Spring isn't toetally here yet...

Spring is coming and apparently my toes have felt the call to experience the warmer weather... time for some nail polish and a trip to the sock store in the near future!

Spring fever

Spring has sprung... and thankfully no leaks have manifested themselves in my new abode - i realized the other day that i've been in my home for just over a half year now - how time flies! My fingers are getting itchy to get out into the garden and see what's all there to see. Some lovely little purple flowers have made their bold appearance and have brought cheer and happiness to my days... it'll be fun to see what all develops out of the garden this year - in the first go around of the seasons here at the Meadows...

And the other evening, i turned around in my living room to water my plants and much to my great surprise, there was a fully emerged flower on my orchid. I had just talked to it the other day despairing that the singular bud on the plant would ever emerge into a flower and i guess it must have listened and decided it was time to display its glories! Spring inside and out!

Jackpot!!!

So tonight I made a chance visit to good old Value Village (said with a faux French accent), not sure what treasures i would find. Would i find a designer purse in the midst of all the tacky plastic ones or maybe a nice little outfit for my dear nephew? Well, tonight apparently, i must have come at the right time cause i found lots of interesting stuff.... I started with a game of Connect Four - and a copy of Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, followed by this interesting teaspoon - don't ask me why i bought a teaspoon since that seems like an old ladyish thing to do - but it has this cute little frustrated dutch man on it - i have once again forgotten how to use the manual focus on my camera - poor Lauren and Rachel have tried to teach me many times but unfortunately, the specifics of this task are too much for an old antiquitated brain to remember.

Then some nice curtains for over my sink - improvisedly hung up but nevertheless, Dutch-like.
And the coup-de-gras... i've been looking for black high heeled shoes for a while - and these little pretties were on the shelf in the right size, in black and the good style - so Danielle was a happy one!

Okay, that's your weekly(once off) Value Village update..

How nice it is at long last to sit in my house and have the windows open - the breeze wafting through ever so gently (well, okay, gale force winds that sometimes threaten to knock my plants over but hey, we'll take what we can get!) and the sun pouring its warmth into my cozy little living room - aah, the harbingers of spring. Along with the squawks of the blackbirds and starlings, i feel something waking up in me...

a few thoughts

I've been spending a bit of time in the last few weeks listening away to some music brought to our family by my mom's brother from Holland. The artist is a fellow named Daniel Lohues - he is from Drenthe - the province that my Mom comes from and where much of her family still lives. After about a week of driving around and listening to the songs but not really really hearing them, i picked Mom's brain today to explain the lyrics and the contexts of the songs to me. Several of the songs don't really seem to have lyrics that i all agree with - but most of them are mellow, folky songs that have a lot of memories tied into them for my mom, which makes them special to me too. The songs are sung in dialect - so the spelling of the Dutch is probably very "off" for those of you who read Dutch - but the song that i have included below is all about springtime coming to the land and all the joys thereof... the wording almost makes me want to put on my rubber boots, fling the windows open and my jacket off and get out and dig around in my garden (as it's currently pouring outside and it's 11:14pm, i will refrain - the neighbours might think i'm nuts - as if they don't already!) I love the dialect - i love language (most people who know me, know that about me - i suppose that's why i like kreyol also) and the spelling is so like its said that i think its so neat. Enjoy... slaap lekker!

Morgen wordt ‘t mooi en zunnig
Veur ‘t eerst dit jaor
Morgen bennen der nog meer bladties
en is de wereld klaor
veur ‘n veurjaor lang en licht
Peerdebloemen in’t grös
Morgen is de regen over
en kan de jaase lös
Morgen komp der ander weer an
die narcis was ‘n hint
Morgen brek ‘n neije tied an
Met lauwe zuudenwind
‘t Is verdient, ‘t mag wel weer
Languut in ‘t grös
Morgen is ‘t grieze wegwaait
en kunnen de raams weer lös
Laot de lentezunne morgen
alle kaole mar verdrieben
Alles rök straks naor ‘n neije tied
De vogels en de mensen
heur ie dalijk allemaol fluiten

And the wind howls

The wind howls
And blows around me
Tugging with fingers unseen at my hair,
my bag,
my car door,
my flag
my thoughts
Creating thoughts of unease and restlessness in me
Feelings of loneliness and isolation
But also of feeling warm and cozy inside
Whilst the wind howls
and shrieks its voiceless protests to the sky
Do you ever wish you were the wind?
Free to blow here and there and see the world
But winds cause chaos and damage at times
And i would never want to do that
so i'll stay being me
in my house
surrounded by the howls of the wind.

Finally... some photos...

Bonswa, zami mwen... finally some Haiti pics - in all fairness, my computer which is approaching geriatric status in the techno world, has been giving me some grief with its arthritic processes to upload photos - but however, today i persevered and rather than thumping my computer and roaring my indignation at its turtle speed, i managed to get a bunch of photos uploaded for your viewing pleasure. They are a random assortment - a few of the over 2100 photos taken by our team of 5 nurses and 2 paramedics, while we were in Haiti for 11 days this month. Most of us had never met before and this could have been very interesting but the Lord provided us with great fellowship and lots of laughs together as we were given opportunity to serve in Haiti. We left on the 3rd of March, travelling through Toronto and a major snowstorm (deicing is really cool for anyone who wants to know - lots of dribbly orange and green liquid seeping all over the plane like some bad sci-fi movie!)

