the {junior} buhlers

Since our little Mann was born, we have had a hard time keeping up with our blog - but there is so much to document! In an effort to continue keeping our friends and family updated, we will be creating a new, private blog at juniorbuhlers.blogspot.com. Please leave a comment or email me at karenruth(at)gmail(dot)com if you would like to continue creepin' on our family. Also, for you Google Readers out there, I will post a link on this public blog each time I post, since private blogs don't update your Reader. And, we'll still probably post our travel journeys on this public blog in case we're ever in an extreme natural disaster again and the local news needs to steal our photos for a story. :)

Enjoy!

Hello, neglected friend.

2011-06-05T16:22:00.004-05:00

I'm sure we've gone longer than four months without a blog post, but wow! What a four month time period to miss! I feel list coming...

EVERETT...

crawls. And cruises. And climbs. We are excited/scared for his next milestone...
has four sharp teeth. Very sharp. Probably because he went through a stage for three weeks where all he would do was grind his teeth. I am so grateful that stage is over, though I'm not a fan of the biting stage.
babbles, laughs, whistles inward, claps, dances, and says "dada" and "mama" (though he only says "mama" in the middle of the night when he is crying...).
refuses to eat baby food. He wants what we're eating and wants to feed himself. Some favorites are watermelon, cantaloupe (whose child is this?! I hate melons!), ravioli, sweet potatoes, banana, and broccoli.
thinks he's a dog. He likes to eat treats off the floor and crawl around the house with toys in his mouth.
now wears cloth diapers. We had wanted to do this since before he was born, but finally had the resources needed to make it work (ie...washer/dryer!).
met his Aunt Hoonie (Hermana Susan was serving in the Peru Lima North mission...he was born at her half-way mark!).
met his Great-Grandpa Homer Mann Witt....one of the great men for whom he was named!
will be ONE YEAR OLD in about two weeks!

KAREN...

survived her first year of teaching. Barely. Those last couple weeks were rough, especially as they added new students in her classroom and the adult-student ratio was not as ideal as it was supposed to be.
is switching to working full-time until Adam is done with school.
is anxiously searching for a full-time job. :) The back-up, back-up, safety plan is to continue teaching half-time where I am and work as a building aide in the morning. Not ideal, but as I have heard more in the last few months than ever before in my life (not counting the Geico commercial), "A bird in hand is worth two in a bush."
is enjoying her summer vacation. And her monthly paycheck that still comes for three more months!
still isn't finished with her Master's degree. One project/thesis stands in the way, but so does lack of motivation, no topic, and an adorable son who wants to play all summer. The new goal is to finish by this December. We shall see.

ADAM...

returned safely from Haiti.
enjoyed days with Everett while I was at work.
enjoyed nights where Everett slept (those have been few and far between...).
PASSED CALCULUS!!!
is working during the summer for Federal Student Financial Aid. Call with any questions...he knows everything.

THE BUHLERS...

bought a house.
bought a couch.
bought a washer & dryer.
bought a piano.
had a VERY nice tax refund (see above items).

So much of the last few months has surrounded the purchase of our new home. We closed in the last part of April and it is really starting to feel like home. A year ago, we had heard about this program, Tenants to Homeowners, which creates energy-efficient, affordable housing in Lawrence. We had looked at our circumstances at that point and decided to wait before purchasing a home. Now that we actually have a real "big girl" job, we felt much more comfortable taking out a mortgage. Plus, the fact that three family friends were living on the same block that we were looking at didn't hurt either. So, we qualified for the program, met with the bank, locked in a great interest rate, and bought our house! It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, complete with a finished basement and 2-car garage. We're especially excited that my sister Rachel will be living with us next year. It gives us room to grow, especially since we'll be in Lawrence for a while as Adam finished school and gets a"big boy" job somewhere close by. It's been great. We finally have the space to comfortably have people over! We're also less than a mile away from downtown, so Everett and I enjoy walking down to the Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings or taking a family walk on the trail near our house. There's even a park a street over that my niece and nephews love to visit. It's hard to believe that we'll even take Everett's "first day of school" pictures by the tree in the front. Wow!

As for our piano, it was the most amazing Craigslist find ever. One evening around midnight, Adam mentioned that we had planned on getting a piano before we got tv (we have a tv, just no cable or even local channels). Well, I decided to look at the price of pianos in the area, so I jumped onto Craigslist and there was a posting just 20 minutes before for a piano for $200. And it was beautiful. I emailed the lady, talked to her the next day, went to see the piano, and we decided to buy it. I'm glad we contacted her when we did, because she was bombarded with responses. If my 13-year old self could see me now, she would not believe it. Nor would my 14-year old self, 17-year old self, or even 10-year old self. Those are all the times I quit piano lessons. Still, after serving a mission and seeing the great need for musical talent, I have been greatly motivated to gain that skill. It's slow going, but I try to play each day. Everett will either play the upper keys for me or crawl around my feet and hit the pedals for me. Adam and I have sat down and had a couple lessons for him since he's never had the opportunity to learn either. We're hoping that if our kids see us practicing, maybe they won't quite lessons five times!

This has been a quick update, but hopefully it will put me back in the swing of things. And hopefully the next time I post, it will be with positive news about an amazing full-time job next year!

Can't you see his excitement with the switch to cloth?! His diapers aren't normally that big. We just got a little adventurous with the first overnight diaper and stuffed it a little too full.

Hermana Hoonie! She stays with us on weekends and holidays, so we're trying to catch up on lost time. Everett's been waiting for her...

Sweet Grandpa Witt! Everett LOVED him from the moment he saw him. I think it was mutual.

This kid turns everything into a steering wheel (his stroller wheels, my hairbrush....and this actual steering wheel. Looks like we have another petrolhead in the family!).

Home sweet home!

(Please disregard the bright yellow paint...we're hoping to remedy it in the future)

A Tale of Two Sides

2011-02-17T09:49:00.002-06:00

Everett likes to move at all times. Even when he's almost asleep, his little hands insist on playing with my hair or feeling the texture of the rocking chair or sheet. He has the hardest time when he should be nursing. I decided to document it one Sunday with a video of his feet. The first video is pretty typical, but the second one surprised me and made me laugh. This kid is hilarious!

Right side:

Left Side:

1/9/11 - Jacmel

2011-01-09T18:54:00.003-06:00

So since I'm so behind on the blog I decided to just make small updates. Today I went to church here in Jacmel and had a great experience. Then Tiana and I took a tap tap out to Kabik and spent some time on the beach. We enjoyed some great "Lanbi Griye" or "Grilled Conch" and just took it easy. We came back on another tap tap which broke down after 5 minutes and then we jumped on another which brought us back into town. We took bucket showers with hot water and headed over to Florita, our favorite place for internet these days. After walking in I found another familiar face: Beleque! He was with Jorgen and the other Danes when we met at the MINUSTAH camp last year. He had just arrived from Cap Haitian this afternoon and it was great to see him and talk with him more. These blog posts aren't as lengthy and detailed as those in the past but I figure it's easier to keep up when they are shorter. Here's a photo of the Lanbi Griye we had on the beach:

1/8/11 - Jacmel

2011-01-08T17:14:00.004-06:00

I am horrible at keeping up with this blog. I promise that detailed descriptions of every day will be posted eventually but as for now I wanted to share this photo. Tiana and I walked into the Florita hotel here in Jacmel which has become our internet source of choice. Walking in I saw Sue Frame sitting in the corner, we had met a few days ago and already had a chance to catch up, but another friend from last year was also sitting in at a table: Jorgen Leth. It was Jorgen's son who chartered a helicopter to come to Jacmel and it was Jorgen who decided to put us on the helicopter in his stead. It was great catching up with him briefly and I plan on seeing him more over the next few days. The 10th, 11th, and 12th will feature several films in the area and one of them will be Jorgen's film he was working on when the quake hit. So, I plan on updating the blog more but until then, enjoy!

Update on Adam

2011-01-03T19:23:00.002-06:00

I just spoke with Adam...he is now in Jacmel for the week and will be able to post more tomorrow. He returned to Guy's Guesthouse, where we were during the earthquake. I can only imagine how surreal it must be for him.

He sent this picture from his visit to Cite Soleil - this gorgeous baby is the same age as Everett!

Photo credit: Tiana Markova-Gold

Port-au-Prince - 12/30/10

2010-12-30T22:59:00.001-06:00

Today didn’t start as early as the other days. I got some good sleep and woke up at 8:00am. We got some breakfast and James and I started our day going to meet with a group in an area called Repatriation. It’s a group that helps support women in the community. It focuses on helping women know how to treat the water they get to ensure they don’t get any diseases from their water, they have also worked to help some of the women learn how to sign their names on official documents. They also do clinics with new mothers teaching them how to breast feed and provide the proper nutrition for themselves and their babies. It was a great organization with very dedicated and helpful people. They were very appreciative of our visit and all that we are trying to accomplish with our project. After filming an interview with them and taking some photos of their new mother clinics we loaded up the car and started to drive away. Unfortunately, for the third time in four days, the front tire was completely flat. We didn’t have a jack that worked and our spare tire wasn’t good for driving either. For the next hour we waited for someone with a pump to put more air in the tire or fix the leak or something. During this time James and I found some shade and were soon joined by about 15 boys in the area that were very curious to see this Blan who spoke their language. They had a good time asking me questions and wondering why I spoke their language and why my friend didn’t know any Creole. We talked about all sorts of random things and then someone came with a pump and fixed our tire. It never ceases to amaze me how Haitians are always willing and able to help us. It is true that some Haitians may want to take advantage of us or are looking for a handout, but the reality is these people are very helpful. Thinking back to the last time we were in Haiti and the many people who went above and beyond the call of duty to help us it just makes me love the Haitian people that much more.

James was our chauffeur for the day and I was amazed at how well he could handle the traffic and Haitian style of driving. I’m not sure I could do that. After more time in the country I’m sure I could be more comfortable driving here but certainly not after the one week James has been here. James braved the Haitian traffic and brought us safely back to our base camp. We ate a good lunch and then after backing up our our photos and videos we took a nap. The people we’re staying with had their church choir come over for a choir practice and it was interesting to be listening to the music and have it as a soundtrack during the sporadic dreams I had.

Tassy and Tiana returned from their day and we had a good meeting where we discussed our plans for the rest of our trip and what the other members of the team are planning to accomplish while they’re here. It turns out that there is a very good chance I will be going with Tiana to Jacmel for most of the next week. Tiana has taken me under her wing and I will accompany her to shoot some of the projects she has lined up while she’s here in Haiti. Tiana is a very accomplished photojournalist and has visited Haiti several times as well as other parts of the world. I really look forward to working with her and learning from her. I also really can’t wait to get out of Port-au-Prince. The traffic and pollution are less than desirable. I also just feel more comfortable outside of Port-au-Prince. The rest of the night I spent updating this blog and just getting to know Tiana better. I really can’t wait to work with her.

Port-au-Prince - 12/29/10

2010-12-30T21:41:00.000-06:00

I had a somewhat rude awakening when Tassy kicked my mattress at 6:30 and asked me what I was doing to earn my keep. He mentioned all of the things James and Hadas had done to help around the house and asked what I had done. Since all I had done was eat and sleep, I really didn’t have much to say for myself. I quickly got dressed and found out that we were leaving that very moment to meet someone for a shoot. I hurriedly got my stuff together, stumbled into my shoes and jumped into the car with Tassy and James and so began my day’s adventure. Tassy is an excellent driver in Haiti which really and truly is a high compliment. The way most of us are familiar with driving in the States would most certainly cause an accident within 5 minutes here in Haiti. Haitians aren’t used to driving with the same rules and regulations that we have in the States. There aren’t speed limits and traffic “lanes” are more guidelines, not strict designations for travel. (I’m reminded of a traffic ticket I got soon after my mission where the traffic violation was “Driving Left of Center”. I can’t imagine trying to explain what that means to a Haitian. They wouldn’t know what is wrong with it!) Everyone is very quick to react to whatever obstacle is introduced in their path. Whether it be a pedestrian, dog, gigantic sewer opening, or another vehicle, they are always quick to avoid it. At first glance it looks like complete chaos but after surviving so many close calls on all fronts, I soon realized that it’s a survival of the fittest. If you want to pass someone or cross traffic then the champion is whoever proves most daring and assertive with their vehicle position. Drivers communicate with a beep of the horn which can mean “I’m passing you,” or “Go Ahead,” or “Get out of my way!” and it all just works. Tassy says that if you can drive in Haiti and Manhattan, New York, you can drive anywhere in the world. He’s probably right.

We actually saw the guy we were planning on seeing on our way across town and found that he wouldn’t be home for another 2 hours. We changed our plans and decided to go to a small tent city next to a hospital in Carrefour. We arrived and found some pretty sad stuff. Lots of people are really mad and frustrated that they hear about the millions of dollars being promised to Haiti to help after the earthquake but they haven’t seen one cent of it. We had difficulty at first trying to find people who would stand in front of our cameras to tell us about what was going on. They talked about the several other journalists who come, take their pictures, and leave. They profit from the poverty and sad situation and don’t change anything. I can completely understand their situation, but that doesn’t really help the fact that the whole reason I had come was to show what Haitians are doing to help one another. If we can’t document what’s going on then what’s the point of us being here? Anyways, we finally got some guys to warm up to us and finally talked on camera for us. Then a bunch more people showed up and we decided to pack up before more people started to gather and draw attention to us.

We headed over to see Francois who is a local political leader and director of a school for the handicapped. He himself has lost both of his hands but he seems to get along just fine. Unfortunately, he had come and gone again before we got there. Hopefully we can make another appointment with him. I know he has a great organization and a great story that is definitely in line with our project. After trying to find some clean food (the risk of Cholera is very real so our Haitian friends take every precaution to make sure we avoid any potential contact with the horrible disease) we ended up making our way back across town so we could meet our next team member Tiana at the airport. We had almost reached our base camp when we drove past a traffic accident that had just happened. A pedestrian had been hit by a passing car and about 35 people had gathered to make quite a commotion. The unfortunate pedestrian had been struck below his calf and was bleeding and yelling in the back of car that hit him. The crowd of people gathered to ensure that the driver wouldn’t run away while the police were coming. James and I got some video of the situation and left when more and more people started gathering. The police did arrive and the driver was being questioned. Tassy drove us back to the house where we got our first meal of the day (it was now noon) and he and James left to pick up Tiana who had been delayed in New York for 3 days due to the blizzard. I stayed back and worked on researching some organizations in Haiti that we’d like include in our project.

They returned almost 2 hours later and we ate again and got to know Tiana better. After dinner Tassy, Tiana, and I went to grab a drink and talk about the project and what we would like to accomplish while we are here. We had a good discussion talking about our goals and how we can accomplish them.

We went back to the house and soon after were met by two guys who direct a small grassroots organization in the area. They pool their own money and resources to arrange food and water distribution and several other things to help many of the tent communities. They had formed before the earthquake but especially after the earthquake their work was needed that much more. They are really great at organizing efforts to put people in the community to work. They feel that there is high value in the work that people can do in their own community. When I asked them what things they needed they talked about the basic needs that we enjoy in the States. Things like patching potholes in the road, or public restrooms where people can use the bathroom while traveling between cities, or even having reliable electricity at night to allow more work to be done after the sun goes down, all are specific things they mentioned that would really help their work improve. It was great to hear such organized and motivated people really making a difference in their own communities. This group is one of many that we are going to feature in the Nap Kenbe Project.

James, Tiana, and some of our other Haitian friends went out to drink but I stayed home to catch up on this blog, take a shower, and get to bed early. Which is what I am doing right now. Until tomorrow!

Port-au-Prince - 12/28/10

2010-12-30T21:37:00.001-06:00

So my first and second day of the trip weren’t divided by sleep like most people. I stayed awake and made good friends with a guy from France (who I thought was Haitian). We had an interesting conversation while he spoke broken English and I spoke broken French. We talked about great places to see on vacation and how different the cultures of America, France, and Senegal are. His family is from Senegal and he visits on a fairly regular basis. After talking for a few hours I decided to go sit in front of the Air France ticket office just because there was no way I was going to sleep. It was positively cold in the airport. It was probably 40 degrees outside and maybe 55 degrees inside the airport. I found another man sitting in front of the Air France desk and after quickly discovering that he was Haitian we talked for another hour about how to fix all of Haiti’s problems. We both came to the conclusion that Haiti is so far into its problems that it will take several generations to fix everything. After our long talk we checked in, I grabbed a bite to eat, and then tried to get at least some sleep before my flight. I realize now as I’m writing this that I had been awake for 22 hours. That’s a long day! I got about an hour of sleep before the sun was in my eyes and boarding for the plane was about to begin. I got on the plane and noticed that my window seat was already occupied, leaving the aisle seat available. Normally I would have spoken up and tried to get my window seat since I love looking out the window as we fly into Haiti, but I was too tired to protest. I went through the flight with little conversation and another hour of sleep.

After landing I got off the plane and got my first reminder of the reality of the earthquake last year. The main (and only) terminal was condemned because of the structural damage sustained by the quake. Broken glass, rubble, and cracks running all over the walls was all that was left of the still standing building. It was eerie peering through the doors as I boarded a large bus that took us further down the runway where the makeshift terminal was found. An old American Airlines cargo warehouse has been converted into customs and baggage pick-up. Luggage is laid in neat rows and long lines zigzag around the open space on the floor. After passing two less-than-interested customs workers I was out of the airport with my bags and looking for James Rhodes, the originator of the Nap Kenbe project. He hadn’t arrived yet. I was hounded by countless Haitians attempting to give me an overpriced taxi ride but I told them sternly, “Non, M’ pa bezwen taksi!” “Nope, I don’t need a taxi”. My Creole impressed them and they left me alone after that, discovering that I wasn’t a “Blan Bet” “Dumb White Person” that could be tricked into giving them my valuable American dollars. After waiting about 15 minutes I agreed to use the phone of a friendly (almost too friendly, obviously looking to profit with his “Haitian Hospitality”) Haitian taxi driver named Patrick. James told me that he was 10 minutes away. I took the opportunity to get a SIM card for the phone my buddy Howard let me borrow for my trip. My new found friend Patrick walked me over to the Digicell hut where I could get what I needed. Fortunately, it wasn’t near as expensive as I had feared. $5 got me the SIM card and $10 bought me enough minutes for at least a few days’ use. Patrick gave me the Haitian Hustle and told me about his starving children and how much he helped me and everything. I gave him $10 after talking him down from $30 and found James soon after.

We stopped at a nice Haitian restaurant on the way to the house which is acting as our base camp. (Interesting note, our house is across the street from former-President Aristide’s house. I think that’s kinda cool!) I was reminded of our trip last year when it took 30 minutes for them to bring us water and then another 20 minutes to bring us food. The food was great though. After being stuffed silly we went to the house where I finally got a chance to get some quality sleep. 4 hours later I woke up and got a chance to talk with another member of the Nap Kenbe team, Hadas. This is her first trip to Haiti and she is certainly getting a good dose of how Haiti works. She was trying to go to one of the cities outside of Port-au-Prince and the bus she took ended up stopping and taking everyone back to town after the driver wanted to charge another 10 goudes for the bus fare. She then walked 45 minutes towards another bus stop and was met by Tassy, another one of the Nap Kenbe Project originators. I used the internet for a short period of time and managed to get a short Skype video chat with Karen, Rachel, and a stubborn Everett who wasn’t wanting to sleep. After eating another meal we took a car over to one of Tassy’s friend’s house and I got a chance to get to know Tassy. He lives in Orlando and is a Priest in a church there. He’s a very well known man in the area and nearly everywhere we go he stops to talk to people he knows. He is pretty much the one who has arranged most of our contacts here in Haiti and takes care of transportation for us. After grabbing another mattress for me to sleep on we returned to the house and after my very first genuine Haitian bucket shower I went to bed.

Miami, FL - Monday 12/27

2010-12-27T23:41:00.002-06:00

I nearly forgot to make my first blog post on my Haiti trip. I'm currently in the Miami International Airport camping out in front of the Ron Jon Surf Shop just people watching and working on stuff on my computer with the reliable and fast (but not free) internet. I will eventually work on getting some shut eye but with Kenny G and other instrumental artist's renditions of Christmas songs loudly blaring over the intercom AND the TSA announcements in both English and Spanish happening every 5 minutes AND a verbal reminder of what the local time is every 15 minutes AND bright florescent lights as far as the eye can see AND security officers whizzing by on their ridiculous Segways, it will be difficult for sure. Oh, AND I'm still getting over from a pretty wicked cold that left me all sorts of congested. I can't go very far without needing a kleenex or two or five. My descent into Miami made my right ear feel close to bursting with all of the congestion in my sinuses. I can at least hear out of my right ear now, but it still hurts and feels numb and heavy for some reason. Hopefully my flight into Port-au-Prince doesn't leave me as bent out of shape as this flight from Houston to Miami.

For the record, I really do enjoy traveling. Travel was one of the things Karen and I have made a priority in our budget. Even with the significant decrease in our incomes over the last year and a half, we still manage to stuff away about 5% of what we make into an account just for Travel. With that said, I really don't enjoy the traveling part of travel. Or maybe it was just today. Flying when you're sick and congested certainly makes things more difficult and uncomfortable. Oh, right, and I'm 6'4" so it's rare to find an airplane seat this side of Business Class that can comfortably transport anyone taller than 5'10". My knees, feet, and elbows are ALWAYS in someone's personal bubble. Yep, I'm the guy that inspires cringes from travelers who board the plane early and then have to move and rearrange things to accommodate this freak of nature. I'm talking to you 40-year-old-woman-with-her-nose-stuck-in-her-book. I saw the look you gave me. Maybe the part that doomed it from the beginning was when I was going through the security check in Kansas City. I had taken longer packing this morning than planned so everything was running 30 minutes late. We got to the airport and I was hungry so Karen insisted that we run by Starbucks to grab something for me to eat before my flight. My lovely wife of almost 3 years knows that her husband gets very cranky if he doesn't eat for extended periods of time, so, with less than 30 minutes until my scheduled departure, we got some food. We walked half-way through the terminal to Starbucks (we had a gift card so we HAD to go) where I knocked some things over on one of their displays and lost friends real quick, then we walked the other half back to my departure gate. I bought a yogurt parfait and a blueberry scone to enjoy on the plane. We had a loving family hug in a small corner, said our goodbyes, and I went into line to check in. I would have thought my huge bag of camera gear with the various lenses, accessories, laptop, and external hard drive would have caused a long delay at the x-ray machine but that went through without a hitch. The part that did cause a delay was my yogurt parfait. "This is not a solid," says the TSA agent with a cold robotic face, "You will have to surrender it in order to pass through the security check," he said handing me my yogurt parfait. Translation: "You get to throw away the yogurt parfait you just bought because that's what I've been trained to tell all of the unfortunate travelers who thought they could buy unreasonably priced food and take it on the plane with them." I mean seriously. Did I put C4 in my unsuspecting Starbucks yogurt parfait? No! That's absurd! Oh the world we live in. Anyways, enough with my rant about traveling. It's really not THAT bad and it comes with the territory. I could save my money and spend it on other things if it really bothers me that much. I will just be happy to have finally arrived in Haiti. I can't wait to get on the ground and start work on this project.

