New Life for Haiti-Joline's March 2008 Journal

We had a really nice week. Got the news that the generator we have been waiting for arrived in Cayes. Now next week Steve will need to drive over to Cayes and get it. That drive is nasty, really nasty, so he isn't excited about driving it although we are glad that the generator arrived because our little one needs to be worked on. We thought we had donors for buying the generator, but that has not worked out. IF anyone is interested in donating to help pay for this new generator, it would be a blessing!

I have a garden!!!!! Seriously, if you saw my backyard you would doubt what I just said! Okay, so my garden is in buckets! Don't laugh, it works. My yard dirt is hard...very hard and we were really missing things like lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, regular tomatoes, so I bought some seed and we got some good dirt and I now have a garden. The leaf lettuce is about ready to eat (yes!!!) and the rest is growing great. Only in the mountains outside of Port-au-Prince have we ever seen cucumbers and heads of lettuce. In most of Haiti, they never grow those 2 things, or anything resembling spinach or things we can identify! We really miss green salads, so are anxiously awaiting this to get big enough to eat. Most tomatoes grown in Haiti are Italian plum tomatoes, so having big round tomatoes will be a wonderful thing! We'll see if the plants actually produce things, sometimes I get great plants, no veggies! I'm sending a picture, so you can see what it looks like.

Also sending a picture of our new propane refrigerator. The story behind this is amazing. Last year when we moved the first time, the propane refrigerator stayed with the people and the house. We have a regular electric refrig, but it takes a lot of electricity to run, therefore a lot of gasoline for the generator to keep things frozen and cold. However, since we didn't have a choice, it was all we could do. A some wonderful friends in Pennsylvania, Merrill and Meg Davis heard what we needed and together with people of their church, and friends in their retirement complex, they raised $1,800.00 for us to get the refrigerator and a propane tank to go with it. Most of this money was given in small amounts and by Merrill selling pop in his recreation room at their living complex, and selling bread and cookies! It is an amazing story of dedication and God's love for others. Merrill and Meg personify what God wants us to do to help others. It was sad for us to receive news several months ago that Meg had died. She was an amazing woman and we miss her already. The refrigerator that now stands in our kitchen is a reminder of her and how hard they worked to get us something that we need. We are thankful each day for what they have done for us. So, I'm attaching a picture of the refrigerator! Silly huh? You'll be amazed at how little it is, but it keeps things from spoiling and is a blessing!

Construction. These guys that are building the foundation of the house are doing it so quickly! They are amazing to watch. There is Bos Tom (the supervisor) and then several other Bos's that are working with crews. The foundation walls are almost complete. In the picture you will see that just the front right (on the left though) is not finished. The front of the house is about 6 ft. off the ground, because it is being built into the hill behind the house. The front has to be high to accommodate going back into the hill. It is a good idea in the river area we are in, since the river could flood during a hurricane. It will just take a little getting used to when you first see it. The front will be all rock faced...so it will look great, there will just be a few steps to climb to the front door. The backyard, will be terraced and that will be great.

When you look at the picture....the 2 dorm rooms are on the right, our bedroom is on the left and the kitchen, living room, dining room are in the middle, with a wrap around porch in the front.

We have a team coming in 10 days, so have a lot to get ready before they arrive. It is great having work teams come to visit. We hope to have a couple of electricians come in April to help Steve put the electrical in and this team that is coming will help him get the plumbing pipes in place....this is getting exciting.

Have a great week! Pray for safety for Steve as he journeys to Cayes, probably Tuesday!

Blessings to you all....Ke Bon Dieu beni ou.

I just realized that I say that a lot, ha! Guess most of our weeks are kind of busy. This week we have been gearing up for a team of 8 that are arriving on Wed. afternoon from the Chicago area. In fact, I think this whole group is from LifeSpring Community church, the church that originated then NLH concept. All but 2 of the people coming have been to Haiti before and 3 of the guys in the group were just here in September! In fact, they helped us move into the house we are living in, they threw boxes and furniture in and left! It will be nice for them to see the house together and lived in. It will be a fun group to have around. We have been busy fixing things in the house and finishing one set of bunk beds etc. , just stuff that needs to be done. Plus talking to Pastor Plaisir (in Marfranc) about what they will be working on and planning what we need to have for them, in advance. Think we are close to being ready.

