New Life for Haiti-Joline's May 2009 Journal

The team that visited was from LifeSpring Community church, the church that started the idea of New Life for Haiti! We have known some of the people on this team since we first met Pastor Fran and have been friends for over 10 years! It was a great team of 10 people, 5 guys and 5 gals! Thom and Laurie McCluskey lead the group, and it was so much fun! They got so much done and were willing to punt and do whatever it took to get things accomplished. When they landed in Jeremie, NONE of their luggage came with them...that's right. Not even their carry ons!

Great huh? They arrived in the morning and there was a flight at 4:00 PM...but no one would guarantee that their luggage would come, so I did a lot of calling and everyone said.....no problem, but we knew better! Well, we talked them into driving out here to bring what luggage they had...it was truly amazing, all but 8 bags made it that night. Only 1 of the guys was without any of his luggage! He had another shirt...etc...so he was fine and the rest of the stuff came on the first flight in the AM....and Steve went in to pick it up! What a way to start huh?

That first day was short due to their arrival time, but the guys jumped right in and started doing the screens for the grand room! It's hard to see in the picture, but thought I would include it anyway!

They look great and I love them. It has helped cut down on the bugs, but we still don't have the doors in yet, and that will be the final kicker!!! Can't wait.

The screen doors for the front are cut and stained and waiting for Steve to put them together and hang them....it was close, the guys almost got them done, just ran out of time.

The team also went up to the school in Marfranc and painted the second building inside and out!!! We all swear that we put at least 6 coats of paint on that school. Joe, who was the master painter in charge, said the paint was soo weak and bad that it would take a million coats...we thought 6 was bad! However, it got done...looks great and the kids and the parents and Pastor Plaisir are really happy with it! The team did a great job painting!

During the week several of the guys helped Steve plumb and put up 2 - 200 gallon plastic tanks, called a chatado, up on the roof. When the team arrived, we only had 1 that has 300 gallon capacity, but on Friday, when Steve got the luggage, he also got the other 2 chatado's and the guys were able to help him put them in and hook them up! Now when teams come we don’t have to go and get water every other day! Really great!

Besides all of the construction work that was being done, there were two projects that also happened with this team. The youngest member of the team was Jason Clements. He came to finish up his Boy Scout Eagle project. His project was to collect and then give out donations for the elderly community at Asile ( a retirement home, here in Marfranc). We knew this would be awesome, but it turned out to be even better than that. I'll put a few pictures of it on for you, but there is no way to describe how wonderful it was. The residents loved having Jason there, loved their presents and the drinks that we brought. They also enjoyed the singing that was done by Vilex (Pastor Plaisir's son) and the youth from the Marfranc Baptist church! Many of the residents clapped and danced during the music, it was wonderful! Fun was had by all...and Jason's project was a huge success! The entire team helped him by not only collecting stuff for him in Port, but helped to get the bags he gave away ready and then helped him hand them out! After the program was over the women painted the fingernails of the women residents. And Colette gave each of the women, hand massages.....what a great experience! Thanks again Jason! It was great.

The other project that we did this last week was a Day of Appreciation for some of the women in the Baptist churches in this district. We invited the Pastor's wives from each church as well as the President of the women's association from each church! Our program included, coffee and bread with peanut butter on it when they arrived. Many of them walked for quite a distance to get to our house for the program. Some of them walked as long as 3 hours to get here! Amazing, isn't it? So, giving them something to eat when they arrive is very important! Then we sang some songs together, prayed together and Pastor Plaisir gave a mini-message with an question and answer period at the end. One of the churches, actually the one that was the furthest away, misunderstood the invitation and came with 12 women. So after the food and the service...those women went home. The Pastor's wife and President of the women's group stayed for the rest of the activities! We didn't have enough items for the activity for everyone and I had not planned on food for 20 visitors, so they couldn’t stay. Pastor said it was fine. We found enough presents to have them take home a bandana as well as several toothbrushes and toothpaste, and they were very happy with coming for the morning!

