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.
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| Joel and Geratson |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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.
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| Eric, relaxing on the beach at Kaliko |
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| 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.
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| Of course I got myself in the mirror! |
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| 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.
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| 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
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