A Day of Firsts

Today we used the new kitchen for the first time!  We also ate a delicious vegetable sauce courtesy of Ontario Christian Gleaners for the first time!  We had running water for the first time. And last, but not least, a backhoe arrived on the property for the first time!
Today's weather was very unusual for Haiti, it rained almost all day long.  The teachers and myself weren't too concerned as we had a lot of work to do indoors. Yesterday, we purchased a lot of books to replace the books lost in the school or in family's homes and they all needed to be taped and plastified (to help them last longer).   So we worked on the books and set up the classrooms for Monday morning.  The men hired to work on the property continued to work on leveling the land by hand, despite the falling rain.  By mid-afternoon we had given up any hope of the backhoe showing up and the rain wasn't letting up, so we started to pack up and decided it was time to head home.  Then, out of the blue the backhoe showed up!!  I've never been so happy to see a vehicle in my life.  This guy didn't mess around and got right to work.  We all watched and cheered him on as he quickly started leveling the land!  What a blessing!  What an answer to prayer.  Now the land will be leveled and the gravel put down and there won't be mud EVERYWHERE when 120 kids arrive on Monday morning.  YEAH!!! 

One of the classrooms, ready for students.

The water tower (and Samuel).

 The backhoe busy at work.

 Several of many supervisors.

Last, but not least, the new office!  I love it.  A HUGE thank you to the many team members who helped make this a reality!  We really appreciate all that you've done. And another HUGE thank you to all those of you who donated money to enable us to pay for everything!

Almost Done

Finally some "almost done" pictures of the site.  If only the backhoe would arrive, then we'd really have something to show!!
We will officially be starting school on May 31st!  Only one week behind our original plan (not too bad:)  If the toilets are not functioning by then we'll have to rent a port-o-potty.  Right now I run to the hardware store around the corner almost once a day to buy something and use their washroom!  We always seem to need another paint brush or tape about half way through the day:)  However, once school starts, I think it will be a bit obvious if I try to sneak into "Ecko Depot" with 120 children in tow!
The Haitian government has announced that all schools must run through the summer and take September off for vacation.  We want to honour the government's wishes so we will be doing the same.  It will be HOT during July and August, but our hope is that the majority of the students will be able to complete their current grade and move on in October when we re-open again.

I spoke too soon!

Friday was day three of no electricity and I knew that my batteries would never survive.  My roomate is out of the country right now and the idea of going home to an empty house with no lights was a bit scary to me, so Randy and Karen invited me to stay over at their place.  No sooner had I settled into their couch to watch a movie and the electricity came back on.  I figured I'd still stay the night seeing as you never know how long it will last.  Strangely, we've had electricity ever since, all day Saturday, and now it's Sunday afternoon and we still have it.  This NEVER happens in Haiti, and most definitely NEVER in my neighbourhood.  I really hope this doesn't mean we won't get it again for 2 weeks! (I'm such a pessimist)
On another more serious note, security is starting to become a problem these days.  There are a variety of reasons for this, first of all, there is A LOT of money flowing into Haiti these days.  There are more NGO (Non-government organizations) than you could ever imagine driving around the city with their brand new SUV's and they are spending a lot of money.  The temptation is just too much for some and kidnapping has starting once again, not as bad as when I was here before (2005-2006) , but it is something to be concerned about.  Secondly, there is supposed to be an election in November of 2010 which is fast approaching, however, President Preval has announced that he would like to stay in power for a bit longer (into 2011) until things are a bit more stable.  After the earthquake, Preval wasn't as visible or supportive of his people as he could have been and he is therefore not very popular right now.  There have been manifestations (riots) throughout the city for a few weeks now and some have become violent and innocent bystanders are sometimes robbed or hurt.  As well, during the earthquake many prisoners escaped from prison and are back on the streets once again.  Lastly, people are still living in tents, the promises of aid are not coming as fast as they would like and some are getting angry.   Needless to say, we are being extra cautious.  Normally I don't like to write about these sorts of things on  my blog, I know that I have lots of loved ones back home who worry about me a lot and when things get worse here, they worry even more.  The reason I'm writing about it is to ask for prayer.  I know without a shadow of doubt that I am in the arms of the Lord and I don't worry about myself.  However, right now, Haiti needs security, they need investors to come and invest in Haiti to create jobs and change the economic situation here.  If this unrest continues investors will move on to other countries and things will get worse here instead of better.  Right now, Haitians need NGO's to help them get back on their feet, but in the long run, Haitians need jobs and that requires business people coming here and starting factories etc. Please pray for security to return to Haiti.

