Hi friends,

This has been such a wonderful and crazy week. One of those weeks that I'll have to try to keep the journal short and save some for next week because so much went on and was done this week...so much! Plus, when I made the comment that it was strange to write when no one answered......well......a few of you did, which was fun! Plus, the webmaster for the NLH site set something somehow (this is why I don't do web pages) to let me know when someone accessed the journal page and where they were from (no names.....just city and state). It was great! So much fun to see how many places you all live! Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions or comments, I'm sure that can be arranged too. I just love sharing with everyone.

We had a team from NLH come and visit for a week. They arrived last Tues. night (May 27th) and left this morning (June 2nd). This particular team was from 4 churches and we had a great time! They got a lot accomplished and did a lot of cultural activities and it was great. I'll include a picture of them. They are standing on the new septic tank at Kay Bo Rivye. Several people put the trenches and holes into the block walls where the conduit for the electricity will go and the switch boxes and outlet boxes. It's nice to have it done before they plaster so that the conduit can go in before they plaster the walls. Check out the picture. One of the guys is a Landscape Architect and he helped me figure out what to do with the hill in the backyard. Before he left he had the kids bring rocks and place them where I need to have a retaining wall. They had a great time with the kids. I'll see if I can get a picture from him with the kids in it for next week. For the part of one morning several of the guys dug the trench for the septic pipe and then put it in and attached it from the house to the septic. They also painted the wall in front of the Marfranc Baptist church. It had not been painted before and it looks great. The group that painted it for 2 days had quite a crowd watching them. Most Americans aren't used to being stared at so much, it was interesting for them to be the main object of so much attention. They were given quite a bit of advice! ha! Whew! And that was only the work that they did.

We had a great week walking around Marfranc and Jeremie as well as going to church on Sunday and eating at Pastor Plaisir's house. In the afternoon there was a concert by the Marfranc Baptist Church youth. Tickets were sold to other churches and the community and the concert was very well attended. We estimated about 250 people in this small church with not much ventilation on a very hot day! ha! My pictures turned out kind of dark, so I won't include on of those. We stayed for about 45 minutes, then left! It was very hot inside! We also toured the school in Marfranc, gave out gifts to the kids and teachers and saw the progress being made on the second school building there. I'll do that picture next week as well...since I’m running out of room. Plus we visited Azile, the old folks home! It is always such a blessing to go there and so much fun. Someone brought hats to be given away...lots of smiles and we painted fingernails, it was so much fun.

I could probably go on forever, but should stop. The group was a big blessing, not only to the Haitian people whose lives they touched, but for us as well! It's nice to have friends come and visit. Frequently we only know 1 or 2 of the people who come with a group and it's great to make new friends. We enjoy the Christian fellowship, laughing, praying, working and enjoying each other's company. We are so glad they came!

Enjoy the pictures.....have a great week.

Hi All!

This week went so incredibly fast! Sometimes I wonder if I actually get anything done, ha! I finally finished my English class with the 6th grade class at the Baptist church school in Jeremie. This is the second year I have done it with them and it is always so much fun. I'll include a picture of the class. Usually there were about 25 students in class. Twenty-seven ended up taking the examination and most of them did pretty well. The highest percentage was 91% for the highest grade for a boy and 92% for the highest girl. I'm always personally excited when the girls do so well. They both received a calculator and some special pens and mechanical pencils and then the highest scoring student got next years English textbook as a gift. Everyone got suckers and those that answer any of the extra credit questions right got pencils, so it was fun. Next year I'll do it in Marfranc, can't wait! The girl that got the highest score, her name is Melandia Bazard, has an interesting story. When she was in third grade her mother said she didn't have enough money to pay for school. The principal allowed her to finish third grade, take the state test (which she passed) and move to 4th grade because she had the highest percentage of all the students in her class. The next year, her mother sent her to Port-au-Prince to stay with relatives, she was gone for the first 4 months of school. When she came back, her mother said she had not gone to school and that she couldn't pay for it. I'm not sure why, but for some reason Melandia was allowed to continue to go to school, even if her mother couldn't pay for it. By the end of 4th grade she was first in her class (and she had missed 4 months of school). I found out that she had not paid for school at all and that is hard for the school because in 6th grade you have to take a state test to graduate and you have to have paid for your year. I asked how much it would cost to pay for her last year, they said $300 H (which is about $40 US). I told them I'd pay for it and then she would be paid for this year, could take the test and graduate. This was made possible by one of the team members who was just here last week. He gave me his pocket money that he had not spent on the trip and told me to use it for kids. Thanks Randy, (if you are reading this) your money made it possible for Melandia to graduate from 6th grade! It is so easy to do great things like this. I just know that God places kids on people's hearts even before we know what is needed. Maybe that is why I keep doing the 6th grade English class, not just for the knowledge of English, but to get to know the kids! Just wanted to share that story with you.

