6:20am

I’m on the road again. I can’t believe the amount of travel this trip has required. Because Dame-Marie is so remote, travel has been one of the biggest features of this week. Thankfully, our road today is relatively smooth. Instead of cramming into several pickup trucks, we are all in a mini-bus.

Yesterday was really nice. We left Zanglais a little after lunch. Members of the team got to swim in the Caribbean and hike a few trails. I enjoyed the peace and beauty from the retreat center, got a little sermon prep in for Sunday, and discussed theology with others.

Then we left for Cais. When we got in, everyone was instantly transformed back into their technology-loving selves with the reintroduction to wifi. I got to FaceTime with Kim and Molly-I can’t believe how much my daughter has grown in a week!

After just a few minutes, many of us piled into the pickup “Haitian style” -we had 11 people in the Hilux. We drove just a minute or so to a place where RMI had invited a few vendors to spread out their wares for us to purchase as souvenirs. Each vendor had roughly the same inventory, but they all wanted us to come see what they had. After walking around for a bit, I decided on a few things to try to get. I have very little space in my luggage, so all of my purchases had to be flat and pack-able.

I love the game of negotiating with people, so the bargaining process was a lot of fun. I was able to get souvenirs for a few people for a price I was happy with, so I headed back the meeting area to wait for everyone else to join us.

When we got back to the guest house, we had a good conversation about the bargaining process. One guy in the group rightly questioned the appropriateness of us haggling with people who really need all of the money we can give them. While I agreed with him to an extent, I also know that they wouldn’t sell me anything if they weren’t making a profit on it. I also remember a good conversation I had with my friend Joel while I was in Cambodia. He’s a missionary there and spends most of his days living in exactly the same conditions as the people he ministers to. His response about bargaining was comforting-he’ll argue a price to the dime, knowing that he earns respect by purchasing the same way they do. It was a healthy conversation yesterday, and a good check on our consumer tendencies.

You know that feeling you get around 2am where everything is hilarious? That happened to us at 9 last night. I think we are all a little tired.

Today is going to be a long one. Or trip to Port au Prince is going to be around 5 hours. Then we get the plane to Miami, where we will sit in the airport for 5 more hours. Hopefully we will make it through customs in Newark in good time, because we are on track to be home and in our beds by 2am. Pray for us!

I am currently sitting in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, but getting here was miserable. We needed to leave Dame-Marie at 6 in the morning. The road across southern Haiti is under quite a bit of construction, and one section near our destination was going to be closed for blasting for the afternoon.

As we loaded the cars at 5:30, we heard singing from the sanctuary. Every morning people get together to sing and worship at 5:00. How often do you see that at home?

We loaded up the car and made our 8 hour journey across the mountains. Maybe it was our lack of sleep…maybe it was all of the big people crammed in the small pick-ups…but the ride back was exceptionally difficult. We were cramped and many of us got carsick on the way back. When we finally made Zanglais, we fell out of the car exhausted. I walked straight up to the room I was staying in and took a nap!

When I awoke, I had a chance to look around and was stunned by the beauty of where we are staying. It is simply unreal.

Today (a day later) we have the chance to sit and soak up the beauty of our environment. The reason for this stop is to give us a transition point between the work we were involved with in Dame-Marie and our return trip home. It is an opportunity to decompress, share stories, and get a little rest.

I haven’t mentioned this much, but I cannot say enough good things about our team. We represent 4 different churches, and I had only met a few of the people before we left. However, we have become fast friends. Last night, one girl on our team said that this week has felt like a very strange family vacation. I love seeing people connected because of our common love of Christ. That love truly supersedes all other personality differences. I have been blessed this week.

Yesterday we were laughing at a male goat we named Don Juan.

We ate him tonight for dinner. That was a weird experience. At least he was tasty!

Today we woke up early again, although it seems like I’m the last person awake every morning. No surprise there! After breakfast, we went and visited a sister church to the one here in dame-marie. It was a tiny little church crammed full of people. After being in the building for a few minutes, we started to look around and wonder how the building was holding together-

Notice the corners? I think each wall was independent of the others. We gave greetings to the people of the church, sang a few songs, then took pictures of all the adorable kids

As we were leaving, several kids were walking by with corrugated sheets of aluminum roofing. They had walked into town to get all of the material to finish a home in their village, and were on their return home. We asked them how far they had to walk, and they said that the trail they were on would cross the same river 17 times. It was an all-day walk.

Of the kids we talked to, none of them were older than 14 years old. Some were as young as six. It was simply unreal to think about the life they have.

