Haiti Missions

After a long day of traveling we have made it back to Kansas City. It was a fairly umeventful trip. We spent a lot of time sitting in the Fort Lauderdale airport and not much time running through the Dallas airport due to a flight delay.
Thanks to all of you who have followed along and prayed for us on our amazing journey. Even though we are back, please keep the Haitian people in your prayers as they continue to rebuild their homes and lives.

Today we left Petit-Goave and headed back into Port-au-Prince. While we waited for our driver to arrive we had time to play a little more with the kids. We did play some soccer and Alicia (who is five) played on my iPad until the very last moment she had to give it to me. Pastor Maude said she was sad to see us leave.
In Port-au-Prince we visited the national palace that you have seen in many pictures. We then went to the Epi D’or for lunch. This is an American style restaurant with cheeseburgers and pizza and Blue Bunny ice cream. After that we went to a gift shop to help the Haitian economy. I can’t reveal the types of products we bought as they may be coming to you as Christmas gifts.
We then went up to the lookout and looked out over Port-au-Prince. It looks quite beautiful and peaceful from high above. We also took the chance to do a little negotiating with some street vendors for additional souvenirs.
When we got back to the guest house; there are four teams staying tonight. A team from Shreveport is headed home tomorrow and teams from New Jersey and Minnesota are headed out to their worksites. We hope they have the same great experiences that we did.
Tomorrow morning we board the plane back home with great memories and changed hearts for the Hatian people.

Today was our last day in Petit-Goave at the worksite. About 11:00 am, we started to hear what sounded like a parade. The boss came out and started dancing so we decided to see what was going on. A parade with a band and a couple hundred women were marching down the street to bring awareness of women’s rights in Haiti.
As we ate lunch the church was playing music and we thought there was going to be a wedding. Unfortunately it was a funeral. We were able to hear the music and recognize a couple of the hymns. The processional to the cemetary was on foot over a mile, with a band leading and guests following the hearse.
At 2:00 pm Marc-Anny and I snuck away and bought Cokes for all the workers. We then took time to pray for the workers and their families and for the building. The boss, Serge, then prayed for our team, and safe travel and made sure to mention the hard working girls.
When we got back to the guest house we had time to play with the kids here. I was able to bring back my soccer goalie skills and got a cheer for one save and an eye raise from Kervens (the 12 year old man of the house), which is about the most emotion I have seen out of him.
I became the most popular in the group when I let them play with my iPad. Angry Birds and Tiger Woods golf are popular with the youth of Haiti as well.
Tomorrow we head back to Port-au-Prince and Marc-Anny is going to show us the sights of his home town.

We started today at the Brickman school in Petit-Goave. We delivered some school supplies and footballs (soccer for those in the US). The school is about 660 students from age 2-3 through high school.
The principals led us through each of the classes and the students stood and greeted the director. We were even part of the lessons as we interrupted an English class and the students had to translate what we were saying.
Our reason for visiting the school was to find out the needs on some future trips to Haiti. The students really want books to learn. They asked for dictionary’s and school books in chemistry, biology, math and English.
After we finished at the school we headed to the worksite. Dani and Cindy went inside and worked with the boss on the ceiling. We are starting to see the rewards of our work as they used the fine sands to create a finished look. As we went to walk around the town during lunch the boss said to hurry back, to Dani and Cindy, because of the work they were doing.
During lunch we were able to see the pier that is now unusable because it collapsed during the earthquake. We also saw the courthouse which has been repaired and painted bright white. It is a symbol of what this town was and will be in the future.
When we returned from lunch Dani and Cindy headed back inside and Brad and I returned to the rocks. While I was working a Haitian youth came up and wanted to help. I made sure he knew I could not pay him and he said he “wanted to help for God”. He spoke enough English that we could converse and he said he likes to work. I hope that he finds an outlet for his work that brings glory to God.
Brad and Cindy had a couple of young boys watching them sift sand. Brad went to get water and one of the boys jumped right in to keep work moving. Probably to Cindy’s disappointment of not getting a short break.
On our last break the boss brought us all fresh sugar cane to try. This was not anything that he needed to do but it was a great gesture. Samuel(the official cement mixer) also sent his daughter over to say hi to us when she got home from school. The workers are making us feel like part of their community.
When we got back to the guest house we did a couple of small things around the house for Pastor Maude and then our Thanksgiving feast was ready. The staff tried to find us turkey and were disappointed they could not find it today. The dinner was delicious, they prepared mashed potatoes, chicken, red beans and rice, yams and sweet potatoe pie that tasted almost exactly like pumpkin pie.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

It is 7:00 pm and all of us are sore and tired after a long day at work. Today we started work at a library next to one of the Methodist churches here in Petit Goave. Our job today was to sort a mountain of rocks into a piles of rocks sorted by size. Our interpreter Marc-Anny helped us today. after the first couple of hours we really found our strengths in the project and settled into a groove and knocked out almost the entire pile. 

The people here are so welcoming. We had a gentleman today who stopped and thanked us for helping.  As he left he said “may God bless all your efforts.” 

After we finished for the day we walked back to our guest house and were able to slow down and really enjoy the town and people. Everyone you pass says hello or waves to us.   When we got back we were surprised by Coke and Sprite in the bottle with another delicious dinner. 
As I write this we are sitting outside beneath the beautiful stars listening to many sounds of Haiti. 

We made it to Petit Goave this afternoon and enjoyed the Haitian countryside and the drive along the coast.
After we settled in, we drove to see the site we will be working at tomorrow and then to a beach where we were able to put our feet in and say we have been in the Caribbean ocean.
Hopefully we will get some pictures up soon.

After a good nights sleep The roosters start crowing early in Haiti. We had a terrific breakfast at the guest house including a delicious pumpkin soup and cereal for Cindy. We are about to load our van and head out to Petit Goave for the week.

We have met some amazing people so far who are headed out of Haiti towards Michigan and New York. May God bless their travels today.

After a long day of travel we have successfully arrived at the Methodist Guest house in Petition-Ville. We were welcomed here by the staff and a team on their way home to Michigan and the traditional Sunday dinner of spaghetti.
Tomorrow we will head to our worksite and see more of the Haitian country.