Culture Shock

Sometimes it's hard to make the shift between cultures when we travel from the US to Haiti or from Haiti back to the US again. We had a weekend like that.

We had airport delays that kept us from arriving in Jax until the early hours of Thursday morning. We were exhausted. After a few hours of sleep, Rusty went straight to work and I had to run to the grocery store to pick up the perishable items that didn't last the 3+ weeks we were away. There is quite a difference in my Jax grocery store....

and where I buy my groceries in Haiti.

After kissing on my grandbabies and doing some laundry I began to prepare for the activities of the weekend. Sarah was invited to attend her friend's overnight birthday party- so we needed to feed our Target habit...

in Haiti, no Target run necessary, just a whole lot of cupcakes since a birthday party is just us, our team, our employees, and our 40 children!

On Saturday I attended a Wedding shower for a young man and his future bride, who during his growing up years spent almost as much time at our house as he did at home. We loved Andy like a son, and his Mom is a great friend, so I enjoyed getting to see her and reminisce. We went to the lovely home where the party was hosted... quite different than the homes in my neighborhood in Haiti....

and watched as she opened fun and nifty kitchen items- a hot chocolate pot, color coded chopping mats so the food won't get cross contaminated, adorable little serving bowls, etc.

all from the bountiful & beautiful supply stores.

I don't think we'll need anything from those stores in our Haiti kitchen...

I did visit the home of this little girl with her sponsors and take gifts to her mother. We shared with her that the reason we do what we do is because Jesus first loved us, and then asked her if she knew Jesus. She responded that she didn't know him, but prayed to invite him into her heart right then.

We invited her to join us for worship on Sunday morning even though we weren't sure if she would be able to come since she has a baby less than 2 weeks old...

but she did! Hallelujah!

On Saturday Rusty & the guys enjoyed a feast at a Wild Party at a friend's hunting camp...

We met this lady and her brother by the path up the mountain. They had dug and prepared a pit and laid sticks to roast a pig. We asked them to join us as we climbed on up to go to our mountain church- he did! She stayed behind and had the pig in the pit by the time we passed on the way back down.

This week brought a quick business trip to Atlanta. We drove over 400 miles in less than 6 hours. We used our son's Ford pick-up truck to make the trip...

We also drive a Ford pick -up truck in Haiti and make many trips to the Capital City of Port-au-Prince. It is about 20 miles and takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get there from our Haiti home.

You can see that although we love our home & family both in Haiti and the US, there are many times that the transition between the two leaves our head swimming!