Pictures from October to December 2013

Past few months in pictures:

Abaka Bay Staff Retreat - Ile a Vache:

 
Water fall near Tigo base:

Robert working in Carrefour:

 

Bible lesson with beach boys:

 

 

 

 

Shoebox distribution with kids on December 21, 2013:

 

 R&R trip to Furcy (in the mountains) with Rebekah:

 

 Beauty on Jax base after the rain - notice the double rainbow:

 

The Past few months in Haiti

1.        Friends come and friends go

2.      R&R in Boone

3.      Starting a garden

4.      Finding a tutor for beach kids

5.      Work, Work, Work

6.      Community Kid’s Soccer League

7.       Helping with bible lessons for beach kids

 

v  Let’s see who has left: Jessica, Charles and Debbie, Evy, Paul, Michael, Andrew, Darin, Brianna, Andrea and Blaine.  Here are the arrivals: Paul, Michael, Andrew, Darin (yes the same ones that left came back a few weeks later), Brianna (came back 2 months later), Viviane, Pamela, Drew, Rian, Rebecca, Jiesha, Chris.  It is hard to see so much change.  To become friends with someone and then they are gone.  I am very thankful for the friendships of those departed and look forward for the friendships to come.

v  R&R was great.  Family.  Friends.  Great food.  We celebrated 10 years of marriage.  We vacationed at home for our anniversary!  When we got back to Haiti we felt like we needed a vacation from our vacation!

v   Haiti is blessed to have constant sunshine.  Because of this we brought veggie seeds with us when we first came.  I have finally gotten around to starting a garden after eight months.  Decided to start out small and see how it goes.  It is a 3’ by 7’ raised bed vegetable garden.  Had to do everything by hand and now my body is very sore.  Plus the ants did not appreciate me digging in their homes and I have the bites all over my feet as proof.  Ants are amazing creatures, but I do not like them!  Once the soil dries out the planting will begin.  I pray that this garden produces fruit!  After only 1 week seeds are already sprouting.  Exciting!

v  We have been reading Pilgrim’s Progress in Creole.  Robert had some of the older beach kids read to him one night.  It took one 30 minutes to read one page.  Robert had to teach them about different Creole contractions.  We were stunned.  The school year starts in October.  We interviewed a couple of local teachers about tutoring 4 of the beach kids.  The plan is to have the tutor meet with each kid three times a week for an hour each time.  Pray that the children are motivated and that the tutor is able to teach.

v  Work, work, work.  No explanation needed.  Very thankful to have the weekends off!

v  Francois, heavy equipment operator with Robert, has a soccer league in the surrounding community.  This is the second year and the players love it.  The whole community comes out to watch.  Several of the beach kids are on teams, so we go watch their games to support them.  These kids love Robert.  One kid, Gladson, will look at Robert after each play to see if he was watching.  We really enjoy going to these games.  It is just as much fun to watch the spectators as it is to watch the players.  When their team scores the sideline erupts in cheering.  Play stops as everyone celebrates.  Never a dull moment at these games.

v  We were able to help another couple for two Saturdays with bible lessons for some of the beach kids.  We taught the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.  At each lesson, breakfast is served, they retell last week’s story and then the new lesson is taught.  They are able to retell all the details.  After each bible lesson they teach them a skill or play a game with the kids.  We played soccer with a basketball on the helipad.  The kids will play soccer with just about any round ball.  This was a lot of fun and we hope to help out more in the future.

There is so much that goes on in day to day life here.  It is hard to pick out certain things to talk about and not repeat yourself.  Please pray for continued energy and encouragement for all SP workers.

Summertime in Haiti

1. It is hot!
2. It is rainy!
3. It is humid!!
4. Mosquitos love to come out after the rain!!!
5. Mosquitos love me!!!!!  But the feeling is not mutual.  I think they wait on me at my front door each morning.  Whoever said that taking garlic pills helps ward off mosquitos is wrong when it comes to this lady.  One day I walked with Robert to pick a few mangos and in the time it took me to walk to the far tree and back to the front (probably less than a minute) I got bit 13 times and had two ant bites.  I am not sure why they love me so much.  If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to comment. 

Work Days

Robert has been working in Gressier, which is about 30 minutes from base.  A few of the things he has been up to:

Built roads to a school

Built a soccer field

Repaired a canal that was flooding a house

Repaired roads

Hauled in rocks to repair base's fence (the fence is getting washed out by the river anytime we get heavy rain)

I have been working in finance.  I know what you are thinking.  The most exciting volunteering in the world.  And you are right.  There is a position open in the finance department and I have applied.  I am in the process of turning in all my paperwork.  They have offered me an MOU, so this is exciting.  I am not sure what that means for us as far as how long we will be here.  Only Jesus knows!

