Goodbye for now, Gonaives!

Well, I am leaving Gonaives tomorrow and heading to Port au Prince.  We are going to spend a day at an orphanage just outside of Port, then we will fly back to Omaha on Saturday.

Here are a few pictures of the some of the projects we have been working on...slowly but surely!

This is the guys sandbag dome house as of this morning...

Here is a structure that I put up in our yard that Kathy is going to use to display all of the products from the art section of Trade School Haiti...

Here is something that was amazing today.  We got to go to the graduation ceremony of Trade School Haiti's first class of Certified Nursing Assistants.  Martha Hanna spent the last three months here running a class from one of the classrooms in Jubilee.  The pride on the graduates faces was amazing.  The desire to learn here is unlike anything I have ever seen.  Martha is the white lady!

Here are Valmy and Oscar.  I didn't know until today that Valmy was in the nursing program.  I know him from the English classes that I am helping to teach and from him being good friends with Chris Greene.  I think there were 4 guys and 15 gals that got their diplomas today.  What a great deal.

And this is a big reason why I love this place.  Here is one of many happy little kids that runs up to give me a hug when I thunder into Jubilee on my moto.  Thank you God for this opportunity!

I look forward to seeing all of my family and friends over the next few weeks.  Please feel free to get a hold of me if you would like to meet up and hear some stories about the past two months and help me to dream about plans for next year in Gonaives. 

Progress on many projects!

We had a group in last week from Hattiesburg, MS.  Great group of go getters!  We did a devide and conquer on some of our projects.

School bathroom update...Double the capacity!  We purchased and installed two more toilets in the school restrooms...now there are two options in each bathroom!  The team also ran the supply lines for the other toilets and mounted one of the sinks!

We were also blessed to have an ambitious carpenter in the group.  We gave him the task of building a sun shelter that we can use as a cool place for people to sit while waiting for their turn at the medical clinic.  The angle of the Winter sun has us scratching our heads a bit though...we might have made it too high...we might have to add some side panels to it...It will work great in the Summer, but it is still hot in the sun during the Winter months.  We are all still learning things here!

Ben got the backhoe out and did some work around the school and the houses.  He filled in garbage lake and leveled out a few more mounds.  He also resupplied the piles of dirt / sand / rock that he is using with his brother Josh and his friends Chris and Isaac to build their "Sandbag House" in Jubilee.

This is the beginning of the "Sandbag House" that the boys are building.  It is constructed of rice bags filled with sand and rock.  The bags are placed and compacted.  It will be dome shaped when finished.  The idea is to find a way to build a solid structure that is affordable and that is manufactured from local raw materials.  These guys plan on living in Jubilee when the structure is finished.  Their goal is that once the house is finished and they are living in it, locals will inquire about building a similar structure.  The funny thing here is that usually the Americans come down here and build houses for the Haitians...here  the Americans came down here and the Haitians are helping the Americans build their house!

Back at the house, we have cleared out some space between the house and the wall to build a little structure.  We are going to put together a little "Market" for all of the products that are being produced through "Trade School Haiti."  They have things like ear rings, bracelets, necklaces, Christmas ornaments, journals, wicker baskets...and more.  All of these items are made in Haiti.  Kathy has created at least 50 jobs here in Gonaives so far through this school.



I am still keeping busy taking care of any maintenance issues that come up.  I'll be darned if they didn't figure out that I am somewhat knowledgeable about computers...after seeing everyone use a thumb drive to take their documents to the printer over and over, I "Magically" made it so they could all print from their laptops!  Suprising how what seems like a little issue can mean a lot to others! 

I have also become a regular part of a Sunday night English class.  Neat group of guys that just want to improve their communication skills in English.  Chris and I are working out a plan to give me some responsibilities in his group of English classes that will be starting again in January.

I am looking forward to next week when the next group arrives!  It will be Jim Warren and crew from Journey Church in Gretna, NE.  I hope to have many fun projects lined up for the willing and many fun activities planned as well.  I still enjoy the trip up the mountain with the groups...I am sure we will do that again.

Scott

Delivery Truck, Shuttle Bus or Ambulance?

We have another group of folks from Southern Georgia in this week.  Yesterday I got them started painting walls and putting together tables for the school in Jubilee.  We put the new tables in the classrooms and pulled out the old bench / desk units.  Amos and I loaded up all of the benches in the back of the truck to store in our yard for a while.  All of our guests were finished with their projects, so they needed a ride home also.