We returned back to the church we’re staying in and had lunch. Then, immediately following lunch we went out to another church to install one of the water filtration systems we brought with us. It was a 40 minute ride over the roughest road we’ve been on yet. I decided that a road in Haiti is simply just a long place where there are no trees. It was brutal. When we arrived, we set up the water system.

Its an amazing device. It will provide 10 years of clean water for 10 people. It only took a few minutes to set up, but we had to let water run through it for about an hour. During that time, we noticed a very ripe papaya in the tree above our heads. After one person in our group noticed it, there was instantly a man with a long bamboo pole there to pick it for us. It fell from the tree, we ate it, it was incredible.

Next thing we knew, there was an old man up in a coconut tree dropping fresh coconut for us. They cut them open for us so we could drink the water, then split them so we could eat the meat. I’m not really a coconut fan, but this was different. I loved it.

I’ve mentioned before that the love these people show to us is unusually magnificent. From the fresh fruit offered by a family without clean water, to the goodbye service we had this evening with the church, our hosts have been overwhelmingly kind. Tonight in the service I had the chance to play guitar as our group sang. Afterward, we each spoke our farewells to the congregation. I promised that I would learn more Creole if I could return. While Pastor Glass gave his closing sermon, about 6 kids sat next to me on the pew. One little boy, maybe 4 years old, fell asleep leaning against me. It was pretty awesome. Following the service, we ate another amazing meal (Don Juan was tasty). Then the pastor came in to offer his goodbye’s with his staff and deacons with him. Then they presented each of us with hand-made gifts, chocolate from the town, and pastry.

The generosity of the Haitians was awesome. I learned today that the women who have prepared our meals have been sleeping on the floor in the dining area each night. They are up before 5 am, and usually don’t finish their work until after 11 pm.

Its hard not to feel guilty about all of this hospitality. However, I learned something else about them by looking in their eyes. When you can’t understand the language, you tend to look for any other means of communication. You rely heavily on non-verbal cues. I learned by watching the eyes of our hosts that they take exceptional pleasure in caring for us. To turn them down would be to remove their joy. Oh that my heart could be like theirs.

From the moment we drove down the mountain into Dame-Marie I have been unable to escape it. Every person I come into contact with demonstrates my deficiency, causing me to become increasingly uncomfortable. In an nation that lacks a good internet connection, electricity, and indoor plumbing, I am affected more by what these people have than what they need.

Overwhelming Love.

Before I get to today, I first need to tell you about our arrival here yesterday. As we drove down the steep mountain path to the costal town, we were greeted at the entrance by a hoard of people. They had drums and were singing. We got out of the cars and were immediately mobbed by men shaking hands and women leaning in to kiss our cheeks. Each one with a cheery “bonswa!” (meaning-good evening). Then they lead us through the streets singing at the top of their lungs, the great parade snaked through the town until we arrived at the church. The streets were lined with people curious to see what all the noise was about. It was about family welcoming home their siblings. Though many of us had never visited Dame-Marie before, we walked into town like we were long lost friends. I was uncomfortable.

This morning I woke up around 5am to the sound of chickens clucking, goats baying, and women chatting over charcoal. They had woken up far before dawn so we could have a large breakfast. Families who have little food prepared us a feast.

We joined the 3 hour church service. Everyone on the team offered a brief greeting from the pulpit. When one girl in our group read her greeting in Creole, the people stood in an ovation, overjoyed that she had put the effort into learning some of their language.

When the service finally concluded, we shook countless hands and kissed more cheeks, then we made it to the lunch table where even more food was waiting for us. Those same women had never left that charcoal fire. We ate an incredible meal, then wandered out into the street to teach kids how to throw American footballs and frisbees.

Tonight we had another service. They could not have crammed another body into the church. Noticing the scarcity of seats, I walked out the side of the church and enjoyed the service from the courtyard with a dozen Haitians watching through the window. A man named John Louis, using perhaps the only English he knew, asked me if I had a family. I pulled out the little photo album I carry and introduced him to Kim, Molly and Callie. I said the one or two Creole words I’ve learned. His smile was enormous. Fifteen minutes later, he brought a woman over to me and introduced her has his wife. Twenty minutes later, he introduced me to his teenage son.

I can’t wrap my mind around this love they show to me. Its the kind of love I preach about, but struggle to practice. Its the love that says, “We are united in Christ, and that one commonality is all we need.”