The construction crew got a lot done this week, next week Steve is cutting back on some of the workers, they had a lot of muscle out there this week working on filling in the foundation. The rock foundation has to be filled in with dirt, then they add a layer of gravel and rock to come up to the top. They pack each layer down, then they put metal bars as grid work in and pour the cement floors. Since the house is in the hill and off the ground in the front, it is taking a lot of fill dirt. The picture that I'm sending shows them taking dirt from the hill behind the house and filling in the foundation. You can see that they still have a ton of dirt to find and use for fill. The back of the house will be cut flat to about 15 feet so that we have a back yard. We might terrace it up further depending on how much dirt they need. Steve will have them start digging the septic hole this week, and that will get them more dirt as well.

One picture is of the foundation 1/2 filled. I have been trying to take a picture from the same place each week so you can see the progress from the same spot. The second picture is the guys working on filling in the foundation. When you don't have access to a backhoe or any heavy equipment, you use manpower. He has had about 8 guys digging! That's a lot of dirt. Many hands make up for no machinery.

The team that is coming will be painting the school building that they helped start in September. We will have to give it 2 coats, an undercoat and a final coat. We are painting inside and out, so we hope we get it all done. The church members will be helping us, so it should get finished. Half of the guys will be working on getting the plumbing done at the house. On the concrete houses here, the plumbing pipe has to be put into the ground before the foundation is poured, so it has to be done now before they put the metal grid work on the ground. The other 1/2 of the guys will be working at the school with the 3 (4 counting me) ladies. We think on Friday or Saturday the guys will move to work on helping them dig the foundation holes for the second set of school rooms. We hope these rooms will be done by September when school starts.

I'll include a picture of the finished school building for those of you that haven't seen it. It will look great when its painted...I'll include a picture when its done. Plus we will want to take a ton of side trips to the market, around the ville of Marfranc, to the beach, walking around Jérémie etc. Plus, I may get adventurous and take a few up the mountain to visit the Albino girl. Leslie from LifeSpring is sending some clothes to help cover her body, some sunscreen, a hat and some sunglasses....so we may deliver those! We'll see.

So, you can see that we'll be busy after Wednesday. I'll try to write a note on Sunday night and let you know how tired we all are! We send you much love. Thank you for your prayers, support and love,

I wanted to tell you about delivering the stuff that Leslie from LifeSpring sent for the albino child. I have to tell you this though...you won't believe it, okay, maybe you will. The mother arrived with the child. I got out the stuff that Leslie sent...put the hat on, it was soooo cute, put the glasses on...sooo cute and everyone ooooo'd and aweeeeeed. Everyone thought it was so cool and they actually stayed on the child. Then...(here it comes--are you ready?) I pulled out all of the clothes and no one said anything. I was stumped...couldn't figure out why no one likes them, the mom didn't say anything, friends she brought didn't say anything. I couldn't figure it out. You have to remember, or know, that the word for he and she in Creole is the same word...li. They don't differentiate between male and female with a different word or tense...so sometimes it gets confusing. Anyway, someone finally said...it is a little boy! No way...he has braids in his hair. Now I have to tell you too...little boys don't get their hair cut for the first year...but ALL boys get their hair cut on their birthday...never, ever, ever have braids after 1 year old. And HE is almost 3. I saw pretty long braids in HIS hair and assumed it was a girl...of course using the word, li...it sounded the same, so no one corrected me. I didn't ask if he was a boy or girl. So embarrassing!!!!!! I asked pastor if he knew...he thought he was a girl as well...so I didn't feel so bad! However, they said they would keep the clothes...HE could wear some of them, they don't care. And she really loved the hat and glasses (the mom that is) so they will probably get used by him. Never made this particular mistake before...still can't believe it!

Anyway, HIS name is...Estanphille Dioestay. I'll attach a picture or two so you can see him!

HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!

It has been a pretty quiet week, which is good because we needed to catch our breath after have a wonderful, full week with the team that left on Tuesday. I have so much to tell you all about that I'm not sure where to start. I think that I'll tell you about the finishing of the first school building and then later next week, I can share more about the house and the progress made on it! It is all so very exciting I'm not sure where to begin.

The school was actually started last September with a team of 6 guys that came. They helped to dig the foundation walls and helped do part of the rock foundation for it. This first school building was not done from scratch, but rather re-doing of an existing building. It is a school attached to the MEBSH Baptist church in Marfranc and Pastor Plaisir is the pastor there. We originally were only going to finish the last (third) room, enlarge it slightly, put some sturdier concrete posts in where the wood was rotting, finish the back wall of the entire building and put a new roof on it....ha! Ended up that we enlarged the entire building by about 3 ft on the side, did those walls totally, as well as the other 2 walls of the third room and reinforced the posts that were wood (now concrete), re-concreted all of the floors, as well as re-doing the front of the school and an entire new roof....a lot more than was expected to start with. It is a beautiful school now and the children love it. It houses the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classes. It still needs some security bars on the windows and doors...that will come eventually.

