Life Experiences

1/30/2013

Hey All,

This section, as the title says, is called Life Experiences.  I am leaving in two days to head to Haiti and I thought a fun way to keep you all updated on my life is to share a new experience of the week.  So every Monday, pending on if I experience something new, you can come to this section and see the fun, wild, wacky, gooey, scary, creepy-crawly, awesome, sad, or life changing event of the week past.  I hope you all will enjoy hearing about my new "thing" of the week as much as I will enjoy living it out.  So, until Monday... =)

9/9/2013
A few months ago I debated for about two weeks becoming a chef after I'm done in Haiti. Well yesterday I got to try out my chef's hand and cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 15 people.  That was a fun new experience.  I don't know if I still desire to cook for a living :P

8/19/2013

So it's been two weeks since my last "New Experience."  This one should be a doozy then to make up for not posting one last week.  After trying to decide what new experience to post I have decided on one that covers a LOT of new things.  As most of you probably know by now I have started being a foster dad.  And that there my friends is my new experience this week.  It's involved parenting two little ones.  So, bathing, cleaning up after, cooking for, reading to, playing and praying with, putting them to sleep, and more.  These are things I've done before, however I have never done it in a parent type role.


8/5/2013
So this weeks new experience was one of travel.  I got to fly internationally (not for the first time) but for the first time to show up at my home (in Wisconsin) to surprise my family for my sister's graduation.  It was a total success as really no one knew I or my brother was coming.  There were definitely many tears of joy.    


7/29/2013
Sketchy happenings went on this past week...I went with a group to a jet ski lot where we as a group proceeded to buy (not a jet ski) but a shotgun for our guard at the creche.  We successfully bought a weapon in Haiti.  :)

7/22/2013
So...I. went. to. prison. this. week!!!  :)  However, I did not go there because of broken laws or persecution.  I went there to get some photos and video clips.  Haitian prison...fun fun fun =)


7/15/2013
New Experience: I was asked to be the godfather of one of my Haitian friend's new baby.  I felt kind of honored...sort of :P lol

7/08/2013
So this weeks new experience brought me back to my childhood when girls were in love with groups other than One Direction, The Wanted, or Justin Bieber.  On Sunday I got the privileged to ride in a van full of GROWN MEN (Haitian soccer players) who were all jammin' (singing along to) a song by the Backstreet Boys.  Quite the entertaining experience.  Oh, and don't mistake any of the facts here...I joined right in on the singing too :P lol

7/01/2013
So this weeks new experience was kind of gross!!!  I spent five hours in our twelve passenger van zipping though mountainous roads with fifteen kids who are not accustomed to being in a moving vehicle.  To say it as least graphic as possible...they were throwing up all over :) 

6/24/2013
So this week I got to experience for the first time what it's like to swim in a 10ft x 30ft pool with about fifty kids.  Fun times here in Haiti :)

6/17/2013
So after four months of living in Haiti one would think that not much would be new anymore.  Well, yet another week passes and I'm still shocked at all the new things I get to experience.  This last week I have had (and will continue to have) the opportunity to room with four boys under thee age of eleven.  I think all these boys are wonderful but after this week I think that will be the last time I'll want to room with that many youngsters ;)

6/10/2013
I've ridden Tap-taps quite a bit...like every day.  However, I had a new experience riding on one this last week.  My new experience this week was spending all day (six or seven hours) riding up and through the mountains (in northern Haiti) in the back of Tap-tap...which if you remember, is just a pickup truck.  It twas a new, very cramped, very sweaty, and very adventurous new experience :)

6/3/2013
My new experience this week was moving for the fourth time in four months. :p  I like change but moving isn't the most fun...But I do have my own room now with a door, which I did not have before :p

5/27/2013
This last week I got to travel up to one of (if not) the most northern city in Haiti, Cap-Haitien.  We had an awesome five hour car ride up through a twisting mountain road.  Whilst there we got to enjoy a delicious Haitian dinner at a restaurant literally right on the ocean.  It was a great time and an awesome new experience.  I hope to get back up there before I leave Haiti and do a little more sightseeing, as Cap-Haitien is the number one destination for tourists in Haiti...

5/20/2013
My new experience this week was one of great joy and fun.  Up to this point, I've experienced the home-going of children but I have never seen the first time uniting between a child and his/her parents....and that's what I got to experience this last week.  I was privileged to witness the uniting of a family for the first time.  It was so amazing.

