To Omaha for a visit soon?

Maybe!

We have cleared nearly all of the hurdles involved with having a Haitian travel to the United States...it is not easy!  We are now just waiting for the passport to be printed for our daughter Victoria.  The people at the US Embassy told me that all of our documents are finally in order and now she can get a US passport.  If all goes well, we could be back to Omaha late November or early December.  Nothing is a done deal down here though...so we are not buying tickets yet!

Victoria Renee Peters

I will just start off with some pictures of the sweet baby.  She is now just over two months old, still not doing much more that eating, sleeping, crying and filling her diapers.  But, she has cracked a smile now and then and I think she is beginning to make other noises than wahhh wahhhh!

Finished a big project

The project that I wrote about earlier is now finished.  My friend Jacob Sangster is the man on the ground here in Gonaives for a large project about 30 minutes outside of town.  They have built a big orphanage and a school already and they have plans for more...a medical clinic, vocational school, community center.  I have already worked for them building the large rolling cabinets for their cafeteria.  The project that I just finished was for furniture for the new school.  I built 24 bench desks, 12 chalkboards and 7 teacher tables.

It was a fun project, I got to design the furniture and Jean Philippe got to help me work as well.  I built a jig to build the legs for the benches...that worked great...they are very strong, attractive, and I was able to make them quiclky.  The chalkboards are a little over the top for down here, but I wanted them to be quality.  I glued a piece of masonite to a sheet of half inch plywood with contact cement.  I got to teach Jean Philippe what it is like to install laminate countertops - same principle, same tools.

The tables that I built are popular...I have orders for more already from people that saw me making the tables for this project.

Four of the 24 bench desks

Here I am standing over the Jig that I made for the legs

8 tables nearly complete, some of my in laws in the picture too.

Once in a while, I can convince my wife to help.  She likes the router.

Some of the chalkboards

The school opened a couple of weeks ago.  I was able to get them all of the benches and six of the chalkboards for the opening day.  I came up with the other six chalkboards and the seven teacher tables a week later...not too bad.  Here are a few shots of the classrooms.  As you can see there is plenty of room for more benches...and I am pretty sure where they will get them!

So, now I am trying to finish up any half finished projects that I have around the house.  For those of you that know me well, I could spend a lifetime doing just that!  But I would like to start getting ready for our visit back to Omaha.  I think we would like to spend about six months back with my family.  I will try to get a day job and also do my usual handyman work in the evenings and on weekends.  I want to build up some money for our return to Haiti.  

I plan to work and save in order to purchase a piece of land and build our house, my school and my workshop as soon as we get back.  I might have a deal on some land in a nearby village...I have some friends working on that right now.

Our friends in Georgia have a container that is coming down here in the relative near future.  I have some tools that are scheduled to go in it from a friend in Georgia, and I would like to put a few more things on it.  I would like a good shop vac, thickness planer, drill press...maybe even a radial arm saw.  They are loading the container on November 4th, so whatever I can buy on Amazon and ship to the container's location, I might be able to see when I get back.  If you would like to help me buy a tool, please do so with the one time donation button up top and put "tools" in the space for "Special instructions for seller"

Ok, I think that is enough rambling for tonight.  I am so happy that many of my friends and family follow my journey down here.  Again, I will ask for support...please consider a monthly contribution or a one time contribution for my work down here.  

Thanks for reading!

Scott

Some advice from my friends please!

If you have been following me here for at least a short time, you know that I have been complaining a lot about needing a shop to work in...and if you have been following me on facebook, you know that I have also done my fair share of complaining about needing a house to live in.

My carpentry business was actually not planned the way it is going.  I wanted to start a school and eventually start to sell some of the items that the students and I made in our classes.   It turns out that someone found out that I was a decent carpenter and people started asking me to build things for them.  This is actually a blessing, because I am able to earn some money on my own for life and for the construction of the school.

I am not very efficient with my current location.  As you know, I live with Kathy and Beaver Brooks in a big house that is used for many things...a home for their family, a place for visiting teams to stay, a workshop and a retail space for 2nd Story goods, a place to park the big truck and where I live and work during the day.

