What does the first day post-team look like?

Trying sugar cane

The sunshine powers the batteries which pump the water for the campus of which we will be needing extra as currently the third load of wash sloshes in the machine. We plan to alternate chores with fun, today and tomorrow.

The timer keeps us on track with a 5-10 minute chore break for every 30 minutes of 'fun'.

Eli, Anna and I did a bit of cleaning yesterday along with two loads of moist towels. Cory took the team to the airport, cleared the banana plants through customs for LaGonave [and a few for himself], did a bit of shopping and returned home.

'Thank you' cake from the district.

Post team tasks and adjustments, in no special order.

• Extra laundry: sheets, towels and donated clothes
• Organization of items left behind: medical, club, our house
• In-box: deleting or responding to the E-mails that were not urgent enough to do while the team visited
• Eating up left overs.
• Putting away items used during the team: fans, books, games, bug spray…..
• Figuring out where Eli and Anna stand with school, trying to get each subject roughly to the same place 
• Making and prioritizing to-do lists
• Mid-November! Need to order some Christmas gifts ASAP so they can be shipped and arrive in time for our family celebration
• Spend time together just talking about each other. Checking in how everyone is doing with life.
• Adjusting to just the 4 of us again. More conversations about world events.
• Start working on the Creole book translation again
• Eli and I study for this spring's testing
• Clean the house and guests houses
• Start talking to Dad and Mom about the next team.

We enjoy having teams but it is a busy time. We want to use the short window of opportunity to show them as much of life and ministries in Haiti as possible, hopefully giving them a well rounded picture of life and the people of Haiti. 

We especially enjoy hearing about their perspectives and thoughts when we share at night because it  also helps us to learn more about Haiti and how visiting here can impact people. 

Tasting Sugar Cane.

Two Day Post and guest blogger !

I could not believe it when we went into the bakery. They did everything by hand, which is not normal by american standards. The whole inside did not have any light except for one man with a flashlight and the light coming through the windows.

 The oven they had is one like you would see back in the old days. They baked with fire in a large oven. That was a very interesting thing to see, but what was more interesting was going to the market itself.

Thinking about all the pictures that you see of the poverty in Haiti and how "bad" the country is that was kind of what market looked like.

 Comparing to anything in America it really reminded me of Shipshawana. They had their little tin roofed "stalls" in which they were selling everything from under ware to machetes to fruits and vegetables.

It was difficult to take it all in especially when they are speaking in a foreign language. The funniest part was probably when this man with a turkey was following us around thinking that we wanted to buy the turkey.

The coolest thing to see and understand, even with the language barrier, was the relationships between the vendors. They would talk back and forth and joke around.

It was hard to take in all the garbage that would be something that we would not tolerate in American culture. This is something that they deal with every day.

We take so much for granted in america without realizing it. This is not to say that the Haitians were upset about their situation .... Bethany

The rest of this blog ended up being lost when we had trouble down loading.

Dealt with some office business before lunch [pizza, coleslaw and fried breadfruit]. Afternoon consisted of Dr. Winick talking, a garden tour, some visiting and prayer with the Kid's Club leaders and the kids.

Becca offered to take some family pictures so we fit that in too. Supper. Sharing. Starting to pack.

Eli wore a Habitat for Humanity shirt only to find out that Sandy works at that very location.

As this post would not post last night I'll add a bit.

The team will finish up packing and head to the airport at 10 this morning.

Cory will clear some banana plants coming in today on the MFI plane through customs and then get them to the MAF charter plane to LaGonave.

Nice that this worked out with getting the team to the airport to return to the USA on that same MFI plane. They will overnight in Orlando tonight and head back to their homes on Friday.

Thankful they took the time, effort and money to visit us and share a week getting to know us better and getting to see a little bit how the Lord is working in many areas on the Fauche campus and in Northern Haiti.

Tuesday =School, beach, club, meeting....

Supper time after a busy day.

Following breakfast the team and our family [minus Eli who decided to spend the morning doing school] loaded into the truck and headed West.

First visit to the Nazareth church / school complex. As we normally visit on a Saturday teams do not generally get to see the school in session.

They visited several classes as well as the church.


Then we headed down the coast just past the beach to see the Galilee church. And turned around to return to the beach.

A nice sunny day to enjoy the morning at the beach.

Headed back for lunch at the house- rice with either bean sauce or red chicken sauce followed by a bit of rest before sharing with the Fauche Kid's Club.

Club went well with a few children continuing to come right up to the end.

Then some game/sporting fun.

Pastor Denord stopped in to share about his ministry and the work of the northern district.

We prayed with him before he left.

Supper of left overs and some creamed eggs on bread.