5/13/2013
Well, as unfortunate and expensive as this is, my new experience this week was getting into a car crash.  I have hit deer before and I have gone into a snowbank...but until this last week I had never been hit by another vehicle.  Everyone that was in the accident is fine and I praise God for that because it could have turned out totally different.

5/6/2013
My new experience this week was being totally overwhelmed when going into a grocery store.  Here in Haiti, The Caribbean Super Mart is a small diamond in a big pile of dirt.   One of our missionaries stumbled upon this amazing, Americanized grocery store that literally has everything (food wise)  that I could want from America.  I believe a puddle of drool followed me around the store as my mouth hung open in amazement as I shopped.  After shopping in the market here in Montrouis and small grocery stores in St. Marc for the last three months, this new find made for an overwhelming shopping experience as I had SO much stuff to choose from...which is definitely good :)

4/29/2013
This is my new experience of the week.  I have a cat now. :)  Her name is Sparrow.  

4/22/2013
My new experience this week was one of great excitement.  However short it may have been (like 30 seconds) I had my very first phone conversation with a stranger in Creole...Yep...I'm learning the language!!! :)

4/15/2013
You may have already heard about my new experience this week if you've looked at my Twitter or Facebook account at all, but I'm still going to share it with you because it was a great adventure.  I traveled down to the bottom of a well on Saturday to retrieve four buckets that had fallen off the withered and knotted rope that use to hang in the well.  Since that trip, I have replaced the rope and would think I wouldn't have to venture down there again any time soon....at least I would have thought that until I looked down there today to see a nice five gallon bucket sitting capsized at that bottom of the well...sigh.  Oh well :p

4/8/2013
This last week I was asked by a Haitian man so disgusted looking, "Are you going to where that into town?" I definitely LOL'ed.  I didn't look too crazy... :P 

4/1/2013
This week I got to experience what it's like to live in a Haitian jail cell for one night....APRIL FOOLS;) lol My fun new experience this week actually was squeezing fresh fruit into juice.  I bought something called a Sour Sop(spl?) at the market and with one strainer, a bucket, a knife, a cup, and some water, we (one of the boys and I) made a few glasses of delicious freshly made juice.  It is one of the many inexpensive but time consuming delicious joys here in Haiti.

3/25/2013
So this week I got to experience what it is like to draw over two hundred gallons of water out of a fifteen foot well.  Not having electricity or running water is a little bit more work than I thought...but it definitely is enjoyable and strengthening work.

3/18/2013
Have you ever tried cramming 35 people into a 12 seater van?...well have. ;)  Let me tell you, it was hot!!!

3/11/2013
This weeks New Experience was one of great joy.  I got to be a part of a celebration for the very reason I came here to Haiti...that celebration was for the successful finished adoption of a little boy and girl.  I got to witness the home-going of two precious children with their new excited parents.  It was a delightful and joyous party that I was apart of yesterday.  

3/4/2013Well this week has been another week where everyday I have experienced something new.  However I am going to go with my most recent event.  I just walked down to the public showers and submersed myself in a delightful bucket bath.  I think I made all of the Haitian bystanders nights as they watched the white American guy do what they do and bath underneath a bucket full of water, drawn from a well pump.  Good times :D

2/25/2013
My new experience this week was something I eluded to in my most recent blog post.  This week I experienced true anger in my heart towards the injustice of the innocent.  I've had a heart for the abused and rejected kids of the world however I've never witnessed the abuse firsthand (like I did this last week) and it just registers a whole new kind of anger within my heart to see how little innocent children are treated so poorly at times.

2/18/2013
My new experience this week was watching a movie powered by a generator :) it twas fun times as the power cut out like five times. Nonetheless, we made it through all of Toy Story 2 :D

2/11/2013
So my new life experience that I have chosen for this week is: I had the privilege (and will almost everyday for the next year) to prepare and give a bible lesson to the kids at the creche.  It was kinda fun but challenging at the same time.  I'm sure as time goes on it'll become easier.  Your prayers for this area would be greatly appreciated :)

2/4/2013
It's my first Monday in Haiti and a lot of new experiences have been had over the weekend.  It was hard to choose what to share with you as my new experience of the week.  But alas, after many hours of toiling and trying to decide the best one I have come to a decision...I'll let the picture speak for itself :)

That's right...my new experience of the week was Eggnog in Haiti.  Who would of thought :)