Ripe Mango Chronicles

People sometimes make strange comments when they find out I live in Haiti. Normally I just let them roll off my back, most of the time people don’t even know their comments are rude or inappropriate. The problem is I’m not quite there yet with earthquake comments. It’s all too fresh and all too traumatic. Eventually I’ll be able to let the, “It’s God’s judgment on the country.” comments and so on go…but right now they make me want to slap people! This makes meeting new people a little awkward and slapping people is just not right. My momma taught me that! The conversation usually goes a little something like this. Blah blah blah… Rachel: “It’s nice to meet you, too.” Other person: “So what do you do?” Rachel: “I’m a missionary in Haiti. I run an orphanage there.” Other person says with HUGE smile on her face: “In Haiti!! Really?!? Wow! It’s so amazing what’s happened there. Praise the Lord!” Rachel thinks to herself: What kind of crazy person are you? What part of hundreds of thous

I wasn’t sure I wanted to get out of bed this morning. I had the worst sleep in my life thanks to an insane cat who just couldn’t keep quiet. She woke me up 7 times last night. SEVEN TIMES!! Things started to look up once I finally was able to convince myself to crawl out of bed and get into the shower. The day got better as time went on. My parents along with Larry and Sue (from my church) have been painting up a storm in my apartment and it is really starting to look great! Plus my good friend Nalize was released from the hospital today. She was in a very bad motorcycle accident a few weeks ago. Praise the Lord we had the surgery suite up and running and a group of surgeons just “happened” to be in country the day of the accident. Coincidence? I think not! She broke her leg both above and below the knee. She also broke her wrist and split her lip wide open in two places. Her wrist was able to be reset without requiring surgery her leg however was not so lucky. She truly is lucky to b

I recently spent two weeks in Austin, Texas. I think I may have watched Micheal Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 one too many times as the picture I had in my mind was quite different than what I actually encountered. I pictured American flags on every house and George Bush bobble heads on the dashboard of every vehicle in addition to the standard, “God Bless America!” bumper sticker. I also pictured guns, lots of guns. Austin was so far from what I had imagined I was actually quite embarrassed! The time I spent in Austin was multi-purposed. I was able to spend some time at Dell Children’s Hospital with the abandoned Haitian boy we were able to get a medical visa for a few days earlier. I was also able to catch up on some much needed sleep and lastly, but probably most importantly I was able to meet with a counselor to do some much needed debriefing, after the earthquake. It was a strange thing to spend the day doing nothing really, far away from the rubble. I experienced some major culture sho

My Mom and Dad are here along with Leanne, my best friend, my favourite pastor John Fraser and his beautiful wife Cathy and about 50 other Canadians. My house is a huge mess of suitcases, mattresses, water bottles and paint cans. It’s a beautiful thing. I love having my parents here, they are amazing, super fun and on top of all that helpful. I’ve been writing out a “Daddy do” list for a few months now, making sure I keep him busy while he’s here: painting, hanging mirrors, putting up a wall in my bedroom so I will have a closet and building a dog house for Kinzie (my dog). My mom taught me how to make bread yesterday, which turned out delicious, and also helped wash down the cupboards getting them ready for a fresh coat of paint. Movie night this week was so much fun!! The kids love having them here too. My Dad brought my guitar down to the orphanage on for movie night and while the boys set up the projector he sang some songs with the kids. It was so much fun and the kids

The boys were both waiting by the side of the road for me the next afternoon. I walked with them along the narrow path to their home to pick up their things and to say their goodbyes. The boys were bouncing with excitement. The Hope House kids were waiting for us when we pulled in. Our kids seemed to be just as excited as the boys were! Once the boys had been seen their rooms, met their ‘mommies’, had some lunch and had been introduced to the kids and the rest of the staff I brought them into the supply depot to give them a few things. I started with a pair of sandals each. Green flip flops for Iverson and blacks Crocs with purple straps for Galaxon. They were beaming. I said, "Ok, now we need to find you boys some running shoes." They looked at each other and giggled. After trying on a few pairs they were both happy with their new running shoes. Moving on down my list I told them, "Next we need to find you boys some church shoes." Iverson, wide eyed an