Blog Update by Jay J

It is another beautiful sunny day, approx. 90 deg F. There was a nice breeze during the entire day that felt very good to everyone. We started the day with some breakfast. Bob made some scrambled eggs for those who were up early enough to catch him cooking on the stove. Bob got up very early so luckily I was one of the few.
After breakfast, we went to the girls orphanage to tie down the new roof so that it does not blow away during the hurricane season. The new roof (made only from tarp and wood) covers most of the orphans dining area and will now allow outdoor cooking and cleaning even during rainy days. Bill used his creativity skills to design a gutter system that will capture the rain water and allow anyone within the orphanage to route it to one of two different directions, either within the orphanage so that it can be used to clean dirty dishes, shower, store in a water tank, etc., or outside of the orphanage so that it does not cause any flooding. The person who does most of the cooking and cleaning for the orphans, whose name is Joceline, was extremely happy that we did this project because it will greatly improve her working conditions. She could not speak a word of English, but showed her appreciation by giving everyone a big smile and a hug when we were finished, which was about 9:00am.
The next activity on our agenda was to visit the clean water manufacturing facility and pick up the 497 bags of water that we had left over from last week, and distribute them to those living in ‘tent cities’. When we reached the manufacturing facility, the man in charge said he would not have any drivers until noon because they were distributing water and ice, so we decided to load 97 bags in our truck and give them to Marie. The remaining 400 bags stayed in the cold storage facility until we came back to pick them up. Each bag of water contained 60 pouches, each with approx 8 oz of water, so we had 24,000 pouches that we wanted to distribute in the tent city that Marie’s half sister lives.
To give you some background, Jim, Bob, and me (Jay) went to visit Marie’s half-sister on Saturday to discuss how we would distribute all the water to the ~2000 families living in tents. The living conditions in this tent city was probably the worse I have seen in my life. It happened to rain night before, so this place was completely muddy, hot, humid, and smelly, especially near the outdoor toilets (which were holes in the ground surrounded by flies). Each tent was only 2-3 feet from the next, and I could honestly say that I had never seen any worse living conditions in my entire life. Everything looked dirty and many people did not have shoes so their feet were completely covered in mud. I was not sure why Marie’s half sister was not staying with Marie in her relatively nice place. Nonetheless, we agreed to come back to give them the water on Monday, and she was going to have a few guys help us.
We loaded up the refrigerated truck and drove to tent city. Since it had not rained in a couple of days, the ground was completely dry. We setup an assembly line to drop off all 400 bags of water in the church tent so that they can distribute the bags to each family. See pics below.
After we finished dropping off the water, we walked around the area, and everyone was very nice to us. The kids were very excited to see us, so there must have been at least 25 kids trying to hold our hands/arms. The parents were very trusting and did not mind if their kids followed us throughout the camp. A very cute two-year old boy wanted to follow me around everywhere so I carried him with one arm while holding the hand of another two kids. All the other guys also had at least 2 or 3 kids with them. It is amazing how friendly these people were to us even though they lived in the worse conditions imaginable. Seeing the smiles on the kids faces made me want to do more for all the people living in the camp. Although we gave them clean water, they probably would have appreciated food more. I pray that these people won’t have to live in these conditions for too long, and that God will provide them the food that they desperately need.
When we got back to Marie’s place, we cleaned up and had dinner. Josh cooked delicious spaghetti for all of us, and we spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other’s company.

Where to start!

