More beds on the way...and an interesting couple of days.

How about the interesting couple of days first?

I have been looking for a place to live on my own.  I have lived with Beaver and Kathy for two years now, I think I am ready for a little independence.  There are not any apartment finder magazines at the supermarket or places for rent on Craigslist - Gonaives, so you have to find a place by other means.  Word of mouth is the best way, the other way is to just drive around and look for "Maison a louer" with a phone number spray painted on the wall.

I saw one the other day when I was driving around.  I circled back and stopped in front of the property to take down the number.  A guy came from across the street with the keys to show it to me.  It was downtown, with not much of a yard to speak of and it was pretty small.  I thanked him and told him that I was not interested in this property.  He asked why and what I was looking for...I told him that it was too small and there was nowhere for my garden.  He told me that he had the perfect place for me and I should come back in an hour so we could go and see it.  We exchanged names and phone numbers...his name was Garry.

So, around an hour later, I went to see Gary again.  He hopped on the back of my motorcycle and directed me to another part of town.  When we arrived, I told him that we don't even have to get off of the motorcycle...I can tell from here that this property is out of my price range.  He insisted that I see the property anyway...he said that he built the house himself.  I agreed...the house was amazing.  Everything was finished, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, big kitchen, dining room, living room, lots of balconies.  Good plumbing, electricity...every modern convenience that I would need.  The initial asking price was $1000 a month...sounds good, but it is a little high for me...to rent here, you pay for a year up front...$12000.  I reminded him that I knew this was out of my price range to begin with, he laughed and told me that he could drop it to $8000 for the year if I wanted.  I told him that it was still too high for me and I would have to keep looking for something a little less expensive.

He then told me that he knows of another piece of property that he would like me to see.  In another part of town (an older part of town) we arrived at a fence and a gate with nothing but trees behind it.  Peeking through the gate, we could see a huge yard, all in shade, and a nice older house toward the back of the lot.  We were able to walk around the outside of the property, but the guy with the keys was in Port au Prince. We would have to come back later to look at the inside.  The exciting part was the price.  I could rent the upstairs of the house for $2000 for a year, or the whole house for $4000 for the year.  I am looking for somewhere that I can spread my tools out and work...so the whole house is the way to go for me.  I need a secure place for my carpentry business to start...I can't be worried that the kid in the other family that lives with me left the gate open and my tools walked away.

After we looked at the house, he asked me a little about myself and what the heck I am doing down here.  So I explained it all and what my plans for the future were...mainly my ideas for a trade school out in Bayonnais.  He then told me that he was a "Magistra" of an area called Terre Neuve and asked if I have heard of it.  I told him that I have seen it on a map, but I have never been there.  He invited me to go with him to go and see it...so that is what I did yesterday.  A little over an hour of rough roads, across one ridge, then into a beautiful green area.  It is great taking a tour of an area with one of the town big whigs...of course now he wants me to open a branch of my not yet started school in his area as well!

About 15 minutes out of town, you can see Gonaives in the distance

Garry getting on his bike after stopping for the tourist.

We went on a little hike up in the hills...found a pretty stream

And we found some bananas...the freshest banana I have ever eaten

Sitting on the mayor's front porch, waiting on some sandwiches

Catholic Church and town square of Terre Neuve

So that was the interesting couple of days...now for the other news!

My business is taking off!  The orphanage that I wrote about in the last blog has secured funding for 13 more beds...they absolutely loved the first 12.  There have been other orphanage directors through the place and they have all loved and asked about the beautiful beds.  I have another order for 16 beds that I will start on next week...so, as of right now, I have a back order of 29 beds!!!  That is a great place to be!  I have a meeting tomorrow with the owner of a wood shop to try and rent some space for a month or so.  I don't think that building 29 beds at my current residence is very realistic.

So, I ask that you keep me in your prayers as I make some decisions on my future...where I am going to live, where I am going to work, where I am going to start my first school.  Thanks for taking the time to read what I have been up to.  And thanks to all of you that make it financially possible for me to continue to do this.

Beds, Business and Bayonnais

The Beds!

Having been here for a couple of years, I have met some great people.  Two of those people are Cathy and Rodney Fitzsimmons.  They have been involved here in Haiti for more than 25 years.  Their children were raised here.  Their daughter and a couple of her friends were down here a few weeks ago.  Her daughter's friend started a not for profit foundation in the states to help with funding various activities down here.  The foundation's first large donation was for beds at a local orphanage.  

