Feet

I woke this morning, not to an alarm clock, or even the daylight. I felt my big toe wiggling. I peered through the fog of my weariness to see the whites of Robinson’s eyes. He was motioning me to come, and my brain momentarily froze. Caught somewhere between reality and the haze of a deep sleep. I am wrestling with a bit of a cold, and last night I slept pretty good, so the two combined had me a little wasted. I mentioned a couple of setbacks with our trip, well one of them was a transportation issue. The man we had hired turned and dealt a wrong deal, so we are working our way through that. But it also meant that we would more than likely not be going on our trip to Desdunes today. At 6:30 a.m. Rob informed me that he had a bus to take us for the original price we had agreed upon. The team was delighted with the turn of events........Several hours later, we are back from our trip to the country. It was everything we had hoped for. We passed out a lot of treats to the children, all the ladies got to hold ‘Sarabeth’ the little baby that Beth and Krystle named. We stopped by a school and handed out all the yo-yo's that Hasse’s sent with us. We passed out candy, and bubbles and chinese yo-yo's and crayon’s and coloring sheets and lots of other little toys. As we walked along from place to place we were trailed by a crowd of children. Hunger is etched on their bodies, poverty has stripped them almost bare. It is heart rending. Their plea for food is real, and their desperation unquantifiable. I never have met a child begging for food in the streets of America. I’m sure there are a few, but our children no nothing of this kind of suffering. I’m sitting here as I write watching the interaction between Autumn and Lauren. Autumn is a very memorable character. She is full of life, and a certain charisma. She is following closely in her mothers shoes. She is added spunk and charm. I know this trip has been a test of character for her, but she is passing this test with flying colors. She is vivacious, and is not a quitter. I have never seen anyone wrenching their guts out and still smile! She breeds a lot of energy, and it has been inspirational to have her along. She will find a way to get you to laugh a little and you need that often and much here. So back to the wiggling toe, in Haiti you see many feet. And most carry calluses, dirt and scars. I was studying Maurice's (my sister, Manice’s father) feet the other night, he had walked down from the mountain to see us. Those hardened feet had carried him all the way here, and took him back to the mountain again. An almost two hour hike. He walks down the mountain every day on those feet. We are walking back and forth to the property at least two times a day. Beth’s feet are swollen. This is quite a bit of walking for us American’s. We are used to walking very short distances. Here, most walk everywhere they go! And their feet show it. Most of what they have are flip-flops. The children run barefoot often. The next time you slip your feet in those comfortable shoes, be thankful for feet, for shoes to put them in, and the transportation that saves you walking every where you go. Off to children’s service we go, going to try to do some more drilling. At noon prayer, there was a property full of people again. Blessings until later.