It is not very efficient because I have to bring my tools out to the yard every morning and return them all to the garage or my room at night or during the day when it rains.  I don't have a place to store ongoing projects that is not in the way of something else.  And, it is not "mine" so it is difficult to make it work exactly the way I want it when I know that I will not be there for a long time.

The need for a house seems obvious, I have been married for six months now and I go to my wife's mother's house every night to sleep.  We don't have a place of our own yet, and I think we need that sooner than later.

So, previously I had mentioned that I found a house that would also work as a workshop...but, it is a little out of reach for me at the moment financially.  A couple of days ago, I called the property owner.  He is a local, he is a businessman, he is an engineer, he is a friend, he also puts a lot of faith in God.  I told him that I keep thinking about that house.  It is still available and the price that he has offered me is well below market value.  I told him that I want to be in that house, but I can't get him all of the money before I move in.  Here in Haiti, the tenant usually pays for a year in advance.

My friend the landlord said that we need to meet next week to find a way to get me into the house.  On the phone, I explained that I will be heading back to the US for about six months, I will be working and I can send money back then.  I am nearly positive that when we meet, he will give me any terms that I want to get me into his house.  He knows me and he knows that I will take care of his investment.  This is a new building, there are still many things to be done to it...he even offered to give me a bit of a discount for building some of the things that are lacking like cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms.

The house is on a major road and it has a lot of potential for business.  It is a two story structure with a three bedroom two bathroom apartment on the second floor and a two bedroom one bathroom apartment on the main floor.  It has a well and a pump, it has indoor plumbing, it has good power.  I would live on the second floor and turn the main floor into my shop.  The main floor has a very open floor plan and would be perfect for many things, like a wood shop now and class rooms when I build the wood shop at the back of the property.

I would like to do this soon so that I have a secure place to put all of my stuff before I leave for the US.  I know it sounds like an expensive storage unit, but this way I will have a home to come back to when I return.

So my request for advice is what do you think?  Do I take a leap of faith and tell him that I can afford it?  Is it too much?  Is it more than I need.  I would appreciate your thoughts and questions as well.  I am especially curious as to what those of you who are helping me finance this adventure have to say.

Please let me know.  You can respond via this blog - I believe it has a place for comments, you can send me an email at blueteamleader@gmail.com or you can chat with me on facebook.  If you want to talk, send me your phone number and a good time to call...it is a lot cheaper for me to call you than for you to call me.

Thanks for taking the time today...I promise the next blog will be loaded pictures of projects and of my wife and baby...

Rain, Rain

For the last few weeks here, we have been getting a lot of rain...for the last two years, the "Rainy Season" didn't mean much, but like the first year I was here...this rainy season is...rainy.

The rain causes lots of problems here that we don't have to worry about in the states.  The lack of infrastructure makes some roads impassible during and shortly after the rain.  Some roads have mud puddles (mud lakes) for several days after the rain.  Mosquitoes love the puddles.  And, it is difficult for me to work in my outdoor workshop with the constant threat of rain.  I only bring out the tools that I absolutely need because of the relatively short warning before the deluge!

Victoria is a month old!

Our daughter Victoria Renee is now a month old.  She is eating well and she seems to be healthy.  We are getting her baptized on Sunday at my wife's church...wait for some great pictures of the ceremony.  Special thanks to Jan Thompson and Jalayne Prorok for bringing some stuff down here for my wife and the baby.

When it rains, it pours...

I will use that expression to tell you about my carpentry business.  I did get the contract to build furniture for the school that CoreLuv is starting.  I told my Haitian partner that I wanted to do it on my own though, because my funds are low and I can't afford to hire him for help on this one.  But...as soon as I accepted the contract for the school, I got a call from an orphanage in Port au Prince.  They want four of my bunk beds.  I called Jean Philippe and told him the good news.  He has built all of the previous beds with me, so he can do it all nearly on his own while I am working on the benches and tables for the CoreLuv School.

Next week I am going to a conference in Port au Prince that is hosted by a group called Partners Worldwide.  They have a goal of creating 100,000 jobs in Haiti in the next couple of years.  They work with Haitian businesses and couple them with American mentors.  They do some loans, but most of their aid is hands on.  The conference that I am going to next week is focused on business owners and those starting business in Haiti.  I hope to meet some good contacts there to help me move my dream ahead on a little faster pace.  Here is a link to the Partners Worldwide website.

