Beginning of December 2012

It was great to have some familiar faces back for a visit.  For a while we had the whole crew back…Ben, Josh, Isaac and Chris were in Haiti for a month when I arrived, they went back for the summer.  Chris came back quite a while ago to help me run the English School…it is more like me helping him though!  Ben left on Saturday, not sure exactly when he will be back, but he will be back.  Isaac is here for a couple more weeks on this trip, Josh is HERE.

We made some great progress on the library in the Jubilee School.  We had a couple of weeks worth of teams here and they managed to install real windows, close off a lot of the area to the elements and build some great bookshelves.  Lots of donated books and a few donated laptops are going to be great teaching aids for the staff there.

“Freddy” – I don’t know if I have shared any information about this guy yet, but it is time.  About four months ago, I was having dinner at the town square.  I was sitting by the monument and talking with a friend of mine.  I turned to the right and I saw this guy with a very large infected wound on his leg.  My first reaction was to turn away and continue the conversation with my friend…but the second reaction was to see what could be done.  I called Grace and she gave me the go ahead to bring him in to the clinic for a look.

I had a conversation with him through a translator and told him that I would be there the next morning to bring him to the clinic.  His infection was pretty bad, there was a hole that went down to the bone on his shin and the infected wound was about six inches in diameter.  We started treatment, cleaning and redressing the wound every day.  He is homeless, so we could not just give him some antibiotics to take orally, so we gave him two shots every day in the butt for about six weeks.  Nutrition is necessary for the wound to heal, so I started giving him money for food too.

The money for food thing did not work out too well (there are other things to buy) so I basically set up an account with one of the food vendors in the square to get him two plates of food a day and I pay her every week.  The wound is healing up nicely, down to about three inches across with the hole down to the bone healed now.  I learned that he had been in a hospital for a while, but he was asked to leave.  I was able to get him into another hospital for a little while, but they asked me to come and get him from there too.  In the states, there would be a place for him, but this is not the states.

We have been caring for him for four months now, his wound only requires attention every other day.  I still get him food, but now I am wondering what will happen when he heals up.  I ask that you pray for a solution…maybe we can find his family somehow, maybe there is a place to care for him, he needs care and supervision…he is also epileptic.  Sometimes when I come to pick him up in the morning he has a cut on his head from hitting the pavement after a seizure.

I am getting excited to start my trade school here…I have lots of interest and I will start fundraising soon.  I am looking for some land at the edge of town for my building.  I will start with a carpentry school and grow from there.  I have talked with a plumber from the states that is interested in teaching, so a plumbing school could come soon after.  Once I have a secure classroom, I would also like to start teaching some computer skills…typing, Microsoft Office, network basics and computer assembly and repair are all classes that I could teach with my knowledge.  I would like to get some laptops and then some components to assemble computers as a class.

Oh, I almost forgot about our trip up to Port-de-Paix.  Emory was down here for a bit and he wanted to do some traveling around the country and see where else we could help.  He asked if I would like to ride up to Port-de-Paix with him.  We went with Gertrude (she has family there), La La and a Haitian Pastor.  It was a very rough drive, I rarely got out of second gear, and we drove across some rivers on the way.  It was some very beautiful country though.  When we got to the city, we looked for an area resembling Jubilee.  We parked the truck and started walking.  Some kids started following us and eventually we ended up on a bluff overlooking the town.  The number of kids multiplied and lots of adults ended up with us as well.  We all had some conversations and did some praying asking what God wants. 

I know that there is need all over the country…not necessarily a need for stuff (but no one would turn stuff down) but a need for education and jobs I guess.  So while I plan on starting in Gonaives, I also would love to turn the school over to one of my students and start a new one in another part of the country.  My dream is to have “Tools for Success” available for as many people that I can.  I would love to have several schools that I no longer need to be a part of because the staff and students have the same dream that I have.

That’s all for now, thank you for your support.

