Home Sweet Home.

A picture many of you have seen already, but the beautiful view of my morning devotions and the greater PAP area including the ocean! 

I've told myself I'm going to be better at blogging and updating our family and friends since I moved here, and here I am, still not good at it! BUT there have been a lot of life changes and so I really wanted to update everyone!

So as many of you followed our LONNGGG journey to get Johnny a visa, it all ended in August when he was finally approved! About a week after approval, we packed up my house, put it into storage and hopped onto a plane to head to Oregon for about 6.5 weeks.

I had dreamed for almost 2.5 years what it would be like to show Johnny Oregon, have him meet my friends and family, and for him to understand what my life was like before I ever met him. Our time there was everything I dreamed of and more, culminating in the day of our dreams, our wedding!

I'm still at a loss for words for how special our wedding day was and I am so grateful for all those that came out to celebrate with us! After the wedding, we headed to Black Butte for a week, then to Eugene for a week and then back to Haiti to really start the married life!

We have two balconies to enjoy and boy do we ever!
We take full advantage of the beautiful views. 

But here is where the real fun began. Before leaving Haiti, we had put a deposit on a house we thought we were going to rent! They said they would use that money to spruce up the house a bit before we got back so we could move in. Unfortunately, upon arriving back in Haiti, I sent Johnny to check on the house to see if we could move in and it turned out to be a whole big disaster. It's a complicated system here in Haiti, but basically the owner of the house died in August. She had a partner but they were never legally married and had a child together. Because they were never married, her child automatically inherits the house (her daughter is 10 years old). The landlord's parents found out they never got married and were mad and took all the papers for the house. We really didn't want to get caught up in this big legal battle so we backed out of the house and had to scramble to look for a new place to live. Our budget for a house before leaving for the US was $3,000 for the year (you pay a whole year's rent upfront, rather than monthly). After loosing this house and having to find a new one, we quickly realized we weren't going to be able to find a house, in our budget, in our desired area so we had to increase our budget. Thankfully due to some very generous wedding gifts we were able to do that, but unfortunately it has wiped our savings clean.

Our little eat-in dining area in the kitchen!

We ABSOLUTELY love our house though, so the sacrifice was well worth it. We are settling in. As money allows though we will have some furniture to purchase to fill up the space a little better. We look forward to hiring a local "boss" (aka carpenter) to build us a TV stand, book shelf, coffee table, night stands and more!

Part of our beautiful bedroom and our place of rest. 

I am so grateful to have a job here that pays me - though now that I am supporting myself and Johnny (while he attends university), we need more income than I am bringing in. Johnny has a very small part-time job which helps but it basically only covers his transportation to and from school. There are some expenses that don't change going from a one-person household to a two-person household but then there are some that it has a larger impact on.

Not a great photo of our living room but it's pretty large and we don't have much furniture in it. We are looking forward to growing into this space!

Some of our big needs that we haven't been able to do yet since moving into our new house due to a lack of money are:
Set up a garbage service: We really don't want to burn our trash. That is common here but there is plenty of pollution as it stands and we don't need to add to the problem. There is a service (similar to what you all have in the US) that would come and pick up our trash each week. To set up this service for a year it will cost us $300. Does anyone want to sponsor us $300 so we can get this going (or about $25/month)?

Join the Gym: We were going to a gym in Kenscoff prior to moving - but now we would like to join a gym closer to our house. This gym is great and offers a variety of classes and workout equipment. For both of us to join, it will cost us $100/month. Does anyone want to sponsor us $100/month to cover our gym cost?

Our kitchen! And a clear photo of why we need someone to come
and clean once a week! 

Cook/House Cleaner: I recognize that Johnny has eaten Haitian food almost his entire life exclusively. I however do not know how to cook Haitian food. We are hoping to hire someone to come two times a week to clean our house, cook us a Haitian meal and go to the market for us. She will cost us about $50/month. Is anyone willing to sponsor us $50/month so we can hire a local woman to help us out?

If any of these amounts don't work for you and your budget but you want to give, you are more than welcome to donate or set up a reoccurring payment in my name for any amount. These donations will be tax-deductible and we all know the end of the year is coming!

Here is the link to donate or set up a reoccurring payment: https://www.chances4children.org/donate/
**just make sure you put "in honor of: Alison Honn"

I fully intend on doing monthly updates (trying to get in a routine!!) so subscribe to this blog so you get notified when I do publish a new blog post. I also really promise not to ask you for money each month in our blog post!

Please do not hesitate to shoot me any questions you might have!

Learning Humility

As I was home over the holidays, I got to see many of my friends and family and easily the most frequently asked question was "how are things going down there?!" and most got a similar response along the lines of "things are really good, not always easy, but good!" - which more often than not led to a conversation about what wasn't "always easy". Many heard me grumble about what it's like to be white and have everyone expect you to have money and are constantly asked for money. This genuinely is a challenge and is frustrating - but today it was a different story. 

I went on a monthly large grocery shop in town and was returning home with all my groceries in a friend's car, that could not make it up the last little hill by my house. She kindly parked at the bottom and flagged down a young man who was headed up the hill to ask if he could help me (so I didn't have to make two trips). In my head, I automatically started calculating what a fair price would be to pay the man to carry my groceries up the hill - because I knew that would be the expecatation. 25 gourdes? 50 gourdes? (63 gourdes = $1). In any case, it wasn't a significant amount of money but it's the expectation that I would pay is what drives me crazy. 

The young man agreed to help me with the box up the hill and knew where I lived already (because I'm the white girl that lives in the neighborhood that walks my dog around). I confirmed my house and off he went while I gathered the rest of my items. I expected to find him standing at the gate of my house with the box when I finally reached the top of the hill. To my surprise, the box was left in front of the gate and the man was gone. I have no idea who he is or where he lives (though I can only assume he lives close by). 

I was immediately struck with humility because here I was grumbling about less than a dollar that I was going to give a man for helping me carry my groceries. A dollar that could provide him with a meal for the day or a bus to go see his family. Whatever his story - he was not under the assumption that I would pay him. He helped me out of the kindness of his heart and not under the cultural expectation that white people have money. 

I have spent the rest of the day today reflecting on this simple yet very impactful interaction - I am humbled by these people and this country constantly - if I am looking for it. I must remember to look for situations that I can learn from. 

God - I pray that I would never grow so comfortable that I stop learning from others. I want to be humbled by your presence and your work through others.