Friendship Monday

First I'd like to say 'Hi' to the new folks reading this because they know someone on the Friendship team. Welcome. You can be proud of your team.

Today after a good breakfast and hanging a second load of laundry we broke into two groups.

The idea originally formed to try to make the walking easier on those with bad knees, ankles etc. but we think that the two leaders may have switched the teams.

Well everyone returned in one piece so it worked out.

My group contained 4 team members, myself and Theodor.

Our first two house visits occurred due to a motorcycle accident last night which put one man in bed and scrapped up the second. Both were thankful to be alive.

The visits consist of us being welcomed and often being offered a seat.

Then we would sing a song in Creole, number 5 which we copied for the team before heading out.


[At one house the young lady burst out laughing during our singing...so I guess we did make a joyful noise anyway! And laughter helps health so...]

Then Theodor and anyone else in the house who knew Psalm 100 recited it.

After hearing the prayer requests, a team member would pray in English to be followed by a prayer in Creole.

We offered a Creole tract and asked if we could take a picture, making it clear that they could say

no, as a few did.

On returning to the campus the team did a bit of shopping in the gazebo.

Lunch consisted of Haiti's traditional Independence Day, January 1st meal of pumpkin soup accompanied by fried sweet potatoes and some coconut cassava bread.


This afternoon after a time of rest activities consisted of: painting down at the school and Child Surviver Project, visiting the adult literacy classes, Eli received a hair cut, Hershey a bath, water filtered and laundry folded. I even found a bit of time to work on the book.

Providing we do not get a big rain tonight will head out to the beach tomorrow morning [because we did not fit it in on Saturday] and then a Kid's Club in the afternoon.


A short update about our adoption can be found here: http://graftingtreasures.blogspot.com/ 

Friendship guest blogger.

Welcome from beautiful, wonderful Haiti.  Our time on the Island has been incredible.

 Today was our first time to a Haitian service.  Being someone born and raised in the US, it was my first service in a different language. 

 Being unable to understand and translate, I simply tried to sing along in the original languages. 

 I was constantly reminded throughout the service of how God knows every language. 

 Once I began to realize that, it was not important what was being said or what I could hear from our translator, Kris.  

Throughout the rest of the service which did include some amazing special songs, it was just me and God sharing some incredible moments inside.  

Once the service ended, there was a special communion service for church members.  All of the songs were hymns that we recognized, and the first one we sang, I and Jason sang what we could remember. 

 It was Nothing but the Blood.  

Hearing the song in at least two languages really made our future in Heaven so real.

  It was a truly blessed service.

In the afternoon, we did our first session with the kids using the book. 

 It was amazing to see the interaction between our interpreters and the kids.  

Although some may have not understood the train, I really believe that the kids understood the message.  

I really enjoyed our time with the children and saw such passion in those who work with the kids on a continual basis.  

This has been an incredible and wonderful day.  I am so thankful God has allowed me to come on this trip.

with a thankful heart,

Jonathan

Team Day Two

Supper almost on the table after an interesting day.

Pastor Doucet stopped in before breakfast to chat with us and more specifically Cory about plans he has for agricultural projects.

The team spent part of this morning finishing up their paint job in the dinning hall. They took a short break to come up and check out some Haitian art and baskets made by Pastor Philip.

Cory and I headed for Mme. Emmanuel Lorient's funeral about 10:30 a.m. stopping by the family's home to pick up some of the people heading to the funeral.

The funeral started at 5 minutes after 11. The Port Margot church continued to fill up until people ended up standing along the walls. We enjoyed 11 special music numbers including 2 band pieces.

Very touchingly her immediate family sang one of the songs, husband, sons, daughters, siblings...

Also touching was her son giving the history of her life. His wife stood by his side in support and toward the end he started to get very emotional and his brother made his way up front to stand on his other side in support.

While we attended the funeral the Eli and Anna took care of getting a lunch of left overs on for the team. Some spent time practicing their Creole while helping children with English.

Those of us who know what an earthquake feels like and were inside this afternoon felt a small one that must of been very close to directly under us as our alarm went off after it finished. Those outside did not notice it.

A couple of the team when on a walk to see if they could find a Coke. I know they did find some pop and overpaid, blessing the elderly salesman. Banana flavor was the best of those they bought.

With tomorrow being Sunday we also worked on some of tomorrow's meal preparations. Tonight we plan to enjoy breadnuts, tuna noodle casserole and bread pudding.

And it just started to rain so if this is posted later...not my fault. Keep praying. 

Friendship Team Full Day 1

Team arrived yesterday afternoon after lunch in Cap Haitian and then a visit to a mission along the way.

Will need to let Cory or one of the team report on that as I've not heard a full report.

We settled them in to their rooms and shared some information before supper time.