They contacted me to help them with the logistics of the operation.  First just to see if the price quote from one carpenter was even in the right ball park...lumber is pretty expensive down here...the price was reasonable but they had a short time frame.  They asked me to try to find them another carpenter and I thought of Jean Phillipe immediately.  We all went to his workshop to pitch the project to him.  He accepted on the condition that I would be his partner in it all.

So I agreed...I searched the internet for simple wood bunk bed designs, I found some attractive pictures to base my design on.  We got right to it and built the first bed as a prototype right away.  They all loved it.  So, I bought more materials and we built and delivered the first three.  Then I was out of cash...the foundation was sending the money down here so we had to sit on our hands for a couple of days...like I said, lumber is expensive down here!  While we were waiting, there was a bit of a design change, they wanted the top beds a little bit lower.  We changed the design, reconfigured our cuts for the least waste and moved on when we were able to buy the rest of the material.

The finished product turned out wonderful.  They are made from 2x6 lumber with 1/2 inch finish grade plywood for the mattresses to rest on.  We puttied the holes, routered the corners, sanded and applied two coats of varnish.  We got 12 beds done in around 2 weeks and we were able to squeeze a little profit out for our work.

Jean Phillipe - my partner on this project

Actually, I am just pretending to be varnishing for the camera

Truck loaded with the parts to assemble six beds

Some of the finished beds in the girls dorm

These are their old beds that are being replaced by my beds!

The Business -

This bed project is exactly what I had in mind for a school and business.  I will secure contracts from orphanages, churches, schools and other organizations to build things like beds, chairs, tables, desks, book cases, cabinets...and so on.  My students will work with me as apprentices at first and as partners or subcontractors as their skills allow.  As they progress, they will gain experience in the trade and knowledge about how their trade can be a successful business.  These contracts will allow the school to keep itself funded by producing something instead of it living from donations forever.

Bayonnais -

I have mentioned in the past that I am looking at an area about an hour away from Gonaives to start my first professional school.  I have had several meetings with one of the community leaders from the area to discuss mutual goals for the area.  They are interested in donating the land for a professional school in their area.  Saturday, I wend out there again and walked around the potential school site.  I am a little scared about getting something for nothing, but after much deliberation, I am planning to take him up on his offer and start my first school there.  It is a pretty good size piece of land right next to the community market.  The market area could prove to be a great opportunity for my future carpenters to practice...building tables, chairs, stools, sun shades for the vendors in the market area.

To make this work, I will need some help.  I will need to purchase a vehicle, materials for construction of the school and the tools we will work with in the various disciplines that will be taught.  My initial plan will start with English, carpentry and computer skills.  Our school will have covered areas with light to allow children in the community to study after the sun goes down.

My sister has set up a corporation for this purpose and we are currently wading through the waters of the IRS to get a non profit 501c(3) status.  I will keep you informed as to when donations can be accepted by that corporation, but for now...you can still contribute to my work down here through my church.  If you would like to make a one time contribution, you can go to Journey Church's Donation Page and select "Scott Peters - Haiti" from the drop down box.  Or if you would like to sponsor me with a monthly contribution of $10 to $100, you can do that from the top right of this page where it says "Monthly Support for My Mission"

This area is very beautiful with mountains, trees and small rivers, but it does not have much infrastructure.  I think this school could be a great benefit to the area short term and long term.

God bless you and thank you for your support and prayers.

Learning and Teaching

Last weekend I had an opportunity to help with a large installation of solar panels.  Pastor Mike Leland of Good Shepherd Orphanage got a generous gift of solar panels and everything else necessary to provide electricity all day every day for his orphanage.  A couple of guys from Washington State, the owners of ecotechenergy.com came down here to do the installation.  I have been waiting patiently for this ever since I heard that it was going to happen.  We put up 15 240 watt solar modules.  They were connected to an Outback inverter and charge controller and there was a bank of 16 large 6 volt batteries to store the power for the night.

Dana and John, from Ecotech Energy, were great.  They answered any question that I could come up with and they gave me many new ideas for things that could work down here.  He also pointed out many things with his installation that identified problems with my small system at my house.

Next month, I am going to a village in the North West of Haiti to teach a three day seminar on solar power.  I hope that I get all of the tools and supplies delivered in time!  We are going to build some small solar panels and charge controllers for charging cell phones.  We will discuss theory and have practical experience by building these small panels.  I am nervous about this, but I am sure that it will be ok.

