Always an Adventure!

Patience is an important thing to have when moving to Haiti. If you lack patience before you arrive, Haiti will give it to you- in spades.

This morning’s adventure was the most recent in an already long list of patience-increasing opportunities. I rose around 7:30 to a happy piece of news: our generator was running! I’d been in need of clean clothes for several days, but our power had been out for at least 48 hours. No power means no working washing machine. I happily sorted my clothes and took them to the machine. Now, have a gander at this little darling:

 Our Hyundai washing machine. Those clever Japanese people...

Have you ever seen a washing machine that looked like this? Didn’t think so. This was our first attempt at using it since my roommate/teammate purchased it in the DR. The Reader’s Digest version of how to work the thing is as follows:

1.     Fill a bucket with water and pour it into the wash/rinse tub on the left side. Add laundry soap and clothes. Pour another bucket of water on top.

2.     Select wash cycle and number of minutes; close lid.

3.     Come back in approximately 12 minutes, when wash cycle is done.

4.     Drain water from wash tub, transfer wet clothes to spin basket on right side. Close lid, select spin cycle.

5.     Come back in approximately 5 minutes, transfer clothes back into wash/rinse tub. Add water. Select cycle.

6.     Return in another 12 minutes to drain water from wash tub and transfer clothes back to spin basket.

7.     Select spin cycle, come back in 5 minutes, hang clothes to dry.

So doing a load of laundry, when the machine is working properly, is a minor feat. But a machine that works properly? What a silly idea. I got through Step 5 with no problems (with some help from a more-technologically-savvy roommate), but when I turned the knob from ‘Wash/Rinse’ to ‘Drain’, the machine started making awful noises and the water struggled to make its way up the drain spout. Teri (yes, the more-technologically-savvy roommate) came out to trouble-shoot with me. Between the two of us and a good half hour or so of trouble-shooting, we somehow managed to drain the water and complete a semi-acceptable spin cycle.

Just prior to this episode, I had been making oatmeal on the stove. I turned off the burner, covered the saucepan, and thought to myself, ‘I’ll be back in a minute after transferring my clothes, and this will be ready to eat. Perfect.’

Never assume, ladies and gentlemen, that life will go this way.

So. After fighting with the washer for thirty minutes or so, we pulled my clothes out of the spin basket to find that they were still rather wet. By this time, spirals of smoke were curling their way up from somewhere inside the accursed contraption (yikes!). We thought we’d better not press our luck by trying to spin them anymore, so I proceeded to hang my rather wet clothes, spacing them out so that their weight wouldn’t pull the line to the ground.

 My oddly-spaced-out clothes.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, several Haitian men appeared on our porch. I ignored them and came back inside to finish fixing my now-cold-and-gloppy oatmeal. Then they were at our door. Then they needed to look at one of our outlets, and of course it was the one next to the stove, which was where I was making my oatmeal. I moved out of the way, wielding my spoon and my saucepan of lumpy oats. Still wearing my pajamas, mind you.

Finally they leave and I scrape the remnants of burned oatmeal off the bottom of the pan. I am determined to enjoy my breakfast, regardless of its temperature or consistency. Thankfully, adding some cinnamon and sugar and a spoonful of peanut butter (you should try it- it’s super-delicious!) works wonders.

 Mmm...cold oatmeal. (It actually turned out pretty good, despite being cold.)

So that was our first adventure of the day- all before 9:30 AM. Who knows what other adventures the days will hold? :)

In all seriousness, though, such situations remind to me to pray:

·      For patience, as we deal with seemingly-constant challenges.

·      For protection against discouragement- Satan would love it if we became cynical and bitter about life here.

·      For Haitians, many of whom don’t have generators or washing machines or even filtered water to drink. We have so much, in a country full of people who have so little.

Will you join me in praying for these things?

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! We have much to be thankful for.