Visa Update

The last time I dropped off documents, they told me they needed other stuff.  I gathered and delivered the next group of requested documents and on September 18, I will go again to see if the documents are complete.  If they are, I will have an interview scheduled with the US Consulate...this should be the last step for the Visa for my wife.  I am still waiting for Victoria's birth certificate to come back from the National Archives...it is getting authenticated.  When that comes back, I will head to the US Embassy and start the process for her passport.

Thank You

Thanks for taking the time today to follow what is going on with my life down here.  If you would like to help out, I would really appreciate it.  You can sign up as a monthly supporter for as little as $10 a month or you can send a one time donation.  Many people have expressed an interest in sending stuff to me rather than money...if it were simple, I would welcome it, but it is not easy to get things down here.  Almost everything that I have from the US came in someone's suitcase.  We did get a container down here from Georgia, but it took many extra months and about twice as much money as expected before we actually saw the contents of it.  Another reason to help with money instead of stuff is that I can buy most of the stuff that I need right here in Gonaives.  It is a little more expensive, but the money is injected directly into the local economy.

So, please consider joining the group of monthly supporters.  I am saving up money for land, a vehicle and building materials.  Every little bit helps.

Have a great day.

Who's Your Daddy?

If your name happens to be Victoria Renee Peters, the answer is...ME!!!

My little girl thought that all of this struggling to try and get a visa was giving her parents a little too much stress, so she decided to come a little early.

A rough three weeks

On Friday, the first of August, I was in Jubilee with my wife.  I was getting ready to install new batteries in the solar power system for the medical clinic...and then my wife started making some noise.  So, we are at the clinic...there are nurses around...they told me that she is going into labor and I should go to the hospital right away.  We went to the hospital in Raboto, they confirmed that labor had started but she was nowhere near ready.  She should go home and come back in the afternoon.

We did all of our prenatal visits at the hospital in Marchand Dessaline, so we headed up there (an hour away.)  The labor pains stopped that evening, they were premature.  We stayed until Sunday for observation, then we came home.  Everything was normal for about a week...but on Thursday night...actually early Friday morning, her water broke.  She was not having any labor pains yet, but it was definitely time now.  We went back up to the hospital in Marchand Dessaline and waited.  The labor started Saturday afternoon and we welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world at 7 o'clock on my sister Renee's birthday - August 9th.

We went home on Sunday.  Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Victoria had a pretty high fever.  We went to a doctor in Gonaives and he said that we had to go back to the hospital as soon as we possibly could.  After looking at the results of some blood tests, he concluded that she had an infection.  So back up to Dessalines we went!  We spent Wednesday through Monday at the hospital with Victoria hooked up to an IV and getting antibiotics every few hours.

We are all back home now.  She is eating, sleeping and pooping just like a baby should.  Thanks for all of your prayers, we are happy that we did not have to do all of this on our own.

Hospital

It is nothing like an American hospital, but they did have oxygen and an incubator.  The rooms were all shared with many other people and their family members.  Doctors came and went as needed, but most of the care was administered by nurses.  They did have an operating room there.  During the times that we were there, they performed three c sections and probably 9 regular births.

If you get an IV, you have to walk over to the pharmacy and purchase it.  If you get a shot or other medication, same story.  If you don't buy it, you don't get it.  If you get stitches, you have to buy a suture kit.  The medications are not extremely expensive, pretty much like the generic prices in the states.  The hospital stay itself was quite a good deal...250 goudes a day for the bed and the care....that is five and a half bucks.  So, thankfully, with all of the coming and going to and from the hospital, I did not go completely bankrupt!  I can't imagine what it would have cost me back home...the false alarm, the delivery, the follow up care.

Culture

Haitian culture dictates many things that must be done before, during and after the pregnancy.  Some of those things are just a little strange and some of those things are dangerous.  Wrapping my baby in three layers of clothes and a towel when she has a 103 degree fever is an example of dangerous.  Not allowing my wife to drink any cold beverages is an example of strange.  My wife is submitting to the elders in her family and she is going along with many of these cultural practices.  If you are interested in what some of these things entail, here is a link to an interesting book about Haitian culture regarding medical care.  I have had to do a lot of praying to stay sane lately.

