Teams and Tours

The team from Minnesota arrived safely Friday afternoon and we learned quickly they were too exhausted to start work right away. Instead, we spent the evening becoming acquainted with the team of 9 and called it an early night. The next day we planned on touring Tree of Life and the children's home in Lilavois after breakfast but plans changed once we found out we had a flat tire on what I like to call "the beast". This jeep is straight out of a safari in Africa. It's huge, loud, and a beast. Although it can carry quite the load of people. Anyway, normally in the states a flat tire can be fixed in less than an hour. In Haiti, it takes four hours or more. We were planning on leaving at nine or ten but actually ended up leaving at 3:30. Luckily, we were able to give the team a tour of both childrens homes before supper at 6. The teams main focus will be on the childrens home at Lilavois. Tomorrow they plan on starting construction on the roof of the outdoor kitchen and spending time with children playing games, coloring, etc. The interns will be staying back to do research on Luly. I will share more info when we find more info :). (Update: Alex, the other intern joined us yesterday! I learned he also started a blog for Haiti. Check it out--- http://web.me.com/alexherbig/Alex_Herbig_Photography/Blog/Blog.html. Great photos to be posted!)

On Saturday we visited a program called Haiti Teen Challenge to assist with the clean up due to recent flooding. Unfortunately, the home is located at the bottom of a steep hill which makes it a perfect spot for water to accumulate. It flooded their entire first floor which included a room full of computers for school. We mopped up the remainder of the standing water, scrapped loose paint off the wall, swept, and investigated their "gutter" system. It turns out the underground pipe that was suppose to drain the excess water actually has holes in it everywhere. We also learned the end to the pipe doesn't end into a drainage system but into their backyard, on the first floor. We added another project to our list for the home and plan on finishing up the work soon.


Today we attended church at Port-au-Prince Fellowship and it was packed! I must say Christian mass is a lot different from what I'm use to but I like it so far. I grew up Catholic and am use to the traditional type of mass that lasts about an hour. The church we attended today lasted around 2 hours but the traditional celebration for most Haitians can last all day.  In Haiti mass always lasts longer than it does in America. Just tonight I was on the balcony and could hear what sounded like a party a few blocks away. I asked Tipap what all the noise was about and he said church was still going on. This surprised me because you would never hear of such a thing in the States. Heck, Americans get antsy if mass lasts 15 minutes longer than normal. I find this unfortunate and I probably wouldn't have said the same thing before I visited Haiti.  The Haitians passion and commitment toward religion has inspired me and I find it admirable. I'm interested to learn more about this type of praise this summer...

Anyway, once we start in on the projects this week I will have more to share so stay tuned!

 

Some of the flooding at Teen Challenge.

 

On the roof at the Teen Challenge home. I love clothesline photos.

 

Ginette and I relaxing on the balcony.

 

 Ginette showed us how to eat a mango Haitian style. It's good but very messy.

 At Lilavois. The children took this photo. They love cameras.

 

  They love posing for the camera.

  

 Andrea collecting measurements for a new roof on the outdoor kitchen at Lilavois.

 

 This is Steph, another intern, also recording measurements.

 I took this during the tour of downtown today.

 

This was the view right outside of the hotel we had lunch at.

 

 Fun photo of Randy at lunch today.