Scott

Thanks Dad!

Last week - the week from October 27 to November 3 - My Father came to visit me in Haiti!

Saturday the 27th, I loaded up the truck with Priss, Kathy, Kezia and Katie and headed to Port au Prince.  Priss was finishing her visit, Kathy was headed to the US for a few weeks and Kezia and Katie went to Port for a visit.  After I dropped everyone off, it was just me...waiting for my Dad.

I found a guy that usually helps us with teams and sent him inside the airport with a small sign to help my dad with the luggage.  He made it out of the airport with no problems at all...then we started the 3 hour trip from Port to Gonaives.  Well, it is usually 3 hours...right now there is a bridge out near Archaie, so there is a detour through the town, then across a small, old concrete bridge that only allows one car at a time to pass...the detour took us an extra hour and a half...but...it was just me and my dad and we got to talk!

We made it back home in time for dinner and the Husker game on the roof...Omaha outnumbered Georgia at the house that night.  (Brian and his family, me, and my Dad)  Sunday morning we were still getting lots of rain from Hurricane Sandy...we tried to go to church, but it was called off because of the rain...we have snow days, they have rain days!

While my Dad was here, we didn't have any major projects, just lots of little things and lots of introductions.  I introduced him to Pastor Genata and his wife Rose - he got a quick tour of all of the wonderful things that are happening with his ministry.  (Water business, bakery, church, deaf ministry, school, orphanage, sewing classes...)  I took him to meet Jan Thompson and show him her group of 19 kids...he also got to meet Jared and Amanda who are living here helping Jan.  We traveled around town on my motorcycle and met with lots of my new friends that I met from teaching or just from life.

On Sunday night, he came with me to SCOFT - (Shiny's Club OF Translators) - a group that I have been helping out with that practices English for a couple of hours every Sunday evening.  We usually sing a song or two...I print out lyrics and play an MP3 for them to sing along with...music is a great way to practice a new language.  But, since I had my Dad along, we brought a keyboard and he played while they sang.  I printed out the lyrics in English for How Great thou Art and Amazing Grace...two songs that they know from church. (in Creole)  It was a hit!

My Dad also came with me to my English school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...Thursday and Friday were holidays - No School!  All of my students were anticipating his visit - I rarely forgot to mention how many days it was until he arrived!  They were thrilled to meet Papa Scott.  My father was thrilled to meet them too.  Our school is made up of an amazing group of people with an unbelievable desire for more knowledge.  Our school is not free, so they all are making an investment in themselves to attend...and it shows.

Our mornings started with coffee and conversations with Beaver, then we tried to see what little projects that I had on my list.  We spent a couple of mornings fixing a gate and a door at the school in Jubilee.  We got to go to the hardware store and he got to meet all of my friends (the employees) there.  I shop there so much, I know all of the people who work there...kind of like Westlake Ace in Omaha!

On Friday morning, we had a trip planned.  I wanted to take him to see some countryside on my motorcycle.  On our way out of town, a pickup full of people passed me too close and his mirror hit my mirror and ended the trip early.  My handlebars turned sharply to the right and we flew off the bike.  It happened so fast.  My dad and I got up right away checking for major damage to eachother...Thank God just road rash and maybe some bruises later.  My motorcycle had a broken fender and some bent parts.  The truck that hit us kept driving...several people from the side of the road came to our assistance.  They poured some moonshine over my road rash to clean it up...that felt GREAT!

I used some tools in my bag to straighten out some bent parts on my motorcycle and we rode home slowly.  Then, Amos took us to go see Grace (Grace's Blog) to get our wound care.  We are thankful that the injuries were so minor...it could have been worse.  I now have more respect for the road and the crazy drivers...I practice more defensive driving.

