Today we went to Wahoo Bay to enjoy the beach and to see the beauty of Haiti. We drove at least and hour and a half in the tap tap from Port-au-Prince through towns still very poor but we notice less and less destruction from the earthquake. Wahoo Bay is in stark contrast to the slums of Cite Soleil. The water is turquoise and it's like most Caribbean beaches. We are happy to be here and we have some fun, but we all know the struggle we have seen this past week. Today the theme was happiness and beauty and I pray that all the Haitians we have met could be just as blessed.
Andrea Rupp
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Today had many wonderful and fun aspects. The beach we visited was gorgeous and our group played together wonderfully in temperatures that were ideal in and out of the water. I'm experiencing an undercurrent of "stuff" both good and bad from the week, though. As one of the oldest in the group I've noted how hard my heart is in some respects. I see a lot of things others may miss, but I miss a lot of the emotional responses they describe. The devotionals help me at least see that some of my questions and even irritations are based in my own inability to follow the example Jesus provided us all. As I watch my two sons Simon and Evan respond to these situations, which I brought them into with very limited preparation, I am filled with pride, gratified to socialize and play with them as young adults (which we rarely if ever have done). I'm grateful to have a character model in Jesus that I can point to as the kind of person I'd like to be have modeled for them. I now have a more complete picture of their personalities than the limited overlaps of our lives to date gave me, and I've heard them sum up days with thoughts like questioning why we have it so good while so many here have it so bad, and how swimming in the ocean today reminded one of how connected all the people of the world are symbolized by us at our beaches near home and people here swimming in connected waters. While I am making more progress opening my mind than my heart, we each respond with the gifts we can offer within the limitations we have built around ourselves.
Roy Schermerhorn
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