Ambler

We had a team down from Ambler, PA. It was a large group and they spread out to do some education, construction and medical work while they were here. I didn't get to know the medical team that well. They worked very hard at the clinic and put in some long days. But I got to paint with parts of their construction crew on Tuesday and Friday mornings. On Tuesday they were finishing up the house they had started on Monday…I started as the supervisor since we didn’t have enough space inside for all of us to paint and not enough paint to start the outside. But don’t worry—they didn’t put up with that for long and I was put to work. On Friday we painted the inside of one of the associate pastors of the church here at Terre Noire. There were a lot of us on that job and we got it knocked out pretty quickly. They were a fun group. 3 of them had been down in January on a scouting trip for their church so it was fun to see some familiar faces. Each night after dinner there was an UNO run with at least 5 people playing and sometimes up to 10. Lots of trash talk and also apologizing for the special cards…I didn’t quite understand the apologizing but then I only had them around for a week and they were going home together—maybe that had something to do with it.

It was a pretty hot week that they were here and many of them set up on the roof to sleep. I was tempted but couldn’t find the desire to move a mattress up and down each night and morning so I stayed in my room. They just had to wait for the evening sprinkle to come and go which it did almost every evening.

Your Life Will Change

At the end of the year the 6^th grade classes go on a retreat with a youth pastor from the states. She’s been coming down for years…I don’t know much about it really. It is called the FROG retreat (Fully Rely On God) and they sing lots of songs…I’ve been asked to teach them the songs since they are in English—that way they have some more understanding of the words and better pronunciation…so that is what we’ve been working on. I don’t know most of the songs (well I kind of do now) but we put the words on the board, translate them, repeat them, read them and then Wahite Frick (translator/English teacher) sings for them. The first one we did was Your Life Will Change.

From the page to your heart 

God’s Word is where you are; 

Read it now and your life will change! 

It’s exciting, surprising each and every day-

Read it now and your life will change! 

God’s Word will surprise you; 

God’s Word will amaze you! 

God’s Word will surprise you! 

Read it now and your life will change! 

Oh, how your life will change!

younger than the ones I was singing with but very cute!

Toffee

When I left Haiti to go to South Africa one of the guys who works for HOM asked me to bring him back an elephant…then he changed it to two elephants so he could breed and raise them. Then he changed his mind to lions and finally said even a snake would be fine…well I knew that wasn’t going to happen by any stretch of the imagination…I also knew that I couldn’t get something for just one or even a couple of people…so I thought about it and thought about it…when I got to Bloemfontein I asked Reinette about something like candy that is typically or at least quite South African…she suggested biltong which is kind of a meat jerky with special spices. I like it a lot but I wasn’t sure about getting meat—even dried meat—through customs. Then she suggested toffee made by Champions. Sounded good to me so we went to buy some. The store we went to is bulk store and the only way to buy toffee was to buy at least 120 pieces of it (already boxed). There were many different flavors. We were so indecisive that we ended up buying one box of the original, going outside to open and try it, and then going back in to buy more…I bought 3 boxes—there are a lot of people to give to…and so far it has been a big hit! (I’ve shared with all of my teachers and staff) But something I’ve noticed when watching different people eat it…those of us from US, Europe and SA put the whole square in their mouths in one bite…about the size of a Laffy Taffy and much stickier it is a real work out for your mouth and feels like you might pull your teeth out. (Dentists don’t like this stuff too much). When I got back to Haiti and gave it to people, they would unwrap it and take a small bite of the piece and continue to kind of nibble at it…This way it didn’t really hinder conversation or wear the person’s jaw out…just an observation (this observation has not changed the way I eat the toffee)

2 of the 3 boxes

Concrete

This is actually a couple of months late but this is a good time as any to share it.

