Behind Schedule

We are 24 hours behind schedule with our last post being yesterday at noon.  The projects, the heat, and riding in our truck zapped us.  Thus, after devotions, it was to bed!  The evening was back to normal with no Haiti electrical power, therefore no air conditioning but warm, dead air. 

Yesterday afternoon the depot squad, after disposing of the rat, finished their work.  The wall brigade is a full row from completion and the wall/ceiling team are hoping to finish today.  Our team is really gelling with everyone contributing on their projects.  Following our work day yesterday, we travelled the short distance to Grace Orphanage run by Marie Major.  What jumped out at those of us that were here last year is that the structure has been completed.  The earthquake had flattened a two-story building that served as a large church on the first floor and a dormitory for 25+ girls on the second floor.  Today that structure is one floor with 3/4 devoted to the church and the remaining quarter serves as a dormitory for the girls.  Terri had prepared numerous crafts for the girls to which our group spent about an hour making crafts.  The girls enjoyed decorating scratch off crosses and painting sun catchers.  We are confused, however, as to why they went and washed all the paint off the sun catchers when they were done!  We are speculating that will provide them an opportunity to re-use the sun catchers at another time or they did not realize the paint would dry.  They also enjoyed listening to Christian's iPod and singing along to Eminem, Rihanna, and Justin Bieber.  We also spent time talking with Marie about the orphanage, its creation, and growth over the years.  Certainly Marie is making a difference.  We concluded the night with our devotion which has really been a worthwhile and insightful time with folks sharing how this mission experience is impacting them. 

Today we were again reminded just how difficult life in Haiti is.  Riding in the truck we witnessed men, women, and children cleaning the sewers that run along either side of the road which is a smelly, filthy job that we don't believe even Mike Rowe would consider doing.  The garbage coming out of the sewer is then three to five feet high along side the road and just waiting to be disposed of, which might come in the next century.  It's just very difficult to observe.  We did arrive today at Food for the Poor, which if you haven't observed this organization in action, it's really an enlightening and rewarding experience.  Today we toured the warehouse (included wall to ceiling bags of rice, beans, as well as other perishable and nonperishable items), distribution, and the actual feeding of the poor counted in thousands.  Once again, what really moved us was the food preparation and the distribution of food to the thousands of Haitians who depend on this free offering every day. 

After Food for the Poor, the plan was to visit the Little Children of Jesus orphanage, however, that had to be postponed due to a huge traffic jam which in Haiti is a huge constraint since there are no alternate routes.  So we opted to return to Hope House and continue our projects and moving our visit to LCJ tomorrow.  On our return home we all go to experience a Haitian grocery store which was well stocked, similar to our grocery stores, just not as large.  Unfortunately, these grocery stores serve 1% of the Haitian population and us foreigners. 

We just finished lunch and it's back to work!