What's Next?

Well, we are still working on getting the Visa for Ruth-Cher.  I went to Port au Prince on Tuesday and delivered more requested documents to the messenger service that works with the consulate.  I have an appointment with them to pick up results of the last document drop on September 2nd.  They could give me a letter requesting more documents, or they could finally give me the letter for our interview appointment with the Consulate.  We are getting close.

Victoria will be able to get a US Passport and will not need a Visa.  She will have dual citizenship.  I have a lot of forms to fill out and fees to pay, but it should not be a big problem to get her the passport.  I have started on that process already.  Today I picked up her birth certificate from the government office here in Gonaives.  I need to send it to Port to get it authenticated, then include that with all of the forms that the US government wants me to fill out.

In the Meantime...

I wanted to make a present for a little girl that is my wife's neighbor.  This little girl was the flower girl in our wedding...so for her 4th birthday, I built her a little chair / desk that she can use for homework and eating.  It turned out really nice, so I took down all of the dimensions and I put together a plan to make them easy to duplicate...and I built three more.  I am going to give one to Youvendji (Laura Lynn's little boy) and the other two will be models for perspective customers.

I think I have another contract for carpentry also.  The orphanage up on Route Basin - the CoreLuv Orphanage, has just finished building a school and they need benches, tables and chalk boards.  It looks like I have the contract, so here I go again, messing up the yard.

Still Looking

We are still looking for a place to call home.  The one place I found is a little out of reach for us financially, our goal is to rent something that will work for now that is not too expensive and buy some land at the same time.  I will begin construction on the property as soon as it is in my name.  I will start with a small house for us, then a workshop area, then some classrooms...then...who knows!

Support

Thanks to those who have answered my request for monthly support.  Every little bit helps.  Even if you could spare ten dollars a month, that would help.  Please consider using the links at the top of this page to become a monthly supporter for my work down here.  I can't do this on my own, I appreciate your help.

Thanks again for reading about my life!

Still Here!

It is almost the end of July and we are still here.  Our original goal was to make the trip to Omaha in the beginning of July to visit family and friends...and to prepare to welcome our daughter into the world.  

We are still working through the Visa process.  I started the process in April just after our wedding.  We had an interview in May.  As I posted earlier, we were waiting on one document...we got it, filed it and then we got a phone call from the USICS (immigration) telling us that our Visa was approved!  We were pretty exited.  We went to Port au Prince two days later and the US Embassy gave us a 15 page instruction packet...IN FRENCH...for what to do next.  We were approved by USICS, but then handed over to the Consulate for another process.

We worked hard to comprehend the instructions and follow them closely.  I got my wife an expensive medical exam by one of the embassy approved physicians in Port, I filled out many more forms and gathered more documents.  I sent them to the Consulate last week via messenger and I have an appointment to see them again on August 7th - most likely to pick up a letter that will get us our personal interview with the Consulate.  If that goes quickly, we might still make it back soon.  

I am going to visit a local hospital this week with Kezia (an American nurse with lots of Haiti experience) to see if she thinks that we can safely deliver there.  If not, and we are still in country, we will probably go to Port and wait for the baby there.  There are some good quality hospitals there.

We are looking for a place to rent if the Visa does not arrive in time.  We will have a good idea after August 7 if we are going to stay or go.  If we stay, we will still work on the Visa process and we will visit as soon as we can.

I need to find a workshop!

If you remember, I have rented a workshop a couple of times in the past.  That works pretty well, but it is not ideal.  I can only work there between 8am and 5pm on Monday through Friday, it is not really mine, so I don't have a place to store all of my tools and material and it would be better if I could work from home so that I don't have to spend so much time away from my wife!

I have been working out of my front yard lately, but that has its problems also.  The sun is hot and rain is wet!  I have a small tarp, but that does not cover all of my work area.  Also, it is not really MY house, so I have to be respectful with the mess I create and the hassle I put others through when I move my nearly finished pieces out of the rain (sometimes in the house!)  Also, here I don't really have a safe spot for all of my tools...they end up in my room with everything else that I own.

