Week Eight - ending Sunday 12th September

Posting by both Mike and Brenda
Prayer requests

• Huge praise that three of the four Haitians that applied for US transit visas were granted. The will be going to Ethiopia to see the Self Help Group program functioning and for training.
• Prayers for the four candidate application to be reviewed swiftly and that she too is granted the transit visa.
• It is hoped that the first six class room of the school will be completed in time for the start of the school semester, on October 4th. This is a big undertaking and will require good team work.
• Brenda’s Creole lessons and Mike’s continued use of the language
• The drilling and water projects that are being discussed this week.

Mike’s bit
This week
It has been a different week. Most weeks are different from the week before and this was no different! Tim has gone, Brenda is here and I am adjusting to the change. We also have no teams here this week.

The house has some more plumbing completed and there is more furniture in the house but it is not yet complete. Things are shaping up; I am trying to keep the ball rolling. Some weeks roll slower than others!

Moise has made contact with the CHE/EKS coordinators in the north of Haiti and we are looking forward to the first meeting with the coordinators within the month, here in Grand Goave. This has great potential as a transformational program. The program develops the local communities to see the values and personal attributes of their neighbors and that together they can change their own communities from within. It has had great success elsewhere in Haiti and we can’t wait to see if its potential can be realized here too.

Tori has been working hard to assist the Self Help Group (SHG) candidates in them obtaining their US transit visas for the travel to Ethiopia. By the end of this week we had three of the four visas approved. Tori continues to work with the US embassy to have the fourth visa application reviewed.

I worked with Ernst, Jeanson and Makinley to complete the walls for Luses’s house. Sorry, I forgot my camera again. On Friday we fabricated the windows for the house and they are currently being painted I hope to have them installed this next week. This of course assumes that the weather is good to complete the painting and that we can schedule the time to do the installation. The family that is getting the house is very pleased to see us when we work on their new home and they enjoy interacting with us as the progress is made.

The satellite communications are working, finally. It was a struggle to move the equipment over to the volunteer house and set it all up on that roof to prove that there was no change in the readings; however, the technical helpdesk, in California, did access the equipment and permanently changed some settings. After moving all the equipment back to the staff house, and back to the roof, it is now functioning.

The construction of the school continues and next week the first five rooms will start to have the inside walls, ceilings and floors completed. It is hoped that these, plus the sixth room will be completed in time for the start of the school semester, on October 4th. Please keep this in your prayers.

Tori got the Self Help Group team prepared for the US embassy interviews. She also was in Port on Friday for the second interviews for two of our candidates.

Tori completed a clinic at Mt. Sinai. It had rained hard the night before and the team needed to return for the canter truck, as the pick-up could not make it up the mountain!

Brenda’s bit
I have completed my first week in Grand Goave. The week has passed by very quickly and I am getting used to the new routine. I am very grateful to Mike and Tori who have made a big effort to make me welcome and comfortable. I am also very grateful for all that Tim did prior to my arrival to get the house more like a home. I am able to sleep well in our bed and during the week a wardrobe arrived to complete our bedroom furniture. The rest of the house is clean and slowly acquiring the furnishing and fittings to complete the transformation from house to home.

I have concentrating on learning Creole for most of the week with Ernst, my very patient teacher. I still have a long way to go before I can participate in and understand conversations, but hope to make further progress this coming week. On Thursday I was honored by an invitation from a group of church ladies, to enjoy a day at the beach with them and their young children. It was lovely to have a change of scenery and get away from concrete buildings and dust to enjoy the brilliant blue sea with a group of new friends, even if we could not really talk to each other!