1977 - Our first year in Haiti

In January (6 months after arriving in Haiti) all the missionaries went to La Pointe on the north coast to our hospital complex for meetings concerning the new constitution for the UEBH, the Haitian mission organization, we work with. At that time the missionaries turned over the work to Haitian leadership and we as missionaries worked under the UEBH leadership structure from that point on. It was a major step in the work here.

DAVID’S FIRST SHOULDER INJURY -- David went with a group of others missionaries out to the northwest on a borrowed motorcycle one day to seeing the progress on a water project being done there. I stayed back at La Pointe with the girls. Late in the day someone came over to the place we were staying to tell me there had been a motorcycle accident and David was injured. He was in a lot of pain when they got him back to La Pointe and our missionary nurses took care of him. Shirley took an x-ray of David’s shoulder and then got out her orthopedic text books and tried to match up his x-ray with a picture in the book. She wrapped up his shoulder and gave him pain meds. The next morning we left to drive down to Port-au-Prince, filled him full of pain meds and started out over incredibly horrible roads and river crossings. We got as far as St. Marc and Martha Straubel gave more pain shots to help him make it to Port. We dropped the girls off with Mom and Dad Schmid in St. Marc. Tom Sykes was on a motorcycle and he drove in ahead of us to contact an orthopedic doctor and we went straight to the hospital in Port. That was my introduction of hospital stays in Haiti. I stayed in his room on a cot and was expected to care for him. I drove to and from the campus to eat and get cleaned up. I hadn’t driven in Port before and wasn’t looking forward to it but Dad Schmid gave me their Green Subaru to drive and gave me directions how to get to and from the hospital. Trust me I paid close attention and remember everything he told me including which intersections were dangerous. For a long time that was the only route I knew in Port. At least it got me over my fear of driving in this crazy place.

The doctor was going to put a pin in the shoulder but couldn’t so they wired it together. That wire broke sometime in the last 33 years. When he dislocated his shoulder and tore the rotator cuff during Hurricane Hannah last September necessitating surgery when we were in the states earlier this year, they took out the pieces of that original wire. .

One of many surprises in store for me in the medical system here besides staying in the room with him was when the doctor told me to go out and buy muslin and other materials so they could wrap the shoulder up and make a sling. Another surprise that when they brought him “liver and onions” for breakfast one day. I knew I wasn't in little DuBois, PA anymore.

No we don't have Lions, Tigers or Bears but we do have lots of LIZARDS...

We have big ones, little ones, ugly and cute ones. Trust me it took me a while to think any of them were cute. When we first got to Haiti they ranked right up there with the tarantulas! The main kind of lizard we have are called “zon- dough- leet” (bottom photo). They change color depending on the surface they are on like salamanders. I don’t even panic when I see them in the house anymore. Once when we were sitting outside together and David had his cup of coffee on a saucer a little spilled on the saucer. As we talked we noticed a lizard coming over and it came right up and drank from his saucer!

Another time I was sitting in the living room and a small lizard jumped on the chair and ran into the cap sleeve on my dress and across my shoulders and out the other sleeve. Trust me I was up and jumping around to make sure it was no longer on me. I’m sure I was vocal about it too.

My least favorite story is the time I got up early one morning and came out in the dark to open the living room windows to get air flowing through the house. I had closed them the night before when it was raining hard. Well, a lizard was on the curtain or somewhere and I startled him and he landed ON MY FACE!!!!! yes you read that correctly ON MY FACE!!! Well, everyone in the vicinity of our home knew something was going on. I was jumping all over the place but those little things have suction cups on their feet and he held on for dear life. Finally he realized he’d better get as far away from this screaming maniac as he could and fled. That was a hard one to live down.

One memory of lizards involves Amy. Remember she was 2 months old when we came so she grew up used to seeing them. Then we went on our first furlough when she was 4 years old and lived in DuBois for a year. When we returned to Haiti when she was 5 she would go outside to play and within minutes be back inside scared of the lizards. Finally I told her that she would be spending the rest of her life inside (and even then she'll see some inside-yikes!)unless she got used to seeing them. She loved playing outside so soon adjusted to seeing them all the time again.

The other kind of lizard is what we call a “ma-boo-ya” (top photo). These look like little dinosaurs to me. The one pictured here is a small one. They get about 8-10 inches long. I’ve never seen one outside but they live in our front and back yard areas. They can stay there as long as they don’t come inside! They just look nasty compared to the little ones. Anyway, there are other families of lizards but these are the most common.

I may address other “critters” that reside in this beautiful tropical country in future entries but then again I might not because just talking about them and remembering my encounters with them give me nightmares.

Let's start at the beginning. . .