Here's a little bit about what I'm thinking the day before I arrive. What I do know is:

I will be in Haiti from 12/28-1/14.
I will be doing both still and video photography of Haitians making a difference.
I will be working with, and for, the Haitian people I have learned to love and respect.
I will be speaking Haitian Creole more than English.
I will be working with a handful of other photojournalists as part of the Nap Kenbe Project (www.napkenbe.org).
I will be warmer in Haiti than in Kansas. Seasonally the temperature is between 65 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. When I land in Port-au-Prince it's supposed to be 85!!!
I will be in Haiti to experience my first Haitian Independence Day (January 1st) and will be in Haiti for the anniversary of the earthquake that has so changed Haiti forever (January 12th).

There are several more unknowns in this trip though. I have no idea where in Haiti I will be except for the first and last days of my trip. I have no idea if Haiti will finally elect a new President. I have no idea how bad the cholera outbreak really is. I don't really have a clear idea of what groups or individuals I will be photographing. I don't really even know what the end product of the Nap Kenbe Project will look like. I know we are wanting to make a documentary and hopefully submit it to film festivals like the Sundance Film Festival, but I have no idea how that can or will happen. Hopefully the morning will answer at least a few of the unknowns.

I'm going to try to get some sleep now. Just imagine how difficult that can be with some guy Kenny G-in' it up on the intercom. If you don't know what that means, just watch this video from Mike Birbiglia. Skip to the 3:20 mark and watch at least until the 5:00 mark. If you want to hear the whole story it starts in Part 10. Please watch it. You will laugh and enjoy it. I promise!

New family tradition?

2010-12-18T21:30:00.004-06:00

For the second year in a row, Adam will spend half of January in Haiti (and the tail end of December too). Everett and I will not be joining him on this year's adventure, which we pray will not be nearly as exciting as last time. We knew we would go back to Haiti, we just assumed it wouldn't be so soon (school, new baby, no money....you know). On Thanksgiving, Adam was reading a photography blog, which talked about a project being put together to raise awareness about Haiti leading up to the anniversary of the earthquake. It asked for donations and requested a small number of photographers/videographers to travel to Haiti to document the project. It was the perfect project for Adam, so he contacted the guy that day, spoke with him the next, and then joined the team! We have felt that same peace about this trip that we had about our previous, so despite it being Haiti (cholera, riots with UN, crazy elections, etc.), we still feel good about his going. AND, the project takes care of all the costs in country, we just had to buy Adam's plane tickets. In a continuation of Haiti miracles, after contacting Air France, Adam was able to get a full refund on our tickets that we voided last January. Wa hoo! We had been told right after the earthquake that they could give us a one-way travel voucher and that was it, so this was a pleasant and much needed surprise. Anyway...if you enjoyed our previous travelog on Haiti, keep your eyes here from December 27 - January 15. I have made Adam promise that he will keep a detailed account every day, no matter how tired he is (more for us than for anything...but we were certainly surprised by how many people actually read our vvvvvvery long posts last trip!). We've started practicing using Skype with Adam and Everett. Everett doesn't really get it yet....he's more concerned with how to get the keyboard into his mouth, but at least that makes for a cute video for Adam! We will definitely miss him while he is gone, but my sister Rachel will stay with us and we know Adam is doing a good thing.

In other big news, my little baby is going to be six months on Tuesday! I've been waiting until then to start him on solid foods, but this kid is definitely getting ready! He will stop whatever he is doing when we are eating and just stare at us putting food or drink in our mouth. It makes it quite difficult at breakfast when Everett is nursing and insists on pulling away to watch me put every single bite of cereal in my mouth. It's like a big surprise to him every single time I do it....which is a lot for a bowl of cereal. I've been giving him a baby spoon to hold and chew on and we've been "practicing" taking bites on it....this kid puts up with a lot with me as his mother!

We got family pictures taken in November and will be posting more of them on Facebook, but here are a couple of ones we really liked. Thanks to Amber of BellaRay Photography for the great work - she took our engagement and wedding pictures, so it's only fitting she took our first family photo!

On my desk at work...love those eyes!

Adam gave me a hard time for how much thought I put into our "coordinating but not matching" outfits. I think they work.

It's very typical (and cute) for Everett to be doing something crazy with his mouth.

I love my boys...even when Everett is mean mugging the camera!

Loves his daddy!

2010-10-25T23:35:00.003-05:00

Proof. Warning: Stinkin' cute adorable baby alert.

My 12-4.

2010-10-13T23:17:00.002-05:00

I spend two hours in a car, Monday-Friday. That's not too exciting. I spend four hours with ten 2-5 year olds, Monday-Friday. That can be...interesting. I always hear of first-year teachers keeping a journal of all the ridiculous and crazy things that happen to them (I haven't done that), but to be honest...I don't think it would matter how many years I teach preschool...they are just going to be full of funny things! There are so many moments that I just want to capture and share with others, but can't. Like the time a little guy showed up with two left shoes - one loafer and one sneaker. Or the girl that showed up on "Wear Blue" day in a too-big, blue dance leotard with blue and white puffy sleeves and a sheer dance skirt. Those are the cute and funny moments. Then, there are moments like this:

Setting: Just before we go out to recess near the end of the day, we all line up and walk to the restrooms. One girl was having a particularly sassy day, army-crawling down the hallway, running back to the room, and finally somewhat walking with me to the restroom. Once she got in the stall, I thought the excitement would be over (I was a little done with her that day.). Much to my surprise, the stall opens and she scoots backwards - pants at her ankles and hands spreading her bum. She exclaimed incredulously, "Did you know that this line is ALWAYS going to be here?!" Wow. Not expecting that! I surprised myself by not laughing and just saying firmly, "You better turn that thing around and go to the bathroom, missy!" Looking back on it, I laugh a lot. I shared it at our staff meeting this week and won the prize for the best student story of the year.

We've been having parent teacher conferences this week. I have really enjoyed speaking with all of my students' parents! It kind of makes it real that I am a teacher when I hear the parents share stories from their child's perspective. An especially cute story I heard today involved a well behaved boy in my class. His mom told me today that he purposely spit in her car. After he did, and knowing that his mom was coming to the school tonight, he said, "Don't tell Miss Karen what I did. It'll be our little secret, okay?" He's also the kid that can identify all of his colors and numbers based on characters from Thomas the Tank Engine. This kid has a one track mind!

But, you know the best part of my day? Coming home to the two sweetest boys ever. Tonight was especially hard because I was gone from 12-8. I was kind of bummed that I wouldn't be able to really see Everett until he woke up at 3 AM to eat. Well, this guy must've had a bad dream or something because about 30 minutes after I got home, he started crying in his sleep and I was able to hold him and comfort him back to sleep. It is good to be home! And, one funny story about home life. Adam and I love spending the first 20 minutes of our day playing and talking with Everett. He wakes up SO happy and playful, so the three of us just stay in bed and slowly wake up to cute baby smiles. This morning I couldn't find my glasses. I am blind without them. I tried looking around my nightstand (with my face about three inches away from it), while Adam looked on the floor and in other places in our room. After searching most of the house without luck, I remembered something. I told Adam to check the floor next to the crib. Sure enough, there they were! At 3 AM this morning, I had gone into feed Everett while sitting in our glider. Well, halfway through I became so tired that I knew I couldn't stay sitting up and I was too tired to carry Everett into our bed to feed him. So, I took Everett and laid down on the floor next to the crib, fed Everett, fell asleep while doing so, and 30 minutes later, woke up enough to put Everett back in the crib and stagger back to my bed. Talk about sleepwalking and sleepfeeding! Mystery solved.

A year and a day earlier...

2010-10-10T20:58:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that it's been an entire year since the morning we took this picture:

Did we have any idea what the next year would have in store for us? Two brutal semesters, half an income, an earthquake in Haiti, three apartments in four months, a real teaching job, nine amazing months, and the past three months with the most adorable baby boy in the world. The two people in this photo don't really exist anymore (okay...we exist...but we are such different people now!). We will never go back to being "Just Adam and Karen." We are now "Adam and Karen" and "Daddy and Mommy." And that is just amazing! The whole Plan of Salvation just blows my mind at times. How awesome is it that Heavenly Father trusts Adam and I to raise one of His children during his time here on this earth. What a huge responsibility we have to care for our son who is really His son. We can already tell that the Lord has wonderful blessings and responsibilities in store for our little Everett. We love getting to know him better each day!

In our desire to capture the miracle of pregnancy, we started that day taking weekly photos and creating a journal of letters to our future child. Sadly, this only lasted until our trip to Haiti and then we stopped doing it (we just didn't make the time for it.). The really sad part is that we took all the pictures during the stage of pregnancy where there weren't huge changes from week to week! In fact...there were sometimes where we missed weeks, so we would just take two pictures in one day (I would just put in contacts, change my outfit, and change my hair...very tricky!). Maybe with our next one we will be able to keep up with it! Then again, Everett will be quite the handful by then, so no promises there!

....and those weeks did fly by!

Three months!

2010-09-21T20:59:00.002-05:00

It's been three months, two hours, and one minute since we first met our little guy. It's crazy to think how much he has already changed and how easily Adam and I have adapted to being Mommy and Daddy. We love it! It's so fun to experience this unique stage of life. Not gonna lie, it's definitely beat everything else so far.

Luckily, we have kind of settled into our routine and are using our time wisely and enjoying every moment with Everett and each other. I feel pretty confident as a teacher and Adam is enjoying his classes this semester and staying on top of the homework. We even have plenty of time to enjoy a weekly game night with our friends! Life is good.

A couple weeks ago, my sister Rachel and her boyfriend Josh took Adam and I to the first KU football game (yes...the embarrassing one where North Dakota State beat us 6-3). It was fun to hang out with them and to eavesdrop on the couple fighting behind us (it's not like the game was any interesting...we had to find something to entertain us!). We got there during the 2nd quarter and left at the beginning of the 4th. Everett stayed at home with Grandma and Aunt Christy, but he was at the game in spirit, sporting his Jayhawk onesie.

One of my favorite times of day is right when Everett wakes up, usually around 7:30. He is just kicking, smiling, and cooing from the moment I say "Good morning!" After he eats, he just smiles and talks to us for a good 45 minutes. Plus, he's still all warm and in his footed pajamas and it doesn't get much cuter than that! This was snapped while I made Adam's lunch before school....this kid is so adorable!

Everett is definitely growing up and becoming more social. As a result, he doesn't nap as long or as well during the day. Adam has had to adjust his expectations for his time in the afternoons with Everett because this little guy just wants to play with Daddy, rather than sleep so he can study! Adam's an awesome dad and somehow gets it all done. He always knows exactly what Everett needs and is so happy that Everett is finally enjoying some rough housing! I savor my time with Everett in the mornings and in the evenings and was especially excited when Everett, after an hour of crying, fell asleep while I sang his favorite songs over the phone to him on my drive home from work. I wasn't glad he was so worked up and upset, but when I gone most of the time that he's awake, it's nice to know that he remembers, misses, and loves me.

(We caught him mid-sneeze...still pretty cute!)

Everett is loving his hands! He's been chewing and sucking on them nonstop for a while, but just this week has been able to consistently soothe himself. He's been sucking his left index and middle fingers, which is exactly what I did as a baby. He's also been grabbing onto things and bringing them to his mouth. Yay for developmental milestones!

As a result of all that sucking and chewing, he has just been a drooling machine! I love this picture- his drool, expression, and everything else about him!

Picture Explosion!

2010-09-02T22:56:00.005-05:00

So, it continues to be way too long in between posts. Though Adam is a photographer, we haven't actually taken too many pictures of Everett. And it's not due to lack of cuteness...we just have no desire to run and grab a camera when he is cooing and smiling...we just want to interact with him! It is breathtaking how adorable he is and what joy a simple smile can bring. We will include a lot of pictures so you can see for yourself.

Updates:

Adam - He started classes in mid-August and is on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He is really excited to be taking a class about Haiti (called Portrait of a Third World Country: Haiti). I am excited to read his homework along with him since it doesn't feel like homework to either of us - it's an excuse to read about the history of a country we love and feel deeply connected to! Adam was also pleasantly surprised to find that he actually enjoys his business law class. After a rough semester last spring, he is excited to be in classes he either enjoys or has the intense desire to do well in and be done with them. We learned from last year and are trying to manage our time better and be more realistic with the number of things we take on. Let's hope it works!

Karen - I've been teaching preschool for the last three weeks. Holy sassy four-year olds! I love teaching the younger kids because I wouldn't have to deal with behavior issues (or so I thought...). So far, I am being tested and challenged every day by sassy little girls who act like teenagers. It is a bit ridiculous. There are so many things that happen where I just want to stop and say, "Really?! Really?!" I come home each day with lovely tales of my adventures and wish I could just be cuddling with my baby and watch him discover the world (okay...right now he's just discovering his hands and how they fit in his mouth. But I'll take that over divas any day!). Luckily, I love my school, district, fellow teachers, and support staff. It makes all the difference

Everett - He is now 24" and 14 lbs! This little guy just grows and grows, despite his mommy having two bouts with mastitis in two months. He is smiling, cooing, laughing, rolling, pivoting, and still rocking the tummy time. We had his first rounds of immunizations yesterday and our typically laid-back baby spent 12 hours in Daddy's arms, whimpering and wailing. He couldn't be laid down without bursting into tears, so he spent last night sleeping on top of Mommy. Luckily, he seems to be doing a lot better today. He is sleeping 6-9 hours in a row at night, which means that if we aren't well-rested, it's our own fault for staying up too late! He enjoys diaper changes, especially when I sing silly songs to him - he'll just stare at my eyes and stare grinning away. It is the best thing ever.

One of his first captured smiles...spending time with Nana!

He's outgrown most of his 0-3 month clothes, but 3-6 is still a little too big! These overalls make him look pretty little (though he is our super chunk!).

He loves sitting in the Bumbo and playing with toys or just looking around...there's lots to see!

All dressed up for church! This was the morning of his baby blessing (which was an amazing experience and so beautiful...it was so nice to have family and friends there with us on such a special day!)...notice his sneaker socks! He's a pretty snazzy dresser, what can I say!

Adorable.

Any takers?

2010-07-29T15:29:00.002-05:00

Laid-back, adorable SWM, looking for companionship and care on Thursdays from 11-5 while parents are at work and school. Must enjoy long naps, staring at lights, and tolerate diaper changes. Interested? Email my mom (karenruth{at}gmail.com).

One Month?!

2010-07-20T15:41:00.003-05:00

Time is flying by waaaaay too quickly. Tomorrow Everett will be one month old, in a week from Friday we move, in two weeks from today I start work, and in less than a month Adam starts classes. Where has the summer gone?!

Well, it has gone to 8-12 feedings a day, 1-3 hours of sleep in between, two tired newbie parents, and one stinkin' cute baby that is gaining weight like crazy. That's right. We are the proud parents of an eleven pound baby. He is gaining 2-3 ounces a day when most babies gain about one ounce a day. Every time we pick him up we can feel and see how he's changed. He's staying awake for longer periods during the day and doing an AWESOME job of sleeping for long periods of time at night. He's a rock star at tummy time and puts up with me checking all of the developmental milestones each week (yay for tracking objects and turning to Mom's voice!). He shocked us both last week when he decided to roll over from his tummy to his back. We thought it might be a fluke, but he proceeded to do it seven times over the next couple days and from both directions. Our child is a genius.

I never wanted our blog to turn into a play by play of Everett's life, but to be honest...there's not much else going on! He is definitely the best thing in our lives right now (although I still absolutely love seeing Adam be a daddy). I am dreading going to work. I love that my job is half-time, but not excited about the two weeks of full-time training I have to do in August. Luckily, Adam can stay at home and take care of Everett, though I am super jealous of him. I love our days together! Seriously...I need to figure out a way that Adam, Everett, and I can just stay home together all the time and still get an income. Ideas?

Adam has been updating his website (www.thecapturedphotos.com) and Facebook business page like crazy. He also took advantage of his "free" time in June to totally revamp his accounting for his business. He's totally legit! I am definitely learning a lot about business and all the little things you have to think about. A buddy of Adam's let us use his studio space this weekend, so Adam shot some awesome pictures of our little guy. He was upset and tired for most of the shoot, but somehow Adam was able to capture these brief moments where he was calm and adorable. Emphasis on adorable.

One Week

2010-06-28T13:18:00.009-05:00

It's amazing what a difference one week, one day, or even one second can make. Adam and I have definitely found that to be true this past week. Exactly a week ago, we were checking into the hospital after being in labor since 3:30 that morning. Though we were pregnant and knew our little guy was on our way here, we were still essentially a family of two. Our lives, schedules, and sleep patterns were our own. But, at 7:10 PM, all of that changed when this little guy emerged.

Everett Mann Buhler is named after two of his great-grandfathers and already we can sense what an amazing spirit is inside this little body. Adam and I both felt such an overwhelming feeling of love, joy, awe, and desire to protect our son from the moment we heard, saw, and held him. Adam, who had never held a baby before and was self-admittedly scared to death of infants, instantly became a father as he held his son in his arms. Over the past week he has been my constant support as we have all transitioned home from the hospital and into our new life together. I fall in love with both of them each time I come into the room and see Everett sleeping on Adam's chest or hear Adam soothing Everett in the middle of the night. I am so grateful to know that my little family will be together for all eternity....I can't picture my life any other way!

Labor and delivery was such a special and unique experience. For the first six hours of it, I wasn't sure if it was actually happening, so I kept telling myself it wasn't, so I wouldn't get my hopes up. We went about our day as normal, including a morning ultrasound and doctor's visit. I think they were a little surprised when I told them I was having contractions every 5-7 minutes. Knowing that we wanted to labor as naturally as possible, our doctor had us go home for a few more hours. We finally went to the hospital when contractions were about 2 1/2 minutes apart, though I was feeling much better than I had expected. Adam and I stayed in our own little world and groove throughout labor and when it got really intense, I just zoned everyone else out. It really was more of a mental struggle for me than a physical and I definitely learned a lot about myself through that experience! After three hours of transition, I finally got to push (I kept telling the nurse I REALLY wanted to push!) and after an hour, our little man was born! Despite the eight nurses and doctors running around the room, Adam and I were in our own little world with our new family and we enjoyed the next hour or so we had together before our immediate family came to see our new addition.

Coming home, our lives have definitely changed. Our priorities have already changed, as well as how we use our time. So much of our day (and night) is spent in caring for this little person that so many other ways to use our time seem pointless now. We are SO grateful for our family and friends who have already done so much for us. Both of our parents have brought by dinners and leftovers and Adam's mom has done countless loads of laundry for us. It's been great to see friends and family and appreciate the meals that have already been brought by. It truly is a lifesaver!

So, for now, we are enjoying being home all day as a family (minus the three hours Adam is at class) and waking up together at night. This is perfection.

Summer!

2010-06-11T14:34:00.002-05:00

We're so glad it's finally here! Even though Adam started his summer class this week, we still were able to pack plenty of fun and hope to continue doing so for the next couple months before we have to go back to school and now a grown-up job.

Highlights of our summer so far:

Adam and I were able to travel up to Omaha to witness our friends, Rachel and Dustin, get married! It was well worth the drive and we enjoyed the company at a lunch afterwards. We immediately headed back to Kansas and made it back with 10 minutes to spare for my sister Rachel's graduation. We are so excited that she'll be at KU in the fall...it'll give us even more time to hang out with her! I'm also super excited that she got into Sellards Scholarship Hall, where I lived as an undergrad. We can't wait for her to move here!

(Adam was here as well, but he took this picture for my mom...and the picture that has him in it is on his computer...so just pretend that my cute husband is standing next to me.)

Adam and I have been enjoying the beautiful weather and going on lots of walks in our neighborhood. There are so many cute, old homes and it's fun to brainstorm and plan our future home. We've tried to spend as much time outdoors as we can, but it's getting slightly more difficult since my physical activity is becoming limited. So we walk. On Memorial Day, we tried to recreate our amazing time in Europe last summer by picking up fresh fruit and bread and just sitting at a park. I had brought a book to read and Adam brought his camera, but unfortunately, he forgot a memory card so he couldn't take pictures and we hadn't factored in the blood-thirsty mosquitoes, so our picnic was short-lived. Sad.

(Enjoying our favorite place in Paris last summer - the Luxembourg Gardens...everyone just came and laid on the grass, reading, eating, and taking naps...we fit right in! And the food there wasn't too shabby either!)

Realizing that we hadn't really taken pictures of anything since our trip to Haiti, we decided we had better get a few photos to document my very pregnant state. Neither of us are big fans of the typical maternity pictures, so we decided that Adam would just take typical portraits of me that just happened to show that I was pregnant. We headed to the alleys of downtown Lawrence and had a lot of fun! We kept joking that if anyone asked us, we would tell them I was getting my senior pictures taken. It kind of felt like that! It definitely comes in handy having a talented photographer as a husband...this little kiddo will be well documented!

Adam enjoyed his first "real" concert a few weeks ago. We had seen Flight of the Conchords last winter, but we don't think it really counted. We went with our friends Ellyn and Justin to go see Kansas, Styx, and Foreigner play at the Starlight Theater and had quite the adventure! It's always smart to have cash when you go to a concert so you can actually pay for parking...something we discovered after being stuck in event traffic and realizing that no one had cash. We eventually were able to park, found a nice spot on the grass and enjoyed an evening of good music, people watching, and trying to get comfortable (not always easy for a super tall guy and a very pregnant girl).

Last Saturday, we had a lot of fun helping a couple of our friends move. At the first house, I was packing up the kitchen while Adam mowed the huge backyard. We had had a week of major rain a while back and Adam definitely felt the brunt of that...it took almost 3 hours to mow what should've taken 30 minutes! Still, it was fun to help, so we were excited when we heard some other friends needed help moving as well. Unfortunately, Adam's phone and wallet were stolen out of our car as he was helping, but we were able to cancel everything really quickly before any damage was done (and we obviously weren't carrying cash with us either!). We've been able to work everything out and Adam has a loaner phone until he can upgrade at the end of the summer.

All of this happened about 10 minutes before I needed to head off for my baby shower, so it was an eventful afternoon! The shower was at a park in downtown Lawrence and it was so fun to see so many friends and family there. Everyone brought their favorite children's book for Baby Boy Buhler and it's been fun to read them and the notes that were written to our little guy. Plus, we were able to just enjoy each other's company and good food, without any baby shower games...I was happy! Thank you Ashley, Ali, and Katie for all your hard work! It was perfect!