So, Friday, my Dad and I relaxed around the house with some ice packs and ibuprofen.  We watched a movie in my room and took it easy.  Friday night we went to meet up with Jake Sangster from coreluv.  He is a pilot and flight instructor, so him and my father had a lot to talk about.  He also has a Red Tail Hawk as a pet...kind of cool.  After that we meet up with Pastor Patrice and his wife for a quick introduction.

Saturday we took the trip back to Port - detour was quick - and I said goodbye to my Dad.  He told me that his hand was tired from all of the handshakes from introductions to my friends.  I think he has a better idea now why I love this place.  It is sometimes hard to explain many of the things that are part of regular life here...you just have to see it for yourself.  I look forward to seeing more of my family and more of my friends when they come and visit me at my home in Haiti.  Again, I do love this place and I do thank every one of you that reads this and makes it possible for me to do this.  

If you would like to make a financial contribution to my work here, you can click on the monthly support button at the top of the page, or you can make a one time donation through my church here.  Select the Scott Peters - Haiti option.

The One Year Mark

It is hard to believe that I have been here for one year.  Part of me feels like I just got here, part of me feels like I have been here forever.  It is still hard to explain to those who don't know me very well how comfortable I feel living here...I will just say that this is where I am supposed to be.

What has happened over the last year?  Lots.

First of all, I have made many great friends...friends that are like me, from America, living and working here in Gonaives.  And friends that have been here all their lives.

Pursuit of Happiness English Institute.  This was not something that I was planning on at all, but I think it is a very important piece of my plans for the future.  We are in our second session of English as a second language classes.  We have a model for a sustainable school.  We have plans for expanding.  I think that this school is important for my plans for the future because of the relationships that are being created between Chris and I and our students.

New and old hobbies!  I am continuing my hobby of gardening with the added benefit that I don't have to sit and wait through a winter every year...it all just keeps growing.  I have a new hobby of bee keeping, it is interesting to watch them work.  I am continuing my hobby of carpentry...my last project was to help and teach Amos while building some furniture for his living room.

Slowly learning more about the language and the culture.  I enjoy spending time with my Haitian friends, some of whom speak very little English.  I think that I am learning just as much as I am teaching.

What are some of the plans for the future?

I am planning on building a school of my own.  It will be a satellite location for some English classes with Pursuit of Happiness and I will teach trades there as well.  My sister is setting up the legal framework in the United States and I will be doing the work on the ground here in Haiti.  I am looking for some land in or near Gonaives to build my campus.  I would like to buy enough land to be able to expand in the future...but I intend to start off pretty small.

The first thing that I will teach at my school after English will be carpentry.  The building will have to be big enough for a workshop and I will need to get some tools.  I would like to teach the students how to use the tools that we all take for granted - table saw, router, planer, jig saw, stuff like that.  I would also like to be able to offer "Shop time" to my students to build things for themselves or for sale.  With every trade that I teach, I will also put an emphasis on business and teach some fundamentals of running a small business.

After carpentry, I could teach plumbing, electrical, welding, gardening, etc.  I would also search out local teachers to be partners with me.  I currently know two ladies that teach small groups from their homes - a culinary instructor and a seamstress instructor...they both would love to have the ability to teach more students...they are currently limited by the size of their houses.  I would encourage friends of mine from the states to come and teach as well.  Many people I know are successful in their business because of the love that they have for their trade.  Those are the people that I would like to have come and visit.  Stay for two weeks or two months and share their knowledge!.

Right away, I would have a room for me to live in at my school.  As the school grows, I would add guest rooms for those visiting from the US and apartments for some of my local teachers if they would like.  My dream is to have a community that is focused on education and business.

So that is where I am today!  The name of my new organization is "Tools for Success"  We have set it up as a corporation and our not for profit status is pending.  We have a few more items to work through - like applying for resident status - but we should be able to start fundraising for this project soon.

I appreciate all of the support that has sustained me for this last year.  I couldn't do any of this without your financial support and more importantly, your prayers.  It is an amazing thing to be able to see God work through those around you.