Tomorrow, I am going back to Bayonais with one of my students.  He is from that area and he will introduce me to his family and friends around there.  This is one area of interest for me...possibly a place where I will build my professional school.  I have met with the mayor of the area a couple of times and there is a lot of interest already.  I want to meet with more of the community and see more of the area.  It is a beautiful place in the mountains with trees, small rivers and lots of hillside agriculture.  They don't have much in the area of infrastructure.  No power, no paved roads...none of the services that Americans take for granted.

An area like this has nothing but opportunity.  My imagination goes wild with possibilities to solve problems with new solutions.  We aren't trapped in any current method of doing things because there is no current way of doing it.  Also, solutions can be imagined without worrying about rules, regulations, zoning laws, etc.  We are truly able to think outside the box and start from the beginning with possibilities.

I am also going to bring one of the Safe Water International Ministries chlorine generator kits.  I was introduced to this community by my friend Frantz Pierre while he was working with a non governmental organization to help communities with safe water.  I talked about this kit a while back, now I finally get to try to get it into service!

Our session of English is nearing completion, we have already begun to accept new students for the next session that starts on November 11.  Our Friday afternoon English club is working out well...I sang a song for them this afternoon - several students were recording it on their phones, so video of my performance might just appear on the web sometime soon!

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support.  Like I said before...I couldn't do this without all of you.

God Bless you all!

Scott

Busy Times

Well, at least that is the excuse I am going to use.

I have been very busy lately though.  Our new session of classes at "The Pursuit of Happiness English Institute" began on July 15th.  We are well over 100 students in four different levels of classes.  We are currently halfway through this session and we have good student retention.  I am teaching three classes a day during the week.  1:30 - Level 2, 3:00 - Level 1, 4:30 - Intro.  I am at the school usually from about 1:15 to 5:45 every weekday.

One thing that was in our plans for this school was an English club.  Something other than class that students could get together and practice English.  We (Chris and I) did not want to be the catalyst for this though.  We wanted it to happen, but we know it would mean more if it was created by the students and not by us.  Well...Guess what?  Today is the first day of "The Happy Club!"  Students got together over the last few weeks, elected a president and other officers and planned the thing themselves.  The club activities will include singing songs, telling jokes, solving riddles and conversations about a weekly topic.  I am proud of our students and their initiative.

Joel and Geratson

Valmy and Woodcender

Stools!

Pastor Genada and I submitted a bid to build 100 stools for an organization that is doing work down here.  The group is called "OIM"  They wanted the stools for a place to set 5 gallon buckets with a spigot for water for washing hands or drinking water.  I am not sure where they are going to put all of these stools.  Anyways, we got the bid.  I built a prototype and had a jig built to assemble these things quickly...but...not everything goes as planned...they wanted a little more spread on the legs and a different kind of wood.  Pastor Genada had a carpenter build another prototype and that one was accepted.

Pastor Genada inspecting one of the stools

Last week on Thursday we started construction.  I brought over nearly every tool that I own and we went to work.  I made most of the cuts and we had a crew of local carpenters do the rest.  We were using rough cut 1 by 12's so everything had to be planed smooth before assembly.  All of the parts were put together by hand with hammers and nails.  All of the cracks, gaps and nail holes were filled with some home made wood filler...sawdust and glue.  They got a good laugh when I explained that I have always bought wood filler for my projects in the states.  After 6 days of construction, all 100 stools were done.  This morning I did some fine tuning (trimming legs so they would not wobble) and they are ready to be picked up.

Applying wood filler and sanding

This project was quite a learning experience.  Carpentry techniques are so different.  I like to plan things at the beginning so that the pieces fit together perfectly during assembly.  They put things together and clean up the final product with a hand planer.  I don't know if I have ever seen that tool used so skillfully.  Several times during the day, the guys with the planers would take out the blade and hone the edge on a stone...the pile of the shavings tells the story.  In the future, we should be getting more contracts from OIM.  I would like to invest in some more tools so that we can build a more consistent product.  Air compressor, thickness planer, band saw.  The furniture business could really take off with a few skilled carpenters and a decent area to work.

Found this gem on the street for 2000 Gdes (about $50)

It was funny though that whenever the power cut out, I was standing around doing nothing while the rest of my crew continued to work!

It was not all hard work though.  A little girl that was hanging around grabbed a stick and pretended to play the guitar...so I grabbed some scraps, trimmed the corners, nailed them together and drew on the hole and the strings.  I had a second customer right away...then I had to say no more...I had to get back to work!

