The Wait is Over

Baby Isaac Henry . . . we are so excited to meet you!

Sitting Around Waiting

Today my sister is having a baby. We are all sitting around like this:

. . . waiting for the arrival of this new baby boy. The generator is running so that the internet is working and we are anxiously waiting...and blogging while we have power. Lots of catching up on blogging.

Random Pictures

Just some random pictures:
When you give a Haitian person your phone number they feel the need to call you over, over, and over. In fact, it is not uncommon for a person to call 8 times in a row until you answer. Annoying. Almost as annoying as the fact that BJ always wants to talk on the phone, it is a good combination. So now we just hand the phone to BJ when someone annoying calls us...

I love this sweet baby face. When we go to the villages, children over about 12-15 months are very often scared of us as they do not see a lot of white people. But the babies don't see color and they love to be held. I'm happy to oblige. Johnny is standing next to me, we are at St.Rock.

BJ crashed out in the front seat on Justin's lap, complete with sunglasses!

SF after she played in the exhaust pipe and painted her face. Lil' stinker!

BJ, sometimes when you are too tired to fight about drinking your milk and having a nap that you just give up and fall asleep sitting up with the cup in your hand!

We did actually bring car seats for the babies, but sometimes we let them ride "cowboy style" in the back. They have to hold on for dear life on the bumpy ride down the mountain.

Metal Shoppes

Yesterday we went out to Croix des Bouquetts. It is another area near PaP. Within this town there is a street that is lined with metal shoppes. I use shoppes loosely as they are really just peoples' homes with the front room converted into a shoppe. The people of Haiti are true artists. They make all of these pieces from scratch with just a piece of metal, some hand tools, and their imagination. Some pieces are made with a hand made stencil for uniformity. The completed pieces are beautiful works of art, but watching the process helps you to realize just how much is involved and how amazing they truly are.

The kids watching some of the local artists.

This was one of the artisans working on a piece of metal with his hand tools. They pound the design into each piece of metal.

Some of the designs are 3D as these characters were.

Crafting Today

On the way home from Croix we stopped at a factory by the airport that makes paper mache products. They do not have a store front and therefore do not usually sell to the general public. However, we met the owner and she arranged a tour for us, a personal shopping guide, and a craft for the children to work on while we shopped. I love Haitians.

One of the places they sell to is Disney, think Animal Kingdom and the store Anthropology. It is fun to go to the actual places some of this stuff is made.

The factory workers hard at work.

My factory workers hard at work. The owner even arranged for one of the artisans to sit with the kids to show them how to paint.

One of the completed projects.

Shower in the Rain

It has been raining here every night. I think we are officially in the "rainy season". This is not your normal rain, even the big storms I remember from the mid-west are in dull in comparison to what we have going on here. These are the rain storms that have thunder that shakes the whole house to the point that you wonder if it is another earthquake. It sets off all the car alarms. Lightening that knocks down trees that have a 4 foot diameter and gives noon day light to a room. And the rain, oh the rain. Given our windows are not sealed well, every morning we wake up to large puddles in each room and on the nights when we forget to shut the windows all the way, we wake up to a small swimming pool on our floors.
The kids love the rain and I do too except on laundry day when it is mad dash every time to beat the rain from drenching our line drying laundry.
Last night was a rare exception in that it started raining before bed time. The kids were not yet bathed so they ran outside and were playing in the rain. CT begged "Mom I have always wanted to have a shower in the rain" so they did. It may be their last time as they soon realized even though we are in Haiti, the rain is chilly.

Haitian Workout

Any of you that have known me for any length of time, know that I enjoy exercise. I would spend 2-3 hours a day exercising in college. Through the years I have not been able to devote that kind of time to exercise and have transformed into more of a fatherly figure (pun intended). The day just doesn't feel right without getting in a good workout.

For people that struggle (on many levels) to live day to day, exercise is not a priority for the Haitians. In fact, I suppose many of them can't wrap their mind about someone wanting to jog on purpose when they don't have enough to eat. For these reasons, there aren't a lot of gyms in Haiti.