"Ti pa, ti pa"

"Ti pa, ti pa," is the Haitian expression for a little bit at a time...step by step...one twig at a time, the bird builds its nest.

That is what is going on now.  One of my goals down here is to help people to create businesses.  I believe there is a little bit of success.  My good friend Valmy is selling some SD Memory cards.  I got a pretty good deal on them in the states, I wholesale them to him and he retails them to his friends.  Valmy is a very busy guy...he is in his terminal grade of school, he is an assistant teacher at The Pursuit of Happiness English Institute and he also works some crazy hours at the Jubilee Medical Clinic.  Here he is showing off some of his SD cards.

Ruth-Cher Francoise is one of my English students.  I found out that she enjoys gardening as much as I do, so after English lessons, she helps me work in my little garden in the yard.  She has helped me find new flowers and plants and we have done some trading with her friends and family to help me diversify my garden.  She has also shown me how to propagate many of the plants that I have.  She is going to start selling some of the potted plants that we have grown from seed or cuttings.  Here she is next to part of the garden.

Jean Phillipe Edmond is a carpenter that I met on my first trip to Haiti over a year ago.  I was impressed with his skills and knowledge right away when he started working with me.  We have become good friends, he helps me with any project I am working on, without asking for anything.  I have helped him with contract work whenever I can.  He has made many of my friends his happy customers with dressers, cabinets and tables.  A couple of weeks ago he asked if he could borrow my skil saw, I am usually pretty reluctant to lend out tools, but I did for him.  Turns out, he had a contract to make 30 chalkboards for a school.  A week later he returned the saw to me and was very proud to show me the saw that he bought with his profits.

The Pursuit of Happiness English Institute started its second session yesterday.  We have two full classes of Intro students and two almost full classes of level 1 students.  Chris Greene has worked very hard building a budget and setting fees.  We are less expensive than some English institutes, but we are on track to be sustainable through tuition and fees.  We rent a school building in the afternoons, (From one of our students!) we pay our translators, we have the cost of the books and copies figured into the student fees.  The only thing that is not sustainable is that Chris and I teach for free...but we don't mind!  The benefits are great!

We are making some great friendships with our students.  These young men and women are the next leaders of Haiti, and we are blessed to be a part of their lives.

Grace Deal (onewaytickettohaiti.blogspot.com) has been back in the states for the birth of her neice, and I have the pleasure of taking care of this little guy.  This is her Rott...his name is Tortuga or Tug!  He is a lot of fun, I am going to miss him when she gets back.  She is trying to talk me into getting one...then everyone will want puppies!  I think I am going to wait until I have my own place before I get a dog.

My own place?  Yep.  Part of my plan down here is to set up a school of my own.  The English Institute was never a part of the original plan, but you can bet it is a part of the latest one.  My dream is to have a trade school where I can teach carpentry, plumbing, electrical work and whatever else I can.  I also would like to host people from the states that could share their knowledge for short intensive classes.  Anything from wrenching on cars to sewing a suit...whatever you know and do well, come here for a few weeks and share that with some of my friends.

My sister, Renee, is working through the final stages of setting up a not for profit to handle fundraising and accounting from the US.  I am looking for some land in or near Gonaives for this school to be built.  I am so excited for the potential that is in everyone here that I meet.  I hope to share that excitement with you when you come to visit my school, and meet the students for yourself.

I am very excited to see my Father here at the end of the month!

God bless you all.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Testing...Testing...1...2...3

It is finally test time for the first group of students in the Pursuit of Happiness English Institute.  I am so excited to see these students move on to the next level and to start with another group of new students.  I have learned a lot about teaching and I have made some great friendships with my students.  Chris and I have also learned about what not to do!  Our next session will be great!

Here is the group hard at work on the written portion of the test.

Here is Chris giving the oral portion...one on one...with every student...we are going to be here for a while!