A little concert for me...there is a video of this on my facebook page.

Visitors!

It was great to see some friends from the Omaha area.  Eric Maas and two of his boys Connor and Peyton came down for a week.  They got to see a little of everything and a lot of my school.  I had Eric give a presentation about Complete Music and how it all works to my highest level class, then just good conversation with the other levels of classes.  They got to spend some time with Jan Thompson and help out over there, went to Jubilee and hung out with Pastor Genada for a bit.  As a parting gift, they took us to a resort the day before they left.  We went to Kaliko Beach Resort on Saturday afternoon.  I drove them to the airport on Sunday morning...then back home to Gonaives.

Eric, relaxing on the beach at Kaliko

Kevs, living it up

Dogs!

I am sure glad that everyone is back in town.  For a while, we had 7 dogs in the yard.  Bongo and one of her puppies are permanent residents of "The Big House,"  we had April's dog - Dexter, Josh's dog - Avett, Julie's dog - Henry, Grace's dog - Tug and Brian's dog - Thor.  There were several nights of little sleep and watering my garden was nearly impossible without stepping in fresh fertilizer.  Now we are down to Bongo and one of her puppies - Moses.

Wedding!

Chris and Grace got married again down here.  They got married August 15 in the US and had a second ceremony for the benefit of their friends that live down here.  It was a nice ceremony in a "Village" here in Gonaives.  A nice little gated community with landscaping, trees and room to have fun.  I had an opportunity to wear my white suit!  I built them a nice bookshelf for their wedding present.  I also built a feeding station for Tug for their housewarming present.  They have moved into an apartment with Josh Rustin and Phil and Angela Moesker from Canada.

Of course I got myself in the mirror!

Here I am in my Don Johnson attire.  I am standing with Emy, who sadly moved to Port de Paix a couple of weeks ago.

Francoise had a baby!

For those of you that know Francoise - She lived with us at the big house until she got married last summer.  She is the secretary at the Jubilee school and she is a friend to everyone that she knows.  Her and her husband Techlet are proud to introduce their beautiful baby boy Marc-Andy Telly.

Healthy little guy!  Nearly two months old.

Thanks!

Thank you for taking the time to read about what is going on with my life down here.  Also thank you to everyone that is making this possible for me financially.  I am not drawing a salary from our English school yet and the stool contract was my first actual paying job since I got here.  I am currently only able to stay down here and do what I do because of your support.  I am currently looking for some land to build on and I am praying that the finances to purchase that land will arrive when I find the perfect spot.  I would like to ask for your help.  You can be a monthly contributor with the button at the top right of this page or you can make a one time contribution through my church in Gretna by following this link.  Scott in Haiti.  Choose Scott Peters - Haiti from the drop down box.  Thank you so much!

Scott

Technology!

I am getting excited for the time when I will have my school / shop to work from.  I have some fun technology projects planned.

Safe Water International Ministries -
I will go ahead and give these guys a plug...they have an amazing product.

http://www.swimforhim.info/

When Frantz and I were up in La Branle, he delivered some granulated chlorine that he was carrying in his backpack, I thought...there has to be a better way.  From my experience as a swimming pool operator, I was aware of saltwater pools and how they create chlorine.  A relatively simple process, Salt (NaCl) and water (H2O) is passed over a pair of electrodes and some electricity and some of the Chlorine is made available for sanitization from the salt.

I started googling chlorine generators and how to make them and I ran across this group.  They have developed a great product, made some relationships with parts suppliers and they have made the kit available for people in my line of work for just $50.  It is awesome - the reactor vessel is injection molded, the electrodes are securely installed, wiring harness is durable and it even comes with a chlorine test kit...all in a handy plastic tool box.

Making water safe to drink has never been easier!  This device can clamp on to someone's motorcycle battery and in ten minutes, you can make enough chlorine to treat hundreds of gallons of water and sanitize buckets and hands as well!  I have one kit down here and three more are at my sister's house waiting for the next group from the Omaha area to come on down!

Solar Panel Construction -
Grace is coming back this week!  I have had the pleasure of taking care of her Rottweiler - Tug.  When I took the dog sitting assignment, she asked me to name something special that she could bring back from the states as payment for being a dogsitter.  I just asked for luggage space!  I ordered some solar panel kits from E-bay.  I hope she has the room!!