July 20, 1976
MY FIRST PLANE RIDE took place when I was 28 years old. We were flown to Haiti by Missionary Flights International. It was a VERY small plane. David sat in the co-pilot’s seat, I had a seat and was holding 2 month old Amy and Karen, 4 years old, had her own seat. We had 4 – 55 gallon drums of belongings with us in the plane and that was it. I had never flown before so really didn’t know what to expect. But when David saw the little plane his heart sank and he wondered what he was getting his family into. I was very nervous and being a small plane it was pretty noisy. The pilot told us when we could take our seatbelts off and Karen, curious 4 year old that she was, was up looking out the window and exclaiming at everything she saw. Being a small plane it flew lower and over the islands in the Bahamas chain. I was scared and didn’t want to look but finally thought if a 4 year old isn’t afraid I’ll look too. The sea and the islands were just unbelievably beautiful.

The day we arrived in Haiti was like a dream to me. I had this idea that when we got off the plane I would see tarantulas everywhere. Part of that might be because David’s brothers loved to tell me stories about tarantulas – like Mom Schmid finding one between David and Mel one morning when she went to wake them up. Yikes, my imagination took that and ran with it. Thankfully I didn’t see any at the airport!

Mom and Dad Schmid and Debi were there to welcome us. I have a picture somewhere Dad took of our little family in front of the MFI plane. We went right to the Bible School (now STEP) campus here at Bolosse. Karen ran off with the other missionary kids to play and I had Amy and was meeting lots of the missionaries with Mom Schmid while David and Dad got our drums cleared through customs.

My first days in Haiti -- The missionaries had a reception for us that evening and I just tried to take in everything I was seeing and experiencing. It sure was another world. After that we joined Mom and Dad Schmid and Debi at the beach house where they were on vacation. There I was introduced to the beautiful Caribbean Sea but also to many new and sundry critters. Remember I've the one who was scared and screamed at what I realize now were little spiders when I grew up. Now I was in a country where there weren't any little spiders any more and bees came in every shape and size besides the 24 hour bugs that look nasty and apparently their sting makes you wish you could die in 24 hours - not mention some of the other things I've been introduced to here. Somehow I survived and I'm still here. I know Debi, its a miracle! One thing I remember about that time was Mom Schmid showing me how to sift the flour several times looking for bugs before using it for baking - ugh!! WHAT HAD I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO?!?!?!?!?

We stayed with Mom and Dad in St Marc for several weeks while we got ready to move to Verrettes for our first year. Mom had kidney stones and eventually flew to the states for surgery after we had moved to Verrettes. That is when I made the mosquito nets and the tarantula episode with Mom happened and also our first Christmas celebration previously described.

During that first 6 months I was often sick in the middle of the night and began to lose weight. It was strange because I wasn’t sick in the daytime just usually after midnight. I didn't have the normal "Haitian Happiness" which many new people got but I just threw up and had terrible stomach pains. Eventually I was diagnosed with amoeba and giardia – 2 microscopic parasites that really gave me problems for most of our first term. Let me just say it is not a recommended way to lose weight. I fought with giardia the rest of that term. Not a fun thing but at least the girls never got sick like that which certainly helped this young mother's sanity.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! ! !

Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year - the sights, smells, and tastes are all great! I don't mind December but by January I've already had enough of the cold weather and ready for spring.

These are pictures from Thanksgiving 2004. In the lower picture it is me, Darcy, Cindy, Barbara and Beth (sorry it isn't clearer) and the top picture is Bruce and Kwashi (a CrossWorld missionary from Togo, Africa who serves in Senegal, Africa - he was visiting at the time). We had a real international Thanksgiving that year - Americans, Haitians and Africans! We don't always have the opportunity to celebrate the holiday which is just another day here.

This year we will be hosting the Mears family and a couple of teachers from QCS, the Christian American school our kids graduated from. David doesn't teach on Thursdays so hopefully he can spend the day with us.

I pray that each one of us can celebrate with loved ones and cherish each other as we praise God for His blessings in our lives.

WATER - do we just assume when we open the tap that water will come flowing out for our drinking, cooking, laundry, bathing needs? It is a necessity of life that we just can't do without. The reason I'm writing about this now is because we have NO WATER on campus and haven't had since early yesterday morning. This happened with no warning so I didn't even have a chance to "save" water in buckets, etc. Living in a hot and sweaty country makes this even more than inconvenient. Yesterday we survived on 5 gallons of filtered water and 1 large bucket of regular water. They are hoping to have water back to us by this afternoon. First thing I'll do is take a shower then wash dishes!

But this situation has given me reason to remember some experiences with water or lack thereof in our lives in Haiti. Our first year in Haiti we lived in Verrettes in the Artibonite Valley in central Haiti. We had no electricity but did have wonderful water available in our house in the kitchen and shower. We did have to use an "outhouse" so that was a bit of an adjustment but I learned how to make enough noise upon entering so that any resident critters ran away until I left again.

Then we moved to Gonaives where we had 24 hour electricity and very poor water supply. Water would come slowly into a pipe in our yard for just a few hours and we used a hose to store it into metal drums to use. We had an outdoor shower and outhouse there also so as a new "green" (my favorite color by the way) missionary I was being integrated into the reality of life here.

