Brandon & Jessica

Our friend, Jack, came up to see us right after Easter. He has worked in and out of Haiti for about eight years now, and in fact he started the LWI program in Haiti! He worked in the Leogane area, just southeast of Port au Prince. He has always wanted to come and see the north of Haiti, and finally took us up on the offer to stay. We had a great time showing him around, and visiting with him.

He really wanted to see the Citadel, and loved it!

Only in Haiti can you sit on old ancient artifacts-we were joking if this way anywhere else they would be behind bull proof glass with an alarm screaming in the background if you dared to get close enough to fog up the glass!

Or how about taking a nap on a cannon??

I love this photo.
The only thing missing "New York" and "Tokyo".
Oh, and some gas and other truck fluids right at this little 'store'. !!

The "other" Haiti- LaBadee. That day, two cruise ships were there-8,000 people! And we are standing from a tiny platform that is a roller coaster ride to the bottom that people over pay to use. I can't wrap my mind around the different worlds!!

From this photo it looks like we are there in the thick of it! You can't tell that we are behind a giant 10 foot fence with wire to keep all people but cruise people out. Pretty funny!

Did you know that charcoal is the number one way Haitians cook food? Do you know how charcoal is made, or why it is used? They use it because it’s so inexpensive, but sadly that is why almost the entire rainforest that used to be Haiti is gone. To make charcoal you chop a tree down, (with no regulations and no “plant another one” motto in place, a lot of trees are hacked down all the time) cut it into smaller pieces and bury it under dirt. Then you light it on fire and it burns slowly for almost a week. They keep checking it and relighting it when needed. It has a very distinct, strange sort of smell. And the end product is charcoal, used by pretty much almost every single Haitian I know to cook thier food.

The charcoal smoldering and burning.

This bag (or a scoop from this bag) is for sale on the side of the road-a common site here in Haiti.

Yes, it’s a long time passed now, but just wanted to give you a peek into what/how we celebrated this year. I’m keeping in mind the “catching up” theme-since I am so far behind on posts, so this will be short.

First we got together and had a yummy meal. We each brought something, potluck style, which turned out to be super fun. Seems like we were all missing traditional favorites served at home with loved ones, because each of us made a dish from back home. Now, more like tried to make, because Haiti doesn’t exactly have all the ingredients you are looking for. Which can make things fun, sometimes challenging too, when you try to re-create those favorite family traditional foods, and you fall short because you are working with very limited resources! But that didn’t stop all of us from trying! Then, we had a great time of diving in the Word. One girl, Kristen, prepared a great lesson type thing, that went through the whole Easter story-inlcuding going back into the Old Testament and talking through scriptures about prophesying the birth and death of Christ, then the life of Jesus, His death and resurrection. It was the first time I had heard something like that, shared in that type of manner, and it was wonderful. We took communion together, and had a great time of worship. It was lovely.

Then we finished off the afternoon with decorating eggs. And let me tell you, I forgot how fun it is! I haven’t done that in years. One guy, Hunter, because his wife was in the states, he was off the hook for cooking in the potluck-but he was in charge of candy and egg stuff. And he sure came through! We had tons of candy-which we all fought over the chocolate of course-and he even brought  egg decorating stuff. We had so much fun!

Baking in the kitchen together! Wearing the aprons I got for my birthday! Aren't we so cute?? Terry made a yummy sweet carrot dish, Kristen made a family corn recipe, and Leticia made mashed potatoes...YUM.

That's right, blackberry pie (blackberries shipped in!!) What is a holiday gathering without pie?? And when grandma isn't around-nothing beats grandma pie- you have to improvise! That top you see there was my fourth attempt to get it right, and it worked out in the end.

Eating dip. Five seconds before this photo Brandon dropped of scoop of dip (laden with precious cheese and cream cheese) on his sandal and foot and much to everyone's shock and surprise he just scooped it right back up and into his mouth! No wasting cheese in this house!

Hunter even brought plastic eggs filled with candy-Kristen and I were loving it. We debated having a hunt, but seemed silly since it was just us adults, so we just ate the candy instead.

Eating dinner

The cute table-I just can't help myself, I have to decorate the table too! From top to bottom-My mom's amazing recipe for yogurt chicken, Terri's yummy sweet carrots, and Kristen's tasty corn dish.

Game faces. Who can make the cutest egg??

Okay, now we are having fun!

Look at our cute eggs!! (No, Leticia didn't pee on herself, we got a little excited and one of the bowls of dye spilled all over her!!

