Sorry for the silence... our situation changes daily and I didn't want to broadcast any news only to have it change the very next day. What I can tell you is that last week we retrieved all our textbooks from the previous property which made me very happy as I and the teachers could start to prepare for the upcoming year. As of Friday we received permission to remove our stuff from the temporary property, in fact work started today. Of course it is bitter sweet, we are happy to be able to remove our stuff finally, but it's sad to see all the hard work of our staff, students and many Canadian volunteers be taken down so shortly after it was put up. The whole situation is difficult and has caused us much grieve. We continue to pray for the situation; that hearts would be softened, and broken relationships mended.
But, moving forward... what's our next step? Well we have found two potential places to relocate. Both have pros and cons and today we explained the possibilities to the teachers to receive their input. In the interest of time, we need to make a decision soon. School is officially supposed to start on October 4th, we realize that we won't be opening on this day but hope to lose as little time as possible. We are going forward with plans, buying textbooks, meeting with staff, registering new students and visiting students' homes.
On a more personal note, I had a scary experience on Friday afternoon. I was driving to my colleague's house when out of nowhere a crazy wind started whipping dust around on the street. Next some heavy rain started to fall. I really thought nothing of it, but as I neared my house and the rain came harder and the wind picked up, I decided to stop by my house quickly to close the windows. As I was standing on my front porch I saw my neighbour's large water container fly off their roof into my yard. My patio furniture was blown up against the wall of my house. Once inside I could barely close the front door behind me. I struggled to close all the windows, but one section of my house doesn't close, it is only iron bars so the wind continued to whip through the house. Things were falling off the wall and being blown around, it brought back a lot of memories from the earthquake and even once I was out of the house it took a long time for my heart to start beating normally once again! Many trees fell during the storm and many tents were destroyed... it's so difficult for those in Haiti. They deal with one disaster after another!
Not much else to report at this point. Our team is doing well for the most part and staying positive through it all. The Lord is great and greatly to be praised. We praise Him for all that He is doing and we are honoured to carry out His work here in Haiti.