Movie Time

We showed another movie to the beach kids on Friday.  Nacho Libre.  The kids enjoyed this, but still prefer Beethoven.  Go figure.  They never see big dogs here, so that may be it. Before the movie started Robert read the story of David and Goliath in Creole.  None of them had heard of the story, so it was awesome to share this with them.  The scripture sharing was Steve and Jody's idea and I think it is a great addition to movie night.  We will read a scripture that can be tied to the movie.  I pray that God uses this to reach these children (and some parents that are coming now).

Kokoye Beach

On Saturday we went to Kokoye (coconut) beach. It was Andrea's last weekend, so we went in honor of her.  It is about an hour drive and an hour hike to the beach.  On the way it is all downhill, which is hard on the knees.  You are greeted by a beautiful beach.  White sand, clear water, and palm trees.  It looks like a picture from a travel magazine. We relaxed on the beach, floated in the water, searched for seashells and did a little swimming.  A very chill and restful time.

        The hike out was not the most fun hike I have been on.  Notice how high the picture looks.  One person in our group had to ride a donkey back to the top because they had so much trouble on the way down; they knew that they could not go back up.  As I am about 3/4 of the way to the top I am thinking that the donkey was not a bad idea.  Robert and I decide to take the straight up the ridge route instead of the slightly easier winding route.  We were in the sun the whole time and I thought my head was going to pop off from overheating.  It took us 48 minutes of hard hiking to get to the top.  Most people took an hour +.  Paul only took 30 minutes.  Taking all that into consideration this is definitely the most beautiful beach in Haiti that I have been to.  I would definitely do it again.

     

Run!
There is a group of us that has been running in the morning about twice a week.  I can't talk anyone into running more.  This is so much nicer because it is about 10 to 15 degrees cooler at 5:45 am than at 5:45 pm.  And the sun is not beating down on you.  At this time of the morning it is really quite in the community.  It is a very peaceful time to run.  Got to work off all this rice we have been eating!

Jax Base News

Just a few things we have been up to in the past couple of weeks:
1. We had a staff appreciation day on base
2. Went to Greta for two days
3. Had a mass wedding for 3 of the national SP staff
4. Neil built a massive waterslide!




Staff Appreciation day~
Aka. Jax Fun day
Staff from each program took the day off work to have fun on base.  We had games, talent show, water balloon fight and food.  Robert and I were in the talent show.  We did our kiwi games.  The ones with a broom.  The first one weaving it around your body and the other jumping over it holding on to your toes.  We had volunteers come up and try it after us.  It was so funny to see guys try to weave the broom around their body. None of them could do it. 

I think that the staff had a good time.  The water balloon fight ended the day.  A lot of fun, but quite tiring!






Greta~
As always Greta was fun.  I have not seen the kids in about 4 weeks because of our 2 week R&R and I have been volunteering in the finance department for about 2 weeks.  The kids were so excited, especially Dave and Israel.  They both ran up and wrapped their arms around my legs.  We had a fun project for Greta: painting the kids hands to make a handprint card.  I think it turned out great!

 

 

Weddings~

 

We experienced our first Haitian wedding this weekend.  Not just one, but three!  The ministry team married 3 of the national staff: Smith Rene, Watson Fleurissant, and Maxone Belgrade. They each had their own best man/maid of honor.  In a Haitian wedding you have a king and queen.  It is like our flower girl and ring bearer.  But instead of just walking down the aisle, they dance!  A slow choreographed dance that lasts for a whole song.  So each couple had a king and queen.  I am pretty sure that it took about 20 minutes before everyone had finally walked in.  The couples sat on opposite sides until vows were said and then they sat side by side.  I was asked to read Genesis 2:18-24 for the ceremony.  In Creole!  I was definitely nervous, but Jesus helped and I made it through without mistakes.  During the ceremony I sat on the stage with all of the pastors.  I am sure that I looked comical sitting on the stage.  The wedding lasted about 3 hours.  Guests could come up at any point in the ceremony and take pictures.  So most of the time people could not see because there were so many people taking pictures.  I have to say this is the most interesting wedding I have ever been to.  The reception was on the beach in front of base.  It was mass chaos trying to feed the guests.  Anyone on the beach could come up asking for food, but there was only enough for the guests that had been invited.  There were a lot of angry people that felt like they should have gotten food.  Once all the plates were handed out I left because it was too much.  In the end the day was a success because each couple was married.  Another full day!

 

 

 

 

 

Waterslide~ 

Neal built the best waterslide.  He used the frame of old coverall.  He spent a lot of time getting it ready for the day the Greta kids came to swim at the beach of our base.  It was a huge success.  We let some of the beach kids come on base to use it after the Greta kids left.  They loved it.  I am sure that it was a first time they had ever done anything like that.  Some were scared to try it; some would only go sitting down; some finally worked up enough courage and tried all sorts of ways.

 

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ROBERT

Road Building

These are the guys that collect rocks from the river.  Right now the river is dry, so they can work in it.  If it rains this area floods.  It is a contest to see how many rocks they can claim before others get to them.  I enjoyed watching them smile in triumph over the amount of stones they collected with each swipe of the loader.