Time flies when you're having fun...and working!

We apologize for the lack of blogging.  We have been very busy and have not had internet access the last two nights.

Friday, for half of the group, was spent in the morning learning about more partner organization of Sous Espwa.  MDK (Ministry for Christian Development) has an office building on the Ministry Center complex.  The also rent out office space to another partner organization- PWOFOD.  POWFOD lost their building in the earthquake.  This was the construction project we were planning on working on until God directed us to the CRECH/World Wide Christian Schools building site instead.
After presentations by MDK and PWOFOD, we spoke with a representative of Back to God Ministries.  The have a recording studio on the second floor of the Ministry Center, next to our sleeping rooms.  We left the MC and headed up the hill to visit CRECH.  After touring their offices and meeting the staff, they served us lunch and gave us gifts, one for each member of our team.  They were so grateful for our work on their school this week!  After a short shopping break, we visited Quisqueya Christian School.  We finally caught up with the rest of our group.  We had dinner at Zach and Sharon Seegar-Kings house (CRC missionaries)  and then headed back to the MC.  Saturday morning we were up early to take a bus ride to the beach.  Arriving at 9:30 after a long and bumpy bus ride, we had until 4:00 to enjoy swimming in the ocean and pool,  a boat ride and snorkeling, lunch, beach volleyball and jumping off a pier into the ocean.  And mostly relaxing!  It was a beautiful day and many sunburned tired bodies took the long and bumpy bus ride back to the MC.  Once there, we split up again.  The Wiersema family left to stay at Cornelius and Mindy's house. The rest of the group stayed at the MC and was to leave early this morning at some time (we don't know exactly!) for a flight out of Port-au-Prince.  Wiersema's worshipped at Quisqueya Chapel and Pastor Doug and Tom arrived with Jenny LeMahieu just as the service was done. (Another story!)

We'll try to post more pictures later today and hopefully someone from the team who stayed to work at the construction site will blog about their time there.

Listening to the PWOFOD director talk about their programs.

Looking at the Back to God Hour Ministries recording studio.

Lunch after a tour of the CRECH offices.

Receiving gifts in appreciation of our work on building the Christian school in Leogane.

Opening our gifts.

After dinner at the Seegar-King's house on Friday night, Zach led a discussion of the Haitian voodoo religion.

Our bus to take us to the beach on Saturday.

Arriving at Wahoo Bay Resort. 

Boat ride out to the coral to try snorkeling. Some were successful.

Catching some rays and relaxing by the pool.

Beach volleyball.

More beach volleyball.

Pier diving- Brandon style. (with shoes).

Jack- no fear!

Kati- been there done that, but it's fun to do it again. (Actually I hadn't done it yet :)

Port-au-Prince Group on Day 4

Half of our group is still in Leogane with no internet access.  The other half of the group started out in the am meeting people from the Haitian CRC.  We had a good meeting in the Ministry Center with Jenny LeMahieu translating for us.

We traveled a short way to the Sous Espwa offices, seeing a lot of earthquake damage along the way.  (This was damage from the January 2010 quake, not the one experienced last night!)

Jenny in front of the Sous Espwa offices.  We met the staff who were very friendly and interesting to talk to.

Lunch at SE offices with some of the staff.

The entrance to one of the school's Kati works at.  Everything has a gate.

The first group of kids made butterflies out of coffee filters and clothespins.

Helping with the glue.

Giving encouragement.

Happy kids!

The second group of kids used their imaginations to make something out of clay.

Creative kids!
We sang two songs with them-- "Jesus Loves Me" (in English, which they speak) and "Jesus Loves the Little Children" in English and then they sang it to us in Creole.

After a short walk down the street to Jenny's house, we helped her prepare dinner and ate there.

God is in Control

For all of you prayer warriors out there following our blog, we did experience a very minor quake here in Haiti. It was a 4.6 magnitude quake, with the epicenter located 22 miles outside of Port-au-Prince. Only half of the team felt it- those that are staying at the Ministry Center. All of our team members are completely safe, but we'll probably be a bit more jumpy =]  Pray for the people of Haiti that experienced the quake two years ago. Many are going to have trouble sleeping tonight as this brought back many bad memories. We rest in the assurance that God is always in control.



Psalm 121 
¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
   where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the LORD,
   the Maker of heaven and earth.
 ³ He will not let your foot slip—
   he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
   will neither slumber nor sleep.
 ⁵ The LORD watches over you—
   the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
   nor the moon by night.
 ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
   he will watch over your life;
⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
   both now and forevermore.