For now, we are back to the daily grind. Adam has class everyday in the afternoon and homework and reading in the morning/evening. I've been working full-time and will continue until the baby comes...it gives me something to focus on besides waiting and the paycheck won't hurt either! As busy as we've been so far, I have a feeling we will have a lot more adventures with the rest of the summer!

God is Good!

2010-04-05T23:34:00.002-05:00

Wow. So, three days after receiving this job offer and two days after posting this blog, we have already had more questions answered! Adam enrolled in classes for the summer and fall today...and his schedule gives him Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons free to stay at home with our son! With how crazy his schedule has been this past year, we really weren't counting on his staying home as an option. However, all of the classes he needed were only offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so the answer came pretty clearly! Figuring out two days of childcare is a lot more manageable than figuring out an entire week. I know that things aren't always figured out this quickly on the Lord's timetable, but I am so grateful for His love and desire to help us feel such peace and assurance as we face the unknown - parenthood.

Real World, Here We Come!

2010-04-03T18:59:00.004-05:00

Last year, I graduated with a degree that I couldn't use. No, it wasn't in anthropology (no offense, Bequis...) or underwater basket weaving. Unified Early Childhood Education. At most universities, when you graduate with a teaching degree, you tend to have a teaching license as well. Not at KU. Instead, they make you enroll as a graduate student to do your student teaching, which means an additional year of schooling before you can work and an increased tuition rate. Not cool. However, it has been nice not to worry about the job market this year as I've been student teaching and paying to be an intern. But, that time is slowly ending! Searching for a job is never fun, but add the budget cuts at all the area school districts and the fact that we are having a baby this summer and it can get pretty stressful pretty quickly! Luckily, our time in Haiti helped us relearn to rely on the Lord, move forward, and trust that everything will work out in His time. So, that's been our perspective during the past few months! Already, so many questions have been answered. We found a bigger apartment with enough room for the baby this summer, this morning we signed a lease with the apartment complex we really wanted to move into more permanently, and we've already heard good news in the job department! I had heard of a half-time teaching position from one of my classes and randomly decided to apply for it. I had a screening interview a week later and a follow-up interview two weeks after that. Since then, it's been a month of waiting, knowing that they have contacted my references, and more waiting. Well, last night at 6:45 the assistant superintendent called me to offer me the job (I didn't realize they could call that late...I had already resigned myself to another week of waiting)! Adam and I had previously talked a lot about the position, so I was able to accept it on the spot and will be signing the contract on Monday. Wahoo!

This job feels right for a number of reasons. The biggest one is that it is half-time. I've never been excited about working when I have a family, but our circumstances for the time being pretty much require it. But, with this job, I can work half the hours and we'll still have our needs met. That means I can be home most of the day with our little guy! Second of all, it's in a field that I love. While I am certified to teach age 0-8, I'm not a huge fan of elementary gen. ed. classrooms. This classroom is an early childhood special education classroom! I'll have 12 four-year olds, six with identified needs and six who will be peer models. Plus, I'll have two paras working with me, so the adult-child ratio is awesome! My first experience with special education was in a similar classroom, so I'm getting excited. My class will be from 12:30-3:30, Monday to Thursday, and Friday is reserved for planning, training, and meetings. Awesome. The school district sounds amazing and they have a bunch of supports set in place for new teachers. There are a couple downsides - it's in Gardner (which will add almost two hours to the time I have to be away from home). And....okay, the only other one I could think of is the fact that I have to be away from home at all (but that's not this job's fault!). So, all in all, we are very grateful and blessed to already know in April our financial and employment situation for next year.

Now, the last question we need to figure out is childcare for the time I'm away during the afternoons. Any other moms planning on working part-time and want to figure out a swap? I'm trying to keep my mind open for all sorts of possibilities and solutions, since I know the Lord is wanting us to do as much as we can to figure it out! But, I definitely know that He will help us figure out the best solution! Now it's just remembering patience as we wait to know what that solution is!

Spring Fever

2010-03-29T19:19:00.003-05:00

After the longest winter ever, we are so glad to finally have some gorgeous weather here! We have both noticed that we tend to be more productive on the days that are sunny (rather than the rainy, dreary ones we had all last week). This semester has been incredibly busy for us - we are often away from our apartment from 8 AM to 9 PM. Over spring break we packed up our one-bedroom, 350 sq. ft. apartment on campus and moved five minutes away into a two-story, two bedroom, two bath apartment, complete with a dishwasher (and kitchen that doesn't double as a hallway!). Thanks to Adam, his parents, the Elders, and some guys from our ward, we made the move in less than two and a half hours. And, after two days, thanks in part to my love for organizing and heightened nesting instinct, we were completely unpacked with pictures on the wall! We have already enjoyed having friends and family over to enjoy the larger living space. Part of the excitement of our new place is the second bedroom that is now complete with a crib! I bribed Adam to wake up early one spring break morning by making German pancakes with fresh strawberries....once he was awake, I made him help me set up the crib! He feels a little tricked because he just realized that the baby probably won't even sleep in the crib until he's six weeks old (and by that time, we'll be moved into a different apartment). Oh well! You can't NOT set up the crib! Especially when it has such cute bedding!

We have had quite the baby boom in our ward the past couple months. We decided to document a piece of that:

All four of us are expecting boys, about a month apart from each other (the first two have already had their babies and Baby Wood could make his appearance at any time now!). Sadly, Katie was out of town when we took the picture - she's expecting a girl a couple weeks after our baby arrives. Still, it's been fun to attend and plan baby showers and even more exciting to meet the newest (and cutest) members of our ward as they arrive. Hard to believe that Baby Buhler will be here in 10-12 weeks!

And, in other news...the fundraising efforts for PAZAPA have been successful! SRO raised over $3500 from donations and ticket sales and Jardine Middle School raised $1300 selling puppy chow (that's right....they sold 2600 bags of puppy chow for 50 cents each...you gotta love middle schoolers!). Obviously, the PAZAPA needs a lot more, but I am so impressed by the efforts of these students who have little or no connection to Haiti. How awesome. (PAZAPA updated their website - check it out!)

One last Haiti note. For those of you interested in hearing more about our experiences in Haiti before/during/after the earthquake, we will be speaking on Sunday, April 11th in Lawrence. We are planning on sharing pictures of our adventures and sharing more about our eventful two weeks. Please come! It will be at the LDS chapel (3655 W 10th St....right off of Kasold Dr.) at 7 PM. It's hard to believe that it has almost been three months since our trip. Really...we would love to have you come.

Looking for something to do this weekend?

2010-02-16T07:20:00.002-06:00

Look no further! I highly recommend going to Topeka High's SRO (student run organization...their annual talent show). It's always pretty amazing, but this year they are donating part of the proceeds to rebuilding PAZAPA! My sister Rachel is the co-director of the show and put it all together...take a look at the news article about it here.

It's been a while...

2010-02-03T00:22:00.002-06:00

It's a bit daunting to write a blog post now - how will we ever compare with our previous entries?! Fortunately for us, life has just continued as busy as ever and we are just trying to keep up. I'll be making three presentations this week in Topeka about our experiences and PAZAPA and gearing up for Topeka High's fundraising efforts through SRO, the student-run talent show. We'll post more details as it gets closer.

In the meantime, I ran across an article about Marika, the director of PAZAPA. I think it gives a really good idea of what they are dealing with in Jacmel right now. Click here for the link.

And in non-Haiti news, we found out last week that Baby Buhler is a boy! And no, Angus is not really in the running for names.

One last (amazing!) article

2010-01-20T18:05:00.003-06:00

Here's another link to the LDS Church News that called for a phone interview.

LDS Church News Article

(It's our favorite.)

You're invited...

2010-01-20T17:01:00.002-06:00

Adam and I would really love to see everyone that has been following our journey (even if you've just glanced through the posts....we know....they're pretty long!). Feel free to stop by this Saturday at an open house here in Lawrence. It is open to anyone, so even if we don't know you very well (or at all), that's totally cool! We will provide some punch and dessert, but please bring something to share (it doesn't have to be a lot)!

Here are the details:
Saturday, January 23, 2010
7:00 - 10:00 PM
Lawrence Institute of Religion building
1629 W. 19th St. (across from the KU soccer fields)
*Parking is limited, so if the lot is full, just park on a side street.*
Lawrence, KS 66044

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at karenruth@gmail.com.

Thanks! We hope to see you there!

Telling our story

2010-01-20T07:15:00.003-06:00

Adam and I were interviewed last night for the University Daily Kansan. They incorporated that interview with some of the pictures and video we took while in Haiti. It was nice to actually describe what happened, knowing that it was in our words and without playing "Telephone" with the press (which is why we have been said to be in Haiti building a school, a church, and a "handicapped orphanage" - don't trust everything you read!).

Click here for the brief story of how we were able to (miraculously) leave Jacmel.

Click here for Part 1 of our video interview.

Click here for Part 2 of our video interview.

We just heard this morning that there has been a 6.1 aftershock in Haiti. It has been over a week now since the initial earthquake and we fear that this will affect just as many people. After a week, people were starting to feel more comfortable in their homes (if they were still standing) and we are not looking forward to hearing how much devastation this aftershock has brought. Please continue to keep the Haitian people in your prayers. I am speaking with someone from Pazapa today about fundraising, so hopefully I will be able to pass on vital information to everyone who has been following our experiences. My dad shared a quote with us this week, which really hit home. Hopefully it does for you too!

"I can't do everything about everyone everywhere, but I can do something for someone somewhere." - Richard L. Evans

Home at Last!

2010-01-18T19:41:00.007-06:00

Somehow, with all the craziness that this last week brought, Adam and I flew back to Kansas today on our original flight to come home. We were supposed to fly out of Port-au-Prince on Sunday night, spend the night in Miami, then fly home Monday afternoon. Clearly, that first part didn't happen. But, it was nice to have a direct flight home that we had already paid for (and didn't have to eat the cost of it like our return flight from Haiti. Not huge fans of Air France right now - they cancelled all of their flights in and out of Haiti indefinitely and will only give us a nonrefundable, nontransferable flight voucher that expires in a year. Too bad the nearest airports they fly out of are San Francisco, Miami, or New York.). After so many miracles, you would think we would be able to make it back on our own. But no. The Lord stepped in once again to answer even our smallest prayer. We left Haiti with about 8,000 gourdes (about $200 USD). We know it's not a huge amount, but to us...it's pretty substantial. The airport in the DR wouldn't exchange it, so we were hoping to find one in Ft. Lauderdale that would. About an hour before our flight took off, Adam went to find the currency exchange booth at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. We were in Terminal One, it was in Terminal Four (which you had to take a shuttle to get to). The entire time he was gone I prayed that he would be able to make it back in time so we wouldn't miss our direct flight home. Five minutes before they started boarding, he came rushing back in. When he finally found the booth, there was a sign saying it would be closed until 11 AM (our flight left at 11:30). Adam became slightly discouraged, but sat down to wait a while. He overheard a man talking about going to Haiti, so he approached him. The man was flying to Cap Haitien and Adam explained that we had quite a bit of Haitian currency and the man bought our money from us! At a much better price than the airport would have! We were so happy and grateful that there are such good people out there...and they all seem to be on our side. Another little miracle - we had forgotten to check in online to Southwest until an hour before our flight, so we were pretty sure we'd be in Boarding Group Z. However, when we got our boarding passes, we were in group A, numbers 24 and 25! We checked with each of our parents and none of them had checked us in. So...whoever did - thank you! We were able to sit next to each other on a very emotional flight.

Our flight landed in KCI 20 minutes early. Adam was pretty sure his parents would still be there, but I predicted my family was still parking (but had welcome home signs). We were one of the first off the planes - and no one was there. We waited about 10 minutes and finally our families came. By that time, two news crews from Kansas City were already there and in the process of interviewing us, but it was so exciting to hug our families! We had good interviews where we tried to focus on helping the people of Haiti. We also had another tv crew come by this evening, along with two different newspaper interviews. We feel like we should have just held a press conference or something! We're grateful that we have had some time to reflect on our experiences and hope that we can use this attention for good. We're including some of the reports that have been done already and we already have connections for when we are advertising about fundraising for Pazapa.

NBC Action News

KCTV 5

Initial UDK article

Initial LJ World article

WIBW interview - You'll have to click on a link, then search for our video.

Second LJWorld article

LJWorld Interview and Channel 6 News

Kansan interview

Kansan photo gallery

After staying up way too late to watch the 10:00 news, we finally were able to make our way back to our little home. Our 350 sq. ft. apartment has always seemed too small and almost unbearable, but after seeing how so many people live in Haiti, even before the earthquake, it's hard to be anything but grateful for it. It is clean, safe, and we have indoor plumbing and consistent electricity. We have two separate rooms, a bathroom, and full kitchen (not going to lie...that is still really small!). We have closets full of clothes and a home full of things. Things that really aren't at all important. Adam's mom surprised us by having our refrigerator and pantry full of good, healthy food - complete with enough meals for the week. She left paper plates, bowls, and cups that we have promised we will use all this week so we can take it easy. So much love continues to be shown to us! One of the best feelings last night was getting into our own clean pajamas and climbing into our own clean bed. Our family prayer was full of so much gratitude. What more can we ask for ourselves?! We are still pleading for those in Haiti to get the resources and peace that they so badly need, but we definitely feel that we can take a backseat now. We've seen more miracles in just a few short weeks than some may seem in a lifetime. It is completely evident that God is in the details of our lives. We still can't get over the timing of everything. All the events leading up to the earthquake made it possible for us to be in a safe place when it hit and get the help we needed to stay safe during all the aftermath. This little kiddo must be somebody pretty special!

***I just found a number of videos about the destruction in Jacmel, made by the Cine Institute (Haiti's only film institute, based in Jacmel). They are incredibly painful to watch, but give a very real understanding of what the earthquake has meant to the town of Jacmel. There's none of this dramatic, sensational journalism that Adam and I continue to see on US news stations. This is it. This is real. Click here for the videos.***

A Mother's Point of View

2010-01-18T00:17:00.002-06:00

My mom has a blog for the Topeka Capital-Journal and her entry from this past week was about our experience in Haiti (big surprise, huh!). If you're interested in reading her perspective, here's the link. Again, it was pretty hard to read all the thoughts and worries that she had during those first 14 hours before we could get in contact, but it definitely makes her experience more real to me. I cannot express how excited I am to see our families at the airport tomorrow! I am going to cry like a big baby, which will unfortunately be captured by video for the evening news...not cute.

The Transition Home

2010-01-17T23:25:00.002-06:00

Well, we have been in the US of A for the last 48 hours. Once again, time has been completely distorted. The past two days have flown by, while the three days we spent in the UN compound seem like they lasted forever. It's been a surreal experience and our time in Haiti already feels like a dream. We're still trying to process everything that we went through, but I think it's going to take quite some time. However, this weekend has been a good start! Adam's sister Amelia and her husband Joel drove six hours to meet us in Ft. Lauderdale yesterday and we've spent the weekend with them. It's been so interesting to hear their experiences in the last week. To be honest, I think Adam and I had a much easier time than our families back home. It's really hard to learn that your parents were starting to worry about your deaths or safety, especially when we really were protected. I'm glad that our story has a happy ending, but unfortunately, so many do not. There are so many unanswered questions and missing people...it's so difficult to even imagine. One thing that we continue to remind ourselves as we see pictures of the mass graves is that these people are not forgotten. We know that our Heavenly Father knows each and everyone of His children. He knows who each one of those unidentified people are and loves them and cares for them. Knowing that this life isn't the end definitely helps soften the enormous burden that this disaster has placed on so many.

Last night I was trying to find information about the other refugees that were in the UN compound with us. I found a news report from Chicago where Sue's mother was interviewed. Having met Sue and been with her as she learned of her best friend's death, the interview was especially touching. Adam and I were trying to figure out a way to get in contact with her mother so we could let her know how amazing and strong Sue has been through such a difficult tragedy. Imagine our surprise and delight when we received a phone message from her mother! It turns out that she had a friend from Topeka, KS visiting her in Chicago who knew my mother, knew we had been in Jacmel, and was able to contact us to find out about Sue. It was so good to talk with her and relay any information that could be helpful. Jacmel is so isolated from the rest of the country right now because of the destroyed roads and communication lines, but Sue needs to return home and is bringing the remains of her friend. We have a few contacts that we are trying to make and we gave her mother a few possibilities that our families were going to pursue to reach us. Please keep Sue and her family in your prayers that she too will be able to return home.

We also received an email from Marianne, one of our amazing Danes. They are now safely home! We're not sure when or how they left, but it was so good to know that they are no longer stuck in Jacmel. They had lost everything, except the clothes on their back, but they were so generous and caring. It was hard on Friday night to be at a hotel with a king-sized bed, room service, and no threat of aftershocks when we knew everyone we left was still sleeping on a mat outside, eating nutritional biscuits. And even now that they are safe, there are hundreds of thousands of Haitians that have lost their homes, families, and are lacking in food and water. Through trials, we've never really asked ourselves, "Why me?" but we are definitely asking ourselves "Why us?!" as we have experienced so many miracles and so much protection and safety when so many others are suffering. It's hard. We're just hoping to do as much as we can to help as many people as we can.

We were hoping to go to the Haitian branch in Ft. Lauderdale for church today, but were sad to find out that it no longer exists. Instead, we went to two different wards for their meetings and were able to see many people from Adam's mission. Each Haitian family we spoke with was waiting to hear news and we offered the best advice and support we could. I think the highlight of our weekend was meeting Erick's brother and sister. We gave them the biggest hugs and told them how much Erick meant to us. It is so good to know that Erick and his family are safe! There are other happy endings! We also found out that the church building in Port-au-Prince is still standing (which is another miracle...it's just down the street from where the Palace collapsed) and many church members are staying there now since they lost their homes. I still wonder and worry about all the missionaries that are serving in areas affected by the earthquakes - and their families! I just pray that they are all safe and protected.

We got locked out of our room twice tonight, but it gave us a chance to speak with one of the hotel employees. She had family in Haiti and we were able to really relate to what her thoughts and feelings were about the earthquake. We are grateful that we had been in Haiti before the earthquake hit, so we have a sort of baseline of the people, lifestyle, and culture. I think that helps us better understand the reactions we see on the news or the information we read. We're beginning to realize that as traumatizing as this experience has been, we needed to be in Haiti when this happened. We needed to witness this firsthand so that we can know how to better help those in need. We have always had a connection to Haiti because of Adam's mission, but we definitely feel that we have left part of us in Haiti. We don't know what all we are needed to do in Haiti, but we definitely feel like we can help in small ways, especially with Pazapa. We just received news that they will continue the program and will rebuild if necessary. As soon as we return to Kansas, I plan on meeting with the Dept. of Special Education to figure out the best way to raise funds. My mom wants to even contact Oprah! We'll see. Every little bit helps.

Information about Pazapa

2010-01-17T06:53:00.002-06:00

Today the Board of Directors for Pazapa are meeting to discuss the next step, which includes whether or not the program will rebuild. When we return to Kansas, we plan on putting together some type of fundraiser to help them in whatever way we can. Please visit their website to learn more about their program. They have also started a blog to provide the most current information about the status of the school, staff, and students. So many Haitians have been affected by this horrific disaster. It can be hard to know how to help or who to help. However, a school that is making real change in Haiti is exactly what Jacmel needs (and especially what the students need at this time of turmoil!).

Day Eleven in Haiti - Jacmel/MINUSTAH base/Santo Domingo/THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!! (1/15/10)

2010-01-16T00:11:00.003-06:00

This would have been our last day at Pazapa. As horrific and devastating as this entire earthquake has been and will continue to be, I still can’t help but think of all the students that attended this school. Many had been abandoned and were living in orphanages, but were able to come learn and socialize with their peers three days a week with loving teachers. Though the school didn’t have all the resources that we take for granted in the United States (tons of books, papers, high-priced educational toys, equipment, and even cutesy wall decorations), they had an amazing program. Their teachers were dedicated to their students and were able to teach to their needs, even without sitting through hours of classes to receive training. I love the lesson I observed in the early primary grades where the teacher was working on articulation. Some of the children had difficulty creating a “p” sound, so she crumpled up a piece of paper, put it on the table, and turned it into a game by having each child try to blow the paper to the next one. The children loved doing this and it helped many of them learn how to make the proper lip form in order to produce the “p” sound. There hasn’t been any word as to whether or not the program will rebuild, but I can only hope so. They have blessed the lives of so many children and their families in the past 20-30 years and are helping to change the stigma that follows individuals with special needs here in Haiti. We’re hoping to help raise money when we get back for the school, but it all depends on whether or not they will try to rebuild.

With our recent internet connection, we went to bed much later last night than we had previously. We were so amazed at the overwhelming love and concern that people have expressed for us. We are glad that we can let them know that we are safe! Again, we can’t NOT express our thanks to God for our safety and that we are together. There were so many variables and “coincidences” that we know were taken care of by Him. How do you react to something like that? Why were we SO blessed and safe when so many have lost so much? It’s really hard to hear all of the continued updates because we once again have nothing to complain about in life. We are trying as hard as we can to do all we can to help others, but we are definitely crippled being foreigners and at the UN base.

This morning, at 6:30 AM, George (who is actually Jorge from Mexico City, but he introduced himself as George, so that’s what we’ll keep calling him!) stopped by to take us back to the runway. We actually did a pretty thorough job for working in the dark last night! There is a helicopter coming this morning with medical supplies and to pick up the Danes, so we wanted to clear even more debris so it wouldn’t get kicked up when the chopper landed. There were twelve of us – Adam and I and our Haitian “boy scouts.” We started picking up trash and soon got a lot of spectators. A young boy and girl (probably 11 and 14 or so) came pretty close, whispering and staring at us. I went over, picked up an empty trash bag, handed it to them, said “Merci!” and turned back to work. I heard some giggling, but soon they were helping pick up litter with the rest of us. Adam calls it our “Make Haiti Beautiful Again” campaign. While this country may not have a lot in its favor these days, it has a beautiful runway in Jacmel now! We also started making a large pile with all the rocks that we were finding. As I threw one, it bounced off the pile and chased after two of the boy scouts. They started laughing and I yelled out, “Sorry!” I didn’t know how to say it in Creole, so hopefully they understood. About two minutes later, Adam did the same thing to the same boys….I bet they think we are after them now! When George came to pick us up, we had to really squish in the truck, since the back was now filled with trash, not just people. Adam sat in the front seat and as I was hopping on his lap, I totally whacked George in the face. About two minutes later, we drove over some huge rocks and I conked my head pretty bad on the ceiling. George’s response? “Payback!” We laughed so hard. I continue to be amazed by the good humor and spirits of these workers who have maybe had three hours of sleep in the past three days. We asked Angus if he would sleep at all last night and he said “Not until you lot bugger off!” I love it.

Oh! Good news! We got a message from Rommel, Erick’s brother. Erick and his family were in a part of Port-au-Prince that wasn’t badly affected from the earthquake and they have since left Port-au-Prince and are in Gonaives. Thank you for your prayers! We had heard yesterday night that no one had made any contact with Erick and we immediately began calling his phone through cell phones and Skype, but had no luck. It is so good to know that there are people that are safe. Especially in Port-au-Prince.

