burdened to have beautiful feet...: rain, rain, go away

My last blog on Wednesday was about the rain. Over 80 hours later it is still raining. We had a break for about 2 hours on Thursday and then the sun tried to peak out for about 20 minutes this afternoon... long enough to decide to take a walk and then get caught in the rain on the street. I guess rainy season decided to hold off this year. I've never experienced anything like this.

I remember when I first came to Haiti last August, I was welcomed by one of the worst thunderstorms I have ever been in. It was my first experience in a flooded road, and what was supposed to be a 3 hour drive ended up taking over 5 hours. The streets became rivers and trash flowed to unknown locations.

Now, I love a thunderstorm back in the states. In the safety and comfort of your home, you can curl up with a blanket and a nice book or pop a movie into the DVD player to pass the time. Some of the best naps are taken on a rainy afternoon; the same can not be said for Haiti.

As my team sat in traffic on the flooded streets last August, I remember Michael, my translator, looking distraught because of the rain. I leaned over and asked him if he was okay? Did he not like the rain? I will never forget the look that he gave me or the response that followed. "When it rains in Haiti," he said, "people die. Children in the tent cities will drown tonight." I froze. If I hadn't yet realized that I had entered a different world from the sights of people living under tarps and the earthquake destruction still to be seen, that one statement made it real for me. Something that I enjoyed back home, something essential to plant growth and drinking water, can bring death to those that leave in extreme poverty.

Though no one lives in tents in my community, flooding is still a significant problem and living in rain days on end forces you to have to make some changes. I honestly don't know how the people do it. No one in our house can do laundry because the clothes will not dry on the line. Just yesterday, we tried to light a match to burn a mosquito coil. After 14 matches, it finally lit. They were either too moist to keep burning long enough to light the coil, or the phosphorus match head would scrap off just like wet chalk. And, these matches where in a closed jar just moments before we tried to use them.

I wonder how the Haitians are able to take care of their everyday needs? How do you cook food with wet matches and fuel. Since no one has indoor plumbing, were do you go to use the restroom? I guess no one bathes until the rain is gone, or maybe they just bathe in the rain. Not only can you not do laundry, but it doubles in size with all of the wet clothes everyone accumulates. Also, no one goes to school on rainy days, so kids have to be entertained somehow.

After feeling like we were under house arrest, and about to go stir-crazy, the PT team this week jumped in the car with our cooks for a trip to the market in town. I was in disbelief at how flooded the streets were. Most places were at least to mid-calf, some areas were all the way up to people's waists. Yet, market day continued to go on because people have to make a living. See the photos below of the flooding, and please pray for the people of Haiti and the DR right now as we are all affected by heavy raining.