Half of what was poured as seen from the roof of the existing building

The school out at Repatriate started 3 years ago (I think). It has 2 PreK classes, 2 K-1 classes and 1 K-2 class…and the building they have isn’t big enough for next year when they will add another 2 classes of children. So they started building the second building in February. A long-time friend of HOM’s came down to oversee the pouring of the foundation concrete. He is a mason and has poured most of the foundations for HOM buildings. First they had to dig very large trenches to pour the concrete into and when that was done they filled it with iron rebar for strength and support…bent and tied together and sticking up for the columns…strong enough to walk on. 

I'm in the background in red--watching!

All the concrete was mixed by hand (no big trucks for us-though I think they are available here). 7 small mixers placed around the square foundation…over 150 Haitians working carrying buckets of sand, cement, water, gravel to the mixers then shoveling it around to even it out under all the rebar. I went out with the team as it was one of my mornings off. I thought I would just watch and see what was going on with the team as some of them were headed to different worksites but we all wanted to see what was going on. It was such a hive of activity! People moving everywhere and no one running into any one else (until all of us visitors showed up) and then I was asked to hold something so they could measure to make sure a column wasn’t out of place…and then I was helping shovel the concrete flat…and me in my flip flops! They loved it (I was pretty happy with it—not having to wear shoes) Many Haitians wear flip flops or go barefoot on a construction site as they do not have proper footwear…I think they were getting a kick out of me in my flip flops.

Grace and I stirring and moving the concrete

Back in Haiti

Fear God and observe his commandments, tat is what is all men must do.

When I got back to Haiti I had a great welcome (besides being left at the airport because they couldn’t remember which day I was coming back). Everyone was happy to see me. Those who didn’t really know I was gone knew that I hadn’t been seen in a while. I didn’t work on Monday as that was my return day…I met the team that was here and I did go to the staff meeting but other than that I slept and unpacked and slept some more. Tuesday’s are my off mornings…I was put to work picking up rocks in the soccer field since many Haitians play barefoot. Um…that would be ok if the whole field didn’t seem to be made of rocks…it would have made much more sense to me to bring in more dirt to cover the field but it wasn’t up to me.  So I helped the team move a lot of rocks (but didn’t see too much difference in the end). For my teachers’ classes I was going to just have a talking day…they would have to tell me about their holidays. I knew it would be hard to get them to talk, for everyone to try it has to be a very specific question and even then. And I would tell them about my holiday with plenty of time for explanations (I hope). So I arrived for the Pre-K teacher class…they all walked in. I was greeted in high fashion…hugs and we missed you and so glad you are back and then—we know you are tired so there is no class today if that is ok with you…um ok with me. I went back for another nap. Not so for the grade teachers but they are a little easier to get to talk anyway…I was a good way to be greeted backJ

Travel

It takes ages to get from Haiti to South Africa…and a lot of mileage covered. From the Caribbean I flew to NYC, then over to London (where I met Rhona) and then all the way south to Cape Town. I tried very hard to find a flight through South America but they actually took even longer! Coming back to Haiti is no less difficult. From Jo’burg to London to Miami (overnight) and finally back to Port-au-Prince.  But the upside is that one of the long flights I was with friends. Rhona, Isabelle and I were on the same flight from Jo’burg to London…and we were able to fix it that we sat next to each other! The agent who checked us in looked at us like we were crazy when she said the only 3 seats available were at the very back but we didn’t care where they were as long as we had that much more time together. Even after 2 weeks we were still talking…not too surprising I suppose. We chatted all through dinner and after dinner a flight attendant came and asked us to hold it down. About 7 minutes later another came and told us to be quiet…I asked if we were really being loud and she said ‘You don’t think so?’ and then she said that someone three rows up was complaining…(I’m so sure that is not true because if I can barely hear the girls next to me unless they have supersonic hearing… and then the In charge came told us that this is our third and final warning…the next time she would have to give us a written charge and we would no longer be welcomed on British Airways again. I asked if she had ear plugs and she was confused as to why I wanted ear plugs but I told her it was for the man in front of me who was doing all the complaining…She wasn’t impressed. But we weighed our options and decided that for us to travel to see each other we would probably have to use BA again so we stopped talking…not the nicest way to end but we still got a few laughs out of it. I wonder what the man would have done if we’d snored—I think that would have been much worse than our chatter…