We’ve started catching up on CNN.com and it is just horrific to watch. We were just there. We have pictures of all these places that are now demolished. It is unreal. It’s all just too much. We’re here and doing alright and after seeing the news we are reminded how blessed we are. Adam wants so much to run out and fix all the problems in Haiti, but that’s not possible. There’s just so much to be done and not near enough resources to fix the problem. Before the earthquake, Haiti was the poorest country in the western hemisphere. After the earthquake, they are still the poorest in the western hemisphere and now even more discouraged and disheartened by the earthquake. Small efforts by people like Marika at Pazapa and countless other organizations across Haiti have come to a screeching halt. The slogan on the Haitian flag says “L’Union Fait La Force”, which roughly translates to “Working together makes us strong”. A popular Haitian proverb says, “Men anpil fe chay pa lou”, meaning “Many hands make the weight less heavy”. It is this slogan and proverb that gives me hope for the people of Haiti. Haitians and foreigners alike have to work together to help Haiti. There is so much work to be done and the more motivated people with resources that can help, the better. I just pray that the people organizing and distributing the relief, in whatever form, can do so speedily and with care.

The helicopter landed, bringing much needed medical supplies, as well as a (another) Danish journalist. We were so excited for our friends who would finally get to go home after losing everything they have here. We were about to call Adam’s dad on Skype when they came in and asked if we were packed. We said that we had everything all together and they told us to get our stuff ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Now, we didn’t want to get our hopes up, but we had hoped that if there were a couple extra spots they would take us with them to Santo Domingo. When the pilot came back, they told us we were leaving and NOW! We had enough time to send a quick email to our parents and off we went! As we were leaving, the Danes told us there were only three spots on the helicopter, so they wanted Adam, me, and our luggage, to take the helicopter. Keep in mind that they had been trying to arrange this helicopter since the night we got here, are paying for it with their own money (at least $7,200 USD, if not more), and have families back home that are worried about them as well! But, they insisted that we board and we had a very tearful goodbye. We love them and are so grateful for all they did for us while we were together at the MINUSTAH camp and are overwhelmed by their love, concern, and generosity in trying to help these two American kids get home. We will never forget them and just hope to be able to help others as they helped us.

SO! At 10:30 AM, we got on a helicopter and left Jacmel! It was such a surreal experience. It was bittersweet to leave, mainly because we were the first to get a chance to go home. As we were leaving, Angus (the Scottish director of security) kissed me on the cheek and told us Angus would make a great name for our baby. We cannot express how much we love all the people at that base! They have been amazing in their untiring work to help the Haitian people, as well as care about the few refugees they had around the camp.

The helicopter ride was very short, but very significant. It’s only about 30 miles from Jacmel to Port-au-Prince as the crow flies. We had to stop in Port-au-Prince first to get more fuel before heading to Santo Domingo. It was just so crazy seeing things from a bird’s eye view. As we flew into the Port-au-Prince we immediately started seeing flattened homes and other buildings all over the place. We could see entire hillside neighborhoods toppled over on top of each other and brightly colored refugee camps dotting the city. I noticed that the earthquake did as much damage to the rich as it did to the poor. Actually, from what we could see, Cite Soleil looked like it fared pretty well considering everything is on one level and made of wood or aluminum. Huge mansions as well as small homes were equally devastated by the quake. I can only imagine the thousands of people below us grieving and/or searching for their friends and family. We arrived at the airport and landed in the grass near the runway. Military planes, commercial planes, helicopters, and small planes were darting across the tarmac getting fuel, dropping off aid, journalists, passengers, and heavy machinery. It really was a sight to see. Our pilot, Felipe, landed the helicopter, arranged for more fuel, and took off without any communication with the tower. They were too busy directing the larger planes and incoming Military planes. Felipe was a very jovial character who spoke very good English and liked to joke around with us. He was very nice and refused to let Karen carry any of the bags because she was pregnant. He even tried to keep her from carrying a water bottle for fear that it was too heavy.

After leaving Port-au-Prince, we headed towards the Dominican Republic. We passed over the border and the transition was almost immediate. We started seeing well-paved roads, organized neighborhoods that looked well constructed, and small trees all over the beautiful mountains. We stopped at another small airport in Barahona, Dominican Republic to get the last bit of fuel before landing in Santo Domingo. We changed to an air-conditioned helicopter and headed across the beautiful ocean and high mountains. We never got the name of our pilot because he didn’t really talk to us, but played the radio for us instead. We landed at La Isabela International Airport and walked into the office just off the tarmac. We had no idea what to do when we got there but they directed Karen to a computer and I went with our new friend Peter to get some juice and bread for us to eat. Everywhere we were walking we saw televisions with news reports of the earthquake in Haiti and I wanted to get as much information as possible. Karen found a plane that would land in Fort Lauderdale through jetBlue, but we were at the wrong airport. We landed at a small private plane and helicopter airport and needed to get to Las Americas International airport to board our plane. Peter took us through immigration and hailed a cab for us and explained to the driver that we would need to get there as soon as possible to catch our flight. The drive through Santo Domingo was very interesting. We saw a very well developed infrastructure with well built and maintained highways, bridges, a commuter train system, and even countdown timers for the full duration of some of the traffic lights at busier intersections. I’m so happy to see so much development in the Caribbean. The sad part was, why weren’t we seeing these same things in Haiti? Haiti was established long before the Dominican Republic was and has many of the same resources, if not more. The misuse of resources and a track record of corrupt government has really crippled Haiti’s potential. Long before this earthquake, Haiti has had problems. Hopefully, with international attention on Haiti, some of the problems can start being addressed and resolved. It will probably take a few generations to reach where Santo Domingo is now, but I really think it can happen.

We made it to the airport, paid our driver ($50 USD, but who cares – we are on our way home! He also had to drive across town for 45 minutes, so it’s pretty reasonable), checked-in, went through security and immigration, and bought a real sandwich – ham and cheese. It was delicious. Even though it really was just bread, ham, and cheese, we enjoyed every bite, texture, and flavor. Being here at the airport has been a stark dose of reality. We are still incredibly nasty, dirty, smelly, and tired. Everyone around us is clean and polished. It is a strange feeling. Seven hours ago, people in the same conditions surrounded us. We had been through a common, traumatic experience. And now, we are coming home to a place where people are experiencing this earthquake in a very different, removed way. We are amazed at all the aid that has already been promised to Haiti and especially touched by the texting donations. People are genuinely good. They genuinely care. Here we are in America in the middle of our own financial crisis, but everyday people are doing what they can to help a country that most have no connection to. It is truly a miracle.

When we got on our flight, we were on the very last row in the last two seats. Once again, God is good! How else would we have been able to buy plane tickets for an international flight two hours before it took off for less than $200 each?! And with just enough room for us?! We really are amazed at how blessed we have been and continue to be. It is ridiculous (in a very good way)! Adam spoke with all the Haitians on our flight and it was good to connect with people who were going through similar situations. Our flight was about two hours and we enjoyed getting juice, nuts, and cookies! Our plane took off a lot later than expected, so we didn’t get to Ft. Lauderdale until 9 PM or so. We went through immigration and customs, got our bags, called our families, and made it to the hotel that Adam’s sister and brother-in-law arranged for us. We can’t describe what it feels like to be back home in America.

We ordered a pizza (we’d been craving it since we found out that Wednesdays are pizza nights at Guy’s Guesthouse in Jacmel, but sadly, that clearly didn’t happen) and took glorious showers. We decided not to use anything in our backpacks, so we felt like royalty with the little hotel soaps, shampoos, and conditioner. It was an amazing feel to be clean, step out of the shower, and then stay clean. We didn’t have to immediately put our socks and shoes back on, slather ourselves with sunscreen, or spray insect repellent all over our nice clean skin. While I was taking my long shower, the lights went out. My first thought was that the generator had gone out and we would just have to wait a while. I called for Adam, but he came in, waved his hand over the light switch and it came back on. Motion detectors. It will really take a while to get used to America again! Adam pointed out that when we were driving in the shuttle to the hotel, neither of us put our seatbelts on. Probably because when we were in Haiti, there were NEVER seatbelts in any of the vehicles we rode in. We’ll get there.

We tried changing our Monday flight to Kansas City to tomorrow, but we would have to pay $700 more. Umm…we can’t do that. So, instead, we will stay here at the hotel and unwind for a few days. We’ll do our laundry (in a washer and dryer! NOT a hotel sink with unclean water and then hung across the room!) and sleep. A lot. We’re hoping to go to church here at the Haitian branch where Adam served as a missionary. I think that they will be beneficial for both of us, especially after last Sunday and the subsequent week. We look forward to coming home and seeing everyone, but we are not looking forward to jumping into normal. It will take us a while to process everything we’ve been through and so far, when we’ve talked to people at the airport or the hotel, it’s just not the same. So please, talk to us about normal stuff as well as Haiti. We need normal. But continue your prayers and aid to Haiti. They will need it long after the media attention dies down.

Day Ten in Haiti - Jacmel/MINUSTAH camp (1/14/10)

2010-01-14T21:48:00.000-06:00

So much sleep! It’s amazing how nice it feels to sleep on a thin mat on a tiled floor after sleeping on the ground outside the night before. There were still two aftershocks during the night, but it was not nearly as horrible as our first night here (which was only yesterday….crazy how time has morphed since the earthquake). We slept from 8 PM until midnight, woke up at an aftershock, then went back to bed until 5:30 AM or so. It wasn’t the most restful sleep ever, but after running all day yesterday on only three hours of sleep, we needed anything we could get. We shared an orange and some bread (thanks to our friends the Danes!) for breakfast, which was lucky. George, from the UN, came by in the morning to update us on their situation. They’re quickly running out of rations and diesel, so we will really have to be careful with how much we eat because we don’t know how long we will be here. Hopefully there will be aid flown in sometime tomorrow, so they won’t be as limited. They still have some reserves, but those are only to be used in extreme emergency and strangely enough, this isn’t quite at that point yet.

We tried calling David, our local contact with the Embassy, and the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, but neither number worked. We still weren’t sure if the US knew we were in Haiti and in Jacmel specifically. Angus had passed our information onto the UN station in Port-au-Prince, but we’re not sure where it went from there. The UN lost at least 150 people in Port-au-Prince – all of their top officials were in a meeting with the Chinese ambassador when the earthquake hit and we’re pretty sure all were killed. The hotel where other UN workers were staying also collapsed. We are incredibly blessed to be here in Jacmel and at the UN station. The UN in Port-au-Prince are on the streets in tents just like all of the people. Last night we heard that there were about 500,000 possible fatalities in Port-au-Prince, but fortunately that number has gone done a lot. They are now saying 100,000+ have been killed. However, it’s going to be near to impossible to really know for sure because the government has no way of knowing how many Haitians there are in the first place, let alone how many and who was killed or missing in the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.

Our day was made at 8:30 AM when the director of operations here offered us her apartment to go and take showers and wash laundry. How glorious!!! We were wearing the same clothes for the past three days and we were pretty dusty and dirty from everything. George took the seven of us (the four Danish filmmakers, their Haitian friend, and us!) to the nearby apartment and left us there for two hours. Mary Poppins helped again by providing laundry detergent, shampoo, soap, and Q-tips. We still had enough clean clothes for a couple of days, so we didn’t do any laundry, but we definitely took showers. We all reveled in our cleanliness and enjoyed sitting on real furniture. You could see the cracks in the wall and the ceiling, but the building was deemed safe enough to be there. We’ve begun to be a bit paranoid when it comes to aftershocks, so we will often look at each other to confirm if one really happened or if we just imagined it. For example, I was lying down with my head in Adam’s lap, trying to rest, when I felt a rumbling. I jumped up and asked if it was an aftershock. Everyone else laughed because they had just asked Adam if I was asleep, he had nodded his head, and that body movement felt like an aftershock to me. It’s been happening to all of us and we think it will probably happen for sometime.

As we drove by the airport (which is right across from the UN station), we saw that they were beginning to take all the tents down. They are trying to move all the refugees to a different spot that way aid helicopters can be cleared to land here. The place is completely littered (Haitians don’t really use trashcans anyway, but having 3,000 people trying to survive out there really doesn’t help). We told George that we WERE going to help with the clean up, so hopefully later today we will have something useful to do!

When we got back, Angus gave us an email (the Danes have been getting emails all the time from their Minister of Foreign Affairs and children making plans to come get them, but we’ve never gotten one) – we were so excited! He warned us not to get our hopes up. It was simply a statement from the U.S. Embassy to let us know…..there had been an earthquake in Port-au-Prince and that we should seek shelter. We had a fun time being very sarcastic when people around the base would ask us what we heard, “Did you know there was an earthquake?!” All kidding aside, they did include some additional numbers for the Embassy, as well as an email address, so if we ever get an internet connection, we’ll be able to make better contact. We do know that they know we are here. However, we don’t think that they know I am 18 weeks pregnant and that food rations are running out. We’re hoping that if they’re aware of our situation, we might be able to get a little more priority (otherwise, we could be here another week or more). The Danes joke that I should stuff my shirt with all my dirty clothes and claim to be much further along than I am to make them REALLY listen to us. They told me I might need to be dramatic, which we all know wouldn’t be a problem. It’s crazy that we are all just joking and laughing throughout all of this. We were also talking while doing laundry – we are lucky to be with people who are giving and caring, just like we are trying to be. So often, it is natural to react to these situations by trying to be greedy and only look out for yourself, but we are making great friends and sharing what we have. We have received fresh fruit and bread and much needed toothpaste from the Danes. Adam and I had only packed a travel size of toothpaste, thinking it would be enough, but we were planning to go out to buy more the night of the earthquake. The last two days we had been brushing our teeth with Listerine (but we were running out of that too). I know that brushing your teeth is probably considered a luxury in the situation we are, but it makes you feel human each morning to do it. And we need to feel that!

Sue, the American whose friend was crushed by their hotel, has been at the site trying to get machinery to find the body. She had to call his family this morning to let them know and is now trying to make arrangements to incinerate the body (once they find it) so she can bring him home. Each time we see her we are immediately reminded of how blessed we are to both be here and together. Most stories we hear do not have that ending. Heavenly Father has been working overtime to protect our little family and we are trying to do all we can to help His other children. Sue let us know that there was a nice Indian man in one of the UN offices who had let her make a call to the US over the internet. Satellite calls are pretty expensive, so we were lucky to make a brief one yesterday, but we still wanted to touch base with our family. We found the office and the man was more than happy to help us call home. The internet connection wasn’t very strong, so after Adam spoke to my mom for a short while, it disconnected and we couldn’t get it to connect again. In all honesty, we had probably given her the information we needed – where we were exactly, to contact the senators or representatives, and to somehow let the Embassy know that I am pregnant. Fortunately, the man let us use his personal account to make a very long distance phone call so we could finish the conversation with our family. We were surprised to hear that there has been local media attention (what picture did they use? It better be a cute one!) and are really touched by all the work and support our family and friends have already provided. I don’t think we’re fully aware of the situation since we have no news or communication. We only know the brief updates we get here.

We’ve actually had a much more exciting day than we had expected. On top of our shower and phone call home, we had mentioned to Angus that we all have laptops and an Ethernet cord and he arranged for internet to be made available to us! So, right now, there is a man working to string a cable from one of the offices into the restaurant (cafeteria) where we are staying. This provides SO much relief because now we can be in charge of our communication. I don’t know if it will help get us home quicker, but we are able to give current information without having to harass the already busy UN guys (who are doing an amazing job here).

While Adam was trying to take a nap, the rest of us jumped up when we heard and saw a small airplane by the airport. We found out that it was a group of Scandinavian journalists that were here to do a story about the Danes here. They had been making arrangements with a Danish TV crew to take them back to Santa Domingo, but unfortunately, this was a different group. In fact, after the four journalists took their photos, video, and interviews (including me…I’ll be famous in Sweden!), their plane took off and now they are stuck here as well (though I think the plane is coming back tomorrow….I heard they were having a hard time finding a hotel, so maybe they figured a free night at the UN would be better than nothing…). As a result, we now have four new people vying for the internet. I know that it is their job to stay connected, but it is also hard to have to wait when we have been through this disaster and are just now able to make contact with those we love.

We also made arrangements with George to clean off the airport runway so it could be safer when planes and helicopters land. It really wasn’t a huge deal because the Jacmel airport is a building with a really wide driveway (basically). The UN had to move the refugees earlier today from the airport so aid could arrive, but tensions were still a bit high (these people just lost their homes and now had to move again. We completely understand). The UN decided it would be safer for everyone if we waited until it got dark to go and clean. So, we went out (along with Haitian “boy scouts” – a nickname George gave to a group of young men that volunteered to help in any way). It took us less than an hour to sweep up and clean about 60 meters of the runway (that’s all they needed cleaned immediately). Because it was dark, our flashlights came in very handy (Santa, you did it again). We even made cleaning into a game – one person would stretch out the trash bag with their feet, while the one with the broom would try to sweep it all in – goal! We’ve had a fun day.

Since coming back, we’ve been able to check our email and eat some rice. After three meals of UN biscuits, we are grateful for the change. Sadly, some of the Haitians here with us aren’t eating it because it doesn’t have any sauce or meat with it. I’m sorry, but we are hungry! We are also very grateful for the many multivitamins and prenatal vitamins that we packed. It will hopefully make up for the lack of nutritional value we’ve had in our food recently. Today has really been a great day: things to do, progress with the recovery effort, and contact with our families. Adam’s also a bit excited to swap stories with the two photographers that are now stranded here for the night. In fact, now with the internet, he’s going to try to send some of his before, during, and after pictures of the earthquake here in Jacmel. We may be really famous! More than anything, we are continually grateful to be together, healthy, and safe. Everything else has just been a bonus. We only hope we will be able to get home soon.

We love the internet! We just got done talking to my mom using Skype, a fantastic Voice over IP service that allowed us to talk to our family for free! How amazing is that! We hear that we are a big deal and that things in Haiti are absolutely horrible. We are SO blessed to be here in Jacmel and at the UN station. We will try our best to make contact with our friend Erick in Port-au-Prince but nobody seems to be able to make calls to people there. We have some people here in the camp who received calls from people in Port-au-Prince but nobody is able to call them. We are so grateful for the many prayers for us and our safety but we hope that everyone will pray for the people of Haiti and specifically Erick and his family. We are safe with food and water and a likely chance we can get out soon. These Haitians are staying here and will have to start the slow process of rebuilding. I heard someone say that this will set Haiti back 10 years, and I believe it. Maybe more.

Day Nine in Haiti - Jacmel/MINUSTAH camp (1/13/10)

2010-01-14T21:47:00.000-06:00

Our day started pretty early – a 6 AM aftershock wake-up call. Keep in mind this was over 12 hours since the initial quake. Our Danish friends gave us an orange to share for breakfast and we waited to hear any more updates. All through the night, we had been trying to get an internet connection to email our parents to let them know that we were safe, but with no luck. The internet connection was spotty and no one was able to get a message out. We continued to have aftershocks, but luckily they were lessening in force. People began bringing in reports from the town – homes destroyed, schools collapsed, streets torn up, etc. When we had left, Pazapa was still standing, but we have since learned that the entire back wall has fallen in. We still haven’t heard what happened to the guesthouse where we were staying.

The UN brought us sandwiches and yogurt for breakfast, along with more water. The morning went by fairly quickly – we passed the time by counting the aftershocks, picking up trash, and getting to know our fellow refugees better. There’s also a group from UNICEF stuck here and one of them had a satellite phone that we were able to finally phone home. Adam called my mom (it was 5 AM or so in Kansas, so we knew she would be up) to let her know we were alive and safe. After that phone call, we were really struck with the intense love and concern all of our family and friends have had for us. We knew the entire time that we were safe, but it was so hard to imagine what everyone back home was wondering when they heard about the disaster on the news. We are so grateful for those 60 seconds we had to connect with those we love and to reassure those who were worried about us.

It’s now just been a day of sitting and waiting. We’ve been well fed (Sri Lankan curry for lunch, eaten with our hands!) and protected from any danger. Sadly, the UN reports that the town is basically a war zone with looters and violence. People are angry and upset, so it is good that we, who are seen as outsiders, are protected. We’ve kept busy by moving our chairs and packs every hour or so to stay out of the sun. Somehow, the day has gone by quickly. Aftershocks continue to come, even more than 24 hours after the original quake. Marika, director of Pazapa, came to visit and was relieved to see us safely here. Sadly, Pazapa is no longer in workable condition and her preschool is completely demolished. We’ve heard reports that there are two schools where students are still trapped, but luckily all of the students were out of both of Marika’s schools before it struck.

We were surprisingly more prepared for this situation than we had realized! All day today, we’ve been able to pass out aspirin, anti-itch gel (one of the Danes was boiling water when the quake struck and it fell on her foot), a camera cleaner, laundry detergent, and we even gave up our laptop bag! We’ve gained the nickname “Mary Poppins” because we seem to have everything people are in need of – including phone and laptop chargers. We are grateful that we can help others and grateful for the generosity and help that we continue to receive.

Our next mission is to figure out a way to get home. The UN is unable to take private individuals in their helicopters, so we won’t be able to chopper out of here. There was talk of an armored convoy taking everyone to Port-au-Prince, but that was nixed after it was discovered that the road had a 30km stretch that was completely destroyed. Now, it seems that people are trying to make it on their own. The Danes and UNICEF people were talking of chartering a helicopter to take them to Port-au-Prince, but I don’t think we’re invited in that party. The UN won’t be able to really drive us anywhere because of the roads. We also have no clear way of communicating with anyone to actually make plans. We don’t have a car or phone which isn’t a huge deal now since both are relatively worthless considering situation right now but when things do start to work again, we won’t have many options. We’re not sure that the US Embassy knows that we are here, but they are dealing with so many American causalities in Port-au-Prince that I’m sure we’re pretty low on the totem pole. We’ve said a family prayer that we might be able to know what to do and be safe in our journey home.

After a whole day of doing nothing but waiting anxiously, we decided to try to relax by watching a movie (there’s electricity at the station, so we’re able to charge our computer, even though there’s no internet). After about 30 minutes into “Casino Royale” we gave up. We were tired and watching a movie about spies, gambling, and women wasn’t really helping our situation at all. So, at about 8 PM, we curled up in the restaurant and tried to fall asleep.

Day Eight in Haiti - Jacmel (1/12/10)

2010-01-14T21:46:00.000-06:00

Adam still wasn’t feeling very well when we woke up, so we decided that after breakfast, he would walk me over to Pazapa, then head back to the hotel to sleep. For breakfast we were told to sit in the back to eat, which was fine by us. The night before, we had eaten dinner at the front of the hotel and we felt like we were in a zoo with everyone peering in and talking to us as we were eating. The waitress never brought us a menu; she just started bringing out food – white bread toast, Haitian grapefruit juice (it’s very sweet), and fried eggs with salad. A very interesting breakfast, but we just went with it. We’re not getting too picky when it comes to our food here anymore.