No EDH!!

When you begin to take something for granted, it is often taken away from you so you can appreciate it more:)  For many months now we've been receiving electricity every night for approximately 6 hours.  This is enough time to charge our batteries and keep our fans going through the night.  The batteries at my place are nearing the end of their life, so we've been rationing their power for a while now, but the last two nights we haven't received any electricity and even rationing isn't working any more.  Only fans are permitted at this time and tonight it'll be a miracle if even they work!   Some people have generators which they can use to charge their batteries, but we don't have one at my house so that's not an option.  When I drove by Randy and Karen's this afternoon I heard a generator running and discovered that they had borrowed a generator for a few days, and therefore have power right now which is how I am able to write this post.  Ah the joys of Haiti.
One another note, the Ontario team left today and we will miss them.  They were a great team, enthusiastic throughout, even with the heat.  They were able to accomplish A LOT!  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures today because I thought there was no electricity, therefore no computers or internet.  Next week I'll try to update some pictures.  A lot of painting has been completed and it's starting to look GOOD!  I've met with the teachers each day this week, which has been good.  Unfortunately we had to push back the opening day of school until May 31st, so next week will also be full of meetings and preparations, without the joy of actually seeing the student's faces.  All in God's timing, I know! This will likely be my only post this weekend, so until Monday!

Sweating the little stuff, literally!

Dave and his assistant(s) are busy making new tables and benches.Samuel and I are sweating it out, painting inside the offices and bedrooms.  My new desk in my new office!  The water tower is nearing completion.  (It's upside down don't worry.)Martin is busy trying to fix the generator so he can keep welding the water tower.  The generator kept overheating, I can't imagine why:)

Dave is smoothing out the cement floor of the medical clinic.

The backhoe never showed up, which is a disappointment and a blessing at the same time.  The disappointment is that the property was never leveled and we don't have washrooms, therefore, we won't be able to open school the day we had hoped.  The blessing is that the team has done a lot of little jobs that would probably never get finished due to lack of time i.e. the tool room is organized and ready to use, benches and tables have been built, office desks and bookshelves have been built and A LOT of painting has been done.  I can't believe how much painting, we have done.  Several students from Adoration have come everyday to help paint.  To be completely honest, they come in hopes of being able to "play" with a drill or some other tool that makes noise, but they usually end up with the job of painting and despite getting paint all over themselves (literally) they seem to enjoy it and work pretty hard.  It has been HOT lately without much of a breeze, which causes us to sweat like crazy.  It's been one of those weeks when you don't mind at all that you don't have a hot water tank:)

Weekend etc.

On the weekend the team took a short break on Saturday afternoon to visit Forth Jacques and the Baptist Haiti Mission.  We had a nice lunch and then explored the fort.  It was sad once again to see how much it was damaged in the quake.Sunday morning we had a great time of fellowship at First Presbyterian Church.  The team appreciated the fact that the sermon was translated into English for them.  After lunch they decided to play some basketball, Haitians vs. Canadians.  Despite my repeated offers to play for either time, I was assigned the job of cheerleading with Maia.  We had fun cheering on the Canadians, but despite all our efforts they only won one of the three games.

Things at the new property are not going exactly as planned.  (oh Haiti....)  The backhoe that is needed to level the property as well as dig out the septic tank, has yet to arrive.  This puts things at sort of a stand still as far as the big projects go, so everyone is busy making tables, benches and putting the finishing touches on the offices/kitchen/bedrooms and of course painting.... there's so much painting to be done.  The teachers came into today and I got them started on a variety of jobs.  They are always happy to see each other and helped out a lot today.

Team #3!

If you don't think of blogging as competitive, you've never worked with Randy and Karen!  When it comes to blogging, we never like to be too far behind each other.  Yesterday morning I attempted to write an entry but the internet was not co-operating, so I went down to the property to do some painting, last night I checked Randy and Karen's blog and they had two new entries!  This morning I checked again and they had another one!  Now I'm three entries behind, I thought about doing three small entries this morning just to keep the number even, but decided instead to just have one great big one:)   So here goes:
We have a new team here right now from Ontario.   Martin, Rick, Howard, Harry, Dave and Dave.  They are a pretty energetic bunch and are eager to knock a few items off Randy's to-do list.  They have only been working two days and along with their Haitian co-workers they have accomplished A LOT.

