Thede November E-mail update.

Recent cooler nights and days indicate fall weather along with the turning of the calendar. Kris's folks, along with a family from the Allegan church purchased tickets to visit in February. We may end up with a few open spots on the team should you wish to join them and visit us. Let us know if you are interested.

Agricultural: Cory picked up two orders of banana plants at the Cap Haitian airport. One for here and another was Starfysh's which he brought to LaGonave. Visits to local gardens continue to show advantages of the imported banana plants over the local varieties.  Just south of our house we now can harvest fresh Moringa leaves from our own plot. In less than 2 months the scraggly leftover trees, in small plastic cups over the summer, now planted in well prepared soil, grew to over waist high!  Bamboo distribution in Ti Bourg resulted in increased interest when they saw the plants and requests for another delivery of bamboo plants. 

Medical: Clinics remain slow as is normal for the start of the Haitian school year in October. The start of the rainy season increased the number of patients suffering from cholera. At times over 17 patients lay side by side on cots in the area previously used for a chapel/ waiting area. Because of the swift action of this disease the numbers of patients can change rapidly from day to day. Because the government requires that cholera patients receive free care, the financial burden remains costly. Some Cholera treatment supplies come free from the government but not all that is needed and nothing is provided by the government for staff paychecks.

Travel: Cory and Gener traveled to Port-au-Prince to renew our residential visas on Oct. 24th. A quick visit and overnight trip to LaGonave on the 25th, picking up the papers and returning back home on the 26th. Thankfully the trip went very well and Cory met with Jeantiny and others on LaGonave. 

School: Eli and Anna remain on track to finish up one year's worth of curriculum this week [started in January of this year]. We will start the next curriculum year next week. In addition to our normal studies the three of us now meet with a French teacher twice a week to work on French grammar and pronunciation. Kris continues to research the ins and outs of high school record keeping and classes to prepare Eli to enter college. 

Country: Haiti's new prime minister, Garry Conille, received confirmation from the Haitian Parliament on October 5. 

Creole Books: Cory delivered a load of books to Pastor Dan and LaGonave on his trip. Here in the North, the Wesleyan churches can make the books available to their congregations as the pastors recently received books to sell at low cost. New groups continue to learn about the book and request copies. 

Family: Kris' sister-in-law, Beth is in the middle of chemo treatments. Kris' dad will received a new hip on Friday, Nov. 11.

Prayer Requests: 

• Cholera and medical patients.
• Church leadership
• Teams for 2012 visits & Travel arrangements. 
• LaGonave Hospital Summit meeting Nov. 29/30  
• New Haitian Government
• Eli and Anna's schooling. Standardized testing early Dec. 
• Impact of Creole health book. Translating "Natural Medicine for the Tropics" book into Creole.
• Beth. Kris' Dad. Health of missionaries and family. 

Blessings,

Cory, Kris, Eli and Anna Thede