We walked down the street and went to Pazapa. It. Was. Amazing. I fell in love immediately! There were little children running around, eating breakfast, greeting their teachers, and staring at the two foreign visitors. Ti Joe (Little Joe) greeted us and reassured Adam that he would take care of me. After Adam left, Ti Joe gave me a tour of the school. There are four different classrooms, the “babies,” early primary, late primary, and intermediate. In the older classrooms, they really want to integrate their students in the community, so there are typically developing peers who go to school at Pazapa in the morning before attending their school in the afternoon. The facilities aren’t amazing, but they are clean and the teachers are amazing with the students. I was just smiling SO hugely the entire tour – it was awesome! After the tour, I went into the early primary classroom to observe. Even though I didn’t understand the language, I still had a fairly good idea about what was going on. Students in any country are always excited when there’s a visitor in the room and these little Haitian students were no exception. I sat at a table with about eight little boys, all who would shyly smile at me, then quickly turn away when I asked their names and how old they were in Creole. The teacher was giving a lesson about the color green and passed out leaves from a plant outside and even I was picking up the Creole for green – ve.

Next, I went to the classroom for the babies – infants and toddlers. There were only about four children there, but their moms came with them and stayed the entire time. It was so neat to see the network and support that these mothers had through each other and it was clear they loved their children as well as the other children in the class. Each child had a very different reason for being at Pazapa, but all were equally sweet. There was even a child there for the first time with his mom and grandma and after being observed and filling out paperwork, he became the newest student there! I loved playing and interacting with these little ones. No language is really needed to interact with them, though I was soon saying, “Bravo!” and clapping after a little girl successfully stacked rings. She loved to clap and would often stack them again and stare at me, waiting for the clapping.

During recess for the early primary classroom, a little boy led me to the center of the courtyard, pointed to a chair, and I sat down. I was immediately surrounded by all the students, who were all touching my skin, hair, and notepad. They loved taking my pen and making little scribble marks on my paper and were even more amazed when I would trace their hand on it. After tracing about five hands, with plenty more waiting, one of the teachers had me sit on the side of the courtyard so the students would be able to run around and play, rather than just surrounding me.

I spent the last 30 minutes or so in the baby room. Adam came in and sat with me, playing with that same sweet little girl. It was exciting to be able to tell him everything that I had seen that day and my plans for interviewing the director, teachers, students, and family about the school itself. As horrible as we had felt the day before, I was so happy to be here at Pazapa and knew that it was worth it! It is such an amazing program – even in American standards (though the resources are very different). They only have the school Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, but I was excited to go with the physical therapist for home visits on Thursday morning and to see their school for the deaf in the afternoons.

We decided to wait to see the school for the deaf until the following day because Adam still needed to take it easy and I could use a little break as well. We went back to our guesthouse and ordered lunch in the back room. Adam got a ham and cheese sandwich with fries and a salad and I ordered rice and beans – exactly what I wanted. We then headed upstairs and watched “Starsky and Hutch” on the laptop and then drifted off to a nice nap (with the many noises of Jacmel in the background – roosters, car horns, motorcycles, Haitian mommies yelling, etc.). We slept for a solid two hours or so before Adam got up to take pictures from the balcony of the hotel and I did a little reading in the room.

I left Karen to sleep while I got up to take some pictures of the street from a second floor balcony and church right next to our hotel. It was a nice day and the beautiful singing was coming from the church next to us. It sounded like a choir practice and they were singing “Ave Maria”, one of my favorites. I was lining up a shot of the hallway in the hotel and the ground started shaking. At first I thought a big truck or something was driving down the road but then the ground was shaking even more under me and the church next to me started falling apart. I aimed the camera in that direction and started sporadically taking pictures. I was right outside the door of our hotel room on the second floor while all of this was happening. The ground stopped shaking and I ran into our room to find Karen alright. It’s hard to tell how long the earthquake lasted but it lasted anywhere from 10 seconds to 1 minute. Our perception of time is a little distorted.

So while Adam was actually seeing the disastrous effects of the earthquake as they were happening, I was still in our room. When the ground started shaking, I started to freak out – was this an earthquake? Is that what an earthquake feels like? What am I supposed to do? Run outside? Hide in a doorway? Where is Adam? Is he okay? So, instead of doing any of those – I just stayed on the bed, frantically looking around at the roof and the walls. As soon as it stopped, Adam ran in – we were SO happy and grateful to see each other. We sat together on the bed briefly talking about what happened, had a family prayer, and then decided to walk out to the balcony to see the damage. As we were up there, people from the street yelled at us to get out and on the ground. We quickly ran to our room, put on shoes, grabbed the camera bag and made our way to the courtyard behind the neighboring church.

It’s really, really difficult to express what this experience was like. Cars and mototaxis were still driving in the street, through huge piles of rubble. People were wailing, praising God, and everything in between. We sat through a few aftershocks behind the church, but luckily there didn’t seem to be further damage. After waiting over an hour (and because it was getting dark), we decided to head back into our hotel, which had no sign of damage. We found some of the employees and they told us we would be fine in our second floor room, gave us a kerosene lamp, and we tried to relax. About ten minutes later, a woman (presumably the owner) came through telling us we needed to get out of the hotel until we got the all clear. It turns out the entire street is built on a floodplain and they were worried about further damage. We grabbed our flashlight, camera bag, and laptop bag and headed into the street to wait.

By this time, it was about 6:30 and getting dark quickly. It seemed that everyone in the town was fleeing in the same direction. The owner told us we would be walking to the beach for safety, but we ended up staying in the street across from the hotel because her parents couldn’t make the journey to the beach. We stood around just waiting for nothing when a nice Land Cruiser drove up with a Haitian in the driver seat and what appeared to be an American in the passenger seat. He asked if we were American and I ran over to him. It turns out his name was David and he worked for the US Embassy here in Jacmel and was just driving around town looking for any Americans. We showed him our passports and we hopped into his car and we headed up to where the MINUSTAH (United Nations) base station was next to the airport. We arrived but then I went to go back with David to grab the rest of our bags from our hotel room since we left in such a hurry.

The twenty minutes that Adam was gone were the longest in my life. There was another American waiting with me whose hotel had crumbled down behind her and on her best friend. There were four Danes whose home had crumbled as they ran out without luggage, money, or passports. There was an American who lived in Jacmel whose home was also destroyed. I knew that Adam was safe with David and that our hotel hadn’t suffered any damage, but in a situation like this, it is easy to speculate. After Adam got back, Angus, a tattooed Scot who is the head of security, came to give us an update. There had been a 7.0 earthquake 10 km outside of Port-au-Prince and already there had been a 5.9 aftershock. The airport was closed (both here in Jacmel and in Port-au-Prince). There went our plan to fly to Port-au-Prince, and then head home a few days early! The UN troops (from Sri Lanka) passed out brandy and cookies - we drank our water and ate a lot of cookies (we weren’t sure when we would eat again!).

At least once an hour, but often more, we would feel rather large aftershocks. We were in a big open parking lot, so while we felt safe, we also knew that if it was this bad two hours outside of Port-au-Prince, it was probably even worse in the city itself. As it got darker, the aftershocks seemed to get worse. The worst part was hearing the screams and shrieks coming from the direction of Jacmel. After a few more updates from Angus (including that the threat of a tsunami had passed……glad we weren’t aware of that beforehand!), dinner from the UN (the worst crackers ever and pieces of bread with a marmalade), and a few more aftershocks, they passed out a few mats that we could use to sleep on. We headed to the UN cafeteria, which had been cleared out, and cuddled up on a mat. By this time, there were about 50 Haitians who had been let in the UN station with 3,000 more out on the tarmac of the airport. However, within 30 minutes of being inside, we felt three more aftershocks, one that was really bad, so we decided not to chance it inside and to head back to the parking lot. Haiti can get pretty cold at night, so we used Adam’s hoodie as a blanket for the both of us and tried to rest. By this time it was 2 AM and the last aftershock came at about 3 AM. Finally, we could get some sleep.

Day Seven in Haiti - Traveling to Jacmel (1/11/10)

2010-01-14T21:43:00.000-06:00

Since we had done most of our packing the night before, we were able to sleep for a bit longer before heading to breakfast and checking out of the Oloffson. Our bill was a bit higher than we had anticipated (but then again, we had only planned to stay one night and have one meal there… ). Still, we can’t complain because we needed the rest and enjoyed the atmosphere, company, and internet! While we were eating our breakfast, Adam met up with Eric, a graduate student from Columbia University finishing up his Master’s thesis, who he had met the night before. He also met Daniel Morel, a well-known Haitian photographer that has shot for Newsweek, the Associated Press, and several other major media sources. Adam was able to toss around some ideas that he had for a future photography project in Haiti and got some feedback.

Erick was going to pick us up, drive us to the bank in Petionville, then take us to the bus station. About an hour and a half after our original meeting time, another member of the church pulled up in Erick’s car to pick us up. Erick had been held up at work, but was able to make arrangements for someone else to take us on our errands (and now we feel horrible because we can’t remember his name!). It took about 20 minutes to drive up to Petionville, which is not as impressive as what I was imagining it would be. True, the roads were nicer and there were actually stores in buildings rather than on the streets, but I think I was expecting Boca Raton or something.

There are only two banks in Port-au-Prince where we could do a cash advance from our bank in the States, so that’s why we had to go up to Petionville. When we arrived at Scotiabank, it felt like we had entered a bank in the States. It had modern architecture and lighting, catchy advertisements for personal loans, and plenty of bank officers that tried to look busy while everyone else waited in line for one of the three tellers. We were in line for about half an hour when Adam realized we would probably need his passport for the transaction. We were third in line at that point, so Adam ran out to the car while I held our place in line. After five minutes, he came back empty-handed. We shove our passports in secret compartments in our backpacks, but they can be hard to get to with everything else in the pack. I was so worried that we had left his passport in our hotel room, but decided to check one more time, just in case. Luckily, it was there…just way at the bottom. Still, Adam and I were both too happy to care!

Finally it was our turn! We had a couple transactions – a cash advance, exchanging US dollars to Haitian gourdes, and exchanging smaller Haitian bills for larger ones. We had to pay a couple fees to make the cash advance (and we’re pretty sure we would have enough to get by anyway), but we decided we’d rather be safe than stranded. The entire transaction took another 30 minutes, but it gave us plenty of time to talk with our teller. She was highly impressed with Adam’s Creole for never having been to Haiti before. Soon, she was asking him about his mission and the beliefs of our church (Legliz Jezikri Pou Sen Denye Jou Yo or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). We told her to look out for the young guys with white shirts and black nametags riding around on bicycles – and she said she had seen them before! We’ve seen the missionaries at church since we’ve been here, but we’re still hoping we run into them on the street. It brightens our day!

Finally we were able to make it over to the bus station. It was a lot later than we had expected, so we were starting to get hungry. Still, we don’t really feel comfortable buying most of the food off the street and the bus stations are full of people selling things! After trying to fit our bags on two smaller buses, we had to bite the bullet and load our stuff onto the dreaded school bus. This time, we weren’t so lucky with our seats. We were near the very back and we were separated. They were only seating people two to a seat (rather than three), so we felt a little better about our upcoming journey. However, it wasn’t too much longer before they started shoving in more and more people. Adam ended up in between a woman and a grown man and I was between a pretty big young man and a dad and his six-year old son. Across the “aisle” (which doesn’t exist when you sit six across), there was a man with a chicken tied to his seat.

By the time we got moving, we were both pretty done with bus rides. This one only cost $2.50 each and was supposed to be about 2-3 hours, but our excitement about experiencing the real Haiti has quickly faded. The seat cushions aren’t actually attached to the seat, so I spent half the ride sitting on a metal bar with the cushion under my thighs. Adam had it even worse – his seat broke halfway through, so he sat with one arm on the window (to keep from crushing the woman next to him), one foot flat on the ground, and the other pitched forward, twisted on the hump of the wheel. Add to that the exhaust, fumes, and dust that were coming into the bus and you have two very unhappy campers. Both of us were trying hard to fight the urge to throw up (we learned this all later as we swapped stories of how we would have done it – Adam would have used his handkerchief and I would use used the emergency exit window). It took everything in me NOT to throw up the last 30 minutes, especially when the little boy right next to me did. Twice. I realize this probably isn’t pleasant to read, but that was our bus ride. Never again (okay, we may have to this Saturday, but hopefully we can arrange other transportation).

There are no taxis in Jacmel, but everyone gets around on mototaxis (motorcycles). Because of our bags, we had to each get on one to take us to the school, which is right by our hotel. After the three scariest minutes of my life (driving is crazy in Haiti, but even more so when you are on the back of a motorcycle!), the guys dropped us off in front of a brightly colored locked building. It was not Pazapa. It was not our hotel. Adam had seen our hotel on the way there (and pointed it out to them), so we got back on the motorcycles and they drove us back to where the school actually was (about one block from the bus station….grr). They claimed they had taken us to where Pazapa used to be, but we feel like it was just an excuse to get more money. We paid them double what we had wanted, but frankly, we just wanted to be done and go to our hotel. We checked into Guy’s Guesthouse and were pleasantly surprised with our room. Yes, it’s small, but it’s clean and has an actual shower (we had expected a bucket and a hose). They also have electricity (we had been told to bring flashlights because they don’t have a generator), just no internet. Oh well. We will survive. Correction: Karen just took the first “shower” and she wanted me to revise our description of the shower. Karen says, “I’m discovering that the water coming out of the sink is actually warmer than what’s coming out of the shower so I think I’ll just use a washcloth and the sink water for my body and the “shower head” to wash my hair.” Maybe a bucket shower wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all?

We decided to eat dinner and then go to bed because we are tired. It gets dark fairly early here, so we were glad to find out that the Guesthouse has a restaurant, so we didn’t need to leave. I ordered an omelet and Adam ordered lobster with butter and garlic (it was only $12! What a deal!). We had to get some more passion fruit juice and tried grapefruit juice mixed with milk – an immediate hit (the grapefruit here is much more sweet than the kind at home). As we were waiting for our food, we took the time to plan out some of the objectives we want to accomplish with our time at Pazapa. I’m hoping to interview the director of the school tomorrow, then the teachers, students, and family members later in the week. I’m so excited to see a school that is so in tune with what should be happening with special education, especially in a country where education doesn’t really seem widely available.

We’re finally going to bed now but the church next to us is in full worship mode right now. Lots of yelling and loud singing. Maybe it’s just because it’s been a long day, but I’m getting kinda tired of how everything in Haiti has to be so loud! The cars, buses, music, churches, babies, you name it, they’re all very loud.

We're Alright!

2010-01-14T21:23:00.002-06:00

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are alright!!! We are currently at a UN base station in Jacmel, Haiti next to the airport. The earthquake has also devastated much of Jacmel but we are safe with food, water, and all of our belongings. We are so blessed to be together and healthy! We will be posting our journal entries shortly.

Thank you so much for your prayers and keep them coming for the people of Haiti! We'll be home soon!

Day Six in Haiti - Port-au-Prince (1/10/10)

2010-01-10T20:22:00.003-06:00

We didn’t have to wake up until 8:30 AM, but my body must be used to 5 AM wake-up calls because once 6:30 hit…I could not go back to sleep! It didn’t help that we had gone to bed fairly early the night before. Well, after tossing and turning for two more hours, I finally got up. I was taking advantage of the internet in the lobby when I glanced down at my watch and realized it was somehow 9:15. Keep in mind I had come downstairs at 7:45 and Adam was still in bed (we were getting picked up for church at 9:30). As I rushed upstairs, Adam was walking out and we figured out that our iPod (which has been our alarm clock) had reset to Central time when we had hooked it up to the computer the night before. We had enough time to change, grab some breakfast to take with us, and hop into Erick’s van and head to church! When we got there, there were already a number of members socializing outside. We enjoyed meeting everyone and I even found someone that wanted to practice their English with me (and tried to teach me a little Creole as well).

I’m pretty sure Adam and I had very different experiences at church. For the first hour, we split up into classes – Relief Society for the sisters and Priesthood for the brothers. I could follow along with the hymns we sang in French and some of the scriptures we read, but as for everything in between…it sounded like everyone was learning and sharing , so I just tried to imagine what they were saying based on the few words I could pick out. Next, we had Sunday School where I was reunited with my English/Creole speaking husband. We played Hangman to figure out the topic of the lesson and somehow, I was the one that figured out the word first (it was “preordination” – spelled the same in French AND English). I was also asked to say the closing prayer in English, which I was happy to do. Finally, we had sacrament meeting. We sat next to the missionaries at the back and it was so nice to look ahead and see such a full church full of faithful Haitian members! The ward is so much bigger than ours in Lawrence and full of returned missionaries and young families. It was so exciting to see how strong the Church is here in Haiti.

My experience was different from Karen’s because, well, I know the language. After feeling pretty horrible the day before, I felt a lot better today and church was an amazing experience for me. It was such a beautiful sight to see so many faithful Haitian members that were living the gospel in such difficult circumstances. The lessons in Priesthood and Sunday School were very well prepared and really showed that the members were confident in their understanding of the gospel. It has always been a dream of mine to see fully functional church units in Haiti and today that dream was realized. I cried a little just seeing how many families and returned missionaries there were in the ward. This truly was an answer to prayers!

After church, we headed back to the hotel. Since we hadn’t had much for breakfast, our bodies both needed some food! We discovered our favorite sandwich here – The Cuban. It’s on chicken, ham, and mozzarella cheese on a baguette. So good. After eating, we headed upstairs for a much-needed Sunday nap. As we were in the middle of changing out of our church clothes, a hotel employee started coming in to bring new towels, so Adam (for the second day in a row) had to frantically yell, “Pita!” Though slightly awkward, it still gave us a good laugh about the perfect timing that the employees have here. After that excitement, we drifted off for a long nap.

We woke up with enough time to wait for Erick to pick us up for a fireside at the Church. However, in the street right in front of us, we heard a loud brass band playing music and saw a crowd gathered, blocking the intersection and surrounding blocks. As we were waiting, we got a video of the music and dancing, then realized that the crowd was growing and moving in the same direction that Erick would be taking to pick us up. We went out to the street to find out what was going on and were told that it was a celebration gearing up for Carnival (Mardi Gras). We got a hold of Erick by phone and he came to the same conclusion that we had – no fireside for us tonight! He had started making his way here, but police were redirecting traffic and it would’ve been impossible for him to get here and then to get to the church.

Instead, we’ve taken the evening to catch up on posting pictures on our previous entries. We also have been searching the internet to catch up on our Haitian history. Turns out, the path to the Citadelle isn’t 7 km. It’s 11 km…or seven miles. Wow. We’re both kind of glad we didn’t know that as we were hiking it the other day! We’ve also gotten to know a few people here at the hotel. One of them is an American who lives in the middle of nowhere in the southwest part of Haiti called Grand Anse. Another is a radio journalist for the United Nations and he told me stories and showed me pictures of some of the stories he’s covered. He also explained how the United Nations is structured with jobs and it’s something I might look into more when we get back. Our new friend from the UN was about to leave but then the sky opened and dumped buckets of rain. It was raining REALLY hard! It stopped the Carnival band and made everyone go inside (including the hundreds of blood-thirsty mosquitoes). Now we’re going to dodge the streams of water from the leaky roof as we make our way back to our room. So far, no leaks in our room but we’ll let you know in the morning.

Day Five in Haiti - Port-au-Prince (1/9/10)

2010-01-09T20:13:00.002-06:00

Our plan for today was to wake up at 7 AM, eat breakfast, meet Erick, drive up to Petionville (a ritzy suburb of Port-au-Prince), stop by an ATM to reload, and then take a three-hour bus ride down to Jacmel. Well, between last night at 9 PM and this morning, plans have changed. We were both pretty fatige (exhausted) from yesterday’s long journey, but had hoped that 10 hours of sleep would do the trick. Unfortunately, Adam couldn’t sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time until about 6 AM this morning. We’re not sure what’s going on with his body, but we know that it won’t be able to make a three-hour long bus journey anytime soon! I’ve contacted the school in Jacmel where we will be volunteering next week to let them know we won’t be there until Monday afternoon and we’re having Erick give Adam a blessing to help his body heal and recover. Adam and I have been eating the same food and drinking the same water, but he does have a history of a weak immune system, so we’re hoping that I stay healthy and that he recovers quickly. Until then, we plan on staying in Port-au-Prince and mainly at our hotel. On the bright side, we will be able to attend church this Sunday in Port-au-Prince, which will really make our week. Plus, I think both of our bodies could use the break. It’s been a very busy week so far.

We had tried to call Erick from our room’s phone, but discovered that we could only call the front desk with it. So, we asked them to send him up to our room when he got here (since Adam didn’t think he could walk all the way to the front desk to call Erick himself and I don’t speak Haitian!). During this time, I went downstairs to eat some breakfast and bring some food up for Adam. It was a breakfast buffet with coffeecake, bread and toast, peanut butter, jelly, fruit, and cornflakes! I enjoyed another tall glass of Haitian orange juice, but figured Adam wouldn’t really want anything too acidic (I was right).

When Erick got here, he was able to give Adam a blessing. It was all in Haitian, so I could only understand a small part of it, but Adam translated it for me later. It was a simple and comforting blessing and we both know that Adam will continue to get better and we will be able to continue our adventures in Haiti! Erick was also kind enough to leave and pick up some medicine and drop it back off at our hotel. We don’t know what we do without him! Since then, Adam’s been able to eat some solid foods, drink plenty of fluids, and finally get some much-needed rest! I’ve been napping, reading, and exploring the hotel. I also washed another round of clothes (these were pretty nasty from our hike in the rain!). In the middle of rinsing, the electricity went out (it’s done that on and off since we’ve been here). So, I just continued in the dark since the water still worked!

Lunch was an interesting experience. Adam was still sleeping and wasn’t feeling up for going down to the restaurant (and he still had food from breakfast if he got hungry) so I braved the dining room alone. Service is very laidback here, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just very different from the American waiters who pounce on you to fill up your water the moment after you’ve taken a sip. And for an indecisive person like me, I appreciate that I have plenty of time to study the menu and decide what I want without having to tell the waiter three times to give me more time. Most of the sandwiches were written in English, so I decided to go with a grilled chicken sandwich. That was easy enough to order – I could just point to it! For my drink, it got a bit more difficult. I was really craving the limeades we had last night (they mix Carnation evaporated milk in them and it makes them SO good…it’s in a cookbook we have at home, so we already have plans to recreate them – they taste like you are drinking a key lime pie…SO good!). Our waiter spoke about as much English as I spoke Creole, so my description in English, combined with hand gestures, was understood by him as lemonade. Though it wasn’t what I had envisioned, it was still good.

