Mike and Brenda: June 2011

What a busy number of weeks we have had since the last update! We enjoyed a visit from Darrell Smith, an environment scientist, from Global Environmental Relief. He came on a fact finding trip to assist us in our WASH, agriculture and possible SHG involvement. The visit got us to some places that were well off the beaten track as well as some places that were close by that we did not know existed. We have also enjoyed Tim Brendle’s team for a week and a flying visit for Deliris and an ABC group that included Gene Gentry.

When we were working with Darrell, we saw arable and Tilapia farms in the mountains, and Tilapia farms in Leogone as well as close to Grand Goâve. We are looking to partnering with Floresta (Plant with Purpose), who already help farmers improve their harvests and promote soil conservation and reforestation. We feel we have a common philosophy of helping Haitians to help themselves. We are excited about this possible new avenue.

We were pleased to welcome back Tim Brendle. He brought a team of seven from his church. All the team worked hard on the rubble houses and also helped us with smaller projects. We really value Tim’s continued assistance and wisdom and we look forward to him returning with another team in November.

It is always a pleasure to see people return to work with us, in Grand Goâve. We are interested to hear about the work that was begun before we arrived and delighted to show of the continued progress. It is truly a team effort in Grand Goâve, everyone has contributed something and we are all benefitting.

This last couple of weeks we have been reminded a bit painfully that we do not live in a First World Country. Just as we started to live more comfortably, we had a triple whammy of internet, water and electricity failing us. The power was on the blink, it was only providing 87 volts; should have been 120volts. After nearly 2 ½ weeks we finally persuaded (Moise did the talking) the local power company to check our wires to the main supply – they had been “knocked” and the connection was loose – it took them 30 minutes to fix it and that included putting up and taking down the ladder. While that took place our invertor batteries died. We hope not permanently. We will see over the coming week if we can recharge them two at a time (there are 24 of them!). The internet cable from the unit to the satellite disk final failed, Tim Brendle was able to carry one in and that fixed the issue, only to have another issue shut it down on Tuesday evening! We lost water pressure for about two weeks as the water company fixed a pump. While that was going on all our water was supplied by Tikammie in 5 gallon buckets! We managed; but life is more difficult without them, the house gets very hot without fans running, we miss even our cold showers and we really value the internet to keep us in touch with the rest of the world. As we leave today for a short break in Tampa attending the General Assembly of CBF, we look forward to enjoying all the facilities an American hotel can offer and hopefully we can sort out all the troubles at home, swiftly, on our return.

We have had a few meetings with our SHG leaders and are encouraged by the progress. We are looking forward to Self Help Groups forming in all three areas of Haiti, in August. Please continue to pray for this project and we believe it may be our lasting contribution to the development of Haiti.

We see the school construction day to day so to us the progress it is not major. However, we think you all deserve an update. All the class rooms have been built, so now is a time that there seems to be little going on, when in fact, the team has increased in numbers as they stucco the seven rooms. Haitian stuccoing is a true skill, done all by hand and while it looks easy we know there is skill in the flick of the wrist! We have all the insides of the seven rooms done and the team is now working on the front gallery.

Tim’s team helped with the final installation of the solar panels at the volunteer house. If you remember the original panels were stolen. This solar panel unit was “promised” as soon as we completed the welding for Jenny’s clinic; that was completed in early January; so waiting until mid June was…well…frustrating. The day arrived and the crew was content to dig the pole hole and wait patiently for the welding to be completed. At 7pm they wanted to go home and come back the next day (Sunday). The short story long is that the panels are installed wired in and the team still got to go to the beach on Sunday afternoon.

Photo Gallary

Darrell and team review Pastor Pascal's field

Solar Panels rise again at the volunteer house - many hands make light work

Tim's team worked on the roof, wiht Charlie the carpenter. This is one of the houses Winterpark and Gilbertsville filled.

They did a really great job! A lot more work went into re-varnishing the benches than we had thought necessary but they look GREAT.

Prayer Requests

Travel mercies as we do a lot of driving in the next few weeks, others travel to see us, and we host a fact finding team, of one, and a mission team.
Weather! It has been very wet here this week.
Well planned preparations for the CBF General Assembly, in Tampa. {Will we see you there?}

News of the past few weeks

When we looked at the calendar we could not believe it was only two weeks ago that our Baptist Mission Society (BMS) colleagues came to visit us. They said they were pleased with the visit - we were truely blessed with them. A great team; they were here to get some footage for a 2012 BMS film. We helped with water footage, rubble house footage, a personal interview with a tent resident and a theological soundbite. Carwyn Hill was their in country host and he joined us from the HHA (http://haitihospitalappeal.org/); it was pleasant for Brenda and I to have an English team here; their accents and their topic of conversations was a refreshing change.

As they left we were joined by the ABC Gilbertsville construction team. It was a joy to see Kurt and his team. Kurt was here last July, he brought a new team and just like his last team they were all hard workers, gelled well and did a phenomenal amount of work. When they came in a team from Winterpark also came in; they were hosted by the Haiti Housing Network. They too were here last summer. Together their work on ruble houses was tremendous. We sincerely want to see both teams back here! One team brought a bunch of Basketball material and the other brought Baseball equipment - we hope to be able to continue to use the equipment as the teams come through this summer and see if we can get the youth organised or at least more familiar with the two sports. Thanks to both Gilbertsville and Winterpark for the support, generosity and love for the Grand Goave community.

When the Gilbertsville team left they were fortunate that they did not get the 24 - 36 hours of rain that followed. NOAA has not classified it as a tropical depression but it has produced a lot of rain! Our shopping trip, on Saturday, became quite the mud run as we were diverted up the river to cross, as there were two broken down trucks on the current diversion. The last 100 yards of the second diversion was a complete mud bath - the locals obviously did not think the foreigner was going to get the minibus through the mud and were already laughing, thinking were were stuck - God favored us and we crept through, more by His guidance; we should have used the other track but once we were committed we could not stop; or we would have definitely been stuck!

Photo Gallery