Brandon has a line he says pretty often, “We make plans here in Haiti, so we have something to change.” It’s true. Plan A is really just to get something on the books, have an outline or idea of what we want to try and do or accomplish. We usually settle in somewhere around Plan D.

So I guess, when we had to go to plan B with mom and dad here, that wasn’t that bad. But it still was a bummer. We had hoped to start drilling a well for an organization called Kids Alive. (You can find their link to your right if you would like more information about what they do). They are hoping to move onto some new property, as they are just finishing up the housing for their kids. But you  can’t really move into a new place without water, and that is what we are hoping to provide. But, as goes life here, we hit a bump in the road when a small piece broke on the drill rig. Turns out this small piece was pretty important -sorry, I still am not sure what it did!- and so we called the people who made the rig we have and got that special little piece overnighted! woohoo! It still took a few days, but we got in on Thursday, the last day that Brandon’s parents were here. So, the good news? We got the part and rig is ready to go now. The bad news? Brandon’s dad didn’t get to drill with him, which he was really looking forward to.

So, plan B. Instead, he helped Brandon with the many tasks, both large and small, all around the house. Keeping up a large group home, complete with running water, power, and all the amenities sure is a lot of work. So dad helped Brandon with some of those odd jobs, and he also helped do some projects for me that Brandon just hasn’t had the time to do yet.

The fun part was while the boys went around fixing things, mom and I hung out. She got to see how my days are measured by the three meals I make for us. Cooking isn’t easy here, nor is it quick, and it was so nice to have another set of hands helping me out! She got a kick out of hanging clothes out on the line, on the roof, saying how she thought that was the first time she had done that in her whole life! Well, I guess that was me too before I moved here, now it just feels normal! We went grocery shopping, and we visited other friends who live close by to see what they are doing here too. It was so nice to sit and chat together, and we soaked up every minute of it.

Dad helping Brandon put a larger pipe so the water can come out faster when we drill.

Brandon had to get inside of the hot, huge water tank. Nasty.

That task was so much easier with dad there to help out!

I showed mom my garden...isn't it pretty ??

Things are growing! I usually kill everything, but not this time-not yet anyway!

Mom and I spent lots of time bonding in the kitchen-making food! And Penelope loved sitting under the counter to watch -and wait for falling scraps!

Mom (and dad) got to meet Manette. She loved seeing Brandon's dad- she said they looked exactly the same!

Don't get me wrong, I didn't cook every night. Manette make some tasty Haitian dishes and they loved them! I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't love Manette's cooking!

Dad put up hooks in the downstairs guest living room. So we could display the things made by the women at Heartline.

The beautiful purses now have a beautiful display.. thanks dad!

Look how perfect those little hooks are for displaying those pretty necklaces!!

I'm PUMPED.. look how cute it all looks! Just click on Heartline Ministires to your right if you too would like to order a bag or jewelry hand crafted by Haitian ladies!

The weekend.

It was so nice to have a weekend to enjoy some special off time with mom and dad!  So we took them to some of our favorite hang out places. One is a beautiful beach about 45 minutes away, on a crazy mountain dirt road. They loved it. We sat by the beach, ordered tasty food, and enjoyed a restful day off. We also went to eat at one of the three restaurants we have in town. This one is actually a hotel and restaurant, and the food is really quite tasty. They branched out and tried the goat, a typical Haitian meal, and really enjoyed it!

At dinner!

The four of us enjoying tasty food. We ordered the beef in a tasty mushroom sauce. Yum !

Dad enjoying his spot in the shade, right on the clear Carribean ocean.