Meanwhile, back in the hotel room, I (Adam) was falling in and out of sleep. Not long after Karen went for some food, I heard an ice cream truck that drove by on the street below us and it was playing the immortal theme from the movie Titanic, Celine Dion’s “My heart will go on” in a very simplified high-pitched melody. Despite the poor condition of my body, my sense of humor was still intact and I had a good chuckle about that. Then, not long after that I was in the bathroom with the door open. The door to the bathroom and the door to our room are directly facing one another and with the power out, I had to keep the door open to avoid being in a dark cave. It was just my luck that during my bathroom visit, one of the hotel employees opened the door and was about to leave towels for us when I quickly reached to pull my pants up and yelled “Pita!” which means “Later!” and then she speedily closed the door and yelled through the door, “M’ap vini pita, wi!” which means “I’ll come back later, alright!”. I’m sure it gave both of us quite the shock. Talk about being caught with your pants down!

On a positive note, I’m feeling much better now. My body can tolerate solid food now and I’m getting some more energy now that I’ve slept most of the day away. Karen and I watched “The Bourne Supremacy” on my computer and walked around a little bit outside to get some fresh air. In our exploration of the Hotel we found that Mick Jagger has a room with his name on it. I never would have thought someone like Mick Jagger would come to this hotel, much less come to Haiti at all. I still feel weak but not near as bad as 6am this morning. I felt like I was going to die! The prayers of our friends, family, and the blessing this morning are really working. Thank you everyone!

Well, we ordered up room service and thanks to Adam’s amazing language abilities, I was finally able to get that key lime pie in a drink. It’s only 7 PM, but we are going to watch “The Bourne Ultimatum,” check our email, and head off to bed. You know, just a typical Saturday night for us. Only this time – we’re in Haiti!

We're famous!

2010-01-09T12:03:00.003-06:00

So...a photographer that we are planning to meet up with next week in Port-au-Prince let us know that he came across our blog on a Haitian news site. I started doing a little investigating and it's true! I guess this is proof that anything posted on the internet is fair game (something my Dad would always remind my younger sisters when they freaked out about us reading their Xanga journals...).

More exciting news to come later tonight!

Day Four in Haiti - The long road back to Port-au-Prince (1/8/10)

2010-01-09T06:41:00.003-06:00

This is probably the first vacation where we have been waking up earlier than we normally do during the semester! After being spoiled by our 7 AM alarm yesterday, we were back to the grind this morning at 4:15 AM. We quickly packed up our laundry, shoved everything in our packs and then went out to the veranda to wait for Michel to pick us up. He was going to pick us up at 5 AM, so we started getting a little worried since our bus started loading at 5, would leave at 6, and we had prepaid for our specific seats. I wandered around the hotel grounds while Adam called his cell phone. I discovered that the front gate was padlocked, while Adam learned that Michel had a flat tire, but was on his way. We were able to find an employee to unlock the front gate for us (he then locked us out of the hotel grounds…now that’s faith that Michel was going to come soon!). Right before Michel came by, there were two men walking up the path – one was singing a spiritual and the other was preaching very, very loudly and passionately. All of this was happening at 5:30 in the morning with no one else in sight. I definitely got a kick out of that.

After Michel picked us up, he stopped by a friend’s store to pick up our breakfast – bread, cheese, and tropical juice. We made it safely to the bus station, found our bus (named “Noah’s Ark, which makes the joke from yesterday even better), and Michel helped smash our bags into the inside luggage rack. He stopped by again to bring us bananas and hard-boiled eggs and to let us know that he had told the driver to look out for us. We were sad to see him go, but are glad we have his contact information for future visits.

After leaving us on the bus, a man came and, like always, was asking people for some money. He obviously noticed the two blan that were sitting at the front of the bus and started talking to us, first in Creole, then in French, and finally in English. He was telling his life story and was asking for some money to help him and his family. I tried to ignore him but he kept talking to us. He finally gave up and started talking to some other people further back but I overheard him saying something to the effect of, “You see those white people up there at the front of the bus, they’re cheap. They’re tighter with their money than Haitians.” He used the word chich, which translates to “cheap” but is more offensive than just calling someone cheap. We continued our wait as we ate our breakfast and the man came back to the front of the bus and kept telling the people around us that we were chich. It was about that time that I got frustrated and broke my silence. I told him, in Creole, that I wanted to speak with him about what he’d been saying. I explained that I didn’t have any problem with him calling us cheap or any other bad things, but I didn’t appreciate that he was singling us out because we were white. I asked him if every Haitian on the bus had given him money and he said only a few people gave him some small change. I asked him why he wasn’t calling everyone else chich as well and he agreed by yelling, “They’re all cheap!” which got a few laughs from the people that were listening to our conversation. I explained that just because we had white skin did not mean that we were rich or that we had a lot of money to just hand out to people. I illustrated my point by reminding him that we were traveling back to Port-au-Prince on the bus, not a private taxi or an airplane like people with money. That also got some nods from other people who were agreeing with me. He finally left. In reality, yes, I do have more money and resources than the vast majority of Haitians, but far too many Haitians see the White Man as the answer to all of their problems. Since to most Haitians we look more like Lincoln, Hamilton, and Jackson on the $5, $10, and $20 bills, they think we should be handing out “our portraits” like it was a senior picture or something. This little exchange really shows how frustrating it is to constantly be begged for money. I would love to give back to the wonderful people of Haiti, but not just the ones that beg for money on the streets. I would love to determine the root of the problems, not just throw money at the symptoms. I’m stepping off my soapbox and handing the laptop back to Karen now.

Our tickets said that we would leave promptly at 6 AM. We’ve discovered the word “promptly” can be quite flexible – we finally started to leave around 7 AM. After driving down the block, we stopped. We’re still not completely sure why. Some more people got on, some people got off, some got back on, there was some shouting, lots of confusion, etc. Adam and I just chilled at the front, patiently waiting. After about 15 minutes, we finally headed out. We had been told that the reserved bus was nicer than the one we had taken to Cap Haitien, but in our experience it wasn’t really. One of the hardest parts of the trip was the huge backboard that was dividing our seat from the front of the bus. Adam had exactly enough space to sit with his knees smashed into the board. After all of yesterday’s walking, we were pretty concerned about how his knees would hold up during the trip back. On top of the confined space, this driver blasted music the entire way. I have been to rock concerts that were the same volume, but this was coming out of a speaker directly across from us in a school bus. After enduring it for a few songs, we got smart and put our headphones in to soften the blow. We could still hear the music loudly, but it didn’t feel as damaging as without any protection at all. And the music! Man, this Haitian loved his Enrique Iglesias and Celine Dion! We had a hard time not laughing when “My Heart Will Go On,” “Bailamos,” and “Hero” came on a couple times. But, we would take that over the hard-core rap they blasted every now and then.

To be honest, there’s not much to say about this bus ride. It was longer than the first, more uncomfortable, and we also had car trouble at least every hour. Every single time the bus slowed down, we tried to prepare ourselves for another 20-minute stop where 10 men would look at the engine and hit parts with tools or fill valves with liquid. I honestly have no idea how in the world that clunker made it the entire trip – I for sure thought we would be stranded, have to hike home, hitchhike, or try to get someone to pick us up. The benefit to these breaks was that we could stand up and stretch for a little bit. However, we often didn’t have time to get out and walk around, so we could just stand at our seat and try to get comfortable. As a result of the longest bus ride ever (as well as our 14 km hike and all day bus ride before), my legs now look like I have elephantitus! I’ve never been a fan of cankles, so I really hope that they don’t become a normal occurrence this early in my pregnancy. I’ve had my shoes off and my feet elevated for a few hours now and they still aren’t back to normal! Adam too is suffering from swollen ankles, but not to the same extent as me.

About 35 minutes before we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we got a hold of Erick, a Church member from the Centrale Ward. He had originally thought we were coming tomorrow, but he was still able to pick us up. When we arrived at the station there were a lot of taxi drivers offering their services and we were very excited to turn them down. After waiting about ten minutes, Erick called to let us know he was still a few minutes away (we had borrowed a girl’s phone to call him and she was kind enough to hand it back to us when he called back). Right after we hung up with Erick, the bus driver started driving away with us on it! He explained he was just moving it a little bit, but it turned into a couple of blocks! We were clearly worried that we would miss Erick, but the driver let us call him and we finally got to meet our knight in shining armor! As soon as we saw him, we were so relieved and happy. He and Adam had a good time getting to know each other and discussing our plans while I happily elevated my feet in the backseat.

Before Erick to us to our hotel, he stopped by the meetinghouse in Port-au-Prince (which is about eight blocks from our hotel). It was the best thing we have seen all week! The grounds were open and well-manicured (not typical in Port-au-Prince) and instead of the typical basketball court, there was a soccer field with lots of local kids playing on it. We met some other members of the ward that were at the church and Adam enjoyed making connections with them (the Church is the same in Haiti! As soon as you meet someone, you immediately start figuring out who you know in common). Erick then gave us a tour of the building. It was very simple, but was beautiful. Tile floors with gorgeous Haitian wood. As we walked past the classrooms, we peered in one and saw two missionaries teaching a lesson. Keep in mind that since 2005, only native Haitians are able to serve missions in Haiti. When that policy first happened, there were only 73 missionaries. Now, there are 122 full-time, volunteer missionaries serving in their home country of Haiti! It was so amazing to see. We ended our tour by walking into the chapel. It was so peaceful and beautiful – complete opposite from the city that surrounded it. We cannot WAIT to attend church in Haiti!

After the best tour ever, Erick dropped us off at our hotel (Hotel Oloffson). It’s a pretty historic, happening spot! It’s this huge, sprawling, Victorian mansion that has been around for a long time. Each room has the names of people who have stayed there. We didn’t recognize anyone from our room, but down the hall there are rooms that Ann-Margaret, John Barrymore, and Alvin Ailey stayed in while they were here. There’s even a name plaque for Bryant Freeman, an emeritus professor of Haitian Studies at KU! He compiled the Haitian-English dictionary that Adam relied on as a missionary (and that we are hauling around with us on this trip – it’s pretty thick AND a hard-back). Adam met with him for a couple hours before our trip and he highly recommended this hotel as the place to meet the Who’s Who in Haiti. So far we haven’t met too many people, but mainly because we’ve been pretty antisocial. After the past few days, our bodies definitely need time to rest, so after we grabbed dinner (which included some amazing fresh limeades!), we decided to get to bed early. We saw at least eight other Americans staying here and it was definitely weird to hear their accents during dinner. We’ve become so accustomed to being surrounded by Creole that it was quite the shock for both of us! We’re hoping to talk with them during breakfast to learn why each one of them is in Haiti. Everyone seems to have their own unique reason for coming here!

Day Three in Haiti - Cap Haitien (1/7/10)

2010-01-08T03:58:00.003-06:00

Today has been the best day yet! We got to sleep in until 7 AM (a step up from our previous 5 AM wake-up calls), didn’t have to take showers since we had the night before, and took our time getting up. We were meeting a chauffeur/guide and another couple for the day at 8 AM. We weren’t quite sure if we were going to have breakfast AT 8 AM or leave at 8 AM, so we got to the hotel’s restaurant at 7:45 to play it safe. If we were supposed to leave at 8, they could wait for us and if they were planning to eat first, we’d have plenty of time! We were excited to see that breakfast was included in our room price, so we both ordered Haitian orange juice and oatmeal. I’m not normally a big oatmeal person, but Haitian oatmeal is divine. It was exactly what we needed for our big adventure today. We were trying to multitask and check our email as we were eating (we can’t get the wireless from our room, so we have to go to the lobby or restaurant), but poor Adam knocked over his orange juice all over our table (but luckily not on the laptop). I felt so bad for the man who cleaned up after it, but he was very kind and really quick! Before we knew it, we were back to our breakfast. We also enjoyed some good Haitian bread with grapefruit jelly, which was a-maz-ing! It threw us off because it almost tasted like honey.

Our guide, Michel, and the other couple arrived for breakfast as we were finishing up, which gave us time to check our email and post our journal entry from yesterday. At about 9 AM, we headed off to start our day! We were traveling with a young Haitian couple. On our way out of town, we stopped quickly at a market so the girl could buy tennis shoes (she was wearing high heels when we met her). There is absolutely no way that she would have survived today without those tennis shoes!

Our reason for travelling north to Cap Haitien was mainly to see the Citadelle. It is a huge fort built in the early 1800s after the Haitians kicked the French out of their country and gained independence. King Henri Christophe (hence, the name of our hotel) took 14 years to built a huge palace, Palais de Sans Souci, with the Citadelle built high in the mountains seven kilometers away. The fort was there in case the French came back, but it has never been used. It is almost completely intact, even to the piles of cannonballs and bombshells lying in huge piles. But, we’ll describe more of the Citadelle later. We had also hoped to see the beaches at Labadie, which is where all of the cruise ships stop. Most people who have visited Labadie probably weren’t even aware that they were in Haiti. Since we only had one day and couldn’t fit in both trips, we decided to pass on the touristy beach and try our luck at hiking to one of the eight manmade wonders of the world.

After driving out of town on bumpy dirt roads going only 10-20 mph, we finally made it to the Palais de Sans Souci. It was beautiful. The majority of the walls are still in place and you can even see the foundation for the swimming pool and connecting fountain! When we arrived, there was a huge group of people to greet us. Women immediately came up to us trying to sell us straw hats, wooden masks, and necklaces. We were wearing our baseball caps and explained that we would be fine. A man also tried to persuade Adam to buy a brightly colored painting of the Citadelle, but I told him we would wait until after we got back from the Citadelle. We had to pay a bit to tour the palace, but that fee also covered our trip up to the Citadelle and the company of our sweet tour guide, Jacques. He was a reserved older man with one eye who took special care to explain everything to me in broken English since everyone else spoke Creole. He always made sure to hold onto my arm as we were climbing up or down steps and along slippery paths. We really grew to love him over the course of our day.

While we spent some time exploring the palace and ruins, the majority of our day was spent walking/hiking. That’s right, from the palace, there is a 10-foot wide path zigzagging up the mountains, leading to the Citadelle seven kilometers away. We had trained for a 5K this summer, so we felt pretty confident that we could be fine with an additional two kilometers (we also glossed over the fact that our training was 6 months ago and the reality of the steep incline!). As we began our ascent, we soon had quite the following! We had the six of us (including Michel and Jacques), plus about nine men and boys and five horses. For about $40 USD each, you could ride a horse up to the top of the path. They actually have a clever business plan – ride alongside you for the first mile or so, which also happens to be the toughest and steepest part of the climb. However, we kept explaining to them since I was pregnant, I couldn’t ride a horse, so none of us were going to. I don’t think they thought we could last, but after a mile or so, they offered one last time, then turned and headed back down. I can’t tell you how many times during the rest of the hike I wished the horses were back (although…let’s be honest. I am way too cheap and way too proud to have ever gotten on those animals – pregnant or not)!

Rather than give a long, drawn-out description of the next six miles, let’s just say that there was a constant incline with no way of knowing how far we had hiked or how much longer we had to go. We constantly had to be looking at the ground right in front of us to prevent slipping. The path is made up of uneven rocks with a very rough cement as mortar. About two thirds of the way up it also started raining, which added to the slow pace and added anxiety. The further we climbed, the more often we stopped. We were incredibly grateful each time the path leveled out, even a little bit. We also enjoyed the people that we met along the way. We were the only ones hiking up the path as tourists, but all along the path were actual homes and women were hiking up and down, many of them barefoot, with huge bowls of laundry or fruit on their heads. They put us to shame! We also enjoyed kowosol (soursop fruit) that a little toddler sold us during one of our breaks. The little Haitian children were probably our favorite part of the climb. They were running around, barefoot, and often in just a t-shirt with their bottoms hanging out while others were in Easter dresses! As we would pass by, we would hear little voices shouting “Hallo! Hallo! Hallo!” They would then run out in the road to stare at us, not saying a word. As soon as we were a safe distance away from them, they would then scream “Hallo!” and just shout. It was pretty cute. We also passed several horses, goats, pigs, and cows tied to small trees on the side of the road outside of the respective owner’s home. Several of the residents along the path also tried their best to sell beads, flutes, wooden masks, and a number of other small things but we had to say no to all of them.

After being told “We’re almost there!” about 20 times, we did finally arrive at the marvelous Citadelle. It truly is a massive and incredible piece of architecture. The Citatelle is situated on top of a mountain that’s 3182 ft (970m), which may not seem that high until you realize that the ocean is only 10 miles away. The last third of our ascent we were literally walking in the clouds. Our view of the Citadelle was limited to only about 25ft in front of us at best because of the clouds. When we arrived, we ate some very ripe bananas and bread with some amazing Haitian peanut butter. Haitian peanut butter is very similar to the natural kind that’s runny but it has some hot pepper mixed in so it has a little kick to it. It was an added bonus since it was already around 2 PM and our goal to make it back in time for lunch had quickly disappeared. After stopping briefly to eat, we made our way to the fort’s entrance. It was locked. They had closed it because of the rain. Luckily, another group was there as well, so someone unlocked it for us and we were able to explore the inside of the massive structure. We had to bust out our mini flashlights (thanks again “Santa!”) for part of the tour because there is no electricity (obviously). Jacques showed us around and we saw a lot – the aqueducts that are still in use, the three buildings entirely dedicated to storing gunpowder, the stacks of cannons and empty bombshells lining the hallways, and of course, the cannons that the Haitians stole from Napoleon himself. In fact, we saw some cannons that were identical to the ones at the Palais des Invalides in Paris where Napoleon’s tomb is located. One our favorite parts of the tour was when Jacques showed us where the bathrooms were. There were three stalls lined next to each other with toilet seats on stone (the toilet seats were not the original, obviously). When we lifted the lid and looked in, we saw a 200 foot drop into the jungle below. Let’s just hope there were never any innocent bystanders back in the day that were in the wrong place at the wrong time (Bombs away!)!

We then left the Citadelle and the lady who sold the food to us followed us down as well since the rain was going to prevent any more tourists from coming up the steep and slippery path. We made our way down the path slowly and carefully. The slippery rocks kept us on guard the whole way down. We made much better time coming down than we did going up and Karen said she preferred the way down while I liked the way up better. Going down is constant strain on your knees and my history of knee injuries has always made me apprehensive to do something like that. The good news is we made it all the way down, this time recognizing little landmarks along the path which let us know approximately how much further we still had to go until we reached the bottom. The rain stopped in the middle of our descent but picked back up again when we got closer to the palace. Before leaving the palace, an American stopped us and wanted to know what we were doing there. Turns out he was a student at the University of Miami-Ohio who was an International Business major collecting research on tourism in Northern Haiti. He was intrigued to hear that I was fluent in Haitian Creole, that we had taken the bus from Port-au-Prince, and had walked the whole way up to the Citadelle. He asked for some suggestions that would make the Citadelle and Palais de Sans Souci more tourist-friendly and we were more than willing to add our two cents worth. We walked to our car and were greeted again by the determined artist who wanted me to buy one of his paintings. He once again lowered the price and we were more willing to pay for this souvenir that we would actually enjoy. We hopped into the car, said our goodbyes to Jacques, and headed back to Cap Haitien.

Michel stopped to get some really good treats made from frozen milk and chocolate sauce. It was such a relief after a long hike. We continued on our way and saw a horrible wreck with two huge Mack trucks where one was rolled over and both were terribly mangled. Wrecks don’t happen often but when they do it’s pretty bad; especially when it involves two big trucks that were likely driving about 30mph. We finally made our way through the traffic in the rain and fortunately, Michel’s SUV had two functional windshield wipers! He did his best to avoid the massive pools of water that were larger than our car but there’s only so many places you can drive. As he was driving, he was also busy making phone calls, one of which he phoned a restaurant to make a reservation for all of us – he told them we were “very special guests” to him. We got to the thing (literally. The name of the restaurant (Bagay La means “the thing.”) and were about to go in when we saw a painted sign on the outside – no cocaine, pills, guns, knives, sandals, or blan (white people). Okay, so that’s not what the picture of the white person meant – it was referring to the casual dress that the cartoon was wearing, but we got a kick out of it. When we arrived at the thing, nothing was really set up, so Michel ran around trying to get service and hassle the kitchen staff to get our dinner out. Adam and I decided to take advantage of the much-needed bathrooms and were surprised when there were no lights. Luckily, we still had our handy flashlights with us (thanks again, Santa!), which solved that problem. There was no solution for the next. In the women’s restroom there were three stalls. Behind Door #1 was a toilet without a seat that didn’t flush. Behind Door #2 was a ridiculously dirty toilet with a toilet seat and lid with a dirty bucket on top of it. Behind Door #3 was a toilet with a seat that was even more disgusting than all the others…and had already been used (and didn’t flush). Not ideal. However, after hiking and holding it all day, I couldn’t wait until we got to the hotel, so Door #1 it was! I apologize for the next person who has to make that same choice since I just made the decision even harder.

Back at our table, the lights still weren’t turned on and our food was starting to come out. At 6 PM it is pretty dark here! Luckily, I married an Eagle Scout who was able to string our mini-flashlights over our table to provide some romantic ambience (thanks AGAIN, Santa!). We all had a good laugh about that. They kept flipping on lights in other parts of the restaurant, but never where their only customers were sitting. Oh well. We all had diri kole legime ak kabrit (vegetable and goat stew with mixed rice and beans), salad, and boiled plantain. We finally felt like we were eating a real Haitian meal and it definitely hit the spot (and only cost about $5 each!). After dinner, Michel was going to take us to the bus station to reserve a spot for our bus ride back to Port-au-Prince tomorrow morning (yes, we are enduring another seven-hour bus journey….our bodies will hate us, especially after today). To our surprise, the car wouldn’t start! All of the guys starting poking around the engine and Emanuella and I sat in the car to sit down while we waited. The lights could turn on, so we knew it wasn’t the battery, but that left the problem pretty open-ended. After a while, Michel had a taxi take us back to our hotel. Later, Michel came by with his cousin to take us to the bus station to buy our tickets. Adam had fun talking with some of the locals playing dominoes inside the station. The first thing they asked him (only in Creole) was if he and I were coming to Haiti to save all 14 million of them like Noah and his ark (since it was still raining outside). Adam got a kick out of that and told them it wasn’t us, but it might be some other white people. Everywhere we go, everyone just falls in love with Adam – he is a tall white boy who loves joking around in Creole! We booked our seats and somehow got lucky enough to have the front row again – that makes us excited. Michel is even picking us up tomorrow morning at 5 AM to take us to our bus AND bringing us breakfast since the hotel’s kitchen doesn’t open until later. All of this – for free! That’s right. We have a friend (one that we paid $100 to drive us to and from the Citadelle and hiked it with us). But, he also bought us some fruit along the way, the amazing Haitian Icees, arranged for an awesome Haitian dinner, paid for our taxi back when his car broke down, picked us up and helped us get our bus tickets, and is picking us up way too early and packing food for us! He has some awesome ideas for bringing more people to Haiti and wants to keep in touch with Adam for help. Plus, he’s already offered to take us around the next time we come to Haiti when Adam focuses on his photo documentary.

