Out on good behaviour

Friday and Saturday the team made more cupboards than I thought was possible...

this may not sound exciting, but when your sports equipment, school supplies, food and cleaning supplies look like this....

you may understand my excitement!
Since the team has been flying through the jobs on their work list we decided to let them out on good behaviour.  Saturday afternoon we took them up the mountains to Baptist Haiti Mission for lunch.  They loved the view, the clean, cool air and of course the company.

Sunday we were all able to worship together at The Presbyterian Reformed Church of Delmas.  In the afternoon Randy took the team downtown and today is back to work! no rest for the weary...

Lean, mean, shelf building machines!

Well, I must say this team may be small in number but they are HUGE in the amount of work they can accomplish, and still find time to play soccer with the kids at recess.

The office building we are renting has some interesting alcoves and we are in need of some serious storage... so they have been enclosing some areas and building shelves. I can't believe how much they've gotten done in only 2 days! Today, I left the school early because I was kicked out of my office so they could install a new desk for myself and Alix, and I'm hoping tomorrow they will finish off the storage room for the school supplies. Things are starting to get organized around here and that makes me REALLY happy!

Bored...?

I hate to admit this on my blog but.... I've been a bit bored lately! Can you believe it??  Things that once were so exciting and new are becoming routine and mundane.  So thankfully we have some visitors here right now to liven things up a bit.
Yesterday we had a team of three guys from Southern Ontario arrive to help us with a few work projects around here.  Frank, Derek and Marc got right to work this morning building a storage room with shelves for all our food supplies  We have quite the long job list for them and they can't go home until it's done so they might not be sleeping, showering or eating...
Of course I'm kidding, we really try to emphasis with visitors that although we appreciate their help and hope they can complete some projects while they are here, we want this to be a time of learning, sharing and building relationships.  Despite the language barrier, visitors in the past have established some great friendships with our staff and students here, many friendships continuing for years through e-mail, phone calls and repeat visits.  Visitors also are provided with opportunities to expand their understanding of a different culture, what poverty truly is and what we are doing here in Haiti to address this poverty.

Marc

Frank

Derek

We would like to thank the two brave wives and mothers of young children who agreed to allow their husbands to leave them home alone for 9 days!  We pray you survive without them and we will do our best to keep them safe and return them to you in one piece, most likely a bit more suntanned (or burned), probably a bit tired, but also with lots of stories and pictures to share with you.

Oh where is my camera?? (sung to the tune of "Oh Where is my hairbrush")

So I haven't updated lately and to be honest it's because I don't have pictures to share.  Several things have happened but I didn't have my camera with me!!! I know I should be fired from the blogging world.

So, for a quick update (without pictures), we closed the school on February 3rd, the day the CEP announced the results of the Nov. 28th election (we're quick like that here in Haiti)  The results could have potentially caused rioting so we closed the school to avoid being stuck with 150 students at a school surrounded by road blocks preventing them from returning safely to their homes.  Thankfully the results were received calmly and we were able to return to life as we know it on Friday.  Of course, Thursday was the day we had planned our girl's seminar (second time we had to cancel in two years!)  We rescheduled for Friday but were unable to contact many of the girls so we had less participants than we anticipated, however, our guest speakers did an amazing job and the girls were very appreciative of their words of wisdom and the small gifts they received!  (Thanks Joanna, Anne, Deb and Jane!)
As well, these three lovely ladies along with 15 other visitors descended on our school and painted like mad!  They were able to paint the entire inside of our school building!  The hallways and classroom were in need of a facelift and the whole place is super cheerful now!  What a blessing.  I helped paint for a bit and when my hair was completed covered with paint (thanks Samuel) I headed out to prepare for a Girl's night which was also a fun time! (Thanks Karen) - again no pictures sorry!
Last and not least we had another day of meetings with the teachers to discuss future plans for Adoration Christian School and Centre.  It is always interesting to 'pick their brains' and hear their ideas on a variety of topics. They really are our greatest assets and we are thankful for the input they provide us.
Apparently some of the staff found my camera the other day and did a photo shoot, so I do have some pictures to share!

Let the games begin!

I often write about the great staff we have been blessed with here at Adoration Christian School, and indeed they really are.  We have a great team, but our team has one problem - TIME; we're all very busy and therefore we rarely have time to enjoy each others company.  The teachers rarely spend time with the staff and vis versa.  So we decided to have a team building day.  Randy, Karen and I prepared some games/activities and we ordered in beans and rice so the cooks could participate as well. We had a GREAT day.  We laughed, we fought over chairs, we made fools of ourselves and we bonded!

Bible Trivia



The team that almost won:)




Alyn is SERIOUS about games day




Dodge Ball





Huckle Buckle...




Musical chairs



Down to the last two - can you guess who won??