More Rice Please

After 2 hours in the car, trekking across some rather rugged terrain in the mountains just to the south of Leogane, we set foot on the trail to Bouca Lion. We set out at 9am where we had to hike 3 hours through several communities to reach the children for the day. The hike was beautiful!! In the ride leading up to the hike we had climbed ridge after ridge until we were at what had to be close to the highest point in Haiti. Therefore, needless to say, our journey began by descending rather steeply into a valley filled with corn fields and farmers tilling their land. It was wonderful break from the life of the city. The air was cleaner the people seemed to be a little friendlier and best of all the temperature was below triple digits!! 

Up and down, up and down we climbed ridge after ridge, and it was then and there I realized how appropriate the Haitian saying and famous book title "beyond the mountains, there are more mountains" or "mountains beyond mountains!" 

We arrived at Bouca Lion and went directly to our resting place for that evening. We rested in the shade of avocado and mango trees while picking kernels from the grilled corn ("Haitian Style") attempting to refuel from our journey. It would have been easy to drift to sleep in the shade. It felt sooo good to take a load off and relish in that cool breeze sweeping from atop the mountains gently brushing our cheeks. Unfortunately, we knew if we didn't get to work it meant more work for us tomorrow.

We embarked on our search for children, which, as I explained in a previous post this search is completely random and beyond our control. Therefore, sometimes this process can be completed rather quickly while other times drag like that last day of school. Fortunately for us God smiled upon us and granted a rather easy day. We found all children rather quickly and didn't have to venture to far from our home base, but we did make our way to the riverbed where we found children playing in the water, women washing clothes, others bathing, and a few men digging irrigation trenches with handcrafted hoes and pick axes. It was quite the sight!! At that moment it made me think about the rest of the world and what everybody else was doing? I find it amazing how experiences trigger thoughts...and how sometimes the thoughts aren't that relative to the experience...

I thought of all the women and children around the world that were washing clothes in a river and the farmers and how hard they work to survive...it was surreal.

We finished the survey around 4 o'clock and climbed out of the riverbed where the women of the house we were staying for the night had prepared a feast! In the time that I shed my pack and took a seat in the hand woven chair there was a plate in my lap with fried plantains, grilled chicken leg, avocado slices, tomatoes, and peklis (my favorite!!). Peklis (not sure how to spell it) is a spicy vinegar based "coleslaw" that blends so well with all other Haitian flavors. I don't think I have had a meal yet where peklis wasn't served along side. 

After dinner, oh yeah I forgot, of course we had rice and beans too, we played Haitian card games and sat around attempting to communicate and listening to the sounds of the mountains. I ventured off by myself to go to the bathroom and stood in the light of the moon gazing in amazement of the number of stars!! It was beautiful. The nights in Haiti end rather early, the sun sets around 6:30 and most people are in bed by 8 or 9 at the latest, especially in the mountains. There is no real entertainment other than what you provide yourself and plus most people are farmers and are up with the sun at 5am. Therefore, we decided to hit it around 9ish cause we knew the hike we had if front of us and plus we hoped to beat the unforgiving heat of the midday sun.  

In the picture above you see the house and all those that are shown, plus me, slept here!! For those that can't count, all 10 of us slept in what couldn't have been more than 250 square feet!! I can't say that I got a whole lot of sleep but I will never forget the experience. You know you always read stories or hear stories about living situation such as these but most never get the chance to experience it. I will say it again, "it is mind boggling how these people live!!!" They honestly know no other way...truly amazing!! 

I was humbled by the whole experience and the generosity shared! Sorry this post got a bit wordy but I hope that you can take a little bit away from my experience. I prayed that night while lying restlessly in bed that the good Lord would never let me forget this, and that it would change me forever!! There are so many "simple" things I take for granted and I never want to complain about them again. I will always remember my Haitian brothers and sisters in the mountains...