My new office is starting to look pretty good.This is a pre-fab home that we will be using for the medical clinic. Dr. Ed is eager to start up his clinic again, and we are thrilled that he'll be returning to work with us.This is the future kitchen, there is an overhang to keep the sun out and a nice new stove.  Manman Manise and Molina will enjoy this new location.Here is a picture of the yard.  On the far left is the medical clinic, the white building in the middle are the offices and on the far right are the classrooms.

Karen had an opportunity to meet with some of the sponsored secondary students this week.  Their schools have been functioning for a little while already, so we wanted to meet and review our expectations for them.  Many of them have been volunteering at the yard in the afternoons, which we really appreciate.  As we are hoping the school will re-open in one week, they will be responsible for coming by each week to help keep the school clean.

Overwhelming blessings

Teams are a blessing to our work in many ways, one of those ways is with all the wonderful donations they bring to us!  When I am back in Canada people are always asking me what our needs are, I'm always hesitant to reply because it is difficult and costly to send things to Haiti and whenever possible we like to buy local and support the economy.  However, we are still Dutch and have a hard time saying "no" to FREE stuff:)  Therefore, when teams come they often get donated school supplies and tools that are often hard to find here and expensive to ship.  The last two teams brought us a tonne of great school supplies, so much in fact I only have to buy a few things before school re-opens!!  So if you gave any school donations to either the Manitoba or Ontario team, I'd like to say a HUGE Thank you to you!  Your donations will be well used, I'll upload some proof once school starts.  As you can see from these pictures, my assistant Maia and I have been quite busy sorting through all the supplies and getting them ready for the teachers and students to use!

Teacher Meeting

I've never been so excited about a teaching meeting as I was today!  Today marks the beginning of a new stage, at least for me.  Next week the teachers will be working at the new school every day, preparing lesson plans, setting up their classrooms, buying textbooks and generally getting ready for the re-opening of the school.  Today's meeting went well, we discussed many things and made an action plan for next week.  It was also a good time of fellowship, catching up on each others' news and enjoying each others' company once again.

To get them back into the swing of things, I even gave them a homework assignment!  I guess I'm still a teacher at heart:)

Before and After Pics - Go Team Manitoba/Port-au-Prince!

WOWSERS!!!

The Manitoba team leaves tomorrow.  We'll be sad to see them go but we're very happy with the work that they were able to accomplish along with our Haitian staff and volunteers.  We now have three storage sheds, a room for the kitchen, two bedrooms, classroom dividers and a small wall to keep the rain out of the classrooms.  With a bit of paint, some rooms will be ready to use.  Next week, we have another team arriving from Ontario and starting Monday, a team here with the OPC, is also helping out on the property. We still have a bit more work to do before school can reopen but we are well on our way, and I'm pretty excited!

Misc,

Here is a picture of the Manitoba Team.  They sure do clean up nice!  From the left:  Calvin, Nick, Anne, Rob and Frank.  They are standing in front of the collapsed Presidential Palace.Sunday morning, we had a the privilege of worshiping with First Presbyterian church once again, as we now have a location to meet.  It was great to reconnect with other church members and fellowship with our Haitian brothers and sisters.

Okay folks, check this picture out carefully.  Yes, that really is me doing some "real"work.  It was nice to be on the work site for a morning and be a part of the process if only for a short time.  Now we just have to decide what colours to paint the school, any suggestions? 

The fruits of my labour.  These will be the future classrooms.

This is the living quarters for the property supervisors as well as the enclosed part of the kitchen.
As you can see the team is really making progress on the new property. We hope, Lord willing, to start up the school before the end of the month of May. 
I thought in previous posts that I had clearly explained, the new property versus the old property but I've received some questions, so I'll briefly explain once again.  The school collapsed making the previous property unsafe to use for school.  We use the old location to distribute food each week but do not use the grounds or building for anything else.  We wanted to start school as soon as possible after the earthquake but there were very few places for rent and buying land here is always a difficult and time consuming process.  One of the pastors from our church offered to let us use the land he had purchased,  for the remainder of this school year and the next.  By September 2011 we need to vacate this property, which is why we are building a temporary school out of wood and tin, that can be disassembled and all the materials used over again.  The new property will be used for all the same programs as before, the school, the church, the medical clinic and the youth programs.  We praise the Lord for providing this property for this period of time.