Not Too Close

I've got to tell you I've never been near a Mosque. I've never been near a Hindu or Buddist Temple. I've never been in a position that I felt uncomfortable. Yet I never imagined in my wildest dreams I'd be so close to the enemy. I remember some dialogue I've heard about a prerequisite for ordination with a minister in Cuba requires one to have served prison time. No, not for something illegal unless you consider preaching the gospel illegal. Of course this is just what I've heard. Day Three in Haiti we had the privilege of going to a nearby village and painting a house. No big deal? Well, consider the house was built ten years ago and imagine yourself living in your current house and having gray concrete walls and floors. It was such a joy to be hosted by the families Son. He was very gracious and at times even joined in on the fun. Our contractor had given us instruction to keep the floors free of paint. Well, that lasted only for the first few minutes. To make matters worse one of our interpreters was very wild with the brush and roller. Soon the floor was covered paint. Near the end we started working on trying to get up this paint. No water and no rags didn't help. Strangely enough on one of my trips around the exterior of the house I discovered a razor blade on the ground. Ouch. And it wasn't the only one I found. However our efforts only removed so much. That afternoon we came back to this village and spent time with the children in the area.
During dinner our contractor came over and said we needed to go back and clean up the mess. No problem. But we couldn't all go so a few guys went with the contractor and intern. By now the Sun is going down rapidly and it gets dark out in the country. You see this village and this house had no lights. So by flashlight a small team of men got down on their hands and knees with water and towels and cleaned as best they could. Things were going well until the contractor said, "we need to leave and we need to leave NOW!" Really, uh, there's more to do. The family was grateful that we had come back to clean but unknown to anyone in the team during the day or the team that went back to clean that the whole time we were next door to a Voodoo Temple. Is that why there are candles lit all over the place? Well being the only white people in an unlit village on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince didn't really need a second call to retreat. Think about that for awhile.

mike