"Come further in! Come further up!" -Aslan

I feel like not much has happened and yet everything has happened since I last blogged.  So I guess I'll give you the highlights as appetizers to the main dish.

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Tortuga!  Got to see my buddy!  That always makes me happy.  :)

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Melonnie, a full-time missionary here, focuses a lot of her ministry in the brothels here.  She gets to know the girls, and the men, and does Bibles studies with them.  Being the princess that she is, Melonnie likes to end her Bible studies series with a "Princess Party."  Basically, they do crafts (like decorating tiaras) and eat snacks and talk about how they are daughters of the King. They are loved just as they are.  They are princesses.


Long story short, I got to go to a Princess Party, and guess which princess was there?  My sister!  Teshmidrine.  Two of my favorite girls in two days.  I'm a lucky girl.

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We have these awesome ladies that cook for us every day of the week, all three meals.  The interns had been talking for awhile about how we wanted to do something nice for them, like cook for them for a change.  Well, one of the short-term trippers apparently had the same thought and asked that a collection be taken up to take them out to eat.

So on Saturday, we gave the ladies the day off. We made random food for ourselves (including pizza for dinner.  Yum.), and ordered out for them.  They came in around noon, and We got to serve them lunch and take their pictures.  We even made a super fun photo booth for them--which I'm pretty sure convinced them that we are crazy.  :P

Blast off!
Okay, you ready for this?  I totally climbed to the top of a mountain.  TOP OF A MOUNTAIN.  Pretty dang sure it was the coolest thing I've ever done.  

We started by following the stream up the mountain.  There were waterfalls and little pools and caves and huge rocks and waterfalls INSIDE caves (that was cool).

And we just kept going.  Further up!  Further in!  We never stopped long enough to get tired.  We were determined to get to the top.  And of course, me being me, I never let the guys help me.  I scaled a dang mountain by myself!

The way home was a little rougher.  Skipping the details, let's just say that after 8 hours of hiking, I was pretty sore... (It may or may not still hurt to go up and down stairs...)

Prie:
I didn't get to see Wencha's mom at Tortuga because she was at a friend's funeral.  Please pray for her and her friend's family.

Loue:
During our crazy mountain hike, we decided that there was no way we could return the same way we came... So we had to find an alternate route home.  We ended up following a woman who said she was going to St. Louis.  She was carrying plantains on her head and was probably going to the market.  She told us that she walks that far every day.  Not only did she keep us from getting lost, but she took us on the safest and easiest path.

Creole:
Okay, funny story.  You ready?

One of the interpreters one day made a comment to me in Creole that I didn't understand at first.  Finally, after he repeated a couple of times, I realized he was saying, "How are you so beautiful?"

I laughed and responded, "Paske Bondye te fe mwen!"  ("Because God made me!")
He answered, "But God made me, too, and I'm ugly!"


I paused... How do you respond to that?  So I smiled, shrugged, and said,
"Se lavi!"  "That's life!"

Bahaha!  All of the Haitians sitting around bust out laughing!  I think I've reached a new level when I can be funny in Creole.  :)


*NOTE: I asked my mom to post new pictures on Facebook!  Check them out!


“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.... Come further up, come further in!” -The Last Battle, C. S. Lewis