Dlo and EDH

I wondered and was asked many time what I would miss most about the US. I often thought water was the answer. Fresh, clean drinking water or dlo (in Kreyol) is pretty hard to come by. It doesn't come out of the faucet or drinking fountains. Jeanette and I had to purchase a water cooler and 4 five gallon jugs to supply: drinking water, brushing teeth water, water for ice (which is kind of a joke), washing my hands and face water (which I don't do, I just use the faucet water), and cooking water. Water is certainly a commodity here in Haiti. You can buy the 5 gallon jugs at the market, small bodegas or from water trunks that sound like ice cream trunks. Each time you need more water you take your jugs back and exchange them for new ones. Recycling is good, so I appreciate that, but it was really hard to explain that we didn't have any jugs to exchange when we purchased new ones. It cost roughly $25 to purchase the first gallon and then when you go to exchange its about $10. It's a very complicated thing!

However, as I sit here in the dark for the umpteenth night in a row, I realize I miss electricity the most. My mood is better when I have electricity or   Electricité de Haiti (EDH), I can charge the odinate (computer) that keeps me connected to friends and family, I can use my vantilate (fan) to drown out the street noises and the roosters, and I can see the creepy spiders in the kitchen. What's strange is, I don't really mind not having AC or lights. I just don't really need those things. But, I really enjoy being able to connect to the internet...I just feel a little bit less alone. 

I am adjusting quickly though! My devotional book this week has focused on making a new place a home. It is so poignant that that would be the subject. In yesterday's message it said:

"He-not a physical house or a specific arrangement of rooms-is our dwelling place. "

(The One Year Women's Friendship Devotional by Cheri Heath Fuller and Sandra P. Aldrich) 

I may not have power all the time, it may be hard to find water but I have a home in the Lord. I do have a dwelling place and for that I am grateful and blessed!

The ancient God is home on a foundation of everlasting arms. Deuteronomy 33:27