June 21-23

Greetings from Haiti! Sorry it has took so long to update. We were at the Vandam’s on Sunday and did not get time in the afternoon to do the blog seeing that the computers were tied up with the girls checking e-mail and facebook. Then in the afternoon, I was updating the blog and we had a sudden, brief lightening storm which knocked out their satellite internet. I am writing this all down in Word and hoping that I can get down to an office with internet capability on Monday.

Everyone is doing fine here. Linda was sick this morning but is feeling much better tonight 6-23We are enjoying our time here. It has been quite an experience. Many of the ideas we had about Haiti are no longer valid. The fears of coming to this country are subdued. We are starting to get used to the way things are done around here.

Let me start off by updating you on everything that we have done since the last update. After the last update we went to the Vandam’s for supper. We had a great time visiting with them and the Vandam’s kids watched in amazement at our 4 girls telling stories and laughing VERY loudly. I believe they enjoyed having volunteers that were close to their same age. We also enjoyed learning about how missionary children live in Haiti. We drove home late that night and our eyes were wide open looking at the many people that are out on the streets at night.

Here are a few pictures to try to explain the life in Haiti. This is a corner on a busy street.

Here are a few more that show some of the things that we see as we drive along from place to place.


The next few show life at the Ministry Center. The first is a picture of our bathroom. We need to use the buckets of water for showering and flushing the toilet (no running water, not sure where the sewer goes to).


Here is a picture of our helper, Marguerite, doing our laundry. She also does our cooking and cleaning. She is living at the ministry center with us. (There are many people living on this property, not sure how many, sometimes over a dozen).

Back to our work. We were planning on doing some sightseeing and meeting staff on Saturday, but we had a good opportunity to pour some concrete. One room on the seconf floor needed to be leveled to prepare for tiling. We spend the entire day bring up buckets of cement to a crew doing the leveling. Howard and some others did the mixing of the concrete by hand on the ground. It took us all day, but we finished the room. Lunch was with the entire staff. It was a wonderful Haitian meal prepared by some of the wives of the workers. We had a beet salad that was absolutely incredible. Here are some pictures of the work we performed during the day. We pumped water from the well on the property to use in the concrete mixing.

Some of the girls ended the day by cooling off in some water storage barrels. Everyone was tired by happy at all the work we accomplished.

Sunday was a trip to a small CRC church in Petionville (suburb of Port-au-Prince). Another hair raising ride brought us down a narrow alleyway up to a church on the second floor of a building. We arrived to wonderful, powerful singing. It was a tune that we knew, but the words were definitely unfamiliar. We listened to service, introduced ourselves, gave a greeting from Fellowship, and sang the “Tree Song” and “My Friends may you grow in Grace”. We then met with the staff of the church and talked about their church. We have many similarities. The sign below is for the church. It would make sense if you could read Haitian Creole.

Lunch was again at the Vandam’s. After lunch, we visited the only museum in Port-au-Prince and learned about the history of Haiti. Then we toured a cathedral. Our guide Alexis showed us how Voodoo has been interspersed into the Catholic Church. Here are some painting showing Jesus turning water into wine, with a few Haitian twists. Roman Catholicism in Haiti is definetly not Christian.




We went back to Vandam’s and tried to update the blog. We then drove home in a downpour. Another interesting drive. Here is a picture looking out the back of Vandam's house. Their house sits on a ravine and there are many, many houses in this ravine. Many are in states of construction. No railings anywhere. You can maybe even see people in their houses.

On Monday we will be laying tile at the ministry center. Here are a few pictures of the work during this day. Besides working all day, we talk to many of the people helping us out who are pastors and deacons and elders at CRC churches in Haiti. We have many similarities with them and it is very interesting sharing about each other.


We are all doing well. We are in great health, just a few bug bites. The food has been awesome and no one has any food related “issues”.

Since we will be working at the ministry center for the next few days, we may not be updating the blog every day (or even every other day). Keep praying for us and that we can get our work done and experience the culture and people of Haiti.

One last update. I drove back to Vandams on monday night so Howard could clean up for dinner back at the ministry center. I am updating the blog now. Trying to get it done really quick. We are all still doing well. We had a good day working. I wanted to download more pictures, but it will have to wait. We need to get back to the ministry center.