The Sands of Time...in Haiti

More from Bec's journal:

"In a place like Haiti time has its own universal measurement. Sometimes it speeds up, like the fact that tomorrow will be a full week since we arrived, and it seems to have gone by in a flash. In other ways it passes like watching each piece of sand fall one by one in an hourglass that is more like a one-hundred hour glass…endless unfilled moments. That’s the way it can often feel in the middle of any given Haitian day. Yet before you know it the sun has fallen beyond the horizon (by 6 pm) and the day has come to an abrupt end.

Today has been “one of those days”.  I woke up early a little groggy still, picked up my iPod to check the time and saw that it was only 6:30, I had another hour of sleep until I needed to be up, so dozed back off to the warm morning clatter on the streets.  An hour later, Ted crept in to say that he was leaving to pick up Ron, our Haitian, co-worker and travel to Petion-ville to set up our internet. I told him I was planning to go with him, but that it was still only 7:30, an hour before he had planned. He said check again…so I did. It was 7:30 central time & we were now on eastern. I had forgotten to change the zone on my hand held “brain”. So, I clamored out of bed, washed up quickly & threw on an outfit to go “uptown”.

It was my first time in that area of town, which I had heard was the “nicer” area…maybe we didn’t go to the parts that had been described to me, because it didn’t really seem much different from my point of view. We drove about 9 miles, yet it took an over an hour to get there. Finally we arrived at the internet store.

In a tropical-version flashback of my travels in Russia, we proceeded through the four step process of ordering internet service. First, we waited around for direction and an available representative. Next we sat down with said rep, who (via Ron), explained all of the plans available, as well as pricing. We narrowed it down, chose a plan, he spent quite a bit of time ordering and setting up the contract.  Once Ted had signed the agreement we waited a little longer for him to complete and copy the paperwork. With paperwork in hand, we were ushered next, past an armed security guard, and down the hall to the cashier’s office. We handed our contract through the glass window, then waited some more. She finally asked for the payment, in cash, and issued a receipt. That accomplished, we were shuffled back down the hall into a different, glass-walled office, where a final representative spent another 10-20 minutes opening our new modem, configuring it to be operable in their system, then packing it back up again. Internet acquired!

Now perhaps I don’t appreciate yet the fact that by Hispaniola standards that was an amazing feat! While I gave it some serious value, we were done by late morning and there was still plenty more to be accomplished in a day. So we drove back another 40 minutes through traffic to get to the power service office nearer to home. This was actually the most important task of the week, in my book, since we cannot move in until it is up and working. We had planned to do it on Monday, but yesterday passed by in its slow/quick manner with a long morning of car tune up & washing, taking my brother to the airport, then Ron home, where we visited and discussed our work for several hours, and arrived back at the guest house just as the sun fell.

Today, Ted awkwardly perched our car on the side of the road, left John in charge of “watching” it, and three of us clambered into the office together. Ron checked in and we were sent into a long hall-like office with multiple stations where a woman behind one desk answered some questions. He turned and said, “Let’s go”, then “We will have to do this tomorrow.” Apparently we didn’t have all of the documents or information necessary to complete the transaction. Ted disclosed later on the reason we didn’t have one of the documents, our house contract. Apparently, it was dropped in a puddle the day before and was now illegible, so Ron was going to have to get a new copy. So, despite the fact that we have been in the country nearly a week, bought a 50 foot electrical cable in order to hook the house up to the local wire, paid someone to do that, AND gained approval for access to use it by payment to the “neighborhood co-op” we are still days away from receiving our allotment of “patchy” electricity. The good news..? Payment at this office is actually going to be “cheaper” than we had planned by $20 or so. That was a first!

We made our way back to the guest house a little after noon with one hit and one strike out to account for the entire morning. Since there was still a bit of time before our mid-day meal would be ready, we asked to go to a place that Ron had recommended for appliances. In figuring out the rest of our budget, we needed to shop and price things out. The local Deli Mart shopping area was only a few minutes away. Once there we waited 10 minutes to squeeze into a parking space that took most of that time for a large truck to miraculously angle his way out of, with assistance and a 50-point turn. The appliance store was across the complex and up the stairs. It was compact but did have some items that we were looking for. We discussed the possibilities & prices listed, looked at the inverters available also, and left wondering if that was it for selection or whether we should try anywhere else? Before heading back we grabbed a few overpriced food items in the market and then drove back to our temporary “home”.

Our mid-afternoon “dinner” was fabulous as usual, but all at once during our meal, I could feel my heart sinking and some discouragement setting in. Yes we had gotten one important thing done but my thoughts were suddenly turning to “I’ve been here almost a week, I have a house here that I still can’t live in, no furniture, no appliances, no electricity, and our suitcases are starting to spill out all over the floor in our rooms at the guest house despite our attempt to minimize unpacking due to our ‘temporary’ stay here. I can’t find anything anymore; there is nowhere to put anything here even if we did want to partially unpack! I have to go back to the states in another week for a specific event and then return to Thanksgiving houseguests…and HOW will we ever get the guest house up and ready for a large team in December if everything takes THIS long to do?” Attitude quickly depleted, I went looking for a personal spot to “deal” with things and could only find my uninviting mosquito net trapped, hard lower bunk. 

Alone in my bed the tears finally poured and mini-melt ensued. I reminded myself that I’m glad to be doing the work that God has set out for us here, and will have to trust in his mercy and love to get us through this weary stage the same way he did the others, faithfully and beautifully. I allowed the release of anxiety and tension and embraced his provision.

I'm also thankful for the fact that this day and all of it's hour glass moments will be followed by another…here in Haiti...my time-challenging, world rockingly unfamiliar, but interesting, new home."