Construction on the house is going great guns! I'll include a picture of what the footprint looks like after last week. Steve and Boss Tom are only working the crew at the end of the week. They are taking the beginning of the week to plan and buy what they need for the roof. It is quite an undertaking, considering the size of the house. It will go something like this. They rent the plywood and wood to hold it up. Put it in place for the base of the roof (or what we would see as the ceiling from inside). Then they will build all of the rebar forms that go into making the structure solid...like the beams crisscrossing the entire roof. These are built and put into place and tied together. Then Steve will put in the electrical boxes and conduit for all of the electrical lines and lights/fans etc. This will probably take about 2 weeks, or more. Then, they will start to pour the roof a section at a time. He anticipates that will take a good week (if not a little more). Then it has to cure of 10 to 14 days! so, it will take probably about month before the whole process is done. I'll have him take pictures so you can see how it is going.

The truck is still not running, much to Steve's frustration. Tomorrow I am hopefully getting a diagnostic tool from Sr. Maryann at HHF, where I volunteer 3 mornings a week. Just found out on Friday that they have that tool, but she didn't know where it was, so hopefully tomorrow I can get it and Steve can tackle the truck once again. Thank you to everyone who has been giving helpful advice. Steve says it is soooo close, just won't start. Very frustrating. We are about ready to see about getting a Master Diesel Mechanic to come down, one who is a pro at Dodge Turbo diesels! ha! Know anyone?

Gave away the first of 3 kittens this afternoon. She went to a good home and hopefully will do well. I have 2 more to give away and we have to decide which "little boy" to keep. We have had 8 kittens before this and we think all but 1 have died. Kittens don’t do very well in Haiti and don't stand a very good chance of living. It is really hard for me to give them away knowing the odds are against them. The yellow and the black and white kitten are boys and I can't decide which one to keep! We'll let you know.

It's starting to get warm and sticky. The last week it has been really cloudy with some rain and it makes everything so incredibly humid. Today in church it was so hot! We went to the Baptist church in Jeremie because there isn't any gasoline in town...so we didn't go out to Marfranc. It was their Sunday to celebrate the Christian Brigades. It is a youth group within the church that is kind of like Scouts. They wear uniforms and march and pledge to uphold their church and their country. It was a service honoring them and then admitting about 30 kids into the program. Very nice, but very long and very hot and sticky and humid. We sat for 2 hours and I was pretty soaked by the time it was over! What a morning. The heat makes me wonder what it will be like in August and September...yuck. Last Thursday we found out that there wasn't any diesel gasoline in town (it is what goes in the trucks we use). Steve managed to buy 3 gallons of diesel for $6.54 US a gallon, so that we had at least a little bit in the truck for around town. Then when we tried to fill up our 5 gallon containers with gasoline for the generator, he got the last 5 gallons from the pump...then it was out. It was about $5.60 US a gal. We heard today that there is gasoline available again, so Steve will take our 14 gal drum and get it filled tomorrow. Still haven't heard about diesel fuel...we'll see. We haven't heard of a national fuel shortage, we just don't have any in Jeremie. Sometimes the fuel trucks break down or the fuel doesn't come on the boat...so we wait! I sometimes forget how isolated we are out here in Jeremie.

We pray you will have a great week! May God continue to bless you and keep you all safe. Thank you for your prayers, your love and your support.