What am I missing while down here?  You might think it would be the Husker games...NOT!!!  Thanks to my friend Jack, I have the ability to watch the Huskers play over the internet.  He has a slingbox...our internet is not that great down here...no high definition images on the wall up there, but we can at least see and hear what is going on in Husker Nation.  Definitely helps with our growing Nebraska contingent down here.  Brian Smith from Omaha and the group Omaha Rapid Response has moved down here with his wife and three teenage kids.  Here are some of us watching the Huskers get beat.  Darn it...we had a better time watching the next week!

Yard project...Putting down some pavers where the swing goes...it is done now...thanks Beaver!  Maybe I can put up another picture...but I am blogging from class right now while the students are working on their exams.  Here is a shot of the project in its early stages.

On a sad note, a good friend of mind lost her only son a little over a week ago.  She is 20 years old and he was the only family she had.  I had got to know her because she works for Kathy helping her prepare the Jubilee art for shipment to the US.  She speaks English very well and once in a while she works as a translator for us.  I would like to help her and I invite others to help also.  She dropped out of school when her son was born so that she could take care of him.  I asked her about finishing school and she said that she would love to if she could afford it.  I am setting up a scholarship fund for her.  Let me know if you would like to help.

Taking the good times with the bad.  Living life.  Enjoying the company of good friends.  Meeting many new friends.  Again, I thank all of you that make this life possible.

I'm on Island Time!

We had a wonderful "Relationship Gathering" in Georgia with most of the people in our group on the ground in Haiti and some of the supporting groups from the states.  We all shared testimonies on what brought us to Haiti, what keeps us in Haiti and what our dreams are while we are here.
It was great to put faces to names and to see some of the people that have come down to my new home to visit me.

We also spent a lot of time discussing what we are doing right and wrong.  We discussed the books When Helping Hurts and Toxic Charity.  A couple of books that try to define the differences between relief and rehabilitation. We also had a guy from the 410 Bridge come and share with us the way that they work in Kenya and Haiti.  Sometimes our attempts to help do more damage in the long run...we were very critical of ourselves in many areas...we have a lot of work to do.

So, about the Island Time...

Friday we were privileged to attend a Haitian wedding.  Our friend Francoise Jean got married!  The invitation that I got said that the wedding started at 2:45.  We were running a little behind...it happens often here...and we got to the church a half an hour late...at 3:15.  We were the first ones there!  They were still decorating the place.  The program we got stated that the wedding would start at 3.  It got rolling a little after four.  It was a beautiful ceremony similar to Christian wedding ceremonies in the US.  Everyone was wearing their Sunday best...even ME!  Here is a pick of us men in the back of the truck on the way to the wedding...Amos, Me, Kervens, and a picture of the newlyweds!

So, now that the traveling and festivities of a wedding are behind us, it is back to work.  I have several projects on my plate to get finished before the start of the Jubilee school year.  I have to design and install some shutters / water barriers on the second floor windows for the school, build or have built a bunch of new benches for the feeding program, restore power to the school, set up a solar electric system for the clinic, and probably a bunch of other stuff in the needs done category.

In the want to do category, I would like to reset my garden area at the house, help Amos build some furniture, build some more shelves for my room, put down some pavers around the swing, steal some honey from my bees, build a pedal powered pump for the well in Jubilee, get ready for the next session of my English school...wow, I better stop here...I might actually have to do some of this since I wrote it down!

Yep, I'm Still Here!

I put things up on facebook pretty frequently about what is happening day to day, but I have not been keeping up with this.

April 3rd?  Wow...I could have swore that I had a post in May, but oh well.

English Classes -
We are moving right along in our book.  Up to chapter 13 out of 16.  We will start a new session as soon as we finish the book and test the first group of students.  From the overflow groups that we started out with, there are around 60 or so students that attend classes regularly.  Some fell behind and got discouraged, some had other obligations.  The students that are still working seem to have a good understanding of the material we have covered.

