The Highway to Haiti

As a college freshman in 1997, I became friends with some guys who, from day one, it was obvious we were going to get along really well: (more…)

A GIRL!!!

Eden Rosaria
11:55 pm - February 18th, 2010
7 lb 14 oz - 21-1/2 in

She finally got around to writing. Click here to read more at Beth Moore’s Living Proof Ministries Blog.

Silas starfishing at Fort Saint-Joseph

Lukey—out

Sometimes when you think you’re having French style green beans for dinner…you get corn

Hurricane Luke wipes out bridges on the “Island of Sodor”…again

The Tiki Room at Cofresi

Playa Grande

Christ the Redeemer (Rio replica) atop Pico Isabel de Torres in Puerto Plata

The original bucket bath

Dauphin Plantation ruins in Phaeton. Once upon a time this was a swimming pool

“Pirate ships” at Cormier Plage

Dad keeping watch over Cap-Haitien from the Citadelle–the largest fortress in the western hemisphere. Pictures don’t do justice to this monstrosity. You gotta see it yourself! Hopefully one day they’ll finish the restoration. It’s really cool

Marie-Louise in front of her husband’s “no worries” palace in Milot. When things heated up domestically for the king, she bolted for Italy. Completed in 1813, the palace was shattered by an earthquake in 1842

Books in bed; always a hit!

Matt, almost up on the kiteboard (next time it won’t be “almost”)

Sprinkles! Cheese

An 8-day “kwazad” (crusade) near our house. When you can’t hear each other talking inside your own house–it was rockin’

Pam’s rooftop vegetable garden

MPSL

Nothing quite says, Welcome to the neighborhood, like having your bikes stolen out of your backyard. Such was the feeling of violation in our new home last month. Incidentally, this is not the first time we’ve lived in a downtown urban area, nor the first time we’ve had our bikes stolen! When we lived on State St & Madison Ave in Chicago—same thing. Initiation? Rite of passage? Rookie mistake?

Years ago when I lived in Central America we used to joke about how easily things would “grow legs and walk away.” In Haiti, the easiest way to combat this is to live behind enough cinder blocks and bars, broken bottles and razor wire to rival a Supermax. Besides being ugly, living within utilitarian confines sends the wrong message and doesn’t quite jibe with the proverb in the previous post (which happens to be the November 18, 2008 post; we apologize for the long, yet intentional, hiatus). So, now we’re out a few hundred bucks in bikes—which had been great for getting around and meeting people.

About the same time the bikes were stolen, we had been planning a garage sale. We decided that we had enough stuff to merit a Thursday-thru-Saturday sale. On Thursday morning at 7am I set up a couple tables under the porch of a nearby vacant building and laid out the contents of a dozen boxes. Pam and I were going to work in shifts and we discussed in advance how much we wanted to try to get for the big-ticket items. Within minutes curious passersby turned into a crowd digging through all the stuff on the porch. By 9am, two hours passed, and so had the mob along with 90% of everything we had set out. When we counted the absurd wad of dirty cash and coin jammed into my cargo shorts—we made US$362!

Back to burglary: My wife could tell you that I’m a calculated individual. I study, research, and consider the risks at work or at play. When I gamble (don’t get the wrong idea, there’s a lot of theology here), the risk/reward ratio is the determining factor. The same could be said of the guys who stole our generator only two weeks after our bikes! We had an excellent little 2000-watt Honda generator that we secured to a concrete column outside. The heavy-duty steel cable was apparently no match for bolt-cutters, and the 45-lb. Honda that carries like a suitcase was easily handed over the fence in the darkness. It seems there are guys in this town who study and plan much like myself and share similar interests: in generators at least. I’m quite sure we could be friends.

This, however, caused us to step back and really think through home security and theft prevention. The idea is to create an environment where the risk/reward ratio, as it pertains to burglary, is so unfavorable that it isn’t even worth the hassle. Our neighbors say Dobermans work well. Ultimately, in the economics of our theology, the risk/reward ratio related to the choices we make in life only becomes favorable, or meaningful, when we live in obedience to Christ—even without guarantee of wellbeing or reward this side of Heaven. Sometimes it’s just the price we must pay to live in the hood.