Joline

Bonswa,

It's been a pretty quiet week at our place. Steve gave his working crew the week off to take a break before they start working like crazy on the roof of the house. All in all the roof will take almost a month from the time they start framing it until the cement is cured and framework is taken off. Then it will be time to put the electrical wires in and start on the finish work, cement walls, cement finish floors etc. It seems like so very much has been done, yet there is so much more to do. I always think that the houses and buildings are so ugly when the blocks are showing and it is being built. I am always totally amazed when the finished product is so beautiful. I'm looking forward to seeing the house at least finished with cement (if only on the outside, until we get more money. Since NLH has two projects going at the moment and another one about ready to start we find that it is a juggling act to have enough money to finish everything. The costs of materials has escalated so much that all of the projects are costing more than anticipated. NLH's largest fundraiser is done at the end of October each year and so we will be cutting things pretty tight to get the house livable by Oct. 1. I'm ready to sacrifice just about everything to get moved in...I really can't wait to be in Marfranc.

I was talking to Pastor Plaisir this morning after church and I told him I couldn't wait to walk to church or walk to his house during the week for meetings, prayer time with the women etc. It takes us about 45 minutes to drive there on a very bumpy road with tons of potholes, so you can see why I'll be glad to be so much closer. The house is almost a mile from the church, but when you take a short cut up the hill from our house, it is a lot shorter. The short cut comes out right in front of Azile, the retirement center. I plan on spending time there as well. I'm getting excited and impatient to be out of the town of Jeremie and moved into Kay Bo Rivye.

Well, we got rid of 3 of the kittens this last week. Gave them all away to good homes, I hope they live. Frequently kittens don't survive, so I'm hoping at least a few of them will. We did however, keep on of the male kittens. He is yellow and white. We had a hard time naming him...started out with ti-blan (which I would translate as little white, because he has a lot of white on him, or you could translate it as "little foreigner", which would work as well), however that didn't really stick. I think we've landed on calling him Touton (it sounds like 2 tone) so it is a little bit of a pun on what he looks like, but it really sounds Haitian. I don't think it really means anything and the Haitians will never understand the play on words. Anyway, he is 7 weeks old and I'm including a picture so you can see him. He's fun! Will see what he does with 7 people in the house when the next team comes in 1 1/2 weeks. He currently resides in one of the bedrooms (with the door shut, unless we want him out) and he'll have to be out and about by then! Could be interesting.

Also wanted to share with you something that I am very proud of. My daughter, Robin, lives in Seattle, Washington. She's 28 years old and is going to be married on Sept. 6th. We will be going home for the wedding, which will be so much fun. She decided last year that she wanted to start doing triathlon racing and started swimming, running and biking. On Saturday, she entered her first race. She said it was really short, 1/2 mile swim, 15 mile bike and 3 mile run. Sounds awful to me, ha! She said she didn't care how she did, she just didn't want to come in last and she didn't. She did really good and says the hardest part was the swimming because it was in a lake that had a water temperature of about 60 degrees and the air outside was about the same. No one told her to train with a wetsuit, so she thought she was going to freeze. I'm including a picture, that she will probably hate, it is before she starts the race with the swimming component. We are very proud of her for many reasons, this is just one of them.

I'll be sharing more with you about a Youth Camp that the Baptists churches in the Marfranc district will be holding July 4 - 7 and the camp near our new house. I'm excited about this because this district has not had many youth activities for many years. Velix (Pastor Plaisir's son) is heading up getting them organized and doing a great job. This will be their first Camp in many years. The anticipate that about 75 young people, ages 16 - 28 will attend and spend 3 days, singing, praising God and praying together as well as many activities. Each youth will be a small fee because this area is extremely poor they can't pay much, but they will pay to attend. We will be helping them with the food part of the program. We will provide the generator for nighttime services and show the Jesus film as well as a film about the life of Joseph during the evenings. We are excited about this even and I'll tell you more about it when it happens and include pictures.

Anyone interested in donating to help feed the kids during camp can send their check to New Life For Haiti, P.O. Box 33, Plainfield, Illinois 60544. Just make sure you put a note on the check saying Youth Camp so that we can track it and I can use it to help buy what they need.

