Aren’t you excited? The weekend is coming :) Just this morning Olivia was jumping around saying, “Oh, I’m so glad tomorrow is Friday!!” Me too, kid. Me too.
Before I jump into anything else, let me just say a big THANK YOU for your sweet comments here on the blog and on Facebook. I think blogging is funny in the sense that you can have hundreds or thousands of people reading every day, or you know, 5, and maybe none of them will ever say anything. It’s like hitting a mike. “Pheeww, is this thing on???” It’s so encouraging to hear from you and to know that my thoughts and heart resonate and connect. It’s something I love about this process :)
Now, back to our regular program…
I think the thing I look forward to most about weekends is not having alarm clocks going off at 5 am. Yep. Cock-a-doodle-doo! We start our days early here so that the guys can get most of their work day done in the cooler hours of the day. I’ve been getting up at 5 most mornings (I say most, because let’s be realistic…) so I can have a bit of quiet time before the rest of the family gets up. I just need that in my day to feel sane. That said, come Saturday… uh un. Chris is usually still up early, but me? I sleep in. Until the lazy hour of about 7! I know, I’m a wild one. Sleep in day is coming, sleep in day is coming…
This week though, I’m kind of sad for Friday. It has a bit of a funny story though that’s worth sharing.
So, about a month ago, Yonese, our housekeeper (I never fully know what to call her) took a personal day, which she never does. She didn’t say why, so Chris and I were playing the maybe game. You know the one. “Maybe she has a tumor and needed to see a doctor.” At one point Chris said, “Maybe she’s getting a visa and moving to the US”. Her daughter and granddaughter have been there for about two years now, and she has a sister there too, so this wouldn’t be out of the question. But, it was out of character. The following week she asked if she could talk to us together. We looked at each other and said, “Sure!” Then she asked us if an employee took a considerable amount of time off work, would they still have their job when they came back? We both laughed, then teasingly asked her if she was planning on taking a vacation, maybe to the US??? She laughed and said she had gone for a visa appointment and got the visa so she could go visit her family. We were super excited for her and secretly wishing we could be there to see her encounter the US for the first time. When we asked when she was thinking about going she said, “After the class (which was scheduled for the 13-18, as in last week), probably around the beginning of October.” No problem. We asked how long she was wanting to go for. “My daughter wants me to go for 6 months, but I can’t. I’m not one of those people that can just sit around and watch TV all day while she’s at work. Some of my friends have done that, but I just can’t!” If you knew Yonese you would know how true that statement was. She told us that she had already thought of a woman that could come in and fill in for her while she was away, if we were interested. We agreed to have her fill out our application form and to stop by so we could meet her, then after the class we’d have her come in to see how things went.
Fast forward to yesterday morning. Yonese is starting to go about her morning and she casually says to Chris, “You know I’m leaving for the states on Friday, right?” Record scratch
Um, no. She tells him that she told us she was going after the class, but we both realize that even after all these years we still have a long road to travel in the communication department :) We all madly scramble to get in touch with Marthe to see if she can come in and start training. While we wait we go about our business as usual, and I’m chatting with Yonese about her trip and ask when she’s coming back. She tells me December 10, and then thinks for a second. “Will you still be living in this house when I get back?” That darn record scratches again
I think, and then almost start laughing. “We’re hoping to move around the 15th, so yes we will be, but almost not!” And then I leave the room laughing to myself. Yonese is leaving us for two and a half months. We have someone new coming in when the last time someone new came into our home it was Yonese, over 13 years ago. We’re moving.
Friends, this is life in Haiti. You just roll with it, or it rolls over you.
Of course we’re ridiculously excited for Yonese and the opportunity that she has. We’ll miss her like crazy, but my heart was eased when Marthe arrived and Yonese put her right to work running her through the daily stuff and making sure she remembered to tell her how to do everything. Yonese is very careful when she makes a reference because she cares very deeply for the mission and wouldn’t want anything bad to come from a recommendation that she makes. As I was driving home yesterday after being out I saw Yonese’s granddaughter walking hand in hand with Marthe down the road, and this morning as we were getting our work day started, her son went over and gave Marthe a big hug like he would an aunt. Heck, maybe they are related. I don’t know. At any rate, I feel good about the situation because I see how they love her, and I know their family well. That, and Alex ran up to her yesterday afternoon and gave her a giant leg hug and I saw her bubble over with joy. I think we’ll be good.
In other exciting news, we’ve finally found another farmer to get fresh milk from, and this time he’s not giving it to us watered down. It’s amazing. Nice head of cream on it and everything. And I’ve been able to start making yogurt again. Yesterday I got all crazy and decided to strain the freshly made yogurt, and people, I now have super thick Greek style yogurt and I’m ridiculously happy. I’ve been making granola again, and my kids gobble it up like crazy. If you saw how much they were eating in a week you would think we’d need to buy an oat farm. My new favourite snack is yogurt with a couple tablespoons of granola and a drizzle of honey. I blame my mother in law. ;) I just threw some mango chunks from one of our trees in there this morning too. I’m so sorry you just have to read about this and can’t taste it…
If you haven’t gathered by reading to this point, I’m apparently feeling better, or starting to. I think the cold virus I had a few weeks ago sapped so much out of me, and now that I’m taking my vitamins and resting and eating better I’m finally bouncing back. So, you get all of this today :)
I got to go out to the new house yesterday for the first time in a week. I was taking my friend, Maggie, who just got back on Tuesday, to see things. Maggie is one of those amazing kinds of friends. The kind who walks into your new house when it doesn’t have any kind of roof on it and pretends to stand at your imaginary kitchen stove and cook. She’s also the kind of friend who resists reading you house updates on your blog for three months because she wants to see it in person when she gets back. And, as I learned yesterday, she is also the kind of person who makes her friends cover her eyes and drag her through the parking lot, buildings and onto the viewing deck of Niagara Falls so she can be fully amazed by it rather than seeing it in bits and pieces. Yep, she’s amazing.
Yesterday as we drove in down the little road to our driveway she she gasped and then went quiet and then let out a big “Oh my gosh!” when she saw the building come into view. No, there was no blindfolding. Then we pulled in the driveway and parked and I got out and turned to look at the house, and I was the one that was gasping. Chris had just been out that morning, and I thought he gave me a full run down of what was going on, but he didn’t. Because he wanted me to be surprised.
The best part was that as I looked up at the upstairs deck and saw half a dozen guys all doing different things, one of which was stuccoing the outside of the building they all looked down at me with giant grins on their faces. Such big smiles. Because they knew how much had been accomplished.
But, I’m going to leave you hanging. I know, I’m so mean. Don’t worry though. If you come back tomorrow I’ll have a new Honey We’re Home post up for you. I promise.
~Leslie
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