Last week, getting ready to call it a day, cover up as much as possible.

Last week, during a bit of rain.

Today, rain delay...we keep getting 5 minute downpours every 45 minutes...grrrr.

So back to the looking for a place!  Our ideal plan would be to purchase a small piece of land and build exactly what we want over time.  The problem is that we don't have time, so we will rent first.  I found a nice place on a major road for a reasonable price.  It has room for us to live and room for me to work as a carpenter and as a teacher.  It also has the potential for a small business.

Forty years old!

Sunday was my birthday.  My wife cooked me a great dinner of macaroni salad, plantains, fried chicken and red potato salad...all things that I love.  She brought it over and shared it with the people that are visiting this week - Emory and a few friends.  My wife and her cousin Maude got all dressed up for the occasion, so that meant that I would do the same!  I never thought that this is what my life would be like at 40...but I am so grateful that this is what my life is like.  I get to do things that I enjoy (teaching and building things) and I am surrounded by supportive people all day.

Maude, Me, My Wife Ruth-Cher

Ruth-cher, Me and Lucy!

Another injury?

Not nearly as bad as the picture of the bloody foot...actually kind of funny.  Last night as I was putting away my tools, one of my bees stung me in the forehead.  It hurt a bit at the time, I put some cream on it and pretty much forgot about it until my wife started staring at me and laughing.  My forehead swelled up a bit last night, and this morning, the swelling had increased and partially closed my eye!  Small price to pay though for the delicious, sweet, local honey.

The night of the sting

The morning after!

Pursuit of Happiness English Institute

We are open for business.  We started classes a couple of weeks ago and I was nearly finished with our furniture.  I built 18 five foot benches, a reception desk and three chalk boards.  I am still working on three 7 foot benches, some small teacher work shelves and some cabinets for the bathroom.  Thank you so much for those that donated the material for benches.  I put a call out on facebook a while back for people to "sponsor" the materials for a bench and I would build them.  I asked for $40 for the materials to build one bench and several of my friends answered the call.  Thanks Heath, Nicci, Jeff, Patti, Cheryl and Carrie!

A chalkboard, bench and a fan that I mounted on the wall.

Another classroom nearly full of benches!

I did not let something like light switches determine where I would mount this chalk board!

Thanks

Again, thanks for taking the time today to follow my adventure down here.  If you would like to help, I would appreciate it.  Most of the other Americans that I know down here are living on contributions as well.  I would be grateful for a small monthly commitment to help me continue to do what I am doing down here. We are making positive changes in many lives, and I hope to be able to touch more lives through a professional school for carpentry and various seminars on electronics, electricity, plumbing, solar power, etc.  You can start your monthly contribution from the link at the top right of the page, or you can contribute through Much Ministries if you follow this link...Make sure to put my name in the special instructions to seller before the final click.

Thank you

Scott

Kind of quiet down here right now! Warning, graphic images!

As many of you know, I live down here in a house that is being rented by Kathy and Beaver Brooks.  They moved down here in August of 2011 full time with their daughter Rebecca and their son Kervens.  They took over running teams for a couple of years and this house has at times been hard to live in with all of the extra people.

Lately, as the Brooks have begun their transition of focusing their energy on community development instead of hosting teams, the house has been getting a little quieter each week.  Rebecca left about a month ago for the summer and Kathy and Beaver left a couple of weeks ago.  I am nearly all by myself in this big old house!  It is nice not having to worry about leaving clothes in the washer and having anything that is not in my room becoming community property!  But, I do miss my adoptive family.

Not having the Brooks here enables me to turn the whole house into a staging area for my projects!

Visa Update -

Ruth-Cher's mother came through with the last document that we were told that we need and we made a trip to Port last Thursday to turn in the last of the items for the Visa application.  Now we are going to wait...very impatiently...for a phone call from the immigration office.  Please include us in your prayers for this to happen quickly.  We are running out of time for this to work.  We would like to be in the states before the end of July.  If it does not happen soon, we will wait for the baby to be born here and then travel to the US to visit family and friends when our little girl is old enough to travel.