I pray you have a wonderful week!

Ke Bondye Beni ou.

Joline

Hi friends,

Sorry that I'm just now getting to writing this weeks journal. Yes, I know it's Wednesday evening...really late, sorry! I have an excuse, but it probably isn't a very good one! The guys working on the house are putting up the scaffolding for the roof, it is a huge undertaking and very interesting to watch. You won't believe what all goes into the preparation for pouring that concrete roof. Steve said he was going to take some pictures, then kept forgetting the camera, so I waited for him! Good excuse huh? He took some this morning....so now I can write! Okay, pretty lame, but it sounded good to me.

The first part of doing a concrete roof in Haiti, is to take 2 X 4's (which here are rough hewn sort of 2 X 4's. They aren't usually straight, not are they true dimensions. However, what they do is make a grid work with the 2 X 4's and hold those up with sticks and posts. Then they take plywood and sit it on top of the 2 X 4's as the bottom of the form for the roof. I think when you see it, it will make more sense! It is really bizarre looking when they do this, the entire house, plus the porch...will all be held up with these sticks. Steve was able to get some metal rods that they use, but they are expensive...and he could only find, like 60 or so! You'll see in the picture that they need tons of them. The whole process is amazing and fascinating to watch....stay tuned, you'll enjoy it.

We are getting geared up for a group that is coming tomorrow! Pastor Fran (our NLH Director, from LifeSpring church near Chicago) is coming with his wife, Linda, their daughter and her husband (Joanna and Steven) and a man from LifeSpring and his 14 year old son (Larry & Matthew) and then Patrick, who is a friend of Frans. This should be a fun group, it isn't really a work team, they will be doing some painting, but it is mostly an experience team! By that I mean that they will be experiencing Marfranc. It is Linda's second visit, however, her first visit was about 8 or more years ago and she didn't really want to come back to visit again. I think Fran and others have convinced her to give it a try, I'm looking forward to making it a great experience for her. Everyone else is a first timer....should be fun. The Sunday they are here is Youth Sunday, so Joanna will be teaching 10 of the young women in the church a modern dance to go along with a song that Fran had translated into Creole, which will be sung by more of the youth from Marfranc. Fran is bringing a guitar, Steven plays the piano and will be helping Velix (Pastor Plaisir's son) to learn the song for Sunday as well. Fran will be preaching the message in Kreyol....should be a great day. In between all of that, I think we are going to try to paint the front wall of the church. Marfranc church will be hosting a District Conference in August, so thought it would be nice to have a "bel figi" (Pretty face) on the church for the conference, now that the front wall is painted as well. Fran also wants to take everyone up to Chameau Church in the mountains...so we will see what all we get done. It should be pretty relaxing. I'll be sure and let you know next week and include some pictures as well.

What else? Oh, the truck! Not a fun topic....it is still broken, but now we know why. Steve took the injection pump out...it is the new one that he installed the first of May...but then the truck wouldn’t start. When he took it out, he could see why. The key, which is on the shaft that sets the timing for the pump.....was totally ruined. It was flat against the shaft (which it should not have been) and had been totally welded (by heat) to the shaft....melted into the hole it was put into, could not be removed! So now....we are out of a pump, have feelers out and questions to the person we bought it from, and are waiting for answers. Looks like we will have to buy another one (at the tune of $1,100) and try it again. Steve is just concerned about putting another one in, he was sure he had this one in right. A mechanic we talk to says that the pump may have been faulty...they will check out how and why. The biggest challenge is time....need to get this fixed and need to get the new pump ASAP. Have people working on how to do that...so will keep you posted. Please keep praying that we find the way to get this done! Trucks been down tooo long! Please keep Steve in your prayers too, he is pretty discouraged.

I got a good response from people about the Youth Camp...we are going to be doing final planning next week...it is very exciting to see this all take shape. Thank you to those that gave money to help...I'll put pictures on the page after the event! Wish you could all be there to help, should be fun.

Okay friends......nice to talk to you, sorry it is so short and not many pictures, will do better next week! We appreciate your prayers and your love,

Joline