In which I gain some perspective on rain.

Today is the third school day in the past three weeks that has been cancelled due to rain. When I find out, inevitably at the last minute (one of the days I was outside, in my raincoat, waiting for the bus, going "...hmmm, these streets sure are empty!" when my roommate came outside and yelled at me from the porch to come back inside), here are the thoughts that run through my head, generally in this order:

a) This is ridiculous! It's RAIN! Since when did a little rain ever keep anyone from going to school?!?

b) Yeahhhh!!!! Bring on the comfy pants/reading-for-fun/movie-watching!

So this morning I got up, forced myself into the shower (the weather is FINALLY cooling down, which is great, but it makes that cold shower a rough one), and went about my normal routine. I was doing my quiet time and drinking my coffee when I got the call from my friend Toto: no school. So I asked him, "Toto, why?!? Why no school?"
He responded like I was maybe a bit of an idiot. "Kristen, there's so much rain!"
"Yeah, but it's just rain! Just water. That's all it is."
"But there's tons of it in the streets. Someone's house collapsed. Someone died."

Oh.

Well that has a way of sobering you up.

It's not like I didn't know that rain can be really troublesome around here. Last night as it was pouring, I  said a prayer for the community (non-residential) children in our program. Some of them live in houses made of cement, but others live in stick-and-mud houses. Some of them probably have very leaky roofs. Staying warm and dry is undoubtedly a challenge.

A look at the rain from my porch

And I knew that there had been a spike in cholera cases in Haiti post-Sandy. It's likely there will be even more cases as a result of this deluge. Not to mention that our community kids in their cement houses have it great compared to the thousands of people still living in tents in Port au Prince post-earthquake.

Yet here I sit, warm and dry and comfortable in my apartment. I thought about trying to go out to the area where our community kids live, but even if I could get out there, what could I do for them?

So I'm praying. It doesn't seem like very much, but it's important. And I guess I wanted you all to know too, so you could pray - for our community kids, for Cap Haitien, for Haiti. For the rain to stop. For no more lives lost, no more houses destroyed, no more cholera.

The Creole word for misery or suffering is traka. People around here often say, Gen anpil traka nan peyi a (there is much suffering in this country) - they talk about it so matter-of-factly. It's just part of life.

Which is kind of heartbreaking. And yet, also a testament to the spirit and determination of these people. They know it, they accept it, they deal with it the best they can.

So please pray for relief from the rain, for God's Spirit to descend on Haiti, and for Him to reveal to me how I can best respond to all the suffering. I can't fix it all, but I can't ignore it either.

Thank you for praying. Lord, have mercy on Haiti.