Bonswa from Haiti!
We
had a great day today (Friday). After Katia's wonderful breakfast we
hopped in a van and a pickup and drove up, up, up to the Rivers of Hope
orphanage to paint, paint, paint. Rivers of Hope is a new orphanage in a
leased home that will be run by Rachel Danache. AGCI will coordinate
adoptions from Rivers of Hope. This video from AGCI explains this
relationship way better than I can: http://vimeo.com/42723806
The
house needed a lot of cleanup and painting. We painted all the black
iron work (railings, bars over windows, etc.) as well as some new doors
which needed to be painted. Others on the team also disassembled some
bunk beds and started reconstructing them into cribs.
To access
the inside of the bars we had to remove all the glass louvers. We
quickly discovered that each one is custom fit and it can be quite a
puzzle to get them back in if you don't stack them in order. By the end
of the day we had it down to a science. I poked a tiny piece of glass in
my finger while reinstalling a louver which "Doctor" Paul cleaned and
dressed with professionalism and flair.
Paul is now the official team medic.
Speaking
of medicine, Renee, one of our team members from Nashville was out
today with a stomach bug, but she met us at dinner so hopefully she is
on the mend. Please pray for her continued improvement. Everyone else is
healthy.
On the drive up (2 hours) and down (1 hour) we got a
good taste of Haitian commerce. There were people buying and selling the
entire way, thousands of people crammed along the roadside selling
everything among the piles of rubble, trash, and 5 foot deep by 5 foot
wide gutters (with no curbs by the way). Most of the people looked to be
quite poor.
The traffic was intense, especially because the
Haitian President was in the area so there were lots of police on ATVs
& SUVs which added greatly to the congestion. Some of the guys rode
in the back of the pickup so they had a very memorable ride.
The
Rivers of Hope home is close to the top of the mountain. As you climb
higher, both the vegetation and prosperity change dramatically. We saw
many beautiful flowering trees and vines, and fruit trees were
everywhere. The houses were also much larger.
Tomorrow we are
going to finish the painting then head up even higher on the mountain to
one of the Mountaintop Ministry orphanages (another AGCI partner, see
video link above) to spend some time with the babies/kids there and
learn more about what AGCI is doing with Mountaintop Ministries. Willem
and his wife Beth were with us all day today and coordinated the work.
Tonight
we talked for a long time with Dan Jensen about the people and country
of Haiti, and the work that God is doing here through the partnerships
between FMI, AGCI, Mountaintop Ministries and others. We can tell you
more about that when we get back.
On Sunday we will spend the
entire day at the Gift of God orphanage where the October team served,
first in their church service, then just spending time with them.
Well
it looks like our Internet connection is out for now so I will have to
post this in the morning! I probably won't be able to post any photos
until tomorrow night though, sorry!
Dave
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