Supper consisted of chicken potpie and cookies but what most folks liked the best was Cory's passionfruit jam on fresh bread. Devotions and then bed.

After breakfast we took a short tour of campus ending up in the school's dinning room. After a short hydration break the team went back and cleaned the walls and doors. Eli, Anna and I worked on a bit of school / books.

Lunch of Haitian rice and beans with chicken vegetable sauce and fried sweet potatoes. We ended our meal with great coconut, brown sugar candy.


This afternoon the team started to paint the dinning room transforming it from a medium dark green to a light tan color.

 A few helped with lunch dishes and making spaghetti for supper as we will let our cooks attend services for Mme. Pastor Emmanuel's funeral tonight and late tomorrow morning.


 Will also be enjoying fresh fruit salad [banana, orange, grapefruit, pineapple and passionfruit] and brownies.

Shopping for the team.

Something interesting happened today as Cory shopped at market.

First let me tell you how thankful I am that the Lord provided me with a man who shops! Growing up Mom went grocery and clothes shopping while Dad did some of the farm shopping although many times Mom ended up doing that shopping as well.

I rarely shop. I buy books and make lists for Christmas and birthdays and suggestions for items but the vast majority of the actual buying falls on Cory's shoulders. He's a great comparison shopper and a professional when it comes to E-bay.

[Both of our mother's use him to shop for gifts for Eli and Anna as well!]

Loving fruits as he does they catch his eye easily in market and today he watched carefully as we want to give the team as many taste experiences as possible during their one week visit.

Then it happened! There in the market place he saw a very large, long bunch of bananas. The bunch, Cory guesses was about 5 foot long and contained 15 hands of bananas.

This type is a cooking banana used for boiling or frying.

Genner pointed it out saying "25" recognizing the banana was a 'FHIA-25' before Cory did. Calling the merchant over she confirmed that she'd received the banana plant at the Port Margot Wesleyan Church from Cory.

This is the type Cory ordered when he bought from the Dominican Republic a few years ago but most ended up being regular or hybrid plantain cooking bananas.

Two other merchants bought parts of the bunch to divide into hands and resell.

Cory also heard another shopper asking what kind of banana produced such a large bunch of bananas.

The successful shopping trip means our team will have fruit [passion fruit, grape fruit, sweet oranges, avocado] and vegetables to eat this weekend. They should arrive tomorrow on the MFI plane about noon. Cory will met them, take them to lunch at a restaurant in Cap Haitian [orders placed before hand so they hopefully do not need to wait for an hour+ for their meal]. T

Then the drive to Fauche during which they plan on stopping in to see another mission that the Friendship Church supports. Meanwhile the kids and I will work on our studies and make sure that their clean and prepared rooms await.

P.S. For those following our adoption blog and praying we found out today that one cannot track the I-600a form like you can other forms. So will continue to wait.

Two days till the Friendship Team!

A good thing about living in an area where most people depend on the daylight hours and not a clock to set schedules is that you can adjust to daylight savings time slowly.

Meaning while our clocks read the right time we continue to get up and go to bed closer to the 'old' time than the new and it really doesn't cause any problems.

We can download before 7 a.m. without it counting against our 24 hour bandwidth limit therefore the last couple mornings it has been easier to take advantage of the 'free' time.

Lots of activity on campus with school, preparing for our team's arrival on Thursday as well as Pastor Emmanuel's family preparing for visitors coming for Mme Pastor's funeral on Saturday.

Yesterday we checked out the guest house and started the clean up. With the team from the USA and guests for the funeral we anticipate every bed will be full on Friday night.

We also checked out the possible team project of painting the school's dinning hall. Praying that good paint can be purchased in the next couple of days so that the team can work on this project on Friday and Saturday.

Two Kid's clubs visits lined up while we wait to hear about other possible locations.

 The 'ambulance', more accurately the campus vehicle,  now boasts a good spare tire ready to help transport the team along with our truck. With our weather starting to turn cooler and rainy it will be good to be able to let everyone sit inside if necessary.

Cancelled French this week due to the extra cleaning Eli and Anna needed to complete but they continue to study by Rosetta Stone while I'm focussing more on my Family Practice boards study for next spring.


Pictures from last week. Cory visited a chicken project connected to the school, church, clinic project where we worked. I did not get to see the chickens.


These are being raised for meat not eggs. This can be difficult as every so often in our area the chickens get sick and the population drops drastically. They are working to keep them healthy.

 Some of the plants Cory donated. They should primarily be used to directly feed people and can also be used for animal feed. The branches are of Chaya and Moringa to plant as cuttings, the easiest way to get started fast. Just poke a hole in the ground with a digging bar (pointed, inch wide iron bar) and plant the 1-2 foot long stick.