Why do we, and our some of our visitors, have this strange fascination with livestock? I’m guessing because like us, most of our visitors have not grown up on a farm, and when we see cows, goats, and chickens wondering around, we think it’s pretty exciting. I too find them fun, and always have this strange urge to pull over and pet any baby animals I see.  And thus is the case for when we have visitors. I have also noticed that Haitians find this activity very, very strange. Don’t worry, that doesn’t stop me. If I stopped doing all activities that Haitians thought was strange, I wouldn’t be able to move. Seriously. They think we are so odd-not just due to fact that we freak out and take photos of everyday animals that they have grown up with their whole lives, but other such things like: we take photos of everything, and we go for walks for fun (I mean really, how strange to see people voluntary walking when so many have to walk all day long to perform various chores) we have a dog that we pet and play with and lives in our house (not to mention we just had a dog bed made for her, that made Manette laugh for five straight minutes!!) we eat peculiar foods like basil -which people only eat here for medicinal use- and we try and plant flowers everywhere, and we go to the beach -and actually swim in the ocean…just to name a few.

But back to my point. We took mom and dad for a walk around the neighborhood, and they loved it. Not just because it was pretty quiet  and nice to see our hood, but also because there were animals everywhere! And mom, just like me and so many others, loved seeing all the animals. I even helped her catch a baby goat! I can only get the really little ones, that haven’t yet learned about stranger danger. She wanted to pet a baby cow, but my experience has been it’s just not a good idea. Mom wasn’t convinced, and as she stepped closer to the baby cows, I stepped farther away. I had a few mama cows start at me for simply lingering by their baby cows for too long, and thus I don’t hardly make eye contact anymore. I’m terrified of these gigantic cows, that are loosely tied to a small branch. I mean really, the tying up is more of a deterrent, seeing as how if they tugged at all, they would come loose. I’ve seen it. I have been rushed by a pissed off mama cow, so no more baby cow petting for me! So, mom just opted for a photo with it in the background!

Oh, and something else interesting to note: mom and dad observed on our walk, that most cows have a white bird sitting next to them. Well, turns out, they were on to something! These birds are called cattle egrets, and they hang out with livestock! Good ol’ Wikipedia says, “it feeds in relatively dry grassy habitats, often accompanying cattle or other large mammals, since it catches insect and small vertebrae prey disturbed by these animals.” Huh. And wouldn’t you know, now that I have started paying attention, there almost always does seem to be one bird per cow! I mean, I’ve seen them everywhere, and usually kind of hanging out with cows, but it’s almost like a true buddy system they have doing on. Cracks me up!

On our walk... (see the cow and it's bird friend??)

As close as I could get the baby cow for mom to get a photo!

The cute baby goat we captured!

He loved mom, nuzzled right into her neck !

Mom and dad in front of the house.

We met a woman on one of the teams, Janet, that came to visit last fall. She actually volunteers for the church Liquid Church-the church that donated money for the rig and two teams came to visit last fall- and she is super sweet. Well, turned out she was coming back to the area on a cruise with her husband, and wanted to pop in and say hello. It worked out pretty good, since Brandon’s parents are visiting, and we made a morning of it.

It was pretty hilarious too, since mom and dad came and visited Haiti almost a year and a half ago, on a cruise ship that stopped  at Labadee. We joked with them then, how they had technically visited Haiti, but not really. And only now do they understand what that really means!  While there certainly are lovely beaches in Haiti, Labadee is a little peninsula that the cruise line owns. This means there are cabanas, and ocean toys, and huts where you can buy any mixed drink you can imagine. That isn’t exactly how it goes outside of there, which is why it’s funny when that is the image people have of Haiti.

Anyway, back to Janet. When she knew she was coming, she was on a mission. Not just to try and navigate her way through the security of Labadee in order to meet us and set sail for our own private beach -since we are not allowed on Labadee-but she also wanted to bring us stuff! And not just any stuff-things for the guesthouse, a friends infant care center, and us personally. So she told all her church friends, and they rallied around her to collect things like Pedalite, tylnelol, and tasty goodies for us.

So we hung out on the beach with mom and dad, and Janet and her husband. It was so fun to see her again and catch up! And the bag she brought was so loaded down with goodies she could hardly carry it. It was so heavy since she packed away like 8 huge Pedialites. We already gave those to our friends who run an infant care center, and they are so thankful for them!! (Not to mention we are so pumped to have Clorox wipes and wheat thins!)