Back in January, I took a three day class here in Gonaives about solar panel construction.  It was taught by a Haitian and the turnout was amazing - especially amazing because it was $50 US for the class and you did not get to take anything home with you.  There were around 50 students attending the three day class.  Definitely a subject that is interesting to a lot of young people.

I plan on teaching a similar class as soon as I get my parts.  The kit on E-bay contains everything that is not available here...the solar cells, tabbing and bus wires and the blocking diodes.  Everything else - the frame, glass, wiring - can be found here somewhere.  I am talking with some electrical engineers and some friends that have electronics as a hobby to design some simple and useful products that we can build in our classes.  Charge controllers, voltage regulators, lighting systems...whatever.

I even got in contact with a guy down here that does importing for an alternative energy product manufacturer.  The company makes kits for lighting and charging small devices...when they have to do warranty work, the company sends a new unit...the guy I talked to has a warehouse full of repairable solar components and he told me he wants to find an electronics trade school here in Haiti to give them to.  I told him..."WAIT FOR ME!!!! I AM ALMOST THERE!!!"

Learn by doing -
I am getting my room "Off the Grid."  My good buddy Chris Glissman gave me some small solar panels quite a while ago.  I have set up a small system to learn about the process as I am using it.  Currently I have two 18 volt 20 watt panels connected in series on the roof, running down to a charge controller in my room then to a 12 volt battery.  I have a small inverter on the battery to charge my laptop or  to run something small.  I have to buy bigger batteries if I want to run a fan or anything bigger...but it is a good learning process.

School -
Pursuit of Happiness English Institute is just weeks away from finishing our third session of classes.  We will start a new session on July 15...that means a little break for me before I get my hours extended a little.  I am going to take on one more class every afternoon.  I am very pleased with the progress of our students that started with us in January of 2012.  They have had many conversations with visiting teams and have left a lasting impression on those that they have met from the US.  With our new session, all of the current students who pass the exam will move up to the next set of classes and we will be starting around 60 new students as well.

Garden -
I have not had to purchase water for a couple of months.  We have been getting rain frequently enough and I have added some storage capacity to my collection system.  I have been experimenting with trying to grow things from cuttings...seems to work pretty well with most plants down here.  You really can't beat this climate for growing, especially this time of year with frequent rains.  I have several Hibiscus that have started from cuttings and I am excited to get them into larger pots.  My coconut palms are all doing well, and even my Sago palms are still alive.  I though I lost one of them but it sprouted a new set of leaves last week and they look pretty healthy.

I am anxious to find a place of my own to limit the damage to my garden from our "Community Living" arrangement.  I would love to set up an irrigation system and have a special area for propagation of new plants.  I am sure it will all happen soon enough.

Support -
I would like to thank all of you that currently support my work down here.  Chris and I do not draw a salary from our school yet and the only way I can do this right now is with your help.  I have a long term goal of not needing any outside funding for the day to day operations of our English school, my trade school and other projects that we work on down here.  I plan to accomplish this by creating businesses through my school to continue the apprenticeship method of teaching.  I would also like to offer partnership with my students in business to help them get started.

If you would like to help support my work down here, you can make an automatic monthly contribution using the link at the top of this page.  If you would like to make a one time contribution, you can do that through my church (Journey Church in Gretna) in person or by following this link to the donation page and selecting Scott Peters - Haiti in the drop down box.  The money goes through my church and therefore is a tax deductible donation.

Have a happy Fathers Day!

Well, maybe it was Malaria

So in my last post, I told you all that I had a brief scare about getting Malaria.  The symptoms kept coming and going, so I got a test...450 gourdes and a day later I found out I was positive for the parasites!  I went to the clinic in Jubilee with my test results and got the necessary Chloroquine Phosphate and proceeded to rest.  The main symptoms that were flu like finished quickly, but the fatigue stuck around for a week.  I could get up and make some breakfast, but then I was too tired to do anything else and I slept until class time.  I managed to go to class, but I usually had Valmy take over in the middle of the second class.

Today I went with my friend Frantz to another remote village.  This time it was La Branle...North and East of Gonaives up in the mountains.  We crossed some rivers, the road turned into a path, then it turned into a trail...we parked the motorcycles and walked to the spring where the community gets its drinking water.  Frantz has quite an interesting job.  We taught some of the people how to mix up some chlorine solution to sanitize their buckets and left them with a bag of granulated chlorine.