After they left, we got out our craft for the morning. The team had brought enough bandana's to make purses with them. I had gotten a pattern from a friend who had visited and we made samples the night before the party.....and the women had a ball making them. We even made one for Pastor Plaisir. Some of the women expressed an interest in doing them again, so we may have started a fashion trend! The picture will show you how great they turned out! After the project, we ate lunch together! Pastor Plaisir and another Pastor whose wife was there ate with us as well! Eating together was a wonderful way to end a perfect morning together. Just before leaving our women put a special package in each of the Haitian women's new purses! They had collected gift items from people at their church and put them into Ziploc bags! The women were also given New Testament Bibles in Kreyol, that were decorated with ribbon and flowers. They turned out great and the women were very, very happy to have a wonderful new Bible, what a blessing! The Haitian women loved everything and were so grateful for the morning. It wasn't just the gifts, but it was the uniting of the US women with their Haitian sisters. You could feel the love of Christ in the house that day! It was awesome! I pray that we can continue to have days like this together!

One more news item...then I think I'll quite and write more next week sometime.

Our dear friend Brian Zurita, is arriving on Monday morning with Bouki! Yep, the day is arriving soon! I have been talking with Leslie and Brian all week and making travel plans with them. Bouki has his bags almost packed! Bouki is eating a lot...and gaining weight. Leslie says it's a good thing he is coming this weekend or he would be too big to fit into the carry on size!!!! I said, stop feeding him!!! ha! I know that the Zurita family is going to miss Bouki very, very much. What a great family to have take care of your new puppy, they have loved him so much since they got him! We are very lucky to have them help us with this and are soooo excited about his arrival. I'm sure that you will be hearing a lot about him in the journals!! I'll try not to gush too much about it! And yes, I do have to put one Bouki picture on the journal....the Zurita's have been sending us a bunch!!!! We will never be able to thank them for helping us with this!

You all have a wonderful week! Pray that Brian and Bouki make all their connections and that the customs agent in Port is NICE!!!!! and that Brian can guy a new Haitian telephone quickly so he can call if he needs too! We always pray for all of you at home, that you have a great week and are truly blessed!!!! Thank you for everything.....it is only because of all of you that we can stay here where we love to work!

Blessings, and Ke Bon Dieu beni ou!

Not sure how many of you have had puppies in your lives, but we Bouki has sure made us smile a lot. Our friend, Brian Zurita arrived on Monday morning in Jeremie with Bouki! He and Brian both survived the trip from Chicago airport to Jeremie airport. Seems that everywhere Bouki goes, he makes friends. Brian took him out of the carry on carrier and Bouki got to ride most of the way on Brian's lap. You'll love the picture of Bouki in the airplane seat..Brian only wishes he had thought to put the seat belt on him before he took the picture!

Their arrival changed our lives. I had forgotten since we got Sejan almost 11 years ago....that puppies require so much attention! The Zurita family is amazing. They had Bouki for about 2 weeks before Brian brought him here, and in those 2 weeks they managed to get him mostly house trained! In fact, we haven't had one accident in the house since he arrived, a week ago! This is pretty amazing considering Bouki is only 2 months old. We all think he is pretty smart, but then we are all (Zurita's and us) pretty much in love with the little guy! Bouki loves to play, then crashes and sleeps for a couple of hours. He also loves to sleep in our bed (yeah, we said we wouldn't do that,,,,ha!) and at about 8:30 PM, he's pretty much done for the night and sleeping at our feet where ever we are. We usually go to bed at about 9:30...and get up at 6:30 AM....however....Bouki likes to wake up at 5:00 AM....and if I'm lucky, will move around restlessly, licking my face when possible and moving all over the bed, until about 5:30 when he decides he needs to go outside. It would be great, if he would go outside, get a drink......maybe even eat something then settle back in to bed for a little nap...but oh, no, he doesn't do that...he is ready to start his day and play, play, play! Needless to say, we think this will stretch out some...maybe later at night for sleeping in a little???? We'll see. Right now, I'm doing what I used to do when my children were babies.....take naps when he naps! Now, if I could only get my work done! ha!