Mom and me on the boat ride to next cove over.

Mom and dad on the little boat-with the huge cruise ship in the background!

Janet passing off the goodies to Brandon!

Hanging out on the beach !

The goodie bag.

With mom and dad too-so fun!

And then we had to say goodbye...

We are programed to think everything works out in the end. That is why most movies wrap up nicely within two hours, and the ones that don’t leave us feeling some serious angst. Well, at least that is how I feel. I love when movies wrap up and everyone has their ‘and they lived happily ever after’.  But unfortunately, that is not life. I have found the only way to deal with that reality, is knowing that God is in charge. Our time here on earth is but a vapor, a mist. (James 4:13)

After drilling in Pistere for nearly three weeks, one with the team from Colorado, we have drilled two dry holes. We quickly got to 80 feet (I’m talking in a half day) and the other 120 feet took us much much longer. We hit some hard formations, and couldn’t get through them quickly. What we needed was a bigger rig, a better rig for drilling through that material. But the funny thing about underground is, you don’t know whats there until you start drilling through it. The last 120 feet went very slowly, and some days it took us over an hour to go down just five feet. But we knew we couldn’t stop. We told the community of Pistere that we would do our best and try our hardest.

Does that make us feel better? Not really.

The last day, when we reached 200 feet -the farthest depth we could go because we only have enough drill stem to go 200ft- it was anti-climatic. We were hoping and praying that something would change and we’d be find water, that maybe it was just down a little bit further. But, in fact, it was not. And so we had to pull all the pipe out of the ground, and talk with everyone from the community.  When we started, we were very careful not to promise anything, knowing that only God knows what is beneath us and if we’re going to hit water. But that still doesn’t help. It was hard to look those people in the eye-those men and women we have come to know- and tell them we couldn’t find them clean water. They were disappointed, of course, who wouldn’t be. However, one man told us that he was thankful we tried. He said he saw how long we there, saw how hard the staff worked, saw how committed we were to trying and trying, and he said thank you.

A sincere thank you goes a long way. It didn’t make our parting of ways easier, but we mutually believe in a big God. One that has plans and a future for the people in that community far greater and bigger than we will see or understand.

Dad checking to see how many pipe are in the hole, Brandon wondering if we're ever going to find water, and a super nice guy from the community helping out too!

Dad took a turn with the controls.

Mom and me took a break from drilling to supervise. It's tough work, but someone has to do it.

During one of the rather slow hours of drilling, dad wondered off to check out a man who was building his home. (And those kids were posing in the background...I thought I was being sly but they saw my camera and posed too !)

Lots of sitting around as we slowly went deeper and deeper. We still had a decent crowd watching though!

Brandon’s parents are here for a visit! They have wanted to come since we moved here, and now they are here! We get them for almost two weeks, and are so excited to show them around. They flew in Monday, and we hit the ground running. The went out with us on a long bumpy ride to check on three wells that had been drilled. They were jostling around in the back, but loving seeing and experiencing Haiti first hand!

There are here! In our house!!

Mom brought some toys for Penelope! How sweet is that?? Of course now Penelope loves her!

Already at work drilling and using our hard hats.

Dad was ready to get in and get his hands dirty.

Dad and I playing around

I had to try braiding her hair..and of course she thought it was hilarious! I did it, which impressed her, but not nearly as fast as her friend!

This little girl was so adorable-but she wouldn't smile! Finally, her dad started singing so she started dancing and laughing.

Mom got to experience the bomb rush of kids...she opened her car door to leave and they all just stood there and smiled at her. She thought it was pretty funny!

They also happened to have their anniversary the second day they were here! Thirty one years of marriage! And we got the celebrate with them! We made a yummy dinner and ate by candlelight. Romanic? Yes minus the fact that your kids are there! But definitely a unique anniversary experience!

We had a special little anniversary dinner. It was fun to celebrate together with them.

Manette made her famous spiked fruit punch...special for their anniversary!