and wake up drenched in sweat to no power and the smell of sewage filling the hot house...

We choose to remember!