That’s right. That team we had almost a year ago came back to visit us!! Of course not everyone could come back to Haiti again, but two of them did. And it was so fun to see them again!! One man, David, brought his wife this time, which was super fun to meet the other half. She was so sweet, and brought us tons and tons of goodies too. She already knew Crossgates had a special place in our hearts, but she really wanted to make sure it stayed that way! The cool part was also meeting more people from that church-who had the same fun loving attitudes, and hearts that loved the Lord. The church (many of the people from the  team that came a year ago, who sadly couldn’t come this time) sent us down fun things they knew we would enjoy. I’m talking chocolate, snacks, clorox wipes, photos from their last trip, cards, more chocolate-you know, all the essentials. It was so thoughtful and sweet! We had a great week with them, drilling in Milot. God once again provided the clean water, and we found it in the week that they were here-only the second time that has happened! It was beautiful.

Here are some photos that highlight the week. Of course, this is supposed to be the “Recap” version-so I tried to narrow it down to the best ones, it was hard!!

Let me start by reminding you (and it's good for me to have the reminder too!)why we love helping people/communities get clean water. This is where this community was getting water, at this river, about a half mile away.

I feel like it's the picture on the back of those old Highlights magazines-can you find all the things wrong in this photo??

One woman and her booth of "goods". This lady is selling a lot of what most people sell- spaghetti noodles, broth cubes, flour, garlic, pepper, onions, butter, tomato paste. All on the convince of the side of the road! Sure I don't have a real grocery store, but how many of you can walk down your neighborhood and find groceries you need right on the side of the road??

The team drilling

Ivenor showing Carly how to use the drill rig

The kids all gather around at recess to check out what is going on. Pretty fascinating stuff, and they were so excited to have a well right at their school!

The team prepared a Bible story and we spent one day going around to each class room and sharing the the story of the Living Water (Jesus!!) with them.

One of the many ways we are now having the community help with their wells-buliding the base/pad where the pump will sit. That in addition to many other things-including starting a water committee to make sure the well is taken care of and protected so it will last.

At the well dedication. This was the man who built the pad-he was very proud of his work, as he should be because he did a great job, and loved that he was honored and respected by coming up and pumping the brand new well.

At the well dedication- I love this photo. I can't take credit for it, it's Nathan's photo!!

The whole team from Mississippi- such a sweet group!

We took the team to the church right next to the school. We don't let anyone take photos in the church, only after everything is done. If people are real sneaky then that is okay. So this person kept the camera in her bag and caught a good shot. A very typical Haitian church-don't mind the odd angle!

Here are the photos, like promised, from the well that we drilled for Kids Alive. This was done by the team from Austin Texas, a very sweet group who did such a great job drilling, interacting with the kids and community, and loving on those around them. The ladies who led some Bible stories were so prepared, which made my life so much easier, not to mention all the fun we had together!

The kids practicing real fishing after hearing about the story of Jesus calling the first disc plies who were fishermen-they loved it!!

One lady from the team, Louis, brought a blow up globe to show the kids where they were from, and where Haiti was on the map, of course they were super interested in that!

Meet the Jessica's! A popular name in Haiti-and this one class had two girls named Jessica!

They even made sheep one day to go along with another Bible story.

The guys working on the rig

Well-some looked more like government workers sometimes! ha!

Loved this. Every morning the kids had a small ceremony where they sang the Haitian National Anthem and prayed together.

It was so nice that they allowed us to be a part of that every day

Of course some of the Kids Alive folks wanted to test out the rig-Brent had fun checking everything out.

Me and Leticia (Brent's wife). She is adorable, they work for Kids Alive International

Brent and Brandon.

More Bible story time-and outside too. It worked well since it's a typical Haitian school where the class rooms are divided but so close together that you hear a lot from the other classes.

This is Beni. He too works for Kids Alive. I loved getting to know him during the week-he is like the grounds keeper guy-and I was asking all about his beautiful garden (I'm so jealous of people who plant things and they actually grow!!) and a few days later he gave me some of his beautiful carrots-what a gem!

Just thought you might like to see this. These are our water test kits. They test for bacteria, nitrate, nitrite, PH level, and total dissolved solids, and total hardness. They are great. And KIds Alive tested good-as all the wells we drill do-YAY!

I thought maybe I needed a little inspiration to get back into the blogging mood. So, I changed up the background, some photos, and color in hopes to find some motivation. I think it helped!

Just want to apologize for the, well, lag time. I have so much to say (real shocker eh?) and so much to catch up from an entire month of no updates. I am actually going to try something new, and just do a few ‘catch up’ posts so you feel up to date. I’m thinking it will be similar to watching a new episode on TV “Last week on…” so here are some glimpses/highlights from the last month. I will make a few posts to sum up the last month-and I have a feeling some of you may like this idea since I know I tend to ramble on!

