20Feb12
It’s been a while, and a lot has been going on.
Since I last posted a major update (6Feb12), I’ll give a rundown on life as best as I
can remember it.
I spent 2 week in Jacmel (actually Cayes-Jacmel), staying at the SurfHaiti house with
Tamara Steck and Amber Wolff. They are awesome girls down there to help start
HaitiBaby and help with the surf ministry anyway they can.
In addition, they are teaming up with other local ministries, like babysitting for the
Mangines and helping with accounting for the Byrd’s.
They were a lot of fun to hang out with, and I got to install an inverter and
batteries for SurfHaiti’s guest house.
I hit a snag with installing the solar panels, mainly because I still haven’t figured
out how to do it. If anyone has an idea for mounting flexible solar panels on a
pitched (southward facing) concrete roof, let me know. Previously they were tarred
down, but we cannot do that with this rental house.
After that, I was supposed to head to Les Cayes on the 13th to meet up with a guy
working with MIA. He was coming in ahead of the rest of the team, but his trip got
cancelled due to medical problems of a family member.
Instead, I went to Grand Goave to work with Be Like Brit. It was great to work with
them for the first time. We have been friends for a while, but since they were doing
mostly concrete and rebar, I was not useful until this past week. I helped run the ENT
conduit in the first floor cieling before they are going to pour it, and then I helped
to start pulling wires through said conduit, before I got sick.
While I was in Grand Goave, from Tuesday through Friday at lunchtime, I was also able
to hang out with an awesome crew from the World Race (run by Adventures in Missions).
They are 45 young people who will spend 12 months going to 12 different countries
doing missions work. This is month 2, and they are staying at MOHI. It was great to
hear their stories and get to share mine with them. Less exciting was sharing their
sickness with them.
I picked up something that caused a pretty significant fever (and chills and
bodyache), plus some vomiting and diarhea on Thursday night, so I didn’t sleep at all
and felt miserable all day Friday.
On the bright side, I was still able to supervise a team of the world race crew to
install electrical lines to the new kitchen building at MOHI’s guest house. Marie-Yves
was very excited.
Then, I met up with Dr. Jay and a team from MIA to head to Les Cayes. Jay drove my
truck for me because I was exhausted (from not sleeping) and my back was killing me.
This has been a great time working with the MIA team. This team is all guys, and came
down specifically for work projects. With 8 of us, and 50+ haitians, we are getting a
ton of work done.
MIA has purchased property for a new guest house/farm resource center in the Savanette
area that they are working in. It will be great to have the guest house closer to our
work site, but more importantly, this facility will be the foundation of everything
from this point on.
From this location, agricultural development can be taught and demonstrated, and we
can hold conferences to teach other communities as well.
This facility will include 2 new wells, in addition to tying into the previous system
that already had 2 wells, all solar powered. So, we are adding even more water to the
community water system, which will be huge for the agricultural and livestock markets
in the area.
It will also develop facilities to be a welding shop, carpentry shop, and maybe even
an electronics factory someday, but more immediately, it will be a conference center
where special occasions can be held, with beautiful gardens and plentiful fresh fruit,
vegetables, and hopefully fish.
There will be bunks for 72+ in the “conference guest” housing, plus a 16×20 apartment
for the haitian site supervisor, and 10 8×20 apartments for longer term residents.
So far, we have managed to survey the land, clear quite a bit of land, almost finish
digging a 1000ft conduit/water main trench, dig the footers for the first 4
containers, and have the septic tank half dug. Plus, we’ve managed to build shelves
and a porch area for at the BRS School, move the Lister Generator from the orphanage
(where it is unused) back to the school (where it is needed), and make some
significant improvements to the back gardens at the school property.
I’ve also got to say, the guys we are working with have come a long way.
The men are working hard, and taking personal responsibility. They are much more
organized for food, responsible for the tools they borrow, and we even have several of
the haitian laborers leading teams themselves on specific projects, with very minimal
oversight.
It’s been a great week out here.
God Bless.
Prayer Request:
-Sister Bonite called me. Her inverter is giving her problems again. It was somehow
hit with water. I will have to look into it when I get back to Jacmel.
Currently she was using a borrowed inverter from Dave Byrd, so let’s hope this unit
isn’t actually damaged. I have a new unit in my truck for her, but have not been in
Jacmel to install it.
If the inverter is damaged, I will be talking with Dave about the best method to
replace his broken inverter, and it will be added to the pile of broken inverters I
have in my truck (2 right now).
Pray that that is not the case.
Also, pray that I will find a place to have a workshop to try to get these inverters
back up and running.
-Also, pray for my friend Sean. He’s moved back to his hometown during some rough
times, but I know God’s still got his back. Pray that he feels that too.