South Africa finale (almost)

Tuesday us girls went shopping at the mall…sounds just like me doesn’t it?! but really the people make all the difference (and the fact that I really didn’t need anything). Then to pick up Jamie who had been at camp since we’d arrived. Then we met up with the others to visit the War museum (Anglo-Boer War) but it was closed for renovations so we wandered the grounds and saw a women’s memorial and statues of men going off and returning from war. As we were leaving we found that Jamie had locked the keys in the car…Oops! James and I went home to get the spare set and then we all stopped for ice cream on the way home. Dinner was pasta with a ratatouille sauce and salad (specially for me as I only get spaghetti for breakfast in Haitiand oh so nice). We played games almost every night—Carcassonne, Ubango, Jungle Speed, Skipbo, Uno.

Wednesday morning Ute had to leave early to return to Jo’burg/Zimbabwe. Later in the morning we went to a cat farm called Zanchieta where we saw white lions, regular lions, cheetahs, servals, spotted cats, leopards, a meercat that thought it was a Rottweiler and more.

White lion named William Wallace

Leopard cub

lion cub

Cheetah who stalked us on our way in

brothers

The next morning was spent getting ready for a 3 day adventure on our way to Jo’burg. I think I was lucky in that I’ve been a part of this before…getting 4 boys ready to go is no walk in the park with the high energy and the minimal amount of space. This also includes making sure we have food for the car and for our meals (we would be camping/cooking for ourselves). When James got home from work we loaded up in the bus (10 passenger) with a trailer attached and headed out. Now we had those 4 boys in a car (less space to ride off their energy) but they are used to it from their trips from Malawi to South Africa. We played the alphabet game (looking for letters on signs we passed) which was greatly helped by a police block that was trying to slow down holiday traffic (SA has a very bad rate for wrecks especially over holiday weekends). Then the boys put a twist on it and we had to look for things out the windows that started with the alphabet in A, B, C order…that used some imagination and more time. We ended the first night in Rosendal at a farm on a hill. A large place that easily accommodated us and had space for quite a few more. We arrived in the dark and so couldn’t see much until the next morning but had a great braai of liver (a special South African dish) and snook (fish).

Friday we traveled through Golden Gate Highlands National Park with its impressive scenery and views with rock formations and cliffs. We saw zebras and blesbok (a type of antelope which have white faces). It was stunning. We had thought to camp there but we’d brought Benka with us (the Rhodesian Ridgeback-dog) and I don’t think that would go over well in a National Park. So we continued on around to Phuthaditjhaba where James had grown up. It is now a guesthouse/meeting center that is backed up to the hills of the national park. It was a mission station before. We got 2 rooms there…braiied outside and played as long as the light stayed. Then the kids went to bed and we played Carcassonne on the floor, as cutthroat as ever.

Saturday was our last hurrah as the airport was our destination that night and we were all dreading it. But we made it a great day. Benka started off well by getting a hold of our leftovers and making short work of them. James led us in a short hike up to where he once wrote his name on a rock that overlooked the valley. Then we headed off. On the way we stopped at the Huski Romi Rescue and Wolf Sanctuary. I couldn’t really imagine what that was other than a bunch of dogs in cages like at a zoo…but the owner took us on a tour and told us all about Huskys and wolves and how he gets them, how to take care of them, and we were let in to pet and play with them. It was great. Most of them have been abandoned, people will get them as puppies (cute and cuddly) but don’t know how to take care of them or their natures and so when they are bigger they can’t control them or continue to take care of them. They are pack animals so being on their own isn’t good for them, but they are also very protective and totally gentle when not provoked. They are really big animals.

Then we had to go to the airport. It was sad. Very sad.