When we start our second session, I am going to ask some of my star students if they would like to help teach the next group of beginners.  I think they might have a perspective that I miss while explaining the subjects.  We will have a new group of beginners and I hope to have enough students from the first level to fill a couple of classes of second level instruction.  We are also going to use some higher level books from our curriculum to have an advanced English class.  (I can learn from those higher level books - English is not easy!)

The curriculum we are using is from Cambrige University Press - www.cambridge.org/interchange

Bees!
Grace Deal's Dad came down here and helped me move the bees from the wall panels to the beehives that I built.  The bees love their new home and are multiplying in numbers.  I have opened the hive a few times to check on their progress and manipulate positions of frames to encourage their production, but I have not harvested any honey yet.  If I want to do it right, I will have to build a centrifuge, if I don't, I might ruin some of the frames and foundations that I made.  Advice from bee keepers is welcome!

Garden -
Gardening has been a numbers game with me so far.  Plant lots of stuff, some of it lives, plant lots more stuff. We took a load of plants down to the garden in Jubilee and had about 90% of it die...but we will keep trying.  One of my students wanted to help me with the garden one day, so I let her.  Her and I traded some flowers and plants and she keeps introducing me to some of her friends and neighbors that have small gardens as well.  We have done lots of plant trading all around town.  Also, I am a sucker for a guy riding his bicycle down the street with a basket of tropical plants in the back.  Gets me every time, but I have some coconut trees and some other nice tropicals from that kind of sale.

Construction-
I built a cabinet for my room...an effort to stay organized.  It turned out nice after lots of sanding and paint.  I built an adirondak chair out of scraps as a prototype for when I get things going with the carpentry trade school.  I want to have many different things that I have built sitting around so the students can get ideas of what they can make in my shop.  I brought some more tools down here when I returned from the brief Omaha visit in June.

Medical-
I started a medical transport business...kind of.  One night while I was hanging out in the square, I looked over to my left and this sixteen year old kid had a pretty bad wound / infection on his leg.  I called Grace (director of the medical clinic) and she said, sure we can take a look at him!  So every morning except Friday and Sunday, I go down to the square (where he lives) and pick him up on my motorcycle and take him to the clinic.  The wound is healing, slowly, but it is healing.  I have also been able to help a little while I am at the clinic.  I can open up packages of gauze and hold onto my new friend when it is time for his shots in the bum!  Not quite a nursing assistant yet.  By the way, Grace bloggs much better than I do, you can find her at http://onewaytickettohaiti.blogspot.com/

Life-
I tried to take a trip to the Dominican Republic with Grace, Kelly and LaLa...didn't quite make it.  Apparently you have to have a special permit to take a vehicle across the border...we did not know that.  If we wanted to cross, we would either have to go back to Port to get the paperwork or have some less than ethical character create the desired document on the spot.  We chose neither of those options and decided to head for Jacmel on the Southern coast of Haiti.  OOPS, missed our turn...now we are back in Port.  Ok, lets take this road...I can see it on the map.  We ended up deciding to sleep on it and we found a Baptist mission in the mountains South of Port.  They graciously put us up for the night on the cheap.  When we woke up and walked around in the morning, we were astounded by the beauty around us and we decided that we would have our vacation there.  We went hiking through mountains and ravines, we climbed waterfalls, we kept getting passed by people with 50 lbs of vegetables on their heads.

I thank God for every day that I am able to be here.  I know that many of you pray for me. Thank you for that.

I think that if you all harass me enough, I will post more often...so harass away!

Do you have class today?

My friends from Journey Church were here and I kept getting the question...Do you teach class today?  Several attempts at explaining the days of the week and how I teach at least one class on each of those days...yes, I do teach today.

Yes, I have been very busy.  Monday through Thursday I teach a beginners English class at the school that Chris and I started.  Classes have thinned out to manageable class sizes and we are moving along in our books.  Friday, I tutor in the early afternoon, then I teach at Amen Institute.  I teach a few hours Saturdays and Sundays at Amen also.

