Not All Roads Are Paved

After our physically challenging day delivering water to Cite Soleil,,and our emotionally challenging day visiting the center for sick and dying babies and the home for severely disabled children, we had no idea what  today would bring.  This morning after breakfast, we all climbed into the tap tap for a nearly two hour journey to Reiser Heights, which is a school developed with the support of Father Reiser that educates children, preschool age through 6th grade.  The school  is located in the mountains, about 18 miles south of Port au Prince. We were excited to bring them toothbrushes and toothpaste, pens and pencils. We brought along a green dinosaur puppet, named Pierre, to demonstrate to the children how to properly brush their teeth. We made up a silly song to sing to the children during the demonstration, We were looking forward to seeing the results of Father Reiser's vision for Haiti.

Not all the roads to Reiser Heights were paved,  Some were paved, but clogged with traffic; some were full of potholes, rocks, animals, people, trucks, cars and motorcycles that had us clutching our grab bars with both hands to prevent us from falling off our bench seats. To say the road was rough does not describe the primitive path we traveled. At best, the tap tap maybe reached a top speed of 25 mph. Any faster, we would have been tossed around like rag dolls.

Our arrival was everything we hoped for. The youngest children had prepared a song for us, with bongo drums setting the rhythm, and they sang it with extreme enthusiasm.  What a joy it was to see and hear the children sing!  As we moved from classroom to classroom, sharing our toothbrushing tutorial, using Pierre as our training tool, it was clear that the younger grades found more value in our demonstration and song than the older grades, who seemed to be thinking that maybe we should have rehearsed more!

The drive back home was long and challenging. The roads were even more difficult to navigate and our driver, Maxim, took several alternate routes, including a u-turn to go back the way we came, to get us where we needed to go, back to the guesthouse.  Thinking that the upcoming presidential election would create more traffic than usual, we tried to prepare for it by leaving for home a little early. Despite our preparation and forethought, those last 12 miles took us a hour and a half to drive.

No matter how much we plan out our lives, we are often faced with having to take alternate routes to find our way home.  Sometimes those roads are far from "paved" and full of challenges and hardships, hurts and sorrows, Today was a reminder to us that we are not in control. God is in control and we need to give our lives over to him and follow where he leads, no matter how long and challenging that road may be.

Let God lead the way,
Rick & Wendy Haagenson