You will probably be getting Bouki updates each week mostly because he is growing so much and he is so much fun to have around. I know that some of you may be coming to visit us and I know you will fall in love with him like we have. It is fun to watch the Haitian's with Bouki, they love him, but they play way too rough, then wonder why he bites at their hands and feet, hmmmmm... I'm working on that, teaching them to play, but then not let him play so rough! Bouki loves water...a lot! Brian spent his first day here trying to figure out a way to keep water in Bouki's water bowl without him digging at it and knocking it over! We finally put it up on a brick, so that it wasn't so accessible, but that didn't work either, he just stepped up on the blocks and did the same thing and knocked it down, then played in the water. So Brian drilled small holes in the plastic bowl and rigged up a wire that runs into it and holds it onto the block! Check out the picture. I'm also sending a picture of Bouki helping my ladies do the laundry. He went outside to pee and found them washing clothes and decided to play in one of the plastic buckets...they put clean water in it and he had a ball!!!! He'll be fun to take to the river.

Brian also helped us get a couple of things done while he was here. He helped Steve finish up the front room screen doors, as well as installed the solar lights that we have for around the outside of the house! The guys also worked on pulling apart a piece of the generator that needs to be replaced, unfortunately....that wasn't all that needed to be done and the generator still isn't working. We are still borrowing our friends generator so that we have power in the house! We have a diesel generator coming on the next container...hope it gets here soon! Our truck batteries are dying and Steve has to charge them to start the truck each day....the new batteries are on that same container! Pray that it gets here soon! plus, there are school supplies and lots of fun stuff (food!!!) for the house! I'll be so glad when it gets here, hopefully in the next few weeks.

Brian had not had the chance before to walk around town, nor to see the second school building, so we spend Tuesday morning at the school, talking to people and taking pictures, then we walked around Marfranc and he got a much better idea of the area! It was fun to walk around with him. Brian and Steve also spent 1/2 of a day helping our friend Dave at his new place that he is building in Jeremie. They laid out the plumbing and electrical for him. I had the chance to visit with Dave's daughter-in-law while the guys worked. We took Bouki with us....they have a very large dog, Rhodesian Ridgeback, and he had fun teaching Bouki who the alpha dog was! Plus they played a lot!

The guys are getting my kitchen depot done. All they have left to do is put the finishing cement coat on the inside and out. they got a lot of the outside done on Friday and I hope that this week, they will get it all finished. I can't put much in it since there are no windows in it...and things might get stolen! I may take a chance and put some things in it though. We need to do grillage windows and can't do that without a bigger generator to weld with! It seems like it is always something! right?

Well friends, you'll be seeing a lot more of Bouki as he grows up. We don’t have a scale and I can't tell how much he weighs, so I made a Bouki measuring stick! We measured how tall he is at his back and marked it on the stick with the date....then we measured how long he is from tail to shoulder...and put it on the side and wrote how many inches each of those were. So I will be able to give you growing updates, even if I can't do weight! I'm going to do it each month for the first year! Just to give you an idea of how fast he is growing, when the Zurita's picked him up and took him to the vet for the first time, he weighed 7 1/2 lbs. about 11 days later when they took him for his well visit and shots...he weighed 11 1/2 lbs.....I know he weighs more than that now...just not sure how much more!

Have a blessed week, we pray that you are all well and that you get a lot done this week!

I need to check the dates on the website, but I think I missed writing to you last week. Not sure why or how come, but think I did. I have had a head cold for a few weeks, plus am so tired from getting up at 5:00 AM each morning, that I think I was too tired to do anything, ha! I found myself not wanting to do much of anything when I was so tired. I have been taking a nap each day and this morning for the first time....Bouki waited until 5:30 AM...to get so rowdy that I got up!!!! Not that I'm thinking this is a new pattern or anything, but it was soooo nice! We'll see what tomorrow brings, not holding my breath!

Bouki is getting so big. I didn't measure him this last Friday, but the Friday before he had grown 2 inches longer and 2 1/4" taller....in just 2 weeks. I'll wait until his 3 month birthday before I measure him again, but I know he has grown more since the last time. When I picked him up today...he seemed so heavy, so I'm sure he is over 20 lbs. by now. He is getting tall enough that he can put his head on things without even trying and can put his front feet up on the table that we feed the cats on! He has discovered the TP in our bathroom...and shredded it! We only have curtains on our bathroom doors...so no way to keep him out. We took our paper and roll off of ours and looks like for the next year we'll be putting it on the back of the toilet! ha! We wonder how long it will be before he discovers the other 2 bathrooms have TP as well! Hmmmmmmm.....our roll was totally shredded and all over the floor when he came and found us with TP all over his teeth. It was hard to be mad at him when it was soooo funny! He loves playing with Steve on the floor, especially after he has gone into the bathroom, where he has a tub of water he can get a drink out of, and of course also digs in and gets totally soaked! We love him so much and he is a great dog, even if he loves to chew on everything, and I mean everything! He is very smart and can almost sit on command (probably 90% of the time). Can't wait to start teaching him some things, think he'll catch on quickly! We'll see.

