Visiting Fre (Brother) Noress

Visiting Dear Brother Noress

We wanted to spend some time in a few homes visiting friends that lived a little farther out than right here in the Ailegue plateau.  Fre Noress is a dear olderbrother in the local church here and one who is well known for his cheery smile and kind disposition.  When I worked in the clinic as a nurse he was also there helping.  He was one I depended on if I needed someone to pray for a needy patient.  His walk with God seemed to flow from Him like a vibrant river of water!

We made arrangements to come to his house one afternoon.  He was glad to host us.  The boys managed to find chicks to entertain them.  They wanted to go down in his rather steep wooded area and then climb the rock wall... like little boys love to do...  they were hungry for excitement but we had to curb their appetite for adventure so that our Brother Noress wouldn't fear for their safety too much, so they stayed close to the house.  They enjoyed watching our friend gathering sticks for making a fire to heat cofee for us.  They also watched the tethered pigs he had under some banana trees.  We talked about this and that on the porch...some of the situations there in Ailegue, how we farm in the States, the waeathe, his grown children... one is a girl studying to be a doctor in the Dominican Republic, another is studying agriculture and I think the other son is also studying medicine.  None have married yet, so he has no grandchildren.  Finally we felt maybe we should head home.  When I announced we should be getting back so I can make supper for everyone he protested that he thought we would stay much longer and wait for his wife to come back from the garden and have coffee together.  Realizing this was important and looking forward to the thick, black, syrupy hot drink I talked to Eugene and we agreed to wait for a bit longer.  A lady who helps them with house work was there now so he and she started a fire and began to prepare coffee for us.  After a while it was done and he offered us each a steaming cup while apologizing that he didn't have any bread.  Even the boys enjoyed it once it cooled a bit for their tender tongues.  We parted ways, thanked him and left the sanctuary of his Haitian abode.   

 

Fre Noress loved our children.  When he came to the mission for something I sometimes came out with Tabitha and he went on and on how she didn't fear their people.  I still marvel how well she did, though there were times she did cry if she wasn't feeling social.  It felt like a special gift from the Lord to me that she did so well. I didn't expect it.



These boys were on the trail when we headed home.  They had a home-made "wheelbarrow" for the beans they had just picked.  The bean harvest is ready now, but a smaller one than they would like.  The rains didn't come in time to cool the heat.  Unfortunately, the beans didn't pollinate well due to this.

Wrapping up our time in Haiti

We are bringing our time here to a close. We have enjoyed so many varied aspects of our 6 weeks here in Haiti, but are also looking forward to being our little family at home again too. The boys have thoroughly enjoyed their many aunts and uncles as well as exploring the compound, but it will be good for our children to have more focused Mama and Daddy time. School has taken back burner by necessity for the last while... so maybe we can pick up where we left off when we get home... or maybe the SD summer will be more busy than I envision. I'm still learning how to teach little ones the academics. There are so many ways to do it and I'm still experimenting with what works best for us. :-)

We plan to leave Ailegue here on Monday the 13^th. From there we plan to spend about a week on our own. Donovan's will fly in Thursday the 16^th, Lord willing. We plan to spend three days as a family at Brother Levi's house in T-Guove. This will give us time to visit some friends in that area... Darv's, Miss Louda-a haitian nurse I worked with when I lived here and loved dearly, and others. We also plan to have a little retreat for a few days by the ocean just being together as a family north of Port. It's a little harder to coordinate all this here in Haiti when you don't have your own wheels and must depend on others, but plans are coming together.

As we have time and better connection in the next week we may be able to post some older news that we couldn't do during this busier season.