Friday I left Jacmel at 5AM to go to Port Au Prince for the day with Leann to do our monthly grocery shopping, the Pye's monthly grocery shopping, grocery shopping for a team we have coming in and some shopping for the Altidor family. Additionally, we brought Woody to a follow-up appointment to have his leg checked out. (Which, for those of you who are interested, all is well with him. He has NO cast and is walking with only one crutch.)
It was a long day. We pulled back into Jacmel twelve hours later, at 5PM with a truck FULL (and I cannot even begin to express how earnestly I mean FULL) of food and supplies. Then we headed over to the Pyes to do the "sort." That took about an hour and I rolled into my house a little after 6PM loaded down with the Mangine food.
I had taken Nahomi with me because I had to be doing a lot of the driving around Port solo, and I still need help finding my way around. So Nick was here ALL day by himself. Needless to say, the house was in less than stellar shape when I returned. Which I am NOT complaining about. It was TOTALLY okay with me. Poor Nick had all three kids, plus our laundry lady here, plus the street kids we hire to clean the compound... he had a busy day.
We only had time to put away the cold stuff because Nick was preaching at English church at 7. So we did that really quick and flew out the door to church. By the time we got back (8:30ish), we were SO wiped. I was tired-er than I can remember being in a long time. ("Haiti tired" as Nick would call it.) Because of the great potential for bugs here (being that our kitchen is basically outside) I NEVER leave dishes in the sink overnight. However, I broke my rule and went to sleep with dirty dishes in the sink, on the counters, on the table, etc. It was a mess.
I got up yesterday morning ready to hit the day. I began to tackle the dishes but then had to stop in the middle of them because we had an appointment to go look at a potential house. (For the orphanage once we start taking kids in December.) So we got the kids ready, and when I came back, Nahomi had finished the dishes and was sweeping the floor.
Saturday is Nahomi's day off. So I really try not to ask her to do work on Saturdays and want her to feel like she can take a break. So I said to her, "Nahomi, poukisa ou lavi kizin mwen? Ou pa travay jodi a." ("Nahomi, why did you clean my kitchen? You don't work today.")
She looked at me, and then looked around the kitchen kind of incredulously and said, "Wi, m konnen, memn kay ou sal! Anpil!" ("Yes, I know, but your house is REALLY dirty!") (Really Nahomi, tell us how you really feel.)
Nick and I looked at each other and just laughed. Nick said, "Ou gen rezon." ("You win.")
3 comments:
I love the smattering of Creole you throw into your posts. I try to remember them and use them on the boys. I just told them in Creole our house was really dirty to which Richnightder replied, "YES!"
I enjoy reading your posts. I don't know you but have lived in Haiti too and so it's always interesting to read about others living in Haiti. I was wondering where you went to learn Creole. Is it something connected to your mission or is there someplace in Port you can go?
Glad to hear that Woody is doing as well as he is.
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