Here they come…

What a week.

Rarely, okay more like not once yet thus far, have things gone that smoothly drilling.  The goal was to drill a well for Kids Alive International. (click on their link to the right for more information) They are another not for profit working here in Haiti, and requested that we drill a well for them. They are in the process of building new houses on a new location, and the missing link to moving in? Water. This location is like “group housing” for children at risk, who have no where else to live. The model is one that the children live in homes, with a Haitian mother and father, along with several other kids. It’s a beautiful thing.

And this week a few things happened.

One, God produced water and allowed us to find it, in just THREE short days. That was  a miracle.

Second, we were able to share with the children at the school each day, through different Bible story lessons that the team from Austin texas prepared.

Third, we were able to talk with, listen to, and share with the  parents (all 16 of them) that run these homes that the children stay in. Ninety kids live in about seven different houses throughout the community right now, being raised and loved on by their house parents.  And it was so nice to sit down with them and just talk.

Each time we drill a well, we want to discuss health and hygiene. Because we know that clean water actually saves lives, and in addition, so do basic hygiene practices too. But there is a delicate way to go about this. LWI has hired a Haitian woman to do this with the communities. She goes into the church/school/community before we drill the well, and talks with them about their current hygiene practices, and from that access what she needs to discuss further with them. So when we have teams, we also want the team to be a part of this process, but in a way that promotes and encourages what our Haitian woman, Margareth, is doing.  This time, with the team, we were able to ask Kids Alive if we could talk with the house parents. So during the morning the team went around to each classroom and shared Bible stories with each class. Afterwards, we met with the parents.

I have to admit, I was super intimidated to talk with them. Part of it was we know Kids Alive and some of the staff, and therefore I didn’t want to embarrass them! Also, whenever I (or our teams) are the ones doing any hygiene, I am always very cautious. There is a fine line to walk here. I really can’t stand it when we-the think we know everything foreigners -come in and tell people what to do, and how to do it. Which is why I love that most of the time our evangelism and hygiene implementation is being done by Haitians. And our programs, with teams, are meant to encourage and validate what our nationals are doing. And when done properly, this works very well.

Back to my point. I prayed a lot before I met with them. I was told we’d have about an hour together, and prepared a few lessons to talk about. We met in a room at the school, along with four women from the visiting team from Austin. And I prayed steadily for the Holy Spirit to pour out his love, and give me his words. Things were going great as most of the beginning was directed at them as parents, how they are so important and vital to the children they serve. Topics for the afternoon were fevers, malaria and dengue. Of course I am always intimidated because I am not a nurse, nor a mother, and sometimes wonder what I can offer. But the Lord was faithful in many ways. When we got to talking about fevers, and malaria, and dengue God used that. It just so happens that while living in Haiti both Brandon and I have personally have malaria and dengue. So I may not be a nurse with all the answers, as I told them, but I do know what I have seen and experienced first hand. It gave my answers validity, and they trusted me more because I too live here and have gone through what they have-nasty tropical diseases!!

In addition to that, when we got on the topic of sickness, of course cholera came up. Many Haitians still have lots of questions about cholera, and want to soak up as much information about it as they can. And again the Lord opened up a door to give me favor and himself glory. I was able to explain why I knew so much about cholera, because my husband and I had worked in a cholera clinic for six long weeks when cholera hit Haiti, last year. Every single person in that room knew of someone who had cholera or died from it, as we have found the case to be with most Haitians. And so, as I struggled to talk about that clinic, and what I learned, many more questions began to pour out. The hardest question I was asked was regarding contamination-specifically what is done with a person when they die from cholera. I paused, unable to answer. My throat caught, and I had to wait. A good question, a tough question. One that truthfully, I don’t think I could have shared with just anyone. But the fact that these were my Haitian brothers and sisters, sitting before me, who had also experienced cholera and the devastation associated with it, I decided to be honest. So I shared with the group what I had witnessed first hand, how a dead body is treated after they die so cholera won’t spread. I could only get short answers out, between tears, and when I finished sharing with them, only then did I notice most had tears in their eyes too.We sat there silently for a moment, and I felt the Holy Spirit had forever bonded our hearts together. I guess you could equate it to something like being a soldier, in a war zone-and it was a war zone at that clinic-and the only other people who can really understand what things were like is another fellow soldier, or some else who went through that war.

It was tough to recover after that, but afterwards we talked through some more cholera questions and sickness issues they face. The Lord gave me grace to continue to share and because of that moment together, I really feel like the Lord opened the door for us to talk real, personally, and honestly. I am thankful for that, and that He can use something so awful and terrible that we experienced, and many others have, to educate and help others survive cholera.