It’s been a very long day, but a very enjoyable one. We loved meeting all of the people that we did during our long hike up and down the mountains, as well as the company we had doing it with us (who I’m sure would have preferred the horses, but were willing to walk with the pregnant girl – that’s sacrifice). After some more negative experiences in Port-au-Prince and travelling to Cap Haitien, it was just so refreshing to be surrounded by good, honest people. We love Haiti! Thanks again for your prayers and thoughts. Boy, are they working! Now let’s just hope Adam doesn’t get malaria – he swallowed a mosquito as we were coming back home! Between that and the spilled orange juice, it’s been quite the day. Luckily, we can laugh at it all!

Day Two in Haiti - The long road to Cap Haitien (1/6/10)

2010-01-07T07:17:00.004-06:00

After getting to bed around midnight, our iPod alarm woke us up five hours later so we could begin our day. Adam got up to take the first shower while I started eating my breakfast of French toast, syrup with raisins, and Haitian orange juice. Adam wasn’t in the bathroom too long before he came out, grabbed a knife off of the breakfast tray and headed back to the shower. It turns out our shower head didn’t really work – it just dribbled out water. Seeing as we only had limited time before our driver picked us up and knowing that I can’t stand showers that aren’t full force and steaming hot, I opted to just braid my hair, get dressed, and call it good. Since we’re living out of backpacks, we realized we would be wearing a lot of the same clothes a few times before we wash them by hand, but who knew it would start so early! Luckily, I’ve discovered that the bag of Tide I packed gives my entire backpack (and everything in it) a fresh, clean smell. Besides, Western ideas of hygiene just aren’t the same here, so we figured we’d do our best to blend in.

Julma picked us up at 6 AM to take us to the bus station. When we first turned out of the hotel compound, I was surprised at how quiet and empty the streets were. Once we turned onto the main road that was no longer the case. Hundreds of people were already hard at work or getting transportation to get to their jobs. We passed by a huge industrial park where they have employ hundreds of Haitians (mostly women) to work in the clothing factories. Most of them work all day for less than $5 American. They must work from about 6 AM to 4 PM (we drove by the day before as the factory was closing). The bus “station” is located a few blocks over from Cite Soleil, which has been made famous (or infamous) for its poverty and violence. The UN once called it “the most dangerous place in the World,” so we were again grateful for the safety that we experienced in our private taxi. We’re not going to lie, we are really tired of paying so much money to be taken just a few miles, but at the same time, we’d rather spend the money to be cautious…this is one instance where my frugal upbringing is put on hold.

The bus “station” wasn’t really a station at all. It’s just a place where a bunch of buses are parked at a big intersection. The final destination of each bus isn’t very well marked either. Our bus was an old school bus that had been repainted in bright colors and designs. The steering wheel wasn’t on straight and the shifter was actually a long stick with wires, a plastic “handle” and some sort of plastic weaved around it all. We paid $12 each for the seven-plus hour bus ride to Cap Haitien, which is the first decent price we’ve paid for anything. We were one of the first ones on the bus, so they had us sit at the very front, which turned out to be a bigger blessing than we fully realized. Many people tried to take our bags to put them on the top of the bus, but our driver insisted that we hold on to them and put them inside. We were able to find a spot on the indoor luggage rack for our backpacks and then we kept the camera bag and daypack on our laps. We had been told that the bus wouldn’t leave until it was full, but during the hour and a half we were on there waiting, we couldn’t really tell how they knew it was full or not. There were constantly people getting on and off the bus. Many were selling sunglasses, books, candy, perfume, etc. They would stick them in our faces and Adam always had something clever to say in Creole that would make them freak out that he spoke their language. One of them insisted that he was really a Haitian (Adam doesn’t take it as a compliment because he says they have no one to compare his language to….I guess my broken Creole doesn’t even count!). We both had a good laugh when a man hopped on the bus right outside my window wearing a KU Jayhawks baseball cap. There was also a man wearing a K-State polo on our bus, as well as a University of Nebraska hat. A lot of used clothing finds its way down to Haiti so it’s not surprising to see random T-shirts that were made for a cross country team in Kentucky or a High School Prom theme that was “Night Under the Stars”.

We were told we wouldn’t leave until the bus was full. The word “full” has new meaning for us. Full means 3 adults and baggage or a small child on your lap on a two-person bench. Full means the luggage racks inside are packed to the brim and have things falling down on you. Full means the front door never closes and 5 Haitians are packed like sardines into the entryway. We were excited to have a seat near the front so we could see the beautiful countryside out the front and side windows, but with people standing in front of us the whole way, we were only able to see out the side window.

The bus finally was deemed full and we started on our way. Several people tried to get on the bus at the last minute and only after being yelled at and pushed and pulled in all directions did they get off. We drove maybe half a mile before we stopped in front of the Cite Soleil police station. Apparently a few other people had slipped onto the bus and were told to get off. The police didn’t come onto the bus but a shotgun and a uniform are good motivators. While stopped in front of the police station, we had a good view of the slums that make up Cite Soleil. We tried to think of how best to describe it and settled on this description: It’s like a lot of ruins with corrugated aluminum roofs on most of the “homes”. It’s like an old city that hasn’t been inhabited for 100 years but now has people living in it. Unfortunately, that’s how it was built. Trees even grow out of some of the houses. There was a pretty distinct smell coming from piles of burning trash and the dogs and pigs picking through the trash. Broken glass, rusty metal cans, and plastic bottles can’t be burned so they line the walkways and fill empty lots between the homes. I’ve seen a similar village of slums in Nassau, Bahamas but it wasn’t near this big and didn’t have the same reputation for crime.

Despite the bumpy ride, we really enjoyed our bus ride (well, at least for the first two hours or so). We were able to see the city, small towns, farms, and of course, the huge mountains. There was always something interesting to see outside, so we had a hard time doing anything but take pictures and stare outside, trying to soak everything in. Granted, halfway through our trip we were wishing we could fall asleep or get up and move around, but the seven hours were fairly interesting. About once an hour, the driver would stop the bus and almost everyone jumped off to relieve themselves on the side of the road. I was curious as to what the women would do, but soon learned that on bus trips you wear a skirt or dress and just squat. After that realization, I said a quick (and incredibly sincere) prayer that I would not have a case of pregnancy bladder and would be able to wait until we got to our final destination to use a real bathroom. In that same prayer, I also asked that Adam and I wouldn’t get too hungry until we got to Cap Haitien. We brought some almonds to tide us over and bottles of water, but seven hours is a long time and the food they were selling on the side of the road just wasn’t safe to eat. It was quite the balancing act of eating almonds, getting thirsty and drinking water, but making sure not to get too full (spoiler alert: our prayers were answered! I will never take a modern bathroom for granted ever again…or gas station bathrooms for that matter).

The road continued up through the mountains and by the ocean and took us through several small cities. One of the upgrades to the school bus was a train horn. This horn let everyone on the road that we were coming through and not stopping. It never ceases to amaze us how these drivers maneuver through traffic and narrow roads. I’m also amazed at how much abuse these busses can endure. The driver grinds gears on nearly every shift and as long as there aren’t cavernous potholes in the road, it’s full speed ahead all the time. Everything rattles and creaks on these old buses and even though we’re packed in shoulder to shoulder, we still are bumped and jostled around. We finally made our way up to Gonaives which is nicknamed “Villle d’Independence” because that’s where the Haitians finally kicked the French out and declared Haiti an independent nation on January 1^st, 1804. The city is also known for the devastating landslides caused by Hurricanes. The deforestation in the surrounding area is so bad that any amount of rain causes massive amounts of erosion. It’s also here in Gonaives that our journey became a little more interesting. While driving through the packed streets our bus side swiped another car and just kept on driving. Then about 10 miles down the road a police officer stopped our bus and had a long chat with the driver. We were stopped for about an hour and we never really found out what the result of the wait was, but after the driver was taken by the police into a nearby city and brought back everyone got back on the bus and we headed off again. Past Gonaives the road heads into the mountains. The road switched up and down the mountainsides in hairpin curves and steep inclines. Another 10 miles up the road we pulled over to let one of our passengers rejoin us after he hired a motorcycle to catch up to the speeding bus when we left him at our long stop.

At that point, we were about halfway done with our bus ride. Every time we looked at our watch, the clock hand seemed to have barely moved. Every five minutes or so we would try to slightly alter how we were sitting to alleviate the pain that comes from sitting in such close quarters on such a crazy road. We also attempted to do a few leg stretches and foot exercises to keep our blood flowing, but that only took another 10 minutes. Finally, we started to enter Cap Haitien. Right at this moment, it began to rain. Only one of the windshield wipers worked, but at least it was the one in front of the driver! We began to stop quite often to let a few people off. Each time we stopped, we looked around to see if this was the final stop where we would have to fend for ourselves to find our hotel. Each time we continued to drive, we were slightly relieved. Finally, we drove up to another bus “station” and everyone started getting off in the rain. One of the drivers told us to just wait and he would take care of us, which we guessed meant we would be paying for his “help.” He called a taxi, told us how much it was, and helped us get in. He paid the driver for us, but only half of the price he had told us, so he kept the other half. Adam was still packing our bags in the back, so he didn’t see the exchange and the man reminded Adam of his help, so we had to pay him a little more! So, within our first five minutes of being in Cap Haitien, we had already paid more for one five-minute taxi ride than for our entire seven-hour bus ride!

We hadn’t been able to get a hold of the hotel we were planning on staying at, so we figured we would just take our chances and see if we could get a room upon arrival. We were, but at a much higher price than was quoted on Lonely Planet. Again, what could we do? We had just driven through the entire town and knew there weren’t too many options. We were glad the hotel took our Visa because we were using our cash a lot more quickly than we had planned on. The Hotel De Roi Henri Christophe is actually quite beautiful, even when raining. It has open corridors, high ceilings, colorful Haitian paintings, plenty of picturesque seating and free wi-fi! We immediately took advantage of our newly purchased room by taking a much-needed nap until dinner. We ate on the porch of the hotel’s restaurant and I got spaghetti bolognaise (Haitian specialty) while Adam ordered seafood crepes. We were pleasantly surprised by the portions and taste of our meal and finally were given some real Haitian bread! We also met a Haitian American who was here from UC Berkeley as part of her MBA program. It was fun for Adam to speak in English for a while and for me to actually understand a conversation that was going on!

Once we finished dinner, we finally took amazing showers. After seven hours on a dusty, bumpy bus ride, we welcomed the chance to use soap and shampoo to feel completely clean. This hotel’s showerhead worked a lot better than the Palm Inn’s had and it had a lot of hot water, so we were in heaven. After cleaning ourselves, we decided to go ahead and wash the clothes we have already used. That was quite the experience! We put a little Tide in the sink with water and began the long process of hand washing everything we had worn. I washed, Adam rinsed, and then we found creative ways of hanging up our clothes to dry. We had brought rope to create a makeshift clothesline, but also took advantage of the wire hangers in the closet. We had started to hang our wet shirts in the closet, but the overwhelming smell of body odor from the closet inspired us to find someplace else to air our now-clean laundry.

Now as we are preparing to turn in for the night, we are enjoying the music of a nearby Pentacostal church singing, preaching, and shouting loudly in the distance. Keep in mind that it is already past midnight here and this has been going on for over an hour. We are excited to “sleep in” tomorrow until 7 AM! We’ve decided that it makes the most sense to shower at night rather than the morning, so that gives us a little extra time in the morning to work with. We were also THRILLED, GRATEFUL, and ECSTATIC to get a hold of Erick (brother to a Church member Adam knew on his mission) who happens to be in the bishopric of the ward we’ll be attending in Port-au-Prince. He has already offered to pick us up on Friday from the bus station to take us to our hotel, find a ride to and from church next Sunday, and take us to the airport on our last day here. We can’t even begin to describe how grateful we are to have heard from him. We are really looking forward to both Sundays that we are here so we can attend church and feel at home with the Haitian saints. The gospel truly makes us all brothers and sisters and we are so grateful for the generosity we have already been shown. The long bus ride and constant fear (and reality) of being taken advantage of has made both of us start to wonder what we are doing here, but we know this is an amazing opportunity that we have and one that will change our lives. We’re grateful we have each other to rely on and also the prayers of our family and friends (along with our constant prayers!). We really have been watched over and realize that it’s more important to be safe and cautious then to ensure that we aren’t being overcharged.

Day One in Haiti - Port-au-Prince

2010-01-05T21:11:00.005-06:00

Adam and I have decided to keep a fairly detailed account of our trip to Haiti. We will write each day and post updates when we have internet access. Since we will be experiencing so much in the next two weeks, we figured we would post it as it happens, rather than try to summarize the entire trip for our family and friends. Just to warn you, we both take turns writing this and often switch writers in mid-paragraph, so you might get confused as to which “I” we are meaning (this is Karen right now). We’re also hoping to include some pictures and videos, but the majority of those will probably be shared when we get home. Enjoy!

After an uneventful flight on Air France, complete with a much-needed nap for both of us, we arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. As we walked off the plane, a five-piece island band greeted us – we were very excited. After trying to figure out the French/Creole form for immigration, we discovered that we had filled out the wrong side. Sure enough, when we flipped it over there were also instructions in English! We were one of the first off the plane, but the last through immigration because of it, but that’s okay because we had plenty of time to wait for our baggage. There were about three flights arriving at the same time, two baggage carousels turning without any luggage on them, and one door where employees were making a line of baggage. After taking turns walking back and forth between all of the possible baggage areas, we finally were able to find our flight’s luggage. Keep in mind that nothing is really posted as to which flight is assigned to which carousel, so there were a lot of confused people. We easily found our bags, strapped on our backpacks and headed out. We went through customs, but hadn’t received a form to fill out, so the guard just waved us through. Even before leaving the customs room, we were immediately asked by a man if we needed a taxi. Our hotel had mentioned they were only two minutes away from the airport and we had a map, so we had been tentatively planning on walking, but during our indecisiveness, the man just had us follow him and we decided we might as well get to our first destination quickly. Boy, are we glad we did! As soon as we walked out of the airport, we had to walk through at least 50 other taxi drivers offering their services. On top of that, on the wall outside of the airport, a huge group of locals were waiting to observe all of the goings on at the airport. We had a hard time maneuvering the parking lot, so it was a smart idea to get a taxi since the roads aren’t exactly clear to understand (our map would have been pointless and we would have been lost).

We were dropped off at a private taxi that Julma was driving. While public taxis cost about $0.75 a trip, private taxis start off at $20 one-way. This was after Adam haggled them down from $25, but he wouldn’t budge from $20. And to be honest, what can we do? There’s no way we can get around on our own and we certainly don’t understand the bus and public taxi routes, so we have learned to kiss our Andrew Jacksons away fairly quickly. Julma was immediately impressed by Adam’s Creole and shocked to hear that this was his first time in Haiti. I was able to show off the few things I know by asking him the time and how old he was (he just turned 58 in August, but he looks like he’s in his early 40s!). As we drove through the maze of roads that makes up Port-au-Prince, we were again very grateful we weren’t walking. The main roads are paved and have 2-3 lanes of traffic. I use the term lane loosely because nobody seems to stay on a designated route on the road. Taxis, buses, and tap-taps (small trucks with very limited covered seating/standing room) weave in and out and all around. Pedestrians and stray dogs do their best to avoid being hit. The horn is a very useful driving tool here. It is used to let pedestrians know they’re in the way, large trucks and buses that they’re driving too slowly, and to say hello to your cousin. Julma explained that very few accidents happen here because everybody hates when the flow of traffic has to go around a big accident. I would be surprised if drivers even stop if they hit each other and both cars can still drive.

Speaking of cars, our “taxi” is actually a jerky manual transmission diesel engine SUV of some sort without any seatbelts in the back seat and a speedometer that is pegged at 5mph. The ride is fair considering the massive potholes the size of wading pools and constant dodging of the car or pedestrian who cuts out into traffic. The driver also had to watch out for the hogs, goats, and chickens that occasionally cross the road (and yes, we made jokes to each other about why it was crossing). When we finally reached our hotel, our driver honked loud and long for the security gate to open up. The Palm Inn Hotel is basically a compound, but a very nice, pretty, relaxing one, complete with swimming pool, hammock, restaurant, and baby foot (we’re not quite sure what that is either, but it’s listed under their amenities on the website, so we figure it’s gotta be pretty good!). We paid for our room (they charged us $20 more than was listed on their website…again with the Andrew Jacksons), dropped off our backpacks, and hopped right back into Julma’s taxi so we could exchange our money and have something other than $20 bills.

After another bumpy ride, we made it to a bank. Once inside, we were scanned with a metal detector and Julma led us straight to the counter, past about 25 Haitians that were already waiting in line. The woman at the counter curtly told us where the line began and we got there! We hadn’t really wanted to jump ahead, but unfortunately Haitian culture still tends to privilege lighter skin. We’re glad the bank lady treated us as equals. So far, I’ve seen only four other white people in Port-au-Prince (and three were in a passing taxi), not counting the strong UN presence that is in the city. At the bank, there were two UN peacekeepers from Brazil and a truck with their colleagues waiting in the parking lot. After waiting in line for 15 minutes, making minimal progress, Julma got tired of waiting and had us go next door to another bank (he explained that they are the same bank, just with different names, but we still have no idea how that all worked). Adam was able to quickly exchange some of our money after very little wait and we headed once again to our hotel. The ironic thing about exchanging our US dollars to Haitian gourdes is that everyone is asking us to pay in US dollars and quoting US prices. We downloaded a currency converter application for our iPod to prevent any “misunderstandings” with the exchange.

We decided to try out our hotel’s restaurant for lunch since we hadn’t eaten since 7 AM. It’s an outdoor veranda with beautiful scenery and no one in sight. That’s right. We’re pretty sure we were the only ones checked into the hotel (although we think more have arrived now). We were slightly disappointed to see the menu items and their lack of authentic Haitian dishes and even more sad to see the prices. But, we ARE at a hotel and one thing seems to be universal with hotels – overcharge. We both ordered club sandwiches, which consisted of four layers of Always Save white bread slices, fried egg, bacon, tomatoes, lettuce, ham, and slathered in Haitian ketchup (it’s much sweeter than American). We practically had to disengage our jaw to get even one bite of this stacked sandwich. When we were finished, we got overcharged for lunch (we hadn’t downloaded our handy currency exchange app yet, so we figured out after we got back to our room).

Since we’re leaving Port-au-Prince tomorrow, we wanted to take advantage of the afternoon and see the historical sites of Port-au-Prince. After a failed attempt to get a hold of a guide that Adam’s old mission companion recommended, we decided to cough up the Jacksons and call our new friend Julma to take us around. He was able to not only maneuver the roads, but also pointed out different places of interest and would stop in the middle of the road for us to hop out and take pictures. While we normally like to take our time to explore, we quickly learned to jump out, snap a picture, and hop back in. At the National Cathedral (our first stop), we had a couple people come up and speak quickly in Creole (Adam later translated what they were saying to me – “Give me food or money instead of pictures”), but because I didn’t understand I just learned to sadly ignore them and jump back in the car. Our grand tour included the Palais National (the Haitian White House) and several statues of significant figures in Haitian history. Our driver was also quick to point out buildings and other projects that former President Aristide started but did not finish (Julma wasn’t a big fan of Aristide and was glad to see him ousted from power in 2004). Our tour also took us through several neighborhoods, many of them in various stages of decay. We do need to remember that Haiti is a 3^rd world country so seeing things like people bathing on the side of the road and piles of refuse in the street are to be expected. My visions of what I thought Haiti would look like and what I’ve seen today are different. They aren’t drastically different, but it just makes me sad to see how so many Haitians live in such difficult circumstances. The sewage in the streets and hogs near our hotel really took Karen by surprise too.

Since we got back earlier than expected and didn’t really know where else to go or want to pay the extra money to go anywhere else, we decided to do what we do best. Nap. The weather here is perfect and in the upper 80s, so we decided to take advantage of Palm Inn’s hammock and sleep the rest of the afternoon away. Sadly, that was not in the cards. Adam got in the hammock first, which immediately lowered to about three inches above the ground. After I climbed in, we had to carefully situate ourselves to get comfortable, which never really happened. Add to that hungry mosquitoes and we decided we’d stick with our bed in our room. That meant having to get out of the hammock, which was another ordeal in its own right. Still, we managed to get a good two-hour nap in before heading back to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner.

While the lunch selection had been anything but Haitian, it got a little better at dinner. Adam ordered Shrimp Creole and I got Chicken Creole. It came with rice that was grown just north of here (and the best tasting rice EVER!), French fries, a “salad” (lettuce with carrots grated on top of it), and that same Always Save bread from lunch. Service is always a bit more laidback we’ve discovered in Haiti and our meal took about an hour and a half from when we ordered to when we paid. Since we were in our hotel compound, we had the restaurant all to ourselves…until the cats came. That’s right. As soon as our food came about four stray cats came out of nowhere and began to purr at our feet. For about two seconds it was cute, until they began hissing at each other, starting fights, and starting to climb on my chair (I think they knew that I had no idea what to do around animals, so I became an easy target). Adam tried to rescue me by kicking the chair next to us and stamping his feet, but they just moved away from him and closer to me. Right as I was envisioning these crazy cats fighting at my feet, getting caught in the cross-fire, and having to rush to some Haitian hospital for stitches (yes, I have an active imagination), an employee came to our rescue, stomping at the cats and clapping. That did the trick and I was able to enjoy my chicken without any worry of an angry cat attack.

Since we’re leaving for the bus station at 6 AM tomorrow morning, we had to order our breakfast tonight. French toast with Haitian orange juice – it’s just sitting on our counter waiting for the morning! Our hotel’s website had mentioned specifically that breakfast was included in the price of the room, so we made sure to remind the restaurant of that when we ordered and they went along with it. I have a feeling we may have had to pay for it had we kept our mouths shut. One of the hardest parts about this trip so far is that Adam has to be the sole communicator. Talk about pressure! Normally, we make a pretty good team when it comes to haggling or saving money. It makes it even harder that I made a lot of the reservations and am familiar with what the prices should be and what’s included, but that can be hard to communicate through Adam when everything happens so quickly and in another language. Haggling is also difficult in Haiti because we aren’t completely sure what something should cost. It’s hard to distinguish a price that’s targeted to native Haitians versus White American Tourists. We also know that the people here don’t have a lot of money and we don’t want to be too stingy, but we definitely don’t have the kind of money they think we do! This trip will definitely cost us a lot more than we had originally planned.

That’s been all the excitement for today. We are happy to be here and to experience such a different way of life, but hope that when we travel to Cap Haitien tomorrow we will be able to explore a little more freely (and cheaply). We are definitely looking forward to our time in Jacmel next week where we will be in a much smaller town and working with a school that is just down the block from our hotel!

Haiti, here we come!

2010-01-04T09:46:00.003-06:00

Goodbye, -4° and hello 93°!