After we did our work with the water, we had a meeting with the "Town Council"  We discussed problems in the area and what they thought could help.  They loved my idea of a small trade school and an English Institute.  Wherever I end up building my school, we would have a satellite location of our "Pursuit of Happiness English Institute."  We talked about teaching carpentry, solar panel assembly, agriculture and other skills.  Another concern from them was the lack of light...being without power limits the activities that can occur after the sun goes down...the main concern was the children's ability to study.

Our trip to and from involved crossing some rivers.  This is a journey that is not possible during a good rain.  The rivers are too full and several dry river beds that we cross become impassible for a brief time.  It was a challenge to get there, but well worth the trip.

Later this week, Frantz and I are going to Bassin, another community away from it all with similar issues.  I hope to go back to Bayonnais soon too...it was there that I first started feeling the effects of the Malaria and I did not feel like hiking around and exploring...I am up for it now.

The most pressing need in these communities is for sanitation.  I might find myself building some public restrooms in strategic areas of the villages.  Frantz is pushing the community leaders to require that each homeowner builds an outhouse, but it won't happen overnight.  I am going to start doing some research on biodigesters and some outhouse designs.  It would be great to incorporate clean water distribution and a small solar array into the same facility.  All of these areas that I have been traveling to are "off the grid" so to speak.

Thanks for your prayers, I know that my bout with Malaria was brief because of the grace of God.  He continues to show me so many opportunities here and now that I am up and around again, I am excited for the next challenge that He has for me.

Scott

Looking for Land!

Yep, I am looking for a place to call my own.  I am looking at places in town, just outside of town and clear out of town!  A friend of mine, Frantz St Pierre recently got a job with a NGO working with drinking water in the countryside.  Through his work, he has become friends with the mayors and governing boards of many rural communities.  Yesterday I met with one of these mayors in a beautiful area of mountains, trees and streams.  This mayor and I discussed the problems that they have in the area that he represents.  All of the young people leave the area for bigger towns to go to a trade school or a university.  He stressed the need for a trade school and an English school in his area.  He told me that he would give me the land for my school.  That is pretty exciting.

Frantz wants me to meet with several more of the community leaders in the area that he works before I make any decisions about a school in any one area.  I agree, but I don't know if I will find a more beautiful place than where I was yesterday.  The only problem with these remote areas is that most of them don't have electricity...at all.  So my school would have to get a generator and solar system...but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.

I had a brief scare that I might have malaria, but it passed in a couple of days, so I think it was just the flu.  102 degree fever for a couple of days, sore muscles, bad headache and some other stuff.  I am glad that it is gone, maybe just a reminder to slow down a bit!

I have purchased lots of pavers for wherever my new school will be located.  They are tearing up the old streets in town and raising them and paving them over with asphalt.  All of the streets used to be made from concrete pavers.  They are being sold for quite a discount, so I am buying while I can, then my school will have some beautiful sidewalks and courtyards!

We were having some trouble with our power at the house.  At first I thought it might be something wrong at the transformer...but as you can see, everything is fine with it.  Apparently, we somehow lost our neutral.  The electrician I hired went ahead and tied our neutral to the neutral of another customer and that fixed everything.  I am a decent electrician when I am working with stuff that is done almost to code...but working with electricity here actually scares me.

Bongo - our unwanted, unloved but persistent guard dog had some puppies, three of them.  They have a strange resemblance to Grace's rottweiler, Tug.  Oops.  I will get some pictures of them when I can.  I think we are going to keep one of them here as our guard dog and give the other two away.

Thanks for following along with my adventure down here.  If there is anything specific you would like to know about, please feel free to email me at blueteamleader@gmail.com or message me on facebook.

Please pray with me to help me make the right decision on where my first school will be located.  It is a big step and a big decision.

Scott

Classes and Carpentry

Pursuit of Happiness English Institute

We have recently started our third session of English instruction and we have lots of new students.  Chris is teaching all of the Intro level classes while I am teaching Level 1 and Level 2 classes.  Chris has seventy something students spread over three class times...1:30-2:30, 3-4 and 4:30-5:30.  I have level 2 at 1:30 and level 1 at 3.  In addition to our brand new students, we had about a dozen students come from different schools in the area and take a placement test to get in.

Chris and I are very happy with the growth of the school.  We have not done any advertising, our current students have been bringing in their friends and we are building a reputation as a great place to learn English.  We will continue to grow...we will soon feel some of the growing pains.  We will soon have to find a way to use more class rooms and find more teachers.  With more students, we also need to bring more books into the country.

