life here in haiti

hi everyone, just a short message here to describe a little bit of life here post-earthquake.  this is a newer kind of blow to Haiti...the last earthquake recorded was 200 years ago so no one remembers it.  as i'm sure you've heard on the news many foreigners have been evacuated.  had we stuck around at the Canadian Embassy yesterday we would have been evacuated also...and although we are Canadian (Niko just received his temporary passport yesterday...that's why we were at the embassy) we are confused about getting evaucuated because Haiti is our home..and because we are surrounded by our Haitian neighbours and friends (all who are alive and fine- PRAISE GOD) who are not going anywhere...but rather are sitting together, processing the tragedy through stories and questions and frequent trips to the street, making and sharing food together, sleeping together (there are 25 people sleeping in our yard!), drinking coconuts together (there's a big tree in our yard!), singing together, laughing together.  Here a story an MCC friend told me that says it beautifully:  after the quake, everyone in her like many neighbourhoods, dragged their mattresses and blankets outside to sleep on top of the mountain above their houses.   They were all up there huddled up and someone said: "maybe God just thought we've been sleeping our houses too much."  My neighbour (another MCCer) asked me if i minded all the people in "my" yard.  I said, no way I LOVE it!! they keep me company and they feed us, play with Gabriela, and let me know when Niko needs to nurse because the rest of the time they are rocking him, singing to him, admiring him, teaching him Creole but more than these personal advantages for a tired Mama, watching these Haitians be together, support eachother, be in this moment is massaging my heart.  i wouldn't miss this for the world or for a hotel with stable electricity.  so as yet another mission arrives to rescue Haiti, Haiti is continuing it's mission as usual.  that's that. 
on the other hand, maybe why these folks are so chill about this earthquake is because they are so used to blows to the head.  there are people who's job it is to pick up bodies and load them into dumptrucks, there people who are gravely injured laying waiting in the dark not knowing how long they'll be there, there is a woman who stepped out to the market and came back to find her house collapsed her husband and daughter dead inside.   A Haitian friend of mine said today: now people won't build crappy houses here anymore!  but the reality is they will rebuild crappy houses for the same reason they built a crappy house in the first place.  there doesn't appear to be another good option for the majority in Haiti who are trying nothing more than to go to school, to work, to start a family, to raise children, in a peanut shell:  to be human.  it feels inhumane to be packing up and flying off.  (AS FOR OUR PERSONAL PLANS, a total minor news story,...as many of you know, we were planning to leave Haiti anyway...in fact just before the earthquake Matt and I were in the midst of our very popular discussion-- where are we going from here?  and well, we didn't decide Tuesday and by now what we've decided that we will try to get to the Domnican Republic where we have a friend, a wise friend who we hope will help us listen to where we will go next.  we'll keep you posted...we keep praying with you for ourselves and the world around us.)  love from us in HAITI