Because of the very short notice I had about this trip, I entered it with few expectations. I’m thankful for that now, because I feel like God is using that openness to teach me something about myself. I think I’ve been uncomfortable receiving this overwhelming love because it is hard for me to show it to others. I hope I finish this week with more of a love for the people of Haiti, but more-so, I hope to leave with a self-sacrificing love like theirs.

Back then, if you picked up the phone in your home, you could call anyone in the country.
Back then, if you flipped the light switch, the lights came on.
Back then, if the city needed to cut power, they would warn you 3 days in advance.
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The home we stayed in last night is a bit odd when it comes to power. Half of the home is powered by a generator, and the other half is powered by city power. Here, the city power only comes on at night, and only for a few hours.
—
I was a little late to the party last night when we picked out bunks, so I ended up with a top bunk. Luckily, the bunk right next to the air conditioner was open, so I snagged it quickly. When it was time for bed, I gingerly lugged my 275lb frame up on top and whispered a prayer for the guy underneath…hoping the bunk wouldn’t collapse on him. I dozed off to sleep in a small room stuffed with 10 guys, glad that that little ac unit was functioning.

Then I heard a loud clunk.

The AC died. The fans died. The only sound in our room the loud snoring from several guys. I realized the city power had cut off. The sweat came, with that tiny room quickly turning into an oven fueled by 10 larger-than-average men. I waited a bit and hoped that the power would magically be restored. After what seemed like forever, I crawled out of the bed and checked my watch- 11:41pm.

Eventually I pulled my mattress off the bunk and joined a few other guys in the living room where the ceiling fan was powered by the other half of the house, and drifted off to sleep.
–
The home we stayed in last night was nice. It will be far nicer than where we go the next few days. I won’t have wifi there and the power will be even more suspect. Its an amazing thing to see a country that has regressed, coming from a culture where progress is a god. I don’t know what to expect these next few days, but i’m praying to see how the Gospel of Hope is moving here among a people who struggle to have any hope at all.

I’m not really a “pro” traveler in the developing world, but our trip out of the city today really brought back memories of the trip from Phenom Penh to Siem Reap in Cambodia. The living conditions were similar, the topography was similar, the poverty was similar. There are just fewer motorbikes here.

The hardest part of the trip today was moving through the tent cities on the outskirts of Port au Prince. Even though two years have passed since the earthquake, the city looks like an earthquake happened yesterday. The streets are overflowing with styrofoam take-out containers and other trash, and the tents say things like “Canada,” “US aid,” and “Samaritan’s Purse.”

Tonight we stay in a home owned by RMI, the missions organization I’m partnering with. We are about halfway to the city that we will be ministering in the next few days… you can look up Dame Marie on Google Earth to see where I’ll be. I don’t know if I’ll even have reliable electricity, let alone wifi. So I will update when I can.

Thanks for keeping me and the team in prayer. I believe God has some amazing things in store for us!

Jeremy, I want to thank you personally from the bottom of my heart, for taking the time to participate in this ride.  The training that you do helps build strong, healthy muscles and aids you in maintaining your endurance throughout this ride.  I am sure that during the course of your training you have felt a burning-type or fatigue-type pain in the muscles of your legs?  Welcome to a very small part of the MS world.  That is a very similar pain that many MS patients suffer with daily, including myself.  Another symptom of MS that you can probably relate to is very similar to having a really bad sunburn.  Unfortunately with this disease it strikes without warning.  MS knows no boundries…it can attack at the snap of a finger or one can wake up in the morning finding themselves paralyzed in any one limb or their entire body, or wake up blind, etc.

I don’t know if Kim told you or not, but I’ve been having a pretty bad flare-up of my MS for the last 2 1/2 months.  My last flare-up was 4 years ago, so I am doing well as far as flare-ups are concerned.  I had an MRI done last week and I am so happy to tell you both that it showed no disease progression!!  In fact, my MRI looks just like the one taken over 15 years ago which is when I was actually diagnosed!!  I had to pull myself out of work the last week and a half in order to let my body calm down and focus on just me… I just went back to work yesterday.  I am so very thankful to God that he has protected me all these years. Unlike many people with MS, I am one of the fortunate ones that can still walk…it is a struggle right now, but none-the-less I’m still walking.

Ok, so let me jump down (yeah right..lol!) off my pedestal and just say to you….RIDE, JEREMY, RIDE!  RIDE FOR THE CURE THAT WILL END THE DEVASATING EFFECTS OF MS!!!  You are one of my heros…God Bless You!!