Seven days a week is wearing on me a little.  I took a Sunday off two weeks ago and went snorkeling.  We took our whole group out on a couple of wooden sailboats to a spot with some good underwater scenery.

This last Sunday, Ben and I took a ride on our twin motorcycles.  We did about a 100 mile round trip up through Anse-Rouge to Ti Riviere.  I will stick to my commitments this session, but I think I will only teach on the week days in the future.

Teaching all of those students has given me a little popularity.  I find it rare to drive around town now without hearing "Teacher Scott!" hollered from the sidewalk at least once.  My plan for tutoring on Fridays has taken an unexpected turn.  I was hoping that I could get the students that were struggling a little to come in and get help to stay caught up with the rest of the class...but I got the students that were already doing well coming in and wanting more.  I usually have 15 students on Fridays that have questions on how to pronounce and use new words that they found in other books or heard in music.

We have free flowing shower drains again!  All of the holes in the yard have been filled back up!

BEES!!!

We were getting ready to use some of the wall panels that have been sitting in the yard since November.  I had noticed that there were a lot of bees coming and going from one of the stacks...when I lifted the panel, this is what I found!

I think there are about 6 or 7 combs there...full of honey and whatever!  I thought about it for a bit and decided that I would become a bee keeper.  I did some googling of bees and hives...now I am an expert.  Well, not really, but there is an expert on his way here!  Another one of those reminders that He gives us every now and then.  Grace Deal's dad has bee-keeping as one of his hobbies.  He is bringing down a bee keepers suit and a smoker and he is going to help me move the colony from the wall panels to the beautiful new bee hive that I am in the progress of making.

With help from my friend Jean Philipe, I have built the boxes for two separate bee hives.  I still have to build the bases and roofs for both of them.  And I still have a few frames to make.  Six boxes per hive...two deep hive body boxes and four shallow honey supers...ten frames per box...120 frames.  I did finish the swarm catching frames and I built enough of the others to get started.  Thanks Jacob Thompson for letting me borrow your table saw for so long...still using it!  It would not have been practical without it...I could have used a set of dado blades though.

Benefit of the project already...I needed a router stand, so I built one...now I have one!

Grace got a new puppy.  Tartuga...Tug.

The nursery in our yard continues to impress!  Our tomatoes are growing great...started them from seed and they are all thriving...one variety is doing especially well, it is aptly named the Jubilee Tomato!  Almost all of our cuttings have taken root and are producing vegitation of their own, our crop of Vincas are all blooming and getting strong.  The only plants we have had trouble with are the peppers...can't seem to get them growing (or even germinating)  We will keep trying on those!

Our dump truck broke.  Ben was dumping a load of rock in our depot in Jubilee and the piston broke through the dump box when it was half way up and full of rocks.  The box came crashing down on the cab and that is probably the end of that truck...the frame broke on both sides along with the drive shaft.  The box came down and smashed the cab all up.  Thank God that Ben is all right (and that I decided to watch him dump it from a little ways away.)

I am looking forward to seeing familiar faces soon.  Thank you all again for your prayers and support.  I feel truly blessed that I am able to be down here.  I could not do it without your help!

Full time teacher?

I had no idea when I came down here that I would be doing what I am doing now.  I should start off by apologizing to all of my high school English teachers.  I can't remember their names, but I know that my relationship to the Vice Principal had a lot to do with English class. 

Can you believe that I am an English teacher seven days a week? 

I was already helping out a group of young people that meet every Sunday night.  That is "Shiny's Club of Translators" - SCOFT.  This is usually about 30 guys and maybe 4 girls that meet for two hours.  We pray, introduce new attendees, tell a couple of jokes, discuss a couple of phrases then I take some time to define and pronounce words that they come and write on the board.  As soon as the sun has set far enough that we can't see the board, we close with a prayer.  The room we use is off the grid, so to speak!

