Passports, Machetes and Small Cacti

     I got my passport this weekend, this Monday I am going to some government building to get some shots that will supposedly stop me from getting some kind of awful disease in Haiti and then causing a pandemic when I get back to the states. I just kind of got to thinking about how I should probably record this so that I could have this step in the books.

     On a completely unrelated note, I am in the middle of reading Jon Acuff's Stuff Christians Like and the other day I got to a point where he talks about the mandatory Mission Trip Machete.  The jist is that any other time in your life, especially if you are under the age of 13, you weren't allowed within 5 feet of a sharp piece of metal that size.  However, as soon as you get to wherever you are going, you are just handed one THAT YOU GET TO KEEP like its no big deal. After reading this I got to thinking, I probably won't get to keep my machete if I get one at all down there because we are flying. And if we are flying, considering that TSA won't allow fingernail clippers or nail files, they probably won't allow a 3 foot blade on the plane. I guess I will have to buy one when I get back to the states and pretend it was the one I used in Haiti, assuming I even get one to use in Haiti, but I hope I do.

     Now that the 10 year old boy inside of me has gotten out,  I have found out a little more about the trip, and the way that the group that we are going through describes where we are staying makes it sound like we are staying in a nice hotel. Now I know that there are actually no "nice" hotels on that side of the island but I really hope that its not Haiti's best hotel or something like that.  I don't really think I need to explain why I feel this way, so I won't insult your intelligence.

     I also heard talk of some of the work that we will be doing down there.  I heard that we are going to be taking out cacti that grow in the roads.  But supposedly we can't just chop them down, but instead we have to uproot them and plant them somewhere else like they are some kind of endangered plant.  And they may be, but this is the country that essentially allowed the entire population to hack down all the trees for heat and cooking! And yet we can't just knock them over off to the side of the road, or let the trucks run them over, but we have to replant them.

     Actually upon writing this I think that this could possibly be an attempt at environment recovery as well as clearing the roads, and I really hope that this is the case so now I really don't have too big of a problem with it, but that all depends on what their motives are.  As to who "They" are, I'm not really sure...

Is This How I Should Feel?

     It has been a while since I blogged last, a whole lot of baseball, school, and job stuff has been tying me down.  I heard some stuff about what will be going down in Haiti and I am not thrilled with what I heard.  Supposedly we are going to have to wear specific clothes every day and not wear jewelry and stuff.  The reasons given kind of made sense but I guess I just still feel uncomfortable with being told what to do.  It kind of bothers me that they put so much emphasis on what seem like formalities rather than what really matters.  The reasons they gave for telling us what to wear was that the kids that we will be around would get jealous or something like that.  It makes sense that the kids might see our shirts with something printed on it or our jewelry and see it as us taunting them but I highly doubt that all of them would see that.

     They also have a huge itinerary that looks pretty strict.  I know that they are mostly trying to keep us safe but I hate being told what to do.  It doesn't really look like we will have much of a free time down there which hacks me off because I really want to try to take in the culture and meet the real people and see their real faces.  I guess I won't really know how it will be until I get there but at the moment I am way less excited than I was a week ago.

      Maybe I am focusing on the wrong things but it still doesn't feel right to me.  I hope God does some works in me, but mostly I want to try to make a dent in their whole issue down there.  I also don't want to get lulled back in to my American comfort zone when I leave and I think that I will if I don't get an accurate bead on their real culture there. I will probably try to get away from the group for a little while, even if it is "against the rules".  I mean the worst thing that they could do to me is send me home, so I will probably do it like the last day or something.  At this point I just want to go there and do it, but I have a ways to go.

     I don't even have my passport yet, but it is on its way.  I guess all there is to say at this point is that I need to buckle up because I am just along for the ride now.