I AM STILL ALIVE!

Yes, it has been two weeks since I have posted anything… but I can explain! Try putting yourself in my size 11.5 (although I often wear size 12) shoes: Your best friend in the whole wide world; the person who knows you better than anybody else in the whole wide world; the person who you have the most fun with in the whole wide world; but who you would trust more than anybody in the whole wide world with all of your secrets, fears, and worries big and small; the person who you knew within a couple of months of dating you wanted to be married with and travel with all over the whole wide world; this person, who has been away from you for six months to serve God across the whole wide world; when this person, my fiancé, Taylor gives up the best comforts in the whole wide world (Pella, Iowa home cookin’) to be with me in Haiti, writing a journal is the very last thing on my mind. I hope you can understand my absence, but I look forward to filling you in, come join me!
The last two weeks have been a rollercoaster to say the very least. Things started off so perfectly. Tay and I picked up right where we had left off in our relationship, and there was no awkward, “getting reacquainted stage” from being apart so long. We were among the poor, serving in ministry together where we belong. She loved everybody on base and everybody on the base loved her (obviously). The two weeks she was here she taught pre-school in the mornings and either helped out with the 3rd graders or hung out with me. She experienced the wrath of those 4-year-olds just as I did, but they were so cute it was rewarding as well.
At the pinnacle of her falling in love with this place, the place we love didn’t return the favor. With about four days left in her trip she came down with the wretched Dengue Fever. One night she came to my apartment at about 3 AM telling me she had diarrhea and nausea throughout the night. The next day she had the cold shakes, and a very high fever with continued diarrhea. Her joints were also very swollen and achy, and it hurt her so much just to walk from place to place. She even developed the rash that comes at the end of the tropical disease. Wikipedia Dengue Fever and you’ll get the exact same symptoms so we can’t help but conclude on that!
I did my best to take care of her and keep her in good spirits, but on the last night together I got a very high fever and cold shakes come on me very suddenly as well. I had a relapse of the froozin’ Dengue too. I had headaches a few days before, but couldn’t have imagined I’d get it again. The funny thing about it though, we were both physically miserable and had to take turns attempting to destroy the toilets from the inside out, but despite these setbacks we still had a great time together as only we could. We had a ridiculous photo op, cheered each other on during our battles in the bathroom, and even did some dancing at a pizza party (even though our bodies were very angry with us for doing that). To make things worse Tay’s flight from Port-au-Prince was delayed 4 hours and she wasn’t able to catch any connecting flights from Miami to Chicago and had to spend the night in Miami all by herself. What a terrible end to an awesome trip. I wish I could have had double the Dengue in order for her to not have it at all. Shoot dang if only it worked that way.
She’s been gone four days now and it’s so hard being apart. I’m here in my new favorite place on the planet, and she’s in the town she’s lived in for the past six years having to soon get back to work. It doesn’t seem fair, and this is one of the many times where I wish there were two of me so one of me could be with her in Pella. Once again it doesn’t work out that way so we’re going to have to do our best to get through this.
It’s been a busy new week though. We our preparing to build a church/school/community center in the 5th Section in a village called Lubin 4. This is in my top 2 of favorite villages in the world. It’s been so difficult for me being sick still because this week there is actually an abundance of work for me personally to do which isn’t always the case. I’m still having extreme exhaustion and diarrhea and the mornings are really hard for me. It’s getting better daily, but it’s still a setback to get through. Today we went to Lubin 4 to bring out supplies for the church and I didn’t realize how much I missed the 5th Section until being back. Lubin 4 is where my friend Jude and I go each Sunday to do ministry with them, and I hadn’t been in two weeks due to sicknesses. I was so blown away when all of the children remembered my name and were so eager to talk with me and hold my hand. I even got a cut on my leg and some of the villages ladies insisted on cleaning it with me. It’s days like this where I seriously feel like I’m in Heaven.
We then had a surprise and went to the village of Bas Lalle (pronounced Ball Luh-Lay) my other favorite village. This is the village I’ve talked about before that has no rice crop to speak of because of the broken canal, and had 60% of its houses destroyed. This village is time after time where I see the most joy when we come. We brought some digging equipment for when we build an irrigation system for them. Two of the village leaders are these sisters who love giving hugs so much. Ahhhhh I love going there! One of them told me that next time we come out she is going to provide me with milk. I almost started to cry that she would offer such a thing when they have so little. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t had real milk in almost three months! I love having ministry at these villages. The whole time today all I could think about is how amazing it would be to learn Creole fluently (I am coming along better with it) and spend time living with them and sharing community and sharing the Good News with them, while providing as much aid as I can. Who knows maybe someday this could be a reality for Taylor and I! I’ll certainly be open to it! Well time for this little boy in the candy shop to go to bed. Again I apologize for not updating the blog sooner, well actually I don’t apologize because my time was better spent with my favorite person ever! I’ll make sure to be more prompt with my updates from now on! Godbless!