(We lost the coats before we flew...we won't have much need for them anytime soon).

Handy Man

2009-12-09T14:52:00.003-06:00

Every Tuesday night for the past semester, I have driven to Kansas City to take a 3-hour long class, then drive back. This class is painfully boring and the only motivation I have to go to it is to meet up with friends in KC afterwards. Well, yesterday was the last class of the semester, so nothing was going to stop me from enjoying a nice dinner afterwards, not even a snowstorm! After eating my weight in salad and breadsticks at Olive Garden (and making Nicole tell the waiter to pack up the rest for me), I headed home amidst the sleet and snow. Going 40 mph is never pleasant, especially when trucks pulling motor homes zoom past at 70 mph, coating your car in sleet. Adding to this excitement, I noticed that the temperature gauge was dangerously close to overheating. Now, I don't pretend to know a lot about cars, but I did what I thought would help...continued driving slowly and turned the heat off so the car wouldn't have to work as hard. No luck. As I entered Lawrence, I decided to call Adam just to check if there was something else I should do. He's awesome. He told me to avoid stops, go faster, crank the heat, and lower the windows (see why this doesn't make sense to me?!). As I did, it started to lower a bit. Then, I stopped by his work and Adam checked the engine, then scraped the ice off the front grill. Ta-da! Problem solved and the car didn't explode with me in it. It was just a little thing, but I am reminded how grateful I am for a husband who knows things that I don't. We just help each other out.

Fall Review

2009-12-02T15:55:00.005-06:00

My, how we have neglected this blog. It's not for the lack of exciting things...I blame it on not transferring pictures from our camera (because you know that's the best part of blog entries). So, here's {some} of what we have been up to in the last four months:

We already shared pictures from Nicole's wedding in September, but the girls had also gotten together a couple weeks before the wedding to celebrate. We enjoyed some really good food and a fun night out in Kansas City. I was able to break out the sewing machine to make Nico's sash - I actually liked how it turned out!

We spent many miles driving back and forth to Topeka to celebrate birthdays (there are six birthdays within six weeks of each other in my family!) and see Susan off on her mission. During one particularly late Sunday visit, I showed Susan a little trick to break the ice with her companions. Pretty soon, everyone was trying it out!

(Rachel never quite mastered it, even with the help of new expert b-boy, Adam).

We won't see Susan until March/April 2011, but know she's doing awesome in Peru! Check out her blog {susieqinperu.blogspot.com} because she is a sassy, spiritual girl!

In late October, we were able to finally meet the new addition to our extended family: Kendra! She and her parents and brothers came out for a couple weeks and we thoroughly enjoyed all our time with them.

Since the boys were here over Halloween, I was able to put together costumes for them. They loved their super hero capes and the growing number of accessories that Aunt Karen kept coming up with. So cute. Poppa Buhler found the perfect outfit for little Kendra...it was a fun Halloween! Adam also took their family photos, which you can see on his Facebook page (I think there's a link on the side of this blog).

We also took some awesome pictures at Thanksgiving, but I think we'll have to share those on a different post. Now, it's time for me to get back to my four hour class on educational measurement in the classroom.....only two more weeks to go!

Swine Flu and 2nd Graders.

2009-10-20T17:35:00.002-05:00

Just from the pictures, any guesses as to which Buhler had the Swine Flu a couple weeks ago?! If you guessed Adam, you are correct! He came back from a fun-filled weekend in Utah and brought back the dreaded H1N1. He stayed home all week from school, but things got really worse on Thursday, so we took him to the doctor's. And yes, the loving wife that I am asked if we could take pictures with our face masks on. He had to be quarantined until his fever was gone, so we spent one boring, lonely day in separate parts of the apartment (which is actually quite a feat in our small home!). Luckily, he got better really soon, so we enjoyed way too much Chinese food (never again...) and Arrested Development all day. He is all better!

Another big change in our life has been the end of my student teaching days. I was surprisingly really sad to say goodbye to my 2nd graders! They were quite the handful, but they taught me so much and so much better than sitting in classes on campus all day (which is what I am currently doing right now). I have too many funny stories to share, but have been pretty bad at sharing them as I go. I loved my teacher and grade level team (and have a possible job there next fall!). I can't wait to be done with school and actually move on to a real job (four more classes to go....).

Oh, to Be in Love!

2009-09-27T00:08:00.003-05:00

We haven't really had a chance to update our blog since the summer...ever since we got home from Europe, it's just been nonstop busy! I am student teaching 2nd grade every day and taking grad classes in the evening and Adam is at KU and crazy busy as a photographer for the University Daily Kansan (side note: let him know if you ever want to be in the paper - he's already had quite a few friends featured prominently in photo illustrations!). We go to bed way too late and have to wake up way too early and cram our weekends full with everything we didn't get done during the week. I'm looking forward to October 17th when I go back to just being a student and having 40 more hours to myself.

This week has been quite the busy one. We've made five trips to Topeka (and will be making one tomorrow for Debbie's birthday and Hermana Christensen's setting apart) and two trips to Kansas City. We enjoyed seeing Sabra and her husband at their reception on Thursday night - too bad they don't live closer to us! Still, we already have plans in the works for Christmas break. Then, on Friday, Adam was able to be the photographer for one of my closest friend's wedding. The pictures are amazing, but just don't do justice to how beautiful, happy, and in love Kevin and Nicole are! I can't wait for Adam to post pictures of the reception - it was AWESOME. It was in a renovated barn in Kansas City and they covered the place with 1,000 paper cranes they had made. Tradition says if a bride folds 1,000 paper cranes before her wedding, she will have good luck. They also explained that the same qualities to complete this task are needed in marriage - hard work and patience. I thought it was so cool and perfect for them. We had an awesome time at the reception - I danced with my girls all night while Adam took pictures (it was nice that we could both do what we love!). The dance floor pretty much only consisted of Nicole, Holly, Anna, Lacey, and I, but we were oblivious to the rest of the people staring at us while we shouted and danced to Bow Wow, Kelly Clarkson, Britney, the Beatles, Bon Jovi, etc. We always have an awesome time. I love those girls! Anyway. I've included a picture from the wedding that Adam took. They look amazing! We framed this picture as their gift...and I can't wait for them to get all their pictures back! We'll make sure to post a link to Adam's website once he posts some of the photographs.

Oh, 2nd Graders...

2009-09-16T11:20:00.002-05:00

In the hallway from PE to math...

Mohawk kid: Mrs. B, will you go out with me?
Me: Sorry, buddy. I'm married.
Jet Li: Are there any girls at this school who AREN'T married?!

It's official...

2009-08-31T23:19:00.003-05:00

...we'll be spending our 2nd wedding anniversary in Haiti (well, in Miami on the way to Haiti)! We found an AWESOME deal on tickets and bought them tonight.

We. Can't. Wait.

(They look pretty excited too...)

Back to School Tradition...

2009-08-20T21:37:00.002-05:00

It was Adam's first day of school (at KU), but he was a bit of a spoilsport when I whipped out the camera as we walked to class. He refused to give me a smile, but I think it makes the picture even better.

Rock chalk!

My Mom Rocks.

2009-08-14T15:03:00.001-05:00

Check out the blog she was asked to write for the Topeka Capital-Journal. It's awesome.

We love this new camera!

2009-08-05T16:36:00.002-05:00

... And Here

2009-08-04T17:29:00.001-05:00

Wish You Were Here

2009-08-04T07:51:00.003-05:00

Mission and Marriage

2009-07-30T10:08:00.004-05:00

The two best things EVER!

And I had the awesome opportunity to spend the last week in Utah with my sister preparing for her mission and my Sister Cannon getting married! It was amazing!

This will probably be a short, but sweet blog post. I want to include all my pictures from the trip, but will only share a select few. For more, view my public Facebook album here.

So, my sister Susan has been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Peru Lima North Mission...she leaves September 30th and is going to be AWESOME! She already knows the language, the gospel, and has the Spirit, so the only thing she needs is mission clothes! I could definitely help her with that. We spent our days combing through lots and lots of stores looking for cute, comfy, and modest clothes for Hermana Hoonie. And we found some great deals! My personal favorite was this cropped, short sleeved jacket for $7! Perfect for church and meetings in humid South America. Susan had a fun time trying to figure out how to wear it (she may be mad I'm showing the picture with her stomach showing, but I just think it is too funny!). After much convincing on my part, she bought it, wore it to church on Sunday (with a shirt underneath!), and hopefully loves it as much as I do!

We had a good time cruising around Utah together. I went to some of her classes, church meetings, neighbor's birthday parties, etc. We drove up to Centerville to see family, traipsed around the Orem cemetery to find family, made fake music videos to Ace of Base in the crazy yellow rental car, and made some good food together! I especially love this picture taken on a dodgy part of BYU's campus. If you can't read the sign, it's basically warning you not to walk around here alone after dark...we are just showing you why.

On to the marriage portion of the trip! My Sister Abigail Cannon married an amazing guy (who I met for the first time during the ceremony) and they are so cute and happy together and perfect for each other! I got to spend Thursday with her before all the wedding business took place, so it was a lot of fun. The ceremony was beautiful and amazing and reminded me how blessed I am to be married to Adam for time and all eternity! Love is amazing! Congratulations again, Abby and Patrick...we'll have to plan that Colorado camping trip!

Some of Abby's mission companions came to Abby's house a bit before the reception to help set up lights and decorations. We got asked to put the cake together, which included using frosting and coconut to hide the gaps between the layers...we were nervous but pulled it off! Here's my "last-born," Sista 'alladay and I hard at work. It's crazy to believe that she's been home for a year, when her first transfer was my last transfer. Time flies by!

Those of you who know my father will definitely appreciate this next picture. They've had this for at least 20 years, which means they had only been married for 10 years when my dad bought it! It's kind of strange to find this when you're looking for your grandparents...but my dad is right - when the time comes to need it, he's already gotten it taken care of! Thanks for doing all the work for us, Dad! I still wonder how this got brought up and if my parents went on a date to pick it out....you'll have to tell us the whole story, Mom!

2009-07-19T23:48:00.003-05:00

A lot has happened and we need to blog about it before our big trip to London and Paris in two weeks.

The high point is that Karen got a sewing machine and has become rather crafty as of late. She made a quilt for our new niece Kendra Elizabeth Fuchs and couldn't wait to show the rest of you blog readers out there. Here are some pictures:

Not only has she made a quilt but she has several other projects planned in an effort to be cute and crafty while at the same time being self reliant and frugal. You don't have to tell me, I already know I picked a good wife.

Another high point was my first paycheck in more than 3 months. I finally got it after payroll telling me my check was lost in the mail, then sending me a check they said was good, but really there was a stop payment on it. So when another check showed up they told me that the stop payment was transferred to the other check and that the one I deposited would be alright. Then two days later our checking account was negative and I got charged for a returned check. Fortunately I didn't have any other major charges because of a reserve line that kicks in when my balance drops below a certain amount. So all those bills we paid off and checks we wrote and fund transfers went through just fine with out any more fees. Thank goodness for planning for the worst. The best part is that payroll is paying me back for all the fees that we racked up because they totally goofed up everything.

I don't necessarily hate my job but I certainly don't wake up every morning excited to talk on the phone all day long. Some calls I enjoy but most are just the same thing over and over again. For those who don't know, I work at a call center fielding calls for the Federal Student Aid Information Center which answers questions about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and other general Federal Student Aid programs run by the Department of Education. So, I'm your resident expert on all things FAFSA and other financial aid stuff for college. While most of our callers are referred to their schools' financial aid offices, we can still help a lot. So anyone out there needing help answering a question on the FAFSA, or don't know why they aren't getting as much as they think they should, or hate that they still have to include their parents' income and asset information, you can ask me and I can explain everything.

Last of all, we are putting forth a greater effort to be healthy. Not only are we TRYING to exercise more, but eat healthy food too. We're taking a nutrition class put on by a couple in our church and they're helping us make a food lifestyle change for the better. Basically, eat as many fruit and vegetables as you can and avoid anything with trans fat in it. Obviously there's more to it than that but those are the high points.

And finally, Karen asked that I share a story about a dessert mishap from last night. So we wanted something sweet after dinner and started looking through a cookbook for ideas. We found a good Apple Dumpling recipe that looked easy to make and wasn't terribly unhealthy either. We set to work preparing them, we wrapped apple slices covered in cinnamon sugar in crescent rolls and then poured on an apple juice, brown sugar, and melted butter sauce, then had to wait 30min for them to cook and then 30min to cool. So, after all this anticipation we were very eager to eat a delicious-looking dessert. While eating them we both thought they tasted way too buttery and had a strange aftertaste. I finished mine but Karen couldn't finish hers and we both felt kinda sick after eating them. Before throwing away the leftovers I pulled out the wrapper for the crescent rolls and discovered that we used the Garlic Butter Crescent rolls instead of the original ones. We both felt like purging our stomachs of such a disgusting combination but instead went to bed with tummy aches and bad breath. This morning we still had tummy aches and some pretty gnarly morning breath too. The moral of the story is to read the label of your crescent rolls and make sure you buy what you think you're buying.

Last days of summer...

2009-06-05T15:18:00.002-05:00

Yes, my friends, it is only June 5th, but summer is close to ending for us at the Jr. Buhler household. Starting on the 9th, I will be taking two grad classes towards my Masters in Special Education and Adam will be working from 11:15 AM - 8 PM, Monday-Friday for the rest of the summer (though we are EXTREMELY grateful he now has a job....yay!). Luckily, we've already spent some quality time with each other, family, and friends and have our vacation in August to look forward to as we work hard until then!

Some exciting developments this summer: We are no longer late sleepers or couch sitters! That's right, we have started training for a 5K with a group at church. We meet three days a week and run at 6:30 AM. Adam and I feel so green...we even walk to the Institute where we meet (we are just across the street...but that hasn't prevented us from driving before). I've never been a runner (despite setting the city record in the 7th grade girl's mile.......it was the first year it was open to 7th graders and I was the only one to compete....so it was me....for four laps....running very slowly. The next year, someone beat it by about two minutes!). Adam ran cross-country in high school, but hasn't run much since he tore his ACL (coincidentally when we ran together at 6:30 AM before our missions....let's hope our knees stay healthy this time around!). I'm discovering running is definitely a mind game - I just hope to gain a tolerance/enjoyment of it. On the days we don't run, Adam and I have been waking up at the same time and going on 45 minute walks. It is a really nice way to slowly wake up. Plus, we've discovered new places we've never seen in our neighborhood!

Instead of going home and crashing, Adam and I are reverting to our missionary schedule and love it! We come home, eat, study our scriptures on our own, and then read together. It has been awesome. Besides, I have to be at work/school by 8:30, so it just makes it harder if I go back to sleep. Getting to bed by 10:30 PM has still proven difficult, but we are slowly getting back in the habit.

On top of our early morning walks/runs, I am finally taking a dance class this summer! My friend Brooke and I signed up for a jazz class at the Arts Center. We've only met once so far, but already I am sore in places I forgot I had. Dancing definitely works your body! Plus, it is just so much fun! I have missed it a lot, so I'm glad Adam was willing to sacrifice some of his photography savings to pay for it. Yay, Adam!

So, that's us for the time being. I got bored at work today and decided to change our blog a bit. If you use Google Reader, you should just quickly look at our actual site. It's nothing fancy (it's actually a PowerPoint slide), but I had fun pretending I know something about graphic design.

Oh, and another thing...

2009-05-29T13:59:00.004-05:00

I remembered I wanted to mention this right after I published the last post.

A few weeks ago I was looking at job postings on the LJWorld website. I noticed my computer was running a little slow but didn't think much of it. On my Mac, I have a feature called Expose, which reveals all of my open windows on that screen. It's really convenient for multitasking and switching back and forth between multiple windows in an application. So I hit the Expose key and had to do a screen grab of what I saw:

Can you say pop ups? 29 to be exact. I forgot to turn off the pop ups and look what happens! Every time I clicked anything on the LJWorld website, a new window was created. Looks like Netflix really wants our business. So, just a word of warning, make sure you have pop ups blocked if you visit the Lawrence Journal-World website.

Congragulations and Congraduations

2009-05-29T13:12:00.006-05:00

So, you know how some people revert to talking about the weather when they're talking with a complete stranger? I find it's the typical topic of conversation when you're talking with the person at the check out in the grocery store. Or maybe weather is what you talk about with someone you haven't talked to in a long time and want to fill awkward silences. I'm not trying to do either when I mention how amazing the weather has been in the last month. Kansas has about 4 weeks of good weather every year -- two weeks in the spring and two weeks on the fall.

Fortunately KU graduation fell into that portion of good weather for the year. Karen Graduated from the School of Education with Honors and also received a Senior Leadership award. Go Karen! 3 weeks later she'll start her Masters. Go Karen! Thanks to everyone who came to the party and an extra special thanks to those who brought gifts.

Karen giving a thumbs up after receiving her "diploma" at the Department of Education Convocation. The baby blue cords are for honors.

The "diploma" was actually just a legal pad of paper. How lame is that?

Karen did receive a small Jayhawk statue for her Senior Leadership award.

After that, we all went to The Salty Iguana and Karen fit right in with the murals on the wall.

Yup, that's Karen in the huge Clown Sunglasses walking down the hill.

In other news, we're all relieved to be out of school. I kicked it into gear and studied like crazy for finals and got better grades than I was expecting. Two of my finals were on my birthday :(. This was my last semester at JCCC and I'm very excited to start at KU this next fall. A huge part of that is I will be working on the staff of the Kansan as a photographer. It will be great fun to shoot KU events, especially the sports!

Lately we've been enjoying our evenings playing cards, board games, watching movies, the Champions League Soccer Finals game, and playing night games with members of our ward. It's been a blast!

I have to run off and help Karen's brother David and his family move and next week I'll be helping my Grandmother move as well. Lots of moving going on here!

Update

2009-04-20T13:11:00.004-05:00

Summer is almost here...and we cannot wait! After Spring Break we de-winterized our apartment (summer quilt vs. winter comforter, light curtains vs. insulated curtains, etc.), but w have still had to deal with the lovely Kansas weather - sunny and 75 one day, and freezing rain the next. We're hoping it is now here to stay!

We are preparing for all kinds of changes too....I graduate in less than a month and begin graduate school and Adam is transferring to KU in the fall! He's applying to work for the campus newspaper as a photo editor and photographer, which will be the best campus job for him! I'll be student teaching next year, so we'll be living off of one meager salary, but hoping to get some good scholarships! We've gotten a little taste of budgeting with one salary, since Adam's job let him go last month. After applying for jobs (newsflash: turns out there ARE no jobs!), we've decided to just wait until the summer for him to work, then he can get a full-time, temp job. Surprisingly, we've both been pretty calm about the whole thing and are grateful that we've been pretty frugal already!

Despite school and work, we're still able to have quite a good time! This past weekend, we went with my friends Holly and Anna to an AWESOME burger place - The Burger Stand at Dempsey's....those of you in Lawrence, check it out! Holly's brother owns it and cooks some amazing food. These aren't your typical burgers. They were awesome and we got them with sweet potato fries - yummy! Then, Holly and I went to see The Billions reunion/final show. We had been going to their concerts since middle/high school, so it was fun to relive it all. We're also gearing up for our roadtrip to St. Louis in two weeks to see Flight of the Conchords LIVE! We. Are. Stoked!

My Turn

2009-03-26T23:31:00.003-05:00

G’day my loyal blog readers. I haven’t made an appearance since January and for that I apologize. I can give plenty of excuses about how life is busy and that I don’t have time and yada yada yada. While that may be true to some degree, it’s all about priorities and making time for things. I remember my Dad shutting down one of my many excuses as a teenager where I was complaining about not having enough time for something. He wisely pointed out the amount of time I spent on computer games and reading photography magazines or playing with my camera and made me remember that it’s not so much a question of having time, but making time for what was most important.

Alright, with that out of the way, a quick update on the life at the Junior Buhler household. Karen and I have been waking up very sore recently. That’s right, we’re experiencing the bittersweet feeling one gets the day or two after exercise. We have been very diligent with our athletic endeavors recently. Karen went on this exercise kick on the tail end of her last sickness and dragged me into it as well. I got a spouse pass for the KU Rec center and have enjoyed playing racquetball again. It’s one of my favorite sports because no matter how hard you hit the ball, it can only go about 15ft in any direction. Unlike tennis where you have to go chasing after balls you miss (or hit over the fence when you’re over zealous) racquetball keeps the ball close. Karen is showing vast improvement as well. She has gone from being afraid of the ball and rarely hitting it back at the wall to being able to score (accidentally, I’m sure) from time to time. The racquetball courts are very popular. Reservations have to be made early in the day for an evening match. We found that out the hard way when we sat outside all 4 courts for about an hour and never got a chance to play. Lesson learned. Make reservations.

Last week was Spring Break and I spent the majority of it in North Carolina. Work sent me to UNC Chapel Hill for sorority composite pictures. A long time ago our family lived in the Raleigh-Durham area but I don’t remember any of it. The only things I remember from North Carolina were the big trees in our backyard that beautifully framed the swimming pool I was determined to dig myself. Oh yeah, this three-year-old was undaunted by such a grown-up task. Later I found out that my Dad spend a full weekend filling in the holes before we moved to Kentucky. Sorry Dad. You’re a trooper! My only other memory I have from North Carolina was meeting my imaginary friend Hodie on the beach. For those of you not well acquainted with Hodie, he is a red Tiger from Pennsylvania. He and I were buds. Many an afternoon was spent with my loyal red Tiger friend that closely resembled Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes fame. You all know, “They’re Greeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaattt!” I really liked North Carolina. I would consider living there some day. Raleigh is currently the fastest growing city in America so apparently it’s a popular place. I liked the plethora of great universities in the area. It’s arguably the College Basketball Mecca of the US. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Rock Chalk Jayhawk for life but that’s some high quality stuff over there. I also liked the trees and hills and green all over the place. Oh, and don’t let the North in North Carolina fool you. In real life, North Carolina is really very southern. I’m not saying that’s a good or bad thing, it’s just southern.

In other news, we had dinner at my Grandmother’s to celebrate yet another of my Dad’s birthdays. I’m not telling you which one because you won’t believe me anyways. I love dinners with family so close. Sorry Amelia and Kristen, we have quite the monopoly on the local family benefits.

Finally, I’m going to make an announcement. I’m going to start a photography blog. I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time now but I’m tired of not making the time to do it. Most of my blog will be how-to and technical details of the photographs I make. I’ve fallen in love with the website Flickr over the last 6 months and I find so many ideas and things I want to try and I would like to record my progress in the blog. I will also give some helpful hints and suggestions to those of you who don’t know as much about photography. If you want to check out some of my stuff, you can look at my Flickr photostream and read the descriptions of my pictures. I’m all about giving detailed descriptions so others can duplicate the effect and learn from my methods.

Here’s my most recent work. I should have been doing homework but this is just so much more fun.