Due to various security issues, I haven't struck out on a long jog, nor have I been able to lift weights. I was feeling down and out about this the other day, but realized just about every day I am putting in a "Haitian workout." From climbing the hills every day in the bidonvilles (shantytowns) where I work, to hauling buckets of water to the tank on the roof (no electricity to power pump for the last week), to hiking down a steep hill in the rain because the driver can't make it up the hill to pick me up, I am getting a workout. Nothing comes easy in Haiti and this is just another example.

Trust

So we are having a bit of a trust issues here, as in who do you trust and who do you not. Some examples:

1- Last week someone who works for us stole all of CT and TJ's B-day money. It was not a small amount either. TJ left his in his room in a bag on his dresser, it may or may not have been visible. But, CT had his in his wallet in his backpack in his closet. Someone had to look hard for it. The problem is that it could have been any one of 3 people. We fired one, the one we most suspected. It is super frustrating.

2- Then later in the week when we had a flat, we picked some little boys up on the street who took us to the guy with the bicycle pump to pump it up. Soon after we realized the jack from our car was missing. Heaven knows we need that stupid thing and use it almost weekly lately. So now we had to buy a new one.

3- Then we went to get the car changed to another Haitians name, Johnny whom we do trust, out of Vlad, our former driver, whom we do not trust. And the dealer told Johnny he paid Vlad on the side when we bought our car from him. Who knows if this is true or if it is "normal" culture here etc. All I know is that we are super frustrated.

A friend here gave us a good piece of advice that has helped us in how we view our world here. He said "You have to understand that in the US the thing people seek most is equality. In Haiti the thing people seek the most is power. If you remember this, you will understand peoples' motivations better."

This week at St.Rock the town consulate got all the people together and threw a huge fit that he was not notified of our intentions. He was totally demeaning about us and rude to the people. After all the people left, he apologized to us. However, the message was already sent to the people, he is in charge. On the way down the mountain from St.Rock my kids were fighting because we passed a pack of crackers that had 5 crackers to 3 kids. Now that was "not fair". I started to realize maybe my friend was right.

Second Try

The new puppy. Roxy. It turns out I am a dog person and I like big dogs.

She does not know she is a Rottweiler. I think of Rottweilers' as being big, confident, and not overly friendly. She is the opposite. She is clumsy, awkward, very friendly, and adorable with the kids. She has only made one sound when the mean cat scratched her, she cried and ran away.

We really like her and hope she gets to come back home with us.

If You Build It, They Will Come

Today after church we had the chance to go out to St. Rock again and meet with the people we are going to start the feeding clinic with and for. Johnny (our security guard) went with us, he is going to be sharing a spiritual message with the people before they eat. We sent word that we would be taking pictures of children who may be interested in participating in the feeding clinic.
Others we have spoken to about feeding clinics say that they usually are slow to start so we were thinking that saying we could feed 100-150 would be doable. Imagine our surprise when we pulled up to find a crowd of 175 children and their parents waiting for us. I think they had been sitting for a long time waiting for our arrival and saving our spots.
I was humbled again today and reminded again how blessed I am. I only hope that we can pass some of our blessings onto these people.

Crash & Bang

This was the day that started with a crash and ended with a bang.

We had a big rain storm last night and about 6am today we heard a huge crash. I thought a dresser had fallen over. Justin said it sounded like a tree fell down. He was right. Who guesses that and is right?

Anyways, a tree fell over and blocked the road. Luckily some Haitians with axes (who wanted me to pay them for taking their picture and for clearing the road) took care of the large tree in the road. However, it fell through the already pretty useless power lines and completely pulled another power line pole through the fence. The neighbors said we will not have power for a few weeks maybe shorter if we bribe them. It was a "where are we living" kind of day. So we went for an awesome hike and rememberd why we love it here, see separate post.

The day ended with;

-BJ slipping in some water and banging his head in which he gave himself a concussion, complete with vomitting. No we don't need to see a Dr.yet, we've been through this before. Plus each kid only gets one Dr. visit a week here and his has already used his up.

-A new puppy, name yet to be determined with a post to follow. I just hope this one gets to stay around!

-Another flat tire which left Rachel and I hunting down a tire place that was still open with the help of 2 10 year old boys. We found their idea of a "tire place" beinga guy with a bicycle pump.

Hiking Today

Today we decided that we wanted to go on a hike. We took a long drive on a crappy road, shocker I know, up to a beautiful place in the mountains. It was really foggy and actually a little chilly. I was glad I had sweatshirts for the babies.