Day 3

We've all been able to try a variety of food.  The food at the ministry center has been very good. As we moved on to the work site and the motel in Leogane, more unusual food and more familiar food was enjoyed. 

Before we left the ministry center on Monday morning, our first breakfast was at 5:30 am.  Our second breakfast, after we arrived at the construction site at 10:30, was spaghetti with ketchup and mayonnaise and one hotdog.

First night at the resort, our choice of meat by majority vote was....goat.  We also had spicy noodles, rice and beans and fried plantains.

Our afternoon snack....sugarcane....yum!

A typical work site meal of beef stew (with bones), beans and rice.

Dinner on Tuesday night was easily recognizable- barbeque chicken and french fries. What? No rice and beans?

The kids loved to play soccer.  They were very competitive and very good.  The white kids lost.

They knew better than us how to jump rope.

The UNICEF tent in the background actually is the temporary classroom for about 20 students. Go, Jane, Go.  5 buckets of sand per concrete batch going into the cement mixer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day on Wednesday, all the exterior walls had 6 courses of blocks laid and the interior walls to divide the classrooms had been started.

Filling the block holes and joints with concrete.

"Did you reapply your sunscreen after lunch?"  "Have you been drinking enough water?"
"Your neck is red, did you put sunscreen on it?"  Did you like the rice and beans at lunch?"
"Time for a break in the shade."  "Did you see where my trowel went?"
"Noe, does this look right?"  "Goot!"
"What is your name?" "Hey you."

The team is now separated for a few days.  Jane, Karmen, Lindsay, Cari, Kevin W. and Pastor Doug left Leogane this afternoon and are back at the Ministry Center. We plan to spend some time at Sous Espwa offices Thursday morning and then with Kati in the afternoon.  The rest of the group has stayed in Leogane to work at the site on Thursday and Friday morning.  We will be back together as a team on Friday afternoon.
We know that so many of you back home are praying for us. There is no illness or injury so far. Thank you for praying for us and please know that we are thinking of you and praying for you, too.

Work Day 1 & 2

First of all we apologize for lack of blogging.  We have moved to an other location that is much closer to where we are working.  And the internet is not easily accessible.  From the get go we never really knew exactly what we were going to be doing here in Haiti as far as working went. Well here's what we have been doing:


We packed up early Monday morning, yes, loaded all our luggage on the TOP of our vehicle! Typical Haitian style.  Don't worry- they were tied on tightly and we managed to not lose any of them during our trip.  We went to the city of Leogane and checked into- wait for it- a hotel. Kind of crazy to experience the different aspects of the culture. We unloaded and then began our work on the site.  

Our hotel

Right on the ocean!!

We are working with the CRWRC to rebuild a school that had been destroyed in the earthquake.  The project engineer had been a teacher at a school in Port-a-Prince; he was injured severely in the earthquake and that school lost many of its students. He is very passionate about rebuilding this school in Leogane. Our experienced craftsmen enjoyed relearning their trades as the Haitian workers explained and taught them the local techniques. We have been accomplishing quite a bit.

It is also neat because the kids are in school while we work.  During their break or after school we have opportunities to hangout and play with them.  The children are full of love and smiles.  They love to give fist pumps and play a hand slapping game.  A game that involves hitting each other's hands...and some of the kids are pretty feisty.  We lead them in some interactive activities such as, "Who is knocking on my door," made animal noises with puppets and introduced them to bubbles!

Temporary classrooms 

A Snapshot of Haiti

Several team members were asked to sleep outside last night after a typical Haitian meal of rice and beans.

Kevin S, Codi, Collin, and Brandon

Welcome to our hotel in Haiti....just kidding! This is a home site that we drove past.

Breakfast this morning consisted of- toast, eggs, mango, papaya, ham and cheese, and peanut butter (mamba) with a kick!

Loading up our chariot for the drive to church. Note: Brandon's man purse!

These 5 little boys sat still during the whole hour and a half service! One little guy however didn't make it...

...while giving greeting to the Haitian congregation even Pastor Doug couldn't capture his attention.

Monkey SEE...monkey DO!

After we enjoyed a nice lunch at the VanDam's house, we saw how the other half of the Haitians live.

With things a little unstable, we employed the services of a few UN troops. 

Don't worry though...we should be safe ;)

Before a night of blogging and games we gathered for devotions and singing.