For the physical growth, we are exploring options such as helping our landlord rebuild some damaged rooms and looking for another location.  We are not actively recruiting teachers yet, but we have a few really good guys working for us already that could handle their own classes.  For the curriculum, our goal is to develop our own.  More than sixty percent of the student's tuition is to pay for the book.  That money leaves Haiti.  If we could create our own books and audio, the student's tuition could be put to better uses like infrastructure and the money would stay here.  We could also sell the curriculum to other English schools in the country.

Tools for Success

If you didn't know already, "Tools for Success" is the name of my trade school...well, it is going to be the name of my trade school.  I put the word out to a group from Georgia that was here a week ago that I am looking for some tools for my workshop...planer, table saw, band saw, big sander...big stuff that I can't fit in a suitcase.  There is a container being loaded up in Georgia that is headed this way, that is how I can get some of the bigger stuff down here.  Sounds like they already have a band saw for me.

File cabinets for hanging file folders, all material local except for the casters.

I am always working on some carpentry project.  Right now, I am putting the finishing touches on a pair of two drawer file cabinets.  We needed some for our school stuff and they are outrageously priced here...so I decided to build some.  I want to build as many "prototypes" of things as I can for my future students to use as a springboard for their own projects.  If they want to make something exactly as I have, or change the design a little, these projects that I am building now might help with some ideas.

Jan's table saw and Beaver's router helped me create some more frames for the bee hive

I do miss my garage.  Whenever I decide to build something, I have to drag all of the tools that I need out in the yard to work on a project.  That is fine if I have all day and we have power all day.  When I had my garage, I could go out there and plane a few boards or work on a project for a little bit and pick up where I left off right away.  I spent a little time looking for land this week.  When I have my own place, I will be able to do that again.

Honey!

I harvested honey a couple of weeks ago.  I got almost a gallon of honey from five frames in my honey super.  I made some more frames and now I have to wait again for them to do their job.  The honey was darker this time than the first time, and wow, it was sweet.  I bottled some up in little rum bottles and gave it away to some friends...and we had some of it here at the house.

It was a little too hot for the whole "Bee Suit" thing...I did not get stung this time!

A little bottle of wonderful!  An old rum bottle.

Garden

When it comes time to buy some more tropical plants for my garden, I always run into some guy on a bicycle with a couple of baskets full of small plants.  Whenever I see a plant vendor pedaling down our street, I have to buy a couple of things.  I am also experimenting with starting some stuff from cuttings.  I have several hibiscus and some other tropicals started that way.  Since the water from our well is a little salty, I have to buy water for some of the plants that are not very salt tolerant, but it is not that big of a deal.  I still have not had much luck planting anything in the ground in our yard.  Everything that is thriving is growing in pots.

Life

I really enjoyed getting to see friends and family last month.  It was great to be able to share with everyone why I love this place.  I was a little concerned when I was on my way back down here if I would still feel like I was supposed to be here.  The concern vanished quickly when all of my friends wanted to see me as soon as I got back to town.  I am so grateful that God has made this possible for me.

I know that I need to keep all of you informed on a more regular basis.  Please feel free to harass me into writing again.  Send me an email at blueteamleader@gmail.com and remind me to post if it has been a while.  Thanks for your prayers.  I appreciate knowing that you want to know what is happening with me and this amazing place.

When the power is out for a while, you have to get creative.  A machine working on the main road hit a concrete power pole and destroyed it.  We were without power for a couple of days and we needed a way to charge up our phones.  "I got this"  I hooked up a solar panel from Chris Glissman, an inverter from Harbor Freight and a battery from our generator that does not work.  There we go, a cell phone charging station in the front yard!

MacGuyver would be proud...oops, no duct tape.

Scott

Ready for more students?

We had an informational meeting last Sunday for perspective students.  The room was packed at College Jacques-Pierre Louis.  I think there were about 70 people there wanting information for the new session.  This is going to be great!  We will move our existing students up a level (if they pass our exams) and make room for the new students.  We will have three levels of instruction - Intro, Level 1 and Level 2 using curriculum from Cambridge called "Interchange English"

Teacher Scott, Assistant Teacher Valmy!

Since it has been two full months since my last update (sorry), I will try to remember some of the significant events here...I explained to my students how I am able to be here working - with the support from you back in the states, and I asked them if they would like to help me thank you.  It was amazing, they all took a name and address from a list that Journey gave me of the supporters.  Almost every name on the list got two letters from my students.  The English was not perfect, but their intention of the letter was obvious...they are so grateful, as am I.  I sent the letters back with Jim, and he mailed them off.