Where to start!
First of all this is my first blog to the world, so go easy on me. Most of you who have kept up on the blog (if that’s the right term) have read about some of the prior events we have all experienced, so I won’t start from the beginning. Today was a very special day for me and also for the others I’m sure. Today was church day. It started with the rooster alarm clock which goes off every morning about 5:30, breakfast, a little sit and talk time and then off to church. We arrived at about 9:00 (a guess) in our Sunday best and I soon realized I was under dressed. I sat in the back row as to not bring attention to myself and listened to the Sunday school lesson. Had somewhat of a difficult time keeping up with the hour lesson due to a slight language barrier, others were coming forth with answers and I really didn’t want to start any heated arguments, so I kept quiet. Praise and worship started next and I recognized the first song but couldn’t remember the words, so again I kept quiet. The beautiful singing continued for about 30 minutes. It’s kind of cool that praising God can be understood in any language. (Don’t tell my wife that I was moving with the music and raising my hands above my head, kind of embarrasses her I think.) Marie brought all of us up front and Pastor Bob gave a beautiful moving message translated by Marie. The moving part was Marie’s translation, sorry Bob. We all introduced ourselves and when it came to me I had somewhat of a tough time. With all the new friends I have made and knowing that they have helped me more than the reverse I became a little choked up. We all returned to our seats and came time for more music and the collection. I have an inexpensive necklace hanging from my rear view mirror which I picked up some time ago. It’s a cord with a small copper coin attached (remember Ethan) which reminds me every day of the woman who gave everything she had while others gave of their excess. That’s exactly how I felt today during the collection. We finished the day by enclosing the temporary shelter that housed Marie and the girls shortly after the quake and that now houses (as I found out after the service) the Deacon and his wife. Wow, small world. Wish we could do something about the dirt floor; at least it’s not mud, yet. The other half of the crew, the better half (sorry Bob) finished the shelter over the small courtyard at the orphanage. The woman who cooks for the girls, which is an all day event, praised God and move the charcoal cook stove as soon as we were done. What great faith. Finally I was able to spend some quality time with the girls, the part that I have been patiently waiting for and a little scared of. The girls are so loving, inquisitive, and upbeat that it washed away all my preconceived anxiety immediately. I felt like a tree the way they were all hanging on me, and loved it. Toni you will also. Well, I really don’t want to wear out this blog thing out so I think I will give it up and get on with the adventure, I mean work. (Brothers at RIFD, believe me your money is changing lives, one at a time, mine included.) Thanks all. Not Bob- Tim

My day in Haiti, By JJP

A day in the life of a White man in Haiti!

So my morning began with a bunch of roosters crowing at 4:45..or so I think. I don’t get a cell phone signal and have put my watch away because everywhere I go people like it and want it, so losing track of time is the norm around here, and I can't say that I mind. There’s no real running water except for the tank on the roof that is restocked with water from the rain or by hand from the well. I took a shower, which was cold, but with it being 78 degrees and humid last night it felt good. The guys were all up early and made pancakes, which by the way we have been able to eat really well since we’ve been here(and I thought I was gonna lose all this weight from sweating and eating nothing but beef jerky!). Anywho, after breakfast we packed up and headed over to the orphanage to get started on building the temporary church. A few of the guys went shopping at a place called Eco-Depot, the Haitian version of Home Depot, only about a 16th of the size and less materials. While mon frère(that’s my father in French) got started on getting the wall started, I helped a couple of the local construction men raise and mount the cross on the ceiling of the school. For the life of me I can’t remember their names, but they have to be the hardest working men around. There were a handful of men that showed up for work today, however we had nowhere near the work for them, so they ended up sitting around the vast majority of the day and making fun of all of us, and me for my sporadic and somewhat incorrect French/Creole.
I thought the heat wouldn’t be such a problem here considering I used to live in Houston, and work at Caterpillar for 3 years, but it sucks the life outta you. The heat itself isn’t so bad, but the sun reflecting off the concrete gives you the feeling of being in a weber charcoal grill. After getting more than 75% of the church built I came back to our compound to take some Aleve and restock on the sunblock. After I got all set I went to head back and everyone decided to take a break, I suppose I might have been the ring leader on that one, oops! So after a nice recharging of the batteries, both literally (power tools), and figuratively we went back to the orphanage to finish the construction of the temporary church for tomorrow.
So we’re using the power tools in the heat, which seems to deplete the batteries twice as fast, so dad sent me back to the compound to cool them off and charge them. I ended up helping an elderly woman that was on the corner trying to sell some good with a wheel barrow full of stuff back to where we stay, she was more than grateful. When I got back, Marie was reading a book and I decided it was my time to sit down w/her and discuss life. We had a wonderful heart to heart and I wish that she were able to be cloned, all would be right with the world. I won’t say exactly what we talked about, but I came away from it with an even better perspective on life then what I went in to it with having seen and lived what I have for the last 3 days. Our talk seemed to last forever, but in reality it was only an hour, I probably should have paid her a psychiatrist’s salary, but I promised instead to go home and talk to the people of Caterpillar to see if they would sponsor the school so the girls can learn and grow up to do something better for the people of Haiti.
All in all, it was another great day, the church got finished, I made more friends for life, and I learned that the life down here has shown that we as Americans live way to structured, and take way too many things for granted. I’ve learned so much in the short time I’ve been here and hope to learn all that and more in the days to come, and not just how to play Spades ;)!
Until I write again, God Bless!
Jacob J.