For our living situation down here, we are still looking for another place to rent, still waiting on the process of trying to get our money back from the first landlord.  I have a place to stash my stuff for an extended trip if the visa process is successful, but it is not somewhere that I think we can live together if we end up staying here for a while.

Building things -

Yep, I have made a couple of new personal bests...longest table I have built so far - fifteen feet long, longest benches at fourteen feet long.  I am making some good progress on the furniture for Rebecca Lonzo's transition house for boys that age out of her father's orphanage.  I have completed four beds so far, I have constructed all of the dining room furniture and two other benches for the porch.  I have three more beds to build...I will start on those this week...if my newest injury doesn't slow me down too much.

The top for the long table, awaiting some serious sanding.

I am also building all of the furniture for our new location of "Pursuit of Happiness English Institute."  We have rented a new location to be able to serve more potential students...but it is empty.  I am nearly complete with the construction of the benches, I built one wall and a reception counter as well.  I would like to thank those of you that have sponsored benches...that helps!  Our new session begins July 14th, so I think I will make the deadline on the rest of the things I need to build.

Some of the benches in one of the classrooms.

One bench before the finish (sand twice, varnish twice)

Health -

Chikungunya!!!  There is a new craze down here and it sounds like some kind of spicy dinner.  But it is no joke.  This virus made its debut in the Caribbean in December and it spread like wildfire.  It is transmitted by mosquitoes...yep, got plenty of those.  It comes with a fever, headache and joint pain...it leaves with an itchy rash.  It lasts for 4 to 7 days for most people with the joint pains lingering proportional to your age.  My wife got it a couple of weeks ago, she was miserable.  I am just finishing it...I got symptoms Sunday night and I only have joint pains left...because I am old.  I was under the impression that after you get it, you don't get it again, but I am hearing stories of round two and round three from some people.

And...my foot!  So, I have lingering joint pain and a bit of fatigue from the stupid chicken chimichanga...today after my wife and I got back from the market, we were unloading my bike and I lost my balance and the bike fell.  It fell on my foot.  The handlebar smashed the top of my foot that was only protected by the straps of my sandals...so not protected.  It was a deep gash and I was bleeding profusely in front of my wife's house.  I grabbed some clean underwear off the line and quickly applied pressure and secured it with my sandal straps.  Then I headed to Jubilee.

I circled JB's house yelling his name to try to get him to open the medical clinic.  He gets that all the time, usually for some heartburn or a headache, so he is reluctant to even see who is trying to get him out of his house.  Thankfully, I convinced him that it was indeed some kind of emergency and he opened up the clinic.  Shortly after he got started, Kezia showed up for something or other and she lent a hand as well.  JB got me cleaned up and put in a few stitches.

At the clinic, after it was cleaned up a bit.

After JB got done stitching me up!  I will live!

JB is something else.  When I first came to Haiti (he is featured in my first blog post) JB (Jean Baptiste) was helping me get the forms ready for the pour of the ceiling of the first floor of the Jubliee school.  He was very handy with the tools I gave him, but you should have seen him do my stitches.  JB recently went to school for nursing and he is currently playing a big part in the day to day functioning of the clinic in Jubilee.  He has steady hands and a great demeanor...I thank God that he is still a part of my life.  He also has gardening as a hobby and he takes care of the garden in Jubilee...I am going to let him take whatever he wants from my garden at the house for his garden out there!

Still reading?

Lots of blah blah blah, sorry about that, but that is just what is on my mind today.  I want to thank everyone that takes the time to read about my life down here.  I am happy to know that you care.  Again, I would like to appeal for support, spiritually and financially.  Please pray for my wife and I.  If you would like to help me out financially, you can make a monthly or one time contribution using the paypal buttons at the top of this page.  Those donations go to my Nebraska corporation. "Tools for Success."  We are still waiting for 501(c)3 status, so donations through those buttons are not tax deductible.  If you would like to make a donation that is tax deductible, you can do that through my friends at Much Ministries...FOLLOW THIS LINK and include my name in the special instructions to seller.

Thanks and God bless you,
Scott