Haven't had a lot going on lately, which is good since I haven't felt like doing much! It is starting to get hot....and we were having a lot of rain, but the last 3 days have had NO rain and it's been hot and muggy! We could use a little bit of rain....it is going to be too dry, real soon! We have harvested our black beans in our garden. We planted 2 marmits (about 16 cups) and got almost 5 marmits (40 cups) harvested! So I think it was a pretty good yield. We also have harvested our corn. They don't eat it on the cob here, they let it dry on the stalk and then take it off of the husks and then keep it and get it ground into cornmeal when ever you need it. So our corn is sitting in a sack in the shed, ready to be ground up! We have also been eating cucumbers and green beans out of my US garden! My carrots are getting big and so are my beets, but not big enough to eat yet. Also have some tomatoes that are tiny....will be good in a few weeks though. We have had a couple of pumpkins from our garden and some yams as well as some plantains and bananas! It's fun to have stuff to eat out of our yard!

About 2 weeks ago, we got news that one of our neighbors had died. She was a cousin to Jacquelin and he came and told us. She lived on the corner before you get to our house. I had met her a couple of times. She had 6 kids, the youngest is now 6 weeks old. When she died I was immediately concerned about the baby because frequently the father doesn't take care of them and they die or, they have nothing to feed it but flour water and it dies! I told Jacquelin to find out who was going to take care of it and let me know. Later that evening a woman from the church that I know very well, said that she was a friend of the woman who died and that she would find someone to take care of the baby. As it turns out, her older sister, Dahline took her and is taking care of her. The little girl’s name is Erlande (sounds like ear + land), she weighed 6.8 lbs when she first was checked at the clinic and was born on April 9th. I wrote to Pastor Brian at Crossover Church (one of our NLH churches) and told him about Erlande and that I wanted to buy her formula and things that she needs for about 6 months. He said he knew a couple that would be interested in helping me with that. Randy and Jill Myers will be coming as part of a team in July and have decided to help me with this. I am very excited about being able to be a part of Erlande's life! I went to see Erlande on Friday and she is so cute. Dahline says she took her to her 1 mo. check up and she had gained 2 lbs. She is so thankful for the help with this little baby. She agreed that Erlande would have died had someone not taken her. We are grateful to Dahline for taking care of her. Dahline is a nurse and doesn't have any children of her own, she is doing a wonderful job taking care of Erlande. I'll try to remember to give you updates on her! She is precious!

The kitchen depot is finished! The only thing left to do is put grillage (iron) windows and a door on it, so that things will not be stolen! I'm hoping that Pastor Fran and John will be able to at least help with that when they visit in a couple of weeks. Can't wait to get my stuff in the depot and out of the house!

I have been doing the English classes with the 6th grade at the school, but Pastor asked me if I could do some classes with the 7th grade as well! It seems that his English teacher has not come very often and they are supposed to get an English grade this year! There is only 1 more week of school and I have only gone to their class 3 times....so they sure aren't getting much English from me either! Guess some is better than none, but still......I have really enjoyed their class. There are about 20 students and they really want to learn English. They are happy and eager to learn and I am finding that I am enjoying the class. The 6th grade is really hard because there are almost 50 kids in that class...really crammed into 1 room. They don't all want to learn and don't have to since it isn't required in 6th grade, so many of them talk while I'm talking or don't take notes. Makes it kind of discouraging, but I try to concentrate on those that want to learn. We'll see what I do next year!

Will be gearing up for a team from LifeSpring Community church that is arriving in 2 weeks. They are mostly going to be working on the computer work to start a Child Sponsorship program! We are really excited about this. They will be taking pictures of 80 children that go to the Marfranc Baptist Church school and we will be getting applications with information on each student and making them available for adoption for the program! It is very exciting!