Ripe Mango Chronicles

Some of the boys came to visit me in the office this morning on their way back from tutoring. Iverson and Ochanel were sitting on the couch looking at the Christmas tree we have set up in my office. Ochanel was touching each ornament like it was a treasure. I was working away on my computer only half listening to their conversation, but I knew Ochanel was asking lots of questions. Iverson was talking about presents, and Christmas and how excited he was, Ochanel looked at him, pointed at the tree and said, “Is this the present?” I stopped typing and joined in the conversation. It hadn’t dawned on me that Ochanel had never seen a Christmas tree before, so I asked him if he had. He looked at me with his big beautiful eyes and asked, “What is a Christmas tree?” The next 15 minutes will be forever etched into my mind. Iverson and Stevenson (with a few words here and there from myself) started telling Ochanel all about Christmas; about Christmas trees, ornaments, ...

I recently spent a few days in Austin, Texas where they like to keep things weird. It’s actually their city's slogan for those who don’t know. You can buy shirts, bumper stickers, even blankets with the “Keep Austin Weird” logo! When I was there this time I saw a house painted florescent lime green, and another with bright purple trim, both in an otherwise normal neighborhood. I also ate the BEST food ever! Masman Curry with tofu, pad thai, deep fried pickles and jalapeño hush puppies that make me drool just thinking about them. Yum! I stayed with our amazing friends Megan and Patrick and had an awesome week. I was invited to come and share with the Life Austin church about Mission of Hope and what Kenol and I are doing here. I shared both on Sunday morning and at their Tuesday morning women’s Bible study. The Bible study was really laid back as there was a small turn out with it being just before Thanksgiving. After I shared we sat around chatting for a while and one of the ...

Everything is complete new to our boys. They have moved out of the city to the boonies of Titanyen, left a house full of cousins, uncles and their grandmother to a house with just the three of them, plus Kenol and I in a house full of “white people” things. They have gone from speaking French at home to speaking Creole and now English, and then entering into the wonderful world of the orphanage. After all that we stuck them in English school and even let them go to school the first day in shorts and flip flops! Joshua was so funny, when I told him to get his sandals on he looked at me in horror and quickly asked, “Will the other kids be wearing sandals?” You see, the boys have never gone to school without wearing a full uniform; coloured socks, black shoes, dress pants, black belt, and a tucked in dress shirt. The thought of going to school in sandals was pretty far outside the box for them. The boys had never even heard of a school that allows kids to attend ...

This is me catching up on the AWESOME stuff that went on during the summer and beginning of the school year. So sit back, relax and pretend it’s the beginning of October. Here we go! We eat rice pretty much every single day at the orphanage: sometimes for breakfast, sometimes for lunch and sometimes for dinner. We eat it cooked with beans, white with bean sauce, with vegetables mixed into it, with sugar and milk cooked into a sweet porridge. To say the least, we go through a lot of rice each month. The majority of the rice we eat at this point is imported from the USA. We decided it would be fun to head out to the rice fields in St. Marc to see the amazing rice fields of Haiti and learn how it is grown right here, in country. We had a great time on the almost 2 hour drive North to St. Marc. Kenol, the boys and I drove down in the canter with all the little kids. They were hilarious! I think we heard, “What’s that?” at least a hundred times. The boys were especially funny when w...

I love books. I love cracking the spine of a brand new paperback book. I love the feel of the pages, I love interesting covers, and quirky lettering. I love that as I read my brain turns the printed words into a live action film in my mind. It may have something to do with being raised by a librarian, or maybe all those years I shelved books at the Niagara Falls Public Library. I like my shelves to be filled with books. I display my books with pride. I believe someone’s book collection gives you a secret glimpse of who they really are. I love that so many great books are being made into movies these days. I, of course, always read the books first. My most recent read was Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick. I read it Thursday, from start to finish, all 289 pages of it. I don’t normally read books so quickly, but I was sitting around in airports and airplanes for 9 hours, plus the book was so well written and interesting I couldn’t put it down. It’s about a man...