Lavarie!

So many things have happened lately! I have no idea where to even start explaining. But, since I love details so much, I will concentrate on one particular event.

Here are some recent highlights:

-Mathilde (the French girl) came on Sunday and she is teaching a French class opposite of my English class.
-I play soccer with a bunch of guys almost every day and we drink sugar cane and coconut juice when we get thirsty!
-I eat spaghetti and hotdogs for breakfast sometime.
-I think my sweat it starting to smell good...hmm...
-I wrote a song for the first day of class! It went really well! I love teaching kids.
-The kids are so cute in my class!!

However, I want to talk about something so simple, so overlooked, yet such an incredibly beautiful art.

Laundry (In Creole...Lavarie)

MaryLoud does the laundry and cleans the house. She comes everyday with her two darling kids, LouLou and Fabienne. (LouLou and MaryLoud are in the picture together).


She did my laundry the first week, and I have never had my clothes so clean! There is this one stain on my tshirt that has been there since at least Junior High...well, not anymore! The stain has disappeared...however, my shirt is a completely different color..."grace a" all of the bleach!

Well, most of you know...I have this naive/ideal mentality of "I can do anything I put my mind to." And, the other day, I asked MaryLoud if I could help her do my laundry. After all, it is MY laundry. And, I think it would be good for me to learn how to do my own laundry by hand.

MaryLoud is so kind. She has great dreadlocks and wears a straw hat and a light blue rosary around her neck everyday. She has such a beautiful smile and is so humble. Well, when I asked her, she smiled and said "Sure, dear, you can help me." Her eyes twinkled, for she knew that I had never washed my own clothes by hand!

Well, we first began by making the soap! Yes! That's right! She made the soap with a huge machete. Her fingers glided around the slippery stuff, with no fear that the knife would sever a limb. I watched in amazement.

Then the washing began. We scrubbed and scrubbed, but I could not get the suds to come up like MaryLoud did! So, after I "washed" an item, she redid it for me! Haha. But, she was so patient.

But, what a dance she was doing. Her hands moved to a beat. It seemed as if she had choreographed a beautiful routine and was performing it. Her black fingertips worked so fast and she grinned slightly during the entire process. I on the other hand was incredibly off-beat...struggling to find any melody or any notes for that matter! MaryLoud's arms sang and her muscles were so gracefully humming along.

We both sat down on these little chairs...my back and knees and feet totally killing me. MaryLoud looking very comfortable and peaceful.

After a good hour of scrubbing my clothes, I was soo happy to be finished. I had cut my fingers up, my arm muscles were burning, my fingers were prunned up, and my legs were now pretty much completely asleep.

Little did I know, there was more washing to do! We then took this really powerful soap and did the entire process again! No way! I was in shock!

But, by this time pretty much all of our neighbors were crowded around me and MaryLoud...for they wanted to see this white American girl who had never done her own laundry by hand before! They laughed and joked at how bad I was doing! It was pretty funny... The little kids were all trying to show me how to do it...but, my fingers were cut up from all of the rubbing... I eventually found a method that worked and I got lots of suds...but it hurt my hands!!!

After now at least 2 and a half hours...MaryLoud separated the clothes into "needs to be washed again" and "can be hung up to dry." I helped her hang up the clothes to dry (see picture at top)...and she told me to go grab some lunch! Haha! She did the whole process over again with the clothes that "needed to be washed again." I was in awe!

My fingers are still red and cut up...MaryLoud's are strong and soft. Oh goodness...

How inferior I am to MaryLoud! I so often think that because Americans are so crafty, creative, inventive, and have money that somehow we have the answers and that we are superior in some way to a culture like Haiti. Oh do I have so much yet to learn!

It was so obvious how superior MaryLoud is so me! She washes clothes as an art!

I've been thinking so much lately about Economic Development and what Christian's role is in that subject. How do we preserve a culture, and provide basic needs such as food and clothing. Do my ideas of Economic Development only involve creating more jobs so that people have more money. Can Economic Development exist without increasing a country's wealth?

How would Jesus see Economic Development?

Lyrics I'm Humming:

So Fresh and So Clean! Clean!