The back was full the top with benches, the inside was full with 8 of us.  On the way out of Jubilee, a man flagged down our truck to tell us that his pregnant wife was having some pains.  Sure!  Pile on in!  Some people moved around...up on laps...squished together...made room for the pregnant lady.  Through the interpreter we found out that she thought she was at 9 months and has been hurting off and on all day.  Her husband rode on top of the load of benches.  Off to the hospital.

The roads in Gonaives are not at all condusive to a speedy trip.  Considering that I had more than a full load, I had to take it real easy.  About halfway to the hospital, I felt a problem...flat tire!  I pulled over to the curb at one of the main round-about thingies in town.  About 5 minutes later with help from Amos and the opposite of help from Ritaud we got the tire changed.  We got to the hospital and our friendly nurse Martha got her admitted.

A couple of blocks away, we dropped the tire off to the tire guy on the side of the road for repair.  A couple of blocks further, we dropped the daddy off so he could grab a tap-tap back to Jubilee.  A few blocks later, we were home!

This morning, I followed Amos and Martha on my dirt bike up to an orphanage on the edge of town.  Martha was putting a feeding tube up the nose of a 3 week old baby that the hospital in Port au Prince had given up on.  He is a fighter and he is hanging on, helped by the strength of his mom and help from the community.  In the states, he would be in the middle of all kinds of contraptions and have constant medical supervision.  His mother pushes the formula down the feeding tube with a cyringe and he gets a visit from our nurse as often as he can.

I really appreciate those of you supporting my work down here.  I feel alive more than I ever have.  I see God working every day.  I start every day with a set of plans of what to I want to do, but He always changes them.  Today I think I got one thing done that I planned on doing, but in the process, I got to clean oil base paint off of a little girl that for some reason didn't understand me when I told her that the entire wall we just painted was still wet.  Maybe I should work on my Creole a little more!

Backhoe, Big Groups and More Shelves!

Has it really been since last week that I put something up here?  Must be because we are busy here!  We picked up lots of people at the airport on Saturday.  24 extra people in the house until Tuesday when one group went to Port for another day, then back to Jacksonville.  We still have a great group from Southern Georgia here until the weekend.  Man they talk funny!

We unloaded the second trailer and got the backhoe out.  It is a John Deere front end loader with a backhoe on it.  I got to play a little yesterday, leveling out some piles, moving dirt around, digging holes!  That is going to be a great tool if we can keep it together.

I spent the day today at Jan's orphanage with a few of the funny talkers from South Georgia.  We built some shelves and clothes hangers in one of the spare rooms.  Plenty of space to organize all of the kids clothes and school uniforms.

15 cubbies for kids clothes and and upper and lower closet rod.  Just something I threw together with plywood and 2 x 4's, but her reaction was like I moved mountains.  It felt real good!  That is what I am here for.  We all had a good lunch there and got to play with the dozen or so kids that were running around the house after school got out.  Many thanks to the Georgia group and Jan's son Jake for his help and his tools.

Great dinner with the group tonight...rice with chicken and vegetables on top.  Trying to figure out what tomorrow is going to bring...I am sure we will come up with something!

Getting around on my own!

This week I spent some time working on my room.  I bought a mattress and I built a loft bed kind of like I had in college!  I made several trips to the hardware store myself...what a rush.  Hop on the dirt bike, ride downtown to the market area, navigate through a street full of tap-taps, motos, people, wheelbarrows, goats...find a place to park and head into the hardware store.

The hardware store has all of their items available for sale attached to peg boards in the aisles.  There are a couple of workers that will write up a ticket for you...I just grab one of them and bring him to the item and point at it!  You then take that ticket to a window to pay for it, then over to a counter to pick up your item.  They always remove the item from the box for inspection and testing if it is electrical.  They box it back up and send you on your way!

I had help from a local carpenter that I met when I was here in August...Jean Philippe.  He builds furniture at his home when he can...kind of "on demand" because he does not have anywhere to store or sell his products.  He speaks very little English, I speak very little Creole, but we were able to communicate through the language of construction.  We taught eachother as much language as we could while building, naming every tool that we used in both languages.  He helped me build the rolling locker cabinet pictured below.

Today should be the day that we get the second shipping container...It was supposed to be here several times, but things happen here at their own pace...and I am completely comfortable with that!  The driver is leaving Port au Prince at 10am, so, he should arrive around 1 in the afternoon.  We have plenty of people here, so unloading it by hand should not be that big of a problem.  The exciting part is that there is a backhoe on this container.  We will have to build a loading dock (shovels and sweat) to get the backhoe off of the container, but it will be worth it!