We moved to Port-au-Prince in 1979 and then had both electricity and water. We had great electricity and pretty good water supply at first. Over the years the water situation took some interesting turns. Our kids could testify to the "roof runoff showers" we all took many times in our bathing suits when it rained and we had no water or were in a water shortage. One time during dry season Cindy and I were together and I said how desperate I was for a good shower and to be able to wash my hair. Rain wasn't in my thinking because it had been so dry when that afternoon it started to rain. We called our kids home and got into swimsuits to shower. Of course all the debris (leaves etc) would come off the roof too but that was okay. It felt so good to get more than a sponge bath. We also had times when the kids were little when they'd bathe standing in a basin in the shower and I'd pour a small sand bucket of water over them to wet them down and then soap them up and put another sand bucket of water over them to rinse them. As they got older that system didn't work as well and we hoped for rain fed roof runoff showers!

Last night walking home I said to myself that if it rained I would just stand under the roof in my dress and let the water run over me but alas it didn't rain. I also had a barrel out to catch rain water but it is still empty this morning. Thankfully it is November and not July, August or September and it is a little cooler.

Early on I learned to appreciate water more than electricity if I only had the choice of one or the other. Now I'm spoiled and like having both but times like these remind me of how nice it is to have water!!

Greetings from Haiti! Isn't this a beautiful sunset over the Caribbean Sea! I wish we could share this with you in person! After over 33 years in Haiti, I got the idea to begin to send emails to our family members about our memories. My daughter, Karen, made the suggestion I begin a "blog" so here I go.

Below this you will find the first two sets of memories I shared with our family. It was fun to remember some of our early memories. I do tend to get "wordy" but if you are interested in hearing an old missionary sharing some of the fun, scary, tragic, goofy, encouraging times in our lives then feel free to check us out.

Grandma Schmid lied to me....

I’m sure that got your attention. When I was a new “green” missionary and we were staying with Grandma and Grandpa Schmid in St. Marc before going to live in Verrettes. Grandma and I were at their house with Karen and Amy but Grandpa and David weren’t there. One evening when we walked into the kitchen there was a LARGE tarantula on the floor by the cook’s feet. She tried to get it but it ran off somewhere. Now of course in my mind at that time (and even today) the only good tarantula is a DEAD tarantula. But grandma assured me that they could not climb up to the second floor where the bedrooms were. We all slept under mosquito nets there BUT she’d have been found out if it had made its way upstairs. Thankfully it must have gone outside again or something because I never saw it again. It was a LONG time before I realized she had not told me the truth but I certainly slept better thinking it couldn’t get upstairs. I can still tell you everyplace in our house that there has been a tarantula. They make a lasting impression on me whether they are inside or outside. Once when I was cutting the lower yard with our power mower, as I came around the square there was a tarantula up on his hind legs. Apparently I had run over his hole on the first go around and he had come out to investigate. Believe me I made a large circle around him.

Speaking of mosquito netting. Mom had told me what to bring and the weeks we lived with them in St Marc before moving to Verrettes she showed me how to make them. I have to say they were great nets because she had me make them like a big box so they were very roomy inside. I had told David that an unspoken wedding vow was that we would always use mosquito nets in Haiti – that was mostly to keep everything out of bed not just mosquitos. We did use them until we returned from our first furlough and I was pregnant with Jeff. They were so hard to get in and out of that after our first night back I gave up. Amazing!

That big old house in St. Marc was really a neat place. It had so many rooms but the wooden walls didn’t go up all the way to the ceiling to let air pass through. One of my first memories was of hearing Dad Schmid laughing so often at night and when asked about it he shared that he was reading the “vet” books written by James Herriot “All things big and small” series. So I got to reading them and laughed with him.

I loved the upstairs because the wind blew through from the ocean. Our first Christmas in Haiti was a hard one for me. My Mom and Dad’s anniversary was Dec. 12 and in 1976 my dad had a surprise celebration for mom and tape recorded all the family talking to us. Dad sent it to me and I was able to listen to everyone talking to me. I was already homesick and that just made me more so. I’m so glad he did that for Mom because it was their last anniversary together. He died in March of 1977. Anyway, Christmas morning we awoke in Verrettes and laid in bed waiting for the girls to wake up. I was feeling pretty low and said I can’t believe it is Christmas morning and it is SO hot and feels like it is still July. We had decorated our little tree we brought with us and Dad Schmid had loaned us a small generator to run the wringer washer once a week so David did light the tree and played Christmas music one night for us until the whole yard was filled with people looking in the windows and it felt like a circus. Anyway, not what I was used to for sure. The girls did wake up and we had a little celebration then took off in our 1956 Blue Jeep for St. Marc. Mom Schmid had the upstairs sitting room decorated and music playing and the cool December ocean breezes made it almost feel like Christmas. I even wore a pair of slacks if I remember correctly (but just upstairs – not so anyone would see me of course). She had made David and I triangle pillows like she and Dad used to read in bed. What a surprise! We still have one that I have recovered (the other one the foam disintegrated). She really did make that first Christmas special and helped me over the hump of homesickness.

Even if none of this interests any of the rest of you it is good for me to be remembering our early years here when God was working (and still is) to mold me into a woman who could be used by Him.

1977 was a hard year for us but more on that later. That is when my Dad and Dad Schmid both went to heaven.