Home sweet home!! Karen and Luc are home again.

Children running, playing, yelling, singing, shouting, running back and forth throughout the day to hug their mama. Outside the walls, pigs squealing, adults yelling, people arguing, traffic roaring – home sweet home.

Welcome Home Mama

Our trip home was interesting as we were travelling on a day the country was shut down to protest against the corruption in the Haitian government. It was scheduled for the day after we were scheduled to arrive but the country started the protest a day early. The embassies closed down as did businesses so employees could stay home and stay safe. Roads were blocked in many areas. I was surprised to find that the once weekly Air Canada flight was far from full. I inquired about this and was told they had a completely full flight leaving Haiti for Montreal that same day but people did not want to come in until the protest was over. Made good sense to me.

Luc and Dieunel together again

We had people in Canada praying that we would get through and arrive safely at the mission site. God is good and he took good care of us during the drive home. Luckner drove and I prayed. We both laughed when we were driving through some well known hot spots. We saw many men standing outside some buildings watching a soccer match on TV, with Brazil as one of the teams, instead of out manning the road blocks, so we drove through or around. We passed through a couple of places swiftly before the soccer match finished. When close to home we drove through, and around, three road blocks, over a dug out trench to keep vehicles from going any further, again unmanned. We got through and over it all. When we arrived at the bridge just outside HATS we found it completely blocked, well manned, and tires burning where we needed to turn to enter the mission. Because of who Luckner is, the immense respect the people have for him here, they removed enough of the blockage to allow him ‘only’ to drive through. He drove quickly over the burning tires at the entrance to the road into our compound. we werer safely inside. All was well. Luckner then found a ride to his house with someone who had a motorcycle outside. If we had not made it here safely Tuesday, we would have found a hotel or other place to stay safely until the country was back to normal on Thursday. Luckner and I were not scared at all on Tuesday, but a little concerned because Luc was with us. Wednesday, the day the demonstrations throughout the country was actually scheduled for, things got a lot worse. People were injured and there were some deaths. The thing to do when the country is protesting is to stay home until things go back to normal. We, however, had our flights booked for months and they moved the protest forward a day early.

Road blocked on our drive home

We were home but . . . I had no internet, no data on either of my Haiti phones, and no way to get any money on my phones until yesterday. Welcome home Karen to the fun and games country. This morning Luckner drove to St. Marc to pay our monthly internet bill and to complain that I had absolutely no service, as he continued to pay for it regularly when I was away. When he spoke to them their response was “Oh yes we know that. We saw the problem and knew that HATS has had no internet since August 26th.” Luckner had paid August, September and now October months. They were happy to take the $100 US each month but did not fix it as we did not call and complain. The chance of getting any money back or a reduction of any kind is extremely slim. I started this blog on Wed, the day after we arrived, but of course could do nothing with it. Today Luckner was able to arrange for some money to go on my phone and so I am using the laptop for this blog by connecting to my phone by Hotspot. The internet company did tell him they cannot come fix it until Tuesday at the earliest. Hopefully they will indeed turn up next week.

Magdala

Judel

It was great to go to the school on Thursday and see the professors and students. In one way it seemed like we had not left. Students and teachers alike warmly welcomed Luc and I back. At the same time we are missing our family and all our friends in Canada.

With HATS other director, Luckner, in charge things continued to operate extremely well, although I do think he might be glad to have me back sharing the heavy load with him.

Today being Saturday, and things quiet again in the country I headed out, before completely light, with the children for a long walk of almost two hours. It was a very pleasant walk and we were so happy to be out walking together early mornings again. My two big boys decided their beds were far more important than going with us. The boys, however, have been very helpful to me, with getting several things done, throughout today.

Left to walk before fully light

Always better when we have full daylight

Just outside compound

On our walk

My two big boys working with me

Spending lots of happy time with the children, which we are all loving, while Mama Karen cannot do her necessary work. Tomorrow, Sunday, will be church and then more family time. Monday will see the children back to school and Luc back to homeschooling in the house.