Sunday, March 9, 2008

Dude you're whacked!

Hahaha... Nate said that in his sermon tonight. I thought that was funny especially since in Haiti I kept trying to "distract" him or whatever, and we were just talking like that... example (from when we were supposed to be going to get the mule/donkey/horses but Paige wasn't done with my hair yet... and Nate was leaving without us. How rude... anyways this is the convo)

Me: Nate! Come here I have to talk to you!
Nate: (walking over) Ok what?
Me: ........ sup?
Nate: Sup?
(I don't remember what we were saying exactly, but we were talking in like "wannabe cool" but nobody really talks like that. Except Nate. Haha just kidding. Anyways the conversation went on like that for a couple minutes but then he left without us anyways. Jeanbeauvis and Tipap were laughing at us sitting by this rock getting my hair done. And laughing harder when everyone left without us.)

I was trying really hard not to laugh when he said that during his sermon. He said afterwards that he was thinking "This is for Tori..." or something like that. I would've laughed SO hard if he would've said that. Haha, it's funny thinking about it. :)

Ok more serious now. I am asking if all of you will pray for me sometime. I have a lot of friends in Haiti that I am missing reallllllllllllllllllly bad right now. People at school don't really understand why I miss them so much or why I am friends with them even though we don't speak the same language. I was trying to put pictures of my friends there on this lame thing but it wouldn't work. So this post is once again pictureless. Anyways, I guess I am just asking you to pray... hmm.... not that I won't miss them anymore because that isn't what is bothering me... I guess that it won't hurt so much to be away from them. And that the time between now and this summer will FLY by (not that I am wishing my life away or anything though. No scarcasm there either). And also to pray that the people at school would be able to understand a little better or just learn how to accept that yeah, maybe I am different then them. Yeah, I go to Haiti. Yeah, I like it. Yeah, I like learning/speaking Creole. Yeah, I don't want to take Spanish next year because French would have more purpose for my life. And yeah, I don't care what people think of me going on mission trips there because their opinions don't matter that much and I know tons of people who accept it and I can talk about. So now that that was an extremely long prayer request... haha. Thank you guys!!

I think that is all. I will try to get pictures on here tomorrow. Not sure why it didn't work, but hopefully it will work by tomorrow. Otherwise I will get them on here eventually I suppose. :)

T♥RI


EDIT: Here are the pics I promised-
Ti-Pap (pronounced tea-pahp) and his younger brother Joelle (pronouned Jho-el [The J kind is pretty silent I guess you could say... kind of sounds like a shhh, but different]). Both of them work at the mission, usually at the gate. But I think they do other things too. I know Ti-Pap does a lot else around the mission too. Ti-Pap is working on his English and is extremely good at it I would say. So I think he translates sometimes if he needs too. I know he translates for me and Tiffany sometimes!! On our last night, we were all hanging out on the swingset, me and Tiffany and Ti-Pap later were underneath on the tireswing, Paige and Jeanbeauvis and Joelle were walking/swinging outside. But then just randomly Ti-Pap was looking at our house and says (actually whispers... the whole conversation is whispering by him) "I think Tori's daddy is sleeping." And me and Tiffany were laughing and Tiffany was like "How do you know that?" So Ti-Pap said "I don't know I just think so." Then we were all laughing. Tiffany said "Is my daddy sleeping too?" Ti-Pap said "No I see your daddy over by the canteen." Tiffany was like "You do? Where is he? I don't see him." And Ti-Pap said "Well not right now. But I saw him earlier." More laughing. Then about 3 minutes later it was quiet and Ti-Pap says "I see your daddy now." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA we about died laughing. That was hilarious. I don't have a funny story about Joelle though. Sorry. We didn't spend as much time with him because Ti-Pap always made him work at the gate. What a nice big brother right? Haha. Sometimes he was with us, but I have no funny stories. They are both really cool guys though.Jeanbeauvis (pronounced John Bo-vay for all you non-Creole speakers. Haha) This is a funny picture because it looks like he has a mustache... hmm. He doesn't really. It doesn't really look that much like him either, but I put it up because (sounds mean, but I don't mean it too.) you can actually see him. Usually the picture is too dark to see him. Ok... just looked at that again and it doesn't look like him at all. Maybe like 35%. Maybe. He goes to school at Lifeline. Sometimes we talk him into helping us do stuff when we're there but otherwise I don't think he does much else at the mission besides talk to Paige and Ti-Pap and everyone. He is pretty cool too. Everytime I try to say something to him in Creole, he says (in English) "You speak Creole?" and I say "You speak English?" and then he laughs at me. His English isn't very good at all. He knows like 20 words maybe. (Better then in August but not enough to carry on a conversation) Usually Ti-Pap translates for me, Tiffany, and him if we want to talk.
Macare (pronouned Mah-cah-re) Haha, I just learned that I was saying his name wrong like a few days into the last trip. Whoops. Sorry dude! This is such a bad picture. Paige has a better one, but she won't put any of her pictures on anything because they take so long to upload down there. So here I sit. With another bad picture of him. I met him at the carnival last year. Actually while I was talking to him, my mom was meeting the rest of the family and we never even knew until afterwards at dinner! I'm pretty sure he's my age. I know he was 13 in August but I don't know if he had his birthday yet. When we go out in the village usually he comes with us. That's okay though because he is pretty cool. He came to the dam swimming with us too. Actually on the way back from the dam one day, he was talking to Paige (his English is not so good... neither is my Creole. Our conversations are usually short.) and she was translating some stuff that he wanted to say to me. Apparently he asked if I wanted to fight. Just right there in the middle of the road. I had Noah on my back, but I was like being all white-American-gangsta (haha like usual huh?) and I was like "Alright! Let's go! I'll take you down so fast that won't even be a fight!" I think Paige translated because he was laughing. Never got to fight though. Darn... :)
This is Robensin. (ro-bin-sin) Simple name to pronounce huh? That's probably because I have no idea how to spell his name so I sound it out. Haha. He is a translator at the mission. He taught himself English before and he is REALLY good at it. He is pretty interesting. Haha... he's cool too. I think he is also in charge of the sponsership program for Lifeline. I know that both times I was there, we went to a school to do updates for the sponsership program and he was writing stuff down in this folder he has, and he has a camera for taking pictures of the kids to be sponsered, and he has a little whiteboard that you write the kids name on. So I don't know if he just does that or if he is in charge of it. Can you see his necklace? Me and Tiffany and Paige decided that it looked like a heart, so we were teasing him. I think it was the first day we were there... anyways, Paige I think said "Robensin are you in love?" and he laughed and was like "No, why?" and we were like "Your necklace looks like a heart." But I don't remember what he said after that.
Peter. (You better know how to pronounce that...:)) He is another translator at the mission. I think he said that he grew up in America. I don't remember when he moved there though. He was deported back to Haiti though after a while. I'm pretty sure that's why he knows English. Haha, well living in America for about 10+ years could do that do a person... haha. He was the translator for our rotation in August, but I didn't see him very much this time. He says he was really busy which is understandable because his wife had another baby a few months ago. I think his baby and Lydia are about the same age, but I don't know for sure. I don't have any funny stories about him except that he left us at the school to go do something. Fine, whatever, Robensin was supposed to call him when we were finished so he could come pick us up with the truck. So he called. And we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. And just as we were about to get a tour of the offices in the school or something like that, he shows up. He is a really cool guy though.