I'm putting a few pictures here for you to see, one of the original building, and one of the finished building.

The team that was here painted the whole thing inside and out with a base coat and then a final coat (or two, or three). The walls are latex cream color and the accent is an enamel brown so that we hope it won't get so dirty and will take more of the wear and tear from the kids. The blackboards were also redone. I'm going to include a picture of the original blackboards (which were falling apart and in poor shape) and a picture of the new ones, they are made of concrete and built right into the walls and then painted with chalkboard paint! The entire team started painting the first day and helped get the base coat on, then the guys moved to the property and did plumbing on the house while the women (4 of us) painted the school. On the last day, the guys came back and helped finish it up. We had Haitian help all 3 days that we worked on the school. Two of the teachers helped all three days and several of the women from the church helped to paint as well as several of the older students. It was great.

Jennifer (one of the women on the team) brought a small parachute game with her and we all had a blast trying to get the Haitian kids to play nice with the parachute. They had never seen anything like it before...it was so much fun. I'll put pictures of that on the next journal, next week! I wish I could share all of our pictures with you, they tell such a wonderful story!

I pray that you all had a wonderful and blessed Easter at church and with family and friends. It is quiet here at Easter, no Ash Wednesday service, no Maudy Thursday Service, no Easter Sunrise Service! We'll be going out to Marfranc to worship with our church family there and be praying for you all......we miss you and send you love,

I just realized that Sunday came and went and I hadn't written in the journal! I think I have just been busy getting things ready to go for my trip to the states tomorrow (Tues.) afternoon. I'm organized enough that I don't feel rushed about getting packed and getting things done, but then the truck broke down and we have been spending a lot of time trying to get it up and running again. Seems like things come in bunches huh? I wanted to take some time to at least write a little bit, it seems like I always have so much to say...so much going on.

About a month or more again we (NLH) had a huge blessing! Our friend Leslie Zurita (from LifeSpring church) has a brother, Dean that is moving from the Chicago area. He (forgive me if I mess this up Leslie) had his own construction company or was a Forman(supervisor) for a large company (not sure which). When he moved, he moved to a desk, supervisor type position and had lots of equipment to move. Leslie talked to him about all we are doing in Haiti and he said he would love to donate equipment and supplies if we could use it. Steve was ecstatic! Dean, through Leslie and her husband Brian, sent lists of tools, equipment & Supplies. Leslie and Brian have spent hours and hours putting together lists, prioritizing lists and sending photos of bins of things to Steve and after many e-mails, the first batch of items has been delivered to Bluffton, Indiana to the ACC organization that will ship it down to us in Haiti. A huge thank you to everyone involved, but especially Leslie and Brian for all of their work to make this possible. They will be organizing the rest of the items to come down with work teams that visit as well as on several more containers. Thank you to Dean for donating such great items!

We have had rain the last week, which is really great. Everything was so dusty....however, it also slowed down construction and Steve says the hole they were digging for the septic...is now a mud hole! I'll send along a picture of the hole they are working on. It is being dug by hand (of course) and when it's done it will be about...15 ft. long, 10 ft. wide and 15 ft. deep. The day they quit working last week...they were using ladders to bucket the dirt out of the hole. I'm sure they will have to start over with much of the mud that has slid down into the hole. The sun is supposed to be shining brightly by Wednesday and Steve hopes to get the septic done before we get another rain storm!

Meet Boss Tom. Tom has been working with Steve since he started building the depot on the Kay Bo Rivye property. Tom is a Bos Mason and can do all kinds of building with concrete. He is organized and actually does fairly good at estimating time and cost of materials. He is a very trustworthy young Christian man. He is working hard to save money to build a house in Jeremie so that he can get married. He has a daughter who is 7 and also a daughter who is 6 mo. old. In Haiti, women do not want to get married until they have a house to live in....so Tom is working hard to earn money to build a house so that he can be reunited with his family. He is a good worker and we really enjoy him. When Steve was taking Tom home on Friday, the truck broke down in front of his house. We have gone over every day (but Sunday) to try to get the truck started and a huge concern would be leaving it somewhere in Haiti...it could get broken into. But, Tom assures us that it is safe in front of his house and it has been! Steve enjoys working with Tom and he has become a good friend. Thought you might like to see a picture of the 2 of them conferring together.

I'll write more next week when I get to the states. Steve promises to keep taking pictures so I can see the progess that is being made along with all of you. Please keep Steve in your prayers as he works here by himself and also for me as I enjoy being with friends and family. Since I will be traveling by myself....prayers for safety would be appreciated. Thank you for your continued prayers and your support of all we do here. We are so blessed by so many brothers and sisters in Christ.