If you would like to help in the fight against MS, please consider making a donation to my ride!

The suffering I’ll endure on my bike in September pales in comparison to what the average person with MS endures.  However, my hope is that I will be able to help in a small way by raising money to help research for a cure.  Would you consider supporting me as I ride?  I still need to raise around $300, but just $20 would go a very long way to help fight this devastating disease.

If you would like to participate in finding a cure for MS, click here to make a tax-deductible donation!

With this goal in mind, and with my new passion in mountain biking already making a dent in my weight gain, I went out and purchased a road bike this spring.  Mountain biking is a blast, but for a consistent fitness schedule, it’s much easier to ride from your house several days a week instead of driving a half hour to 45 minutes to hit the trails.

They tell me that the real joy of road biking comes from participating in a group ride, but I’ve been reticent to join one.  I have a ton of great excuses!  I’m still pretty heavy, so I look like even more of a dork in lycra, I’m not that fast yet, so I’m confident I’ll get left behind or “dropped.” And Kim is due any day now with Molly, so I’m afraid I’ll be 25 miles from home with a flat tire when I get “the call.”

Today I finally manned up and rode over to join a ride that leaves from my local bike shop.  This one is intended to be a little slower and leaves at 10 in the morning, which is almost a reasonable time to be awake on a Saturday.  I pulled up to the shop at 9:45 to see about 15 skinny guys in bike shorts with their incredibly expensive bikes leaning against the wall.  I knew I was out of place, so I checked twitter about 30 times and texted a few people in an effort to avoid eye contact.

The shop officially opened a few minutes before 10, so I went in to buy a new pair of gloves (because I needed them).  While there the tech I usually talk to warned me that the guy who usually led the group ride wasn’t there, and the guy who was leading it today may have clinical mental problems.  Great.  He turned to point out the window to the person who he was talking about, just as the group was pulling out of the parking lot!  Adam quickly tore the tag off the gloves and gave them to me.  He said “pay me when you get back!” and off I went.

I clipped into my pedals and started flying down the hill to catch up.  On the way I saw a woman on a bike pulling out of her driveway, cursing that they left like a rocket.  We pooled our efforts and tried to chase down the group with me in front setting a “strong” pace.  When they came into view, she said, “There they are!” and pulled around me and shot like a rocket to catch up.  I kept spinning at my “strong” pace.

We got to an intersection that she pulled through.  I quickly pulled through as well, dodging a few cars, and continued my effort to catch the group.  I knew a few short cuts on the route, so I thought I would take one and try to head them off.  It worked…sort of.   I pulled up to the route just in time to jump in line with the group, but then the traffic prohibited me from joining them and I was even farther back.  I tried it again, and it forced me even farther back the second time.  The short cuts left me farther behind (there’s a sermon illustration there, expect that one some day soon).

I settled into a fast rhythm and figured I would see them on the very long straight away around the bend ahead.  When I came around it I saw one rider about a half mile ahead.  He was a heavy-set guy like me and I recognized him from the parking lot at the shop (he was the only other guy there self-conscious smart enough to wear shorts over his bike shorts).  I settled into that time trial position I saw the guys in the Tour de France do with my forearms resting on my handlebars.  After about a minute I realized that said position must be much easier without a gut, so I sat back up a bit.  I was making good time on the other guy.  As I approached, this was the internal dialogue:

“I’m almost there!”

“Shoot, he’s not wearing a bike helmet”

“Shoot, it’s a backwards baseball cap”

“Shoot, he’s riding a 1991 Raleigh mountain bike”

“Shoot.”

He wasn’t in the group at all, just some guy out for a nice Saturday morning spin.  I buzzed by him and kept up my effort. I knew that the halfway point was also a rest stop in a park.  If I didn’t catch them there, then I could at least see them coming back home on this out-and-back route.

I got to the park-no one there on a bike.  I rested for a few minutes, turned around, and pedaled back home into the headwind (which at the Shore is always there, no matter which direction you’re going).  I kept my pace up but felt defeated.  A little while later I cruised back into the bike shop to pay for my gloves.  Adam saw me and said, “What did you do? Leave them in your dust?”  The group still wasn’t back.  I looked at my watch.  When I tried this 25-mile route with strong winds the first time on my mountain bike I rode it in about 2 ½ hours.  My first time on the road bike was in about 2 hours.  Today? An hour-and-a-half.

So I pedaled home.  My first group ride was a pseudo success, considering I never rode with the group.  Maybe I’ll give it another try next week.

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