The fabulous Paigeita. Haha, I call her that and she calls me Toriffic. In case you didn't know or can't figure it out, her name to the common people is Paige. She is Troy and Tara's daughter (the missionaries down there) and she is 13. She runs the formula program and I think she teaches English sometimes... not sure about the English though. Also she helps Jen in the medical clinic sometimes when she isn't at school. (Paige-if any of this is wrong and you read this let me know!) Hmm....... a funny story about Paige. What to pick what to pick? This is probably the hardest one to have a funny story because there are so many. Ok, Nate brought down candy for the Livesay's. Paige requested Sour Patch Kids, but there weren't any, so Nate brought her two bags of Sour Lifesavers instead. As soon as he gave them to her, she opened one and started eating them. She gave me like 5 or something of them. Then I stole the bag later and had some more, but that's only a minor detail right?! Haha... So we got bored and went out by the gate to talk to people. We were both really hyper and like jumping around like crazy people. The Haitians by the gate we calling us macici (translation not recomended... not a bad word but I don't feel like translating that. Maybe later.) because we were trying to ballroom dance. I had to be the guy everytime. One time I think on a different day, we were dancing, and totally fell over right in front of the gate! It was HILARIOUS!! I landed right on top of her, earning us some more "macicis". I thought I was going to die laughing. And she took my candy bracelet that Mrs. Hill and Anna got for me and broke it all over the floor. I will never forgive her for that. Well maybe... ok I already did but anyways... :)


Most of these people you already know from previous pictures. But anyways... Jeanbeauvis, Ti-Pap, Paige, Tiffany, me, and Aaron. Tiffany and Aaron I will talk about in another post!! Sorry Paige isn't smiling, I have two pictures like this and one she is smiling in and one she isn't. This is the first one I picked, and when it uploaded I saw it was the wrong one. But I didn't feel like uploading another picture since this one took long enough already, so here you go. An unsmiling Paige. I'm extremely sorry for your loss at this moment. She has a nice smile, she just chose not to use it in this particular instance. So there. I'm done with the pictures. Whew that was hard work.

9 comments:

Mari said...

I will pray for you - it's hard to be separated from friends.

T♥RI said...

Oh yeah, there are pics on the side of most of my friends. So if you are really desperate for pictures of these guys, you can look there! hahaha

Melissa said...

Yeah, I had to try really hard not to laugh out loud when Nate said that. I just thought it was funny, and I didn't even know about your joke!
Hunny, I'll be praying for you. I can relate to what you're going through, as I have the same thing with Romania. People just don't understand my passion. Or why I'd want to learn Romania....etc. Kinda like what you said for you. So of course I'll be praying for you. And if you ever need to talk...you know I'm here ok? ♥

Diane said...

I always pray for you, hon! I know how desperately you miss your "posse" in Haiti! I can see it in your eyes every day and it tears my heart out seeing you sad! I will continue to pray for you and listen when you want to talk.

I can think of at least 4 pretty good friends that are always willing to listen to you and talk with you about Haiti whenever you need to! These 4 people will understand about missions and the emotions that go along with missing the country and people!

You're not alone and please don't ever feel that way! God knows your heart and what it's going through - He'll help you get through every day you're apart from your buds in Haiti! :)

Brenda said...

Hey
I am always willing to give a shout out to the big G for my homey peeps. Try not to wig out and just chill yo?
peace out
Nate

Diane said...

Nate - YOU REALLY WORRY ME!!!!!

Tori actually had to explain a little of that for me! She ran upstairs to tell me to read your comment and was laughing hysterically at your "attempt" to speak the "lingo"!

Diane said...

Love your pics and your stories! I've heard them before but I'm still not tired of hearing them! Can't wait to see what funny stories happen in July! :)

Zaankali said...

Love the pictures! Can't wait to meet everyone.
Smiles!

Nate and Brenda said...

I love seeing them all again! I miss them all too! Cannot wait until July to pick on them all some more!! :)