Temporary Church/Shelter Up!

Greetings from Bon Repos, Haiti!

This will be a short post by Josh as will be posting about our day later. However, we have a few pictures that we'd love to share with you all. We had a successful day culminating with the completion of the Church & shelter for the children. Everyone was pleased as we will be able to utilize it for Church service tomorrow. We also mounted the cross salvaged from the previous Church/orphanage and it is now firmly cemented in place on the corner of the existing school building next to the shelter we constructed. Enough with the typing, on with the pictures!

This first picture shows the process of building the trusses. We demonstrated to the Haitian workers and then let them at it!


Raising the support posts to mount the trusses to:


Hammering away:


Viola! Completed. The salvaged cross can be seen in the upper left in its new home!

TGIF in Haiti

TGIF - Yes it's been a really wild day in Haiti. We had a lot of rain last night. When I woke up from the sound of the downpour, all I could think of was how was the deacon from the church was staying dry underneath a tin roof and bed sheets for walls. We woke up this morning, had a quick bite for breakfeast and got right to work with some of my brothers in arms. Five of us went across the street to the deacon's house and hung some tarps on the walls and made it a better (read dry) place. The rest of the guys went down to take measurements for the church building we will raise attached to the school. When we finsihed with the tarps, Pastor Winslet from Coehna orphanage showed up. It was so good to see him. He was all smiles as I gave him a soccer referee shirt and whistle. His orphanage now has a boys soccer team! He asked us to take a break tomorrow and go visit him to watch the boys play a soccer at 2pm. We talked about his family, the orphanage and life in Haiti after the quake. We laughed some. He has such a calm Pastor's spirit. After the conversation, Jim Meyer came back with the rest of guys from the lumber store. It's always a half day trip to get lumber and great for our first timers to learn the Haiti way of doing things. Again, we smiled and laughed with Pastor. Jim showed the Pastor the bags of goods we are bringing to him and the orphans tomorrow. After the conversation, a whole host of activity started in the field across the street. It seems some people from nearby decided the open lot was fair game to live in. We then went over to the Grace House of Hope orphanage. The place was busy with activities. We had workers breaking down the property wall that collapsed, others building ceiling beams and still others mixing cement for a new base for a cross above the complex. The girls were around but only to steal a hug, baseball cap or piece of bublegum from our pockets. It was a blast to watch: Tim Gibbons teach the Haitians to use the saw and cut lumber, Jacob and Josh lead the Haitian crew to build the ceiling beams, Rod jumping in everywhere, Trevor swinging the sledge hammer while learning the Creole language, Jay teaching the girls to do puzzles, Bill making sure we were doing it the right way, Eric using the powerdrill and Jim talking with everybody. The best part of the work day happened at the end when we circled up to pray. All the workers circled up and before Jim or I could pray, our new best Haitian friend Big John prayed in Creole over us all. It was awesome to hear this big man pray for us and the mission. We then came home for dinner and mangos. By this time, the lot across from Marie was half full with people living under bedsheets. I sure hope it doesn't rain tonight. Just another day in Haiti. We are so blessed.