Our team - Nadia, myself, Lynetta, Jennifer, Alisha, Samantha and Deanna
enjoying our lunchtime meal of rice and beans - it was super yummy with veggie sauce!

Deanna consulting with Dr Ed about some issue

while in the foreground, admissions keep rolling in to the clinic

Alisha and I celebrating the arrival of #150 signifying that the

last patient had come through the clinic for that day - i spent that day in pharmacy

- you can see it displayed in the suitcases behind us!

A drive-by shooting of the presidential palace in downtown Port-au-Prince... it was pretty overcast that day- threatened rain but not much happened (this is the better of two pics - the first one only happened to catch a vehicle driving by!)

A view of one of the many crowded neighbourhoods in the capital - it is amazing to think that nearly 3 million people live in Port, so many of them cramped together and living in poverty.
Some of the little kids in the slum of La Saline, where we held our Friday clinic - we saw a lot of malnutrition and diseases related to poor living conditions. So sad.

Demonic/voodoo images in some of the artwork at the metalsmith's village - Satan has deceived many in this poor country... all the more need for the gospel to be brought in word and in deed.

The views from up at Fort Jacques - over the city of Port and the countryside - there is greenery to be found!

Karen and I with two precocious little kids who came to the clinic at

the Charboneau's mission on Sunday - they were full of beans and super cute!

Travelling Haitian style - we were thankful we were behind and not in that taptap

Jen and I were safely in Dr. Ed's truck - but the rest of the girls were somewhere up ahead, in that huge dustcloud in the cage truck - they were pretty dusty by the time we got to the ferry!

Waiting with all our luggage for the trucks to take us to our temporary home on the island of La Gonave, an island where there is very little in the way of infrastructure, education or health care. We stayed at a guesthouse which the OPC has set up.

Our fabulous early morning pancakes - cooked to perfection by Jen and Deanna - they were improvisational in that we had no eggs - so mayonnaise had to suffice!

Prayer meeting before our clinic began - asking for a blessing on the day - we saw 200 people that day!

If anyone ever complains about potholes - just show them this picture of one of our trucks emerging from the bushes where there appears to be no road - we were thankful our drivers knew where to go because to our untrained eyes, there certainly wasn't much of a road here...

One of the young patients at the clinic, not so sure about all these "blans"

Our oldest patient - this lady was 90 years old, amazing when you think that the life expectancy of Haitians is usually late 50s or early 60s. She has seen a lot over the years - just think of the history she has lived through. She was very thankful to be seen at the clinic - she was also happy that she was allowed to drink coffee - at her age, she was allowed to have that luxury!

Our team - suffering a little at the beach on our last day - it was nice to have a down day before heading home again - we got a bit of sun and enjoyed the beautiful beach!

Our team - can you tell who we all are by our feet???

One last team pic - i know, it looks like we're a big bridal party- but that's not the case!

"Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen; to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wandered with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. " Isaiah 58:6-8

Still alive...

Hi there... Nope, I'm still alive - still here in my little house - still completely out of inspiration for my posts - i know i have plenty of fodder to post for you all to enjoy, yet somehow, i've been having the toughest time actually sitting down and doing anything - to be sure, i've started posts about four times since getting back from haiti - but with no success - either the computer kicked me off or i quit in disgust... So here i am, on a beautifully sunny morning, wearing my t-shirt whilst typing and feeling quite clean after a nice hot shower, with clean teeth from my "widow's oil" toothpaste tube - i bought it in Curacao last summer and i started it around Christmas time - and it just lasts and lasts - everytime i think it's done, i can still squeeze a little bit more out - how fun is that! Maybe i should have a sign by my door - dedicating this as the spot where the "miraculous toothpaste tube made its appearance". Oh, boy, i've gone off my rocker this time - hmmm... what have i been up to lately? In the last month,

- i've been to Haiti and back safely and healthily, albeit with a little delay

- i've picked up my new couch and tada... it fits! Come over and take a seat sometime with a cuppa tea - i'm open for visitors!

- i've worked a lot of shifts at work - some good, others not so great - but hey, that's life

- i've been to the Home Show with my dearest Mother... what a fun and exhausting day!

- i've read two books - and am working on a third - i love to read!

- i've won the nobel prize for astrophysics with my latest invention

- i've done three loads of laundry with my bottomless bottle of laundry soap (i know, my house is just full of interesting things!)

- my dear friend and i ate duck for the first time in our lives - it was yummy (quack, quack)

- i went on a plant hunting excursion with my sister one Saturday when we were super bored and bugging the life out of my mother!

Okay, enough for now, i'll try to get some pics in here too to liven things up...