If it isn't one thing...

..it's another. seriously.

our recent news came monday at about 1:55 p.m. sonlight is the only school in pdp that is in session right now. all the other schools are postponed until october 6 because of the "economy" with food prices soaring, etc. well, today the minister of education decided to come to sonlight and talk to carmen. he gave her the speech about the financial situation of the people and she said, "well, all of our students are being paid for, so it's fine." then, he said that wasn't really the reason, he was there because of all the hurricanes. so carmen said "well, all of our students are able to come to school...it didn't really affect them." and then he went into all these other reasons and excuses. basically, he was just mad that we were having school and we weren't doing what they wanted.

so, now, instead of having school everyday, we are having "tutoring" from 8-12. we will be tutoring ALL of our students in reading, math, spelling, etc. and be "testing and quizzing their knowledge." the students don't have to wear their uniforms because we aren't really "in school." so for the next 3 weeks, we will be out at noon.

seriously, where else but haiti would the minister of education tell you that the kids CAN'T come to school??? geez!!!

all i can say is that is completely obvious that good things are happening here in pdp or satan wouldn't be working so hard. keep praying for us.

Hurricane Madness!

So, I have been told that I should post on here saying that Hurricane Gustav didn't wash us away! Although, it didn't really occur to me to do this because, in Port-de-Paix, we didn't even get any rain because of the storm. Hurricane Hanna is up a little north of us (or she was) and she will miss Port-de-Paix also.

Things are good. Internet bandwidth is more limited than usual and we are continuing to pray that our generator (which was on the fritz) continues to keep kicking, but despite these things, I am so glad to be back. I've seen several of our sweet little kids and given out more hugs than I can count.

The living situation in our house is better than I thought it would be. After some complications with housing, Carmen had no choice but to move two boys into the downstairs part of our house (Emily and I live in the upstairs). I was a little concerned what kind of message this was sending to the community, 2 single girls living with 2 single guys, but we are taking extra precautions to make it appear that we have divided the house into two separate apartments and we don't live "together." We share the kitchen with the boys, but we have also shared a lot of laughs...We've laughed at each other (maybe I should say WITH each other!!), at the things that happen in Haiti, and at the horrible smell that is outside the kitchen window (don't worry, I won't go into detail about that awful stench!).

Since being back, I have also been hit with what I like to all "The Haitian Sensation." Getting my body back on track with the food and schedule here is always fun!(*I don't want to go into gross details, but for those of you who know Ashley, and know her well, will understand when I say that I joined her club this past weekend. blah!)

School starts tomorrow, so I am sure I will have many, many stories in the next few days! Stay tuned...