A Satisfying Day

We started off as a usual day in Haiti - hot, sunny, and blue sky.  But before we fill you in on today, let's go back to yesterday.

We immediately noticed many improvements upon our arrival in Haiti.  In the past, we have had to deplane on the tarmac, walk a rundown warehouse-type building, fight to collect our luggage, hold off the Haitian porters, and try to survive just arriving in Haiti.  But now there is a jetway and a newly tiled floor in an air-conditioned customs building and our luggage appeared on a carousel, just like in the United States.  We no longer had to do battle with the numerous Haitian porters offering assistance we didn't need. 

As we departed the airport, some of us commented on the fact that the roads seem to be vastly improved soon to be jolted back to reality as soon as we were out of sight of the airport.  We shook, rattled, and rolled our way to Hope House.  Hope House is now run by a family of five - Marshall and his wife, Tracy, their two teenage daughters, Devin and Cameron, and their eight year old son, Kaiden. 

After dinner and devotions, we unloaded the 750 lbs of donated medical and school supplies that we brought with us from five different churches and three states.  We greatly appreciate all who donated these supplies.  The director was extremely thankful for your generosity.  The highlight of the evening was the pumpkin whoopee pies we had for dessert.  Yum!

Today we headed to the Village of Hope School and Medical Center.  We walked through the Medical Center and admired our work from two years ago, reminiscing about the 80 gallons of paint we used that covered 30,000 square feet.  It still looks good!

Our major task for the week is to clean, repair, and paint the security house that sits at the entrance of the Village of Hope.  The guards each take 12-hour shifts and were sleeping on plywood beds on metal frames.  Today we power-washed the security house that is about 500 square feet and repaired and reinstalled one of two doors.  The living space is less than any standard that would be acceptable for us in the U.S.  To illustrate how dirty the house was, we had to power wash a first time, scrubbed it down with Clorox and soap, rinsed that, and then power washed again.  And then the same process was repeated for the exterior.   We had a lot of spectators, who over their lunch hour, watched us in action.  The kids seemed especially fascinated by the power washer.  It was very hot, working outside, but as Jana said, whenever she got hot, she'd think about the 7 inches of snow piling up back in Minnesota and the heat suddenly felt great!

Our task tomorrow is to paint the interior and exterior, the bed frames, and the wood surfaces and to provide bed cushions for each bed frame.  Later in the week we may shop for furniture to make it more comfortable.  More to come!

On the way home, we stopped at the Metal Works.  Marshall had told us we would be surprised by some new improvements and we were!  The improvements included a paved road, sidewalks, benches, garbage cans, and big art structures as well as, improved appearance of their shops.  Some of the money for this improvement was provided by the Clinton Initiative.  As yes, we did leave quite a few dollars at the Metal Works which we are more than happy to do.  It really is impressive to see these artisans bang away at these steel drums and produce such fine art.   

We returned to Hope House around 4:30.  Marshall took the women to a small grocery store.  This was fun for the newcomers to see a Haitian grocery store. 

Thanks, Liz, for preparing the devotions for us and providing us with a nice way to end each day.