Week ending Sunday 12th December

Prayer Requests

• Wisdom, peace and understanding for the Haitian people during this election time
• Continued safety for the construction crew
• Travel mercies for the teams that may be traveling this week; whether that is by road or air

This is the week that was
This has been a week of “wait and see”. The Haitian election results were announced on Tuesday evening at 9:00pm. The country was not pleased with the results and some felt the need to demonstrate and others felt violence was the right avenue – property, cars and things that burn were all in the mix. Road blocks were set up with dumpsters and burning tires, the rioters had battles with the UN troops; rocks, trash and burning cars were used as projectiles. Sadly a few people died. Schools were closed, airports were closed, long distance travel was halted and the sane people stayed away from the trouble, waiting for it to subside.

All this occurred away from Grand Goâve. Locally there was very little aggravation. There were tires burnt and we saw the aftermath of a road block but at no time did we feel threatened or unsafe.

On Saturday (11th) things had settled down and we know people from Grand Goâve made it into Port-au-Prince, for shopping and others made it to the airport too.

Left over barricade in Grand Goave

Sadly, we did not see any of our expected guests, this week, because of the trouble. BMS made it as far as Port-au-Prince. http://www.bmsworldmission.org/news-blogs/blogs/cooperating-with-the-cooperative-baptists http://www.bmsworldmission.org/news-blogs/blogs/gunfire-port-au-prince http://www.bmsworldmission.org/news-blogs/blogs/riots-haiti  The ABC media team made it to Cap Haitian but got stuck there and the BGM team never made it out of the USA. Our BCGT fact finding team that were to arrive next week have postponed their trip waiting for the recount of the vote to be announced and will see what the outcome brings.

On Monday we took the water filters to the school construction site; they were very well received.

On Tuesday I built a table specifically for the water filters. We took it down to the site on Thursday and it has been equally well received. We are hoping that the interest will be peaked and perhaps we may do a shopping trip to Jacmel and get some more for the residents of Grand Goâve.

The table, with one filter bucket in use

On Tuesday we had the pump at Nan Ti So installed. Alex and his assistant came in from Port and apart from missing the tap and dye set the installation went well. The patriarch of the village, Luseis, came round to watch us work – I was actually not allowed to work, it seemed, so I watched!  By lunch-time it was installed and the village was told to wait till the cement was cured before it could be used.

This is the Nan Ti So (a.k.a Kay Luseis) pump

I was useful as a driver! We had to ford the local river to get the heavy equipment and pipes close to the well site. Fording is a strong term – you drive across the river at the point you think is best, that does not have mud and the locals are pointing at! Alex drove the truck through the ford the first time and then I was the driver for four crossings and Alex finished off the trips driving back for the last time.

Tuesday was a WASH day! (Water And Health Sanitation) Not only did we install the Indian pump we also had an offer for Jeanson to attend a one day seminar/training on pump rehabilitation, run by Edge Ministries http://www.edgeoutreach.com/ . The comments back, after the training were “Rick and Lynn had glowing things to say about Jeanson." It is really great to see the Lord open doors and to see what happens when we accept the chance to step through the door.

Also on Tuesday I finally completed the inverter at the Volunteer house. Having wired it all up I attached the final battery terminal to the inverter – there was a big spark, the controller started to beep – the error light flashed and went solid red (not good). I gritted my teeth and tighten the last bolt. All went quiet and the machine settled down and the error light went off. I switched over the breaker switch and it all worked! I ran the generator to charge the batteries that had been at the house since August – they charged, fully in less than 15 minutes.

Tuesday night and Wednesday Port-au-Prince had the riots.  We were meant to be meeting up with Steve and Garth, from BMS. We were in contact via skype and e-mail with them as well as talking to our local colleagues that lived between here and Port – it was a “No Go!” situation. Thursday was the same and Steve and Garth made plans to return to the UK by an alternative route. We truly hope to see them, here, next year.

As our plans had been turned upside down we were able to use the time to clear through some correspondence and administration. The depot, at the staff house has been cleaned up, and we have tidied up the guest rooms after their doors were completed and the window screens needed some edge work on them, to seal the screens well.

This weekend Brenda and I worked on the doors and some wall painting too. Jenny joined us with the varnishing, on Sunday afternoon. This task seems a long way from completion but the back door, now complete, looks grand. Hopefully we will be as pleased with all the doors, one day.