Love Tank

Evening shadows encroach. The air is cooling, and cold showers are soothing soaring body temps. The tank on the roof is repaired, the ceilings in the front porch, living room, dining room and hallway are painted, and the cracks in all the walls are repaired. I mean to bed the team down early tonight and commence early tomorrow. We will work while the air is cool. Beth’s sister is with us on this trip, and for those who don’t know her, her favorite phrase is “I Love you.” (Mwen Renmen-w in Creole) At one point I heard Alisa say; ‘I don’t ever remember being told I love you so many times in one day…” and then to her dad she commented; “no offence dad!” Painting the house today is filling Robinson’s wife’s love tank. And she is happy. The dynamic struggles of a pastor’s wife in Haiti are doubly complicated. She tends the orphan’s they have taken in. (By the way they have a new 14-year-old girl called Junie.) Then the daily hospitality of the pastor’s home, cleaning, washing, and all the duties done by hand, not by power equipment. This is a good task for us to do. Everyone has worked hard. Many repairs are finished, and some economic stuff is settled. Tonight there is no electricity…imagine that… so flashlight time is coming fast. In the house it is pitch black already. I am sitting in the street typing this blog. A skinny dog ambles down the packed gravel and dirt of the street in search of scraps. He nibbles on something; I cannot tell what it is. There is nothing the eye can see. Above me patches of clouds tainted red by the falling sun, glow beautiful in a fading blue sky, betraying the poverty of the place where I sit typing on my little computer screen. How out of place it this. The people are amazing. Ray said today, “I can’t believe Americans collecting unemployment are complaining.” He didn’t mean it harshly; it’s just the stark reality of the conditions he is immersed in today. It changes your perspective, whether you want it to or not. But as a cautionary note, be careful to be thankful for what you do have today, don’t take it for granted, because I can declare boldly, “It could be worse… far worse.” In spite of their suffering, I see more smiles here than in my own country. So on a closing note to this blog named “love tank”, take a quick look around you, pass a smile and risk an “I love you”. Try to impact someone’s tank where the needle may be on ‘empty.’ One reality who’s face here will not be denied is the terrible uncertainty of life. But that truth is one we do have in common in our country as well. We are just shielded from its tentacle’s by our grueling routines. This day is not guaranteed; don’t take it for granted tonight. Take a risk, live a little, love a lot! Blessing from a dirt path in Haiti!