We have a large group coming in on Saturday, so the dymanics of the house will change quite a bit.  There will be so many people here next week that I have to be in my new room with some room mates.  We (the long term folks) might have to fend for ourselves for a couple of meals due to the large number of guests.  Not a big deal, I am starting to enjoy the local food from street vendors...almost like fast food...they stand there and prepare it right in front of you.

Shipping Container!

Quite a while ago, some caring individuals packed a couple of shipping containers full of stuff for Haiti.  Some donated, some personal stuff, some of some stuff I might have to question as to why it was worth shipping here!

Well, we were informed last week that the containers had been released from the Port au Prince port authority or whatever bureau holds on to things for whatever reason.  Of course the costs keep climbing and the delivery dates keep getting pushed back, but today...the first of the two shipping containers arrived.  We asked for "The green one."  This container had tools, hand carts, stuff we need to unload the other one...of course, we got "The other one!"  Oh well...we unloaded the 40 foot shipping container by hand into our yard.  We also bought the shipping container itself, so our plans were to take it to Jubilee and drop it by the school for storage.

It's nice to have plans!  We were not sure how they would remove the shipping container from the truck's carriage, but we figured they would know how.  Well, first of all, we were going to have to spend more money!  Next, we didn't actually have a group of experts at removing a shipping container from a carriage at our disposal.  Long story short, the shipping container is no longer on the carriage and the truck is headed back to Port au Prince to pick up our other container.  On a side note, the container is not even close to where we want it and it is on its side!

Nobody got hurt, we can find a way to get it where and how we want it...I got a little sun burned...I did not plan on standing around for four hours this afternoon trying to drop this container.  Another fun day in Haiti!

Scott

What a great Sunday

Started off with some freshly made pastries from next door...thin flaky dough (kind of like that greek stuff...filo?) with crushed up meat, onions, peppers in the middle...dang good.

Then I went to church at Pastor Gonada's.  Still don't understand a word, but it gives me a chance to pray on my own.

After church, we bought bread and took it to Jubilee for lunch for the feeding program...had to have two passengers on my dirt bike and Amos took one passenger and two huge bags of bread.  I only have one set of passenger foot pegs, so they had to share!

After that, I hopped on the dirt bike and met the rest of the crew out at a neat spot on the river that we found Saturday morning.  Up in the mountains a little bit.  We played in the river for a few hours...moving rocks, making dams, ponds, seats, whatever!

Then I got to do something really fun!  A couple of days ago, a Haitian guy, probably around 20 years old stopped me at our gate to talk to me.  He introduced himself as Whitney and he spoke pretty good English.  He told me about a club for people that want to become translators and he wanted me to come to be a part of it...the club's acronym was SCOFT, Shiny's Club OF Translators!  At 4:00 he was at our gate to pick up Chris and have me follow him to the club meeting.

Not too far from where I am staying, up on the second floor, there is a little classroom and it had about 20 guys in it.  Chalkboard up front and a desk with the sound system on it.  (Car battery, car stereo, home stereo speaker)  The DJ had some beats going as people filtered in.  Probably about 25 people when the club came to order.

They started with a prayer, then they wanted a joke.  No one was jumping out of their seats, so I got up and told the joke about Sunny drinking the gas out of a bowl while I was fixing my lawn mower.  When I got to the part that she had just fell over, I was looking at entire room of Haitians in stunned disbelief...I was supposed to tell a funny joke and it appears that my dog had just died!  After waiting a few seconds, I told them that she was fine, she just ran out of gas...the room erupted in laughter!

Next was introductions of the new members, there were about 6 of those.  After the introductions, there was a phrase written on the board that was to be discussed.  "He who would climb a ladder must begin at the bottom"  was the phrase for this class.  Club members came up voluntarily to the front of class and spoke about what they thought the phrase meant.  Everything was done in English.

At the end of the class, they asked everyone to bring a friend to the next meeting and closed with a prayer.  An amazing group of guys working together to gain knowledge.  So, I need more jokes!  If you can remember a joke that I told you (clean) please email me a bit about it to remind me...I intend on making this club meeting a regular part of my schedule.

Scott

Work around the house and a great dinner!

Yesterday, Amos and I went downtown and bought a new faucet for the bathroom sink and some 4 foot flourescent lights.  Today I got it fixed so now you can wash your hands after using the restroom and you can see the dirt on yourself when you take a shower!

Tomorrow after a little recreational dirt bike ride, I am going to try and build a few things for my room.  I am looking forward to unpacking my suitcases and having a place to call my own. 