An example of one of the letters

Jim!  Yep Jim Warren came down here for a week with his daughter, five of her friends and that wonderful couple Jannie and Darren.  It is always great to have some familiar faces to see at the airport in Port au Prince and then to spend a great week with friends.  I was able to introduce my Omaha friends to many of my Gonaives friends.  We even got treated to champagne with my friend Sheila!  I am sure that the experiences of those young girls will stick with them for a lifetime...maybe some of them might even feel called to come back!

Jim's team leaving our house

Jim's team driving by my school

Christmas here is a big party on the 24th.  There were bands and celebrations downtown all night.  Robbie came back for a bit and Corey (Kathy and Beaver's son) helped me celebrate downtown that night.  We were out with Valmy and Ritaud until late.  The next party is New Year's Eve...some call it the night of no sleep...that was another late night with bands and stuff going on downtown.  The first is their independence day and the President came to town for a speech.

Valmy and I took a trip up to Port de Paix in the beginning of January to visit one of our students.  She spent her Christmas break there helping her parents out in their restaurant.  It was a beautiful motorcycle ride up there.  We spent the night in a hotel and drove back the next day.  We were able to eat three meals at my friend's parents restaurant...they only let me pay for one of the meals.  On the way back, I saw a road on Google Earth that looked like fun...out of Chansolme, there was a road with lots of switchbacks, so I figured that it must go right up a mountain...it did!  We got about 3/4 of the way up and the chain broke on the motorcycle that Valmy was riding.  We coasted back down and pushed it to the "repair guy" on the street.  We got it fixed good enough for the ride home and we were back on the road!

The view from close to where the chain broke

River South of  Basin Bleu

Some kids built a boat, said they were going to Nassau!

Valmy

Cool rock formation on a river North of Basin Bleu

We have had groups here every week in January, this next week coming up is an "off" week, no teams.  I think Beaver and some nurses are planning a road trip to see a hospital in Mirebalais or Marmelade or something that starts with an "M" I think...but I still have classes, so no road trip for me this week.

I am planning to come back to Omaha to visit at the end of the month (if funds allow).  I would like to have a get together to tell you what this last year showed me and to tell you about my goals for next year.  I am planning it now, but I don't have a date or place picked out yet.  I am anxious to get started with the professional school.

Good bye Kiki!  Our guard dog, Kiki has left for Georgia.  Emory got her as a puppy from Dorothy's dog in Port au Prince.  She got her shots, visa and passport...now she has immigrated to the USA.  We miss her here, but I am sure that she is going to have a wonderful life with Emory and Mary.  Now we are left with "Bongo" as our guard dog.  She has had quite a life so far...Amos's dog, abandoned and adopted by the "Girls House" across the street, abandoned, sent to live in Jubilee, had a litter of puppies, found her way back to our house...the saga continues.  If she has another night like last night, she might have to find her way back from farther away.

Kiki, heading to Port to get her shots

I am always looking for an excuse to build something fun or unusual...My friend Emy is in a school that will require her to pass a Ping Pong test to graduate!  Sounds funny, but I am up for the challenge!  I told her that I would build a ping pong table so that she can practice.  I have the top done...I built it in two halves.  I am still scratching my head on exactly how I am going to build the base.   I would like to have it function like the tables that you so commonly see...fold up one side for practice and both sides for storage.  I don't actually have a Home Depot or Ace Hardware here, so there will be a lot of improvising, but I am sure that it can be done!

One half of the top built

Making it smooth

Emy helping me paint

Church.  For quite a while now, we have been going to the church that Emy (pictured above) sings in.  They have about a three hour service...starts around nine something, finishes around noon or shortly thereafter.  My creole is not good enough yet to understand everything that is said, but the music is nothing short of amazing.  There are no hymnals, but everyone seems to know the words to every song.  The energy in the room is something that you have to be there to experience.  I think that everyone there is plugged directly into the Holy Spirit for power.  I look forward to Sunday morning all week long.

So, wish me luck with finishing this session in the next three weeks.  I hope to see my Omaha friends soon...it has been a long time - since June.  I hope your weather there gets a little warmer...my thin island blood won't be able to handle your "Feels Like" temperature...I have been following your weather online.

Again, I am grateful for the support that lets me do this work here.

Scott