I was approached a few weeks ago by a young man that was beginning his second year of his own English institute.  He asked if I could help out with a couple of classes.  Of course!  Those of you who know me know how hard it is for me to say no...so, I teach classes that meet Friday late afternoon, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday.  This school is called the Amen Institute.  I am having fun with these kids...their ages range from 15 to 20 and most of them are taking these classes as a suppliment to their regular education.

Finally, Chris Greene had taught English classes in Jubilee last year.  He had a beginner and an advanced class.  He wanted to step it up this year to reach more students.  I happily agreed to help him.  Logistically, Jubilee did not work for our class times or sizes, so we had to find some space.  We rented two classrooms in the middle of town from 1pm to 6pm for six months.  Then Chris put the word out...we had over 100 applicants for 80 spots.  We found good textbooks and we are patiently awaiting their arrival.  We have two simultaneous level one classes, 1:30 to 3:30 Monday-Wednesday, and Tuesday-Thursday...20 students per class...at least that was our intention.

Our advanced English classes are every day from 3:30 to when we are done.  Our intention is to teach more than just English, so we teach Theology, Philosophy, Computer Repair, Public Speaking, Political Science, Business/Marketing and Construction Theory.  Chris and I split up teaching these classes but we usually help each other out. 

The name of our school...."Pursuit of Happiness English Institute"  Here is a picture of our school building with the teacher's ride out front!

Here is a pic of the first day of class, before we started sorting out who gets in and what days they will have.

If that doesn't take up too much of my time, I am excited for the opportunity to help out with our garden project.  We had a group in here last week that was serious about helping us with our goal of greening up Jubilee.  We went to a nursery and picked out some nice little plants.

The group helped us start our own little nursery here in the yard.  We will toughen these little guys up so that we can put them out in Jubilee!  Here are a few pictures of what we have going in the yard right now.

Look Rog!  Sprouts!





I still have a list of other projects to work on...find the plumbing problem here at the house, build a cistern for rainwater collection, fix the drainage problem in the yard before rainy season, play with my new welder that arrived with Jim, Jeff and Steve from Journey Church, and the list goes on!

Thanks for taking the time to read a little about what is going on down here with me!  May God bless you as much as He has blessed me and this place!





Road Trip and Breaking Ground

Over the weekend of the 21st, we took a road trip up to Cap Haitien.  Beaver, Kervens and I took our motorcycles from Gonaives up to Cap on Saturday.  We found a hotel and relaxed a bit after the ride.  On Sunday, we rode to Milot to start the tour of the Citadelle (Google it).  Huge fortress built on the top of a mountain two hundred years ago.  We spent most of the day on the tour, then returned to our hotel in Cap for the evening.  The next morning, we hopped on our motorcycles for the return trip to Gonaives.  There are plenty of more pictures of this trip on my facebook page.

When I got back, they were building stuff without me!  We put together a couple of prefabricated shelters on top of foundations and poured concrete floors.  We put a skim coat of concrete on top of the siding to make the houses more durable and so that they look appropriate in the community.  We have also built up some ground where we will be building the medical clinic.  The raised area there is where we will dig footings and build the clinic.

We had help from a couple of weeks worth of groups building and painting some tables for Pastor Genata.  The kids needed some short tables to play on, so that is what we built.  Four, four foot square tables, at various heights.  I got to use the router bits that my Dad sent to me through one of the groups!  Thanks Dad!  The tables look great!

That last picture is of Emory's neice Marley helping out with the painting!

On Friday of this week, I start teaching English at the Amen Institute.  I made sure to make it clear to them that I have no education experience, but that did not deter them from wanting me to help.  I will be teaching two classes a week at this school.  I will also start teaching English next week at the school in Jubilee.  I am very excited to start building relationships with these young people through the teaching of the English language.