We had a great mexican feast tonight.  I made about 45 tortillas from scratch...my griddle came in handy yet again!  We had chicken enchaladas, flour tortilla chips, fresh guac, salsa, sliced avacados and of course, what would a meal here be without rice and beans!  Many hands helped prepare this wonderful meal tonight.

Transportation and Education!

Yesterday we went to Port au Prince to drop some people off at the airport, run some errands, pick up some more people and shop for my transportation.  Started off a little shaky because of a stolen wallet, expired tags on the truck, problems at the Haitian DMV, temporary driving credentials...etc.

We got to the airport with plenty of time for the departing guests, then we picked up a friend, Lionel, to help me negotiate the purchase of a motorcycle.  He helped me bicker price, but the one that I bought was in a different part of town.  I got to see a lot of Port au Prince...amazing how the city literally climbs the sides of mountains.

So, we loaded this thing up in the back of the truck and headed back to Gonaives.  We didn't get to leave Port until around 6...it starts to get dark about then, so I drove to give Beaver a rest.  Driving at night in Haiti is quite an experience.  Tail lights?  Maybe on half of the vehicles on the road.  People, animals and broken down vehicles are all visible hazards during the day, but they can sneak up on you at night.  I got the group home safe a little after 9.

Today the paperwork got finished on my moto, so I can drive it legally in Gonaives...I have to wait until next week to get the proper paperwork to be able to drive it to and in Port au Prince.

Tomorrow I am going to the school to sit in on the classes...the teachers already have a list of things for me to fix / build while I am there!  I also got roped into helping teach the art class in the afternoon!  Should be fun.

I will try to take some pictures of the classes and our art projects.

I made it!

I was a little too nervous to sleep last night...maybe got an hour.  Took the 5 am shuttle from the hotel to the Ft. Lauderdale airport.  Took the 7 am flight to Port au Prince.  Had to wait around the airport for the 11 am flight and another couple of missionaries.  Then we went and ran errands in Port au Prince...went to a school and picked up another passenger, went to drop off some journals...nobody home...went to the supermarket.

I stayed in the truck and watched the luggage...there were also armed guards in the parking lot!

After the grocery stop, we started on the 3 1/2 hour trip to Gonaives.  It was dark for the last hour of the trip and we nearly ran over a donkey in the road!  Also, not many people care about their tail lights not working...got to keep your eyes peeled when driving at night here!

When we got back, the power was out so I couldn't let everyone know that I had made it safe until after dinner...rice, beans, goat, fried plantain, pickling.  Pickling looks like cole slaw but it has a kick...lots of hot peppers or something...made my eyes water and my nose run but man was it good.

I brought my electric griddle down here, so tomorrow morning we are making french toast 8 slices at a time.  There are at least 20 people expecting breakfast!  Then it is off to church at Pastor Gonata's.

Feels good to be back here.

Haiti? Why are you going to Haiti?

Seems to be the most common response I get when I let people know that I am leaving.

For a long time, I have had a desire to help out at an orphanage somewhere.  Every now and then I do some research on orphanages in poor places in the world.  I had one picked out in Guatemala...I was just waiting for the right time to go.

I had been church shopping for quite a while, trying different denominations of Christianity.  I found a group that fit me well in Gretna.  Journey Church.  They met in a public school building gymnasium.  The first Sunday I was there, a couple got up front and shared their plan of moving to Mali, Africa and starting a business with the goal of employing and helping the local people there.  I was getting frustrated at some of the other churches that I went to that thought the best way to help was to bring the poor here to the US and put them on public assistance.

Anyways...I had been regularly attending service at Journey when they had let us know of an opportunity to travel to Haiti for a week to work with missionaries there.  I was excited about it and started raising the money for the trip.

I knew by the second day that I was there that this was a place that I could spend some time.  I love the ocean, I love the mountains, I love warm weather...check, check, check.   My life up to now has involved lots of different jobs at about two year intervals.  I think that was to prepare me for this mission.

Once there, I plan on helping out with the many construction projects.  I would like to help out with some English classes.  I also plan on starting a trade school to teach how to set tile, masonry construction and carpentry techniques.  If there is a need or a desire, I would also enjoy teaching anything else that I have done in my many jobs and experiences.

So, that is the why.  Oh yea, and the kids are great!

First entry...Getting ready to go!

Lots of things to do before I am able to leave for Haiti.  I am going to have a garage sale every Saturday to try and thin out 10 years worth of stuff that has accumulated in my house.  Last weekend was pretty good, but I barely scratched the surface of my stuff...some might call me a hoarder, I think that is a little harsh...I only save the good stuff!

I hope to be able to work with these guys again when I get back.  I think we made a pretty good team!  The second floor for the school is calling our names.