The scenery was beautiful and the people we equally as beautiful. I wanted to share some of the pictures.

It is a farming community and today with the thick fog it was absolutely beautiful.

I will never get over the baskets on the head thing here. I love the look of it.

Some of the people...

Crunch

Of all the things that could go wrong with our giant beast of a truck that has no seat belts in the back seat, drives on roads that are not fit to be driving on with people who are not fit to be driving in a land where there are no traffic rules, I never expected the first car incident to be this one.
It was totally my fault. I did not see BJ climbing in the back and slammed the door on his arm and broke it.

The silver lining is that we went to an amazing little hospital in Petionville that took an x-ray without seeing anyone and sent us on to an amazing orthopedic also in town who casted his arm and had us on our way all in under 3 hours. And that was with waiting 2 hours for the Dr.to get back from another clinic. I was impressed with the medical care we got here today and glad we found out about it in less than serious circumstances although BJ may disagree. The whole way down the mountain he cried at me "you shut the door on my arm!" over and over and over like I could feel any worse than I already do.

The Golden Ticket, part 2

I love this girlie. She is so stinkin' easy and lovely and everything that is not a 3 year old. She also continues to be our "golden ticket" (think Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) with the people of Haiti. They all love her. She breaks the ice in all situations. She is endearing and I dare you not to like her. It's impossible. Today when BJ broke his arm and we loaded the kids in the car to go to the hospital, Roselie and Angelo were just concerned that we were not feeding SF as she usually eats in the afternoon via her feeding tube.
We love her. I can not believe she has been part of our family for a year now. And in other ways, I can not believe it has only been a year. It seems like we have known her forever.

The Orphanage

Today was a quick visit to the Orphanage (before I broke BJs arm) because there was a truck broken down on the only road that goes down from our house. But at still good none the less.

IS with Alex and Nicholas. After this picture baby Nicholas wanted to be held as he usually does when I am there. He was asleep in all of 3 min. He is one sweet baby.

Roselie has come with us a few times. She used to work at an orphanage and her heart is for children. I love seeing her with other Haitian children, you can tell she is a natural. I feel badly for the kids she had to leave at the orphanage where she used to work. I am sure she is missed there.

These two roughnecks are on an official mission the last few times we have been there. We started noticing a lot of the kids were missing so we went to find them and found that they were potty training in a different area of the orphanage. What we also found on our way there was quite a few rats. These two have it set in their mind they will catch them. They now come equipped with traps when we go.

Trying to get a little friend to walk to me.

Rachel fixing Grace's hair. She quickly learned that to do "black hair" you lay the baby across your lap. I think the nanny's must think we are nuts!

Class Notes

Dear class, How are you? What are you doing? We have done a lot this week. First we went to the baby house and bathed the baby’s. We threw rocks at the rats that are running everywhere. Then we went on the roof and threw paper airplanes in the fire. Then it was SIANT PATRICKS DAY. We made a leprechaun trap but didn’t catch any. Then we went to the beach. On the way back my mom hit two goats and killed them both. It was so sad I cried.

Sincerely,
CT
Dear Class-
How are you doing are you having fun? I miss you. I am coming home soon. I went to bathe babys. We saw puppies. They were Jennas puppies. We might get one. It is SF Birthey. She is three. We went to the beach. There was a pool. I swam in the pool a lot. I did londry with Roselly. We made a lepercan trap, we did not catch any lepercans they out smarted us. The runed our house.

Au Re Voir
Love, IS

Dear Class-
What are you doing this week? That is SF by the doggies, they are Nathans doggies. They are so little and cute we are maybe going to get a boy and a girl puppies from Nathan and Jenna and Jan and my Mom's friend. I miss you. That was a picture of Nora in the bathtub. They have tiny bathtubs they just use a bucket. Nora is tiny she can fit in a basket. We take Haitian showers with a bucket and a little bucket. That was all the food in the truck at a feeding clinic I saw a guy that ate two plates. We went there yesterday. We still have cake left over from SF Birthday. That was me and Dad at the beach I like Dad a tiny bit more than Mom (mind you Mom is transcribing this note, nice).

Bye Bye-
Sincerely- TJ

St.Particks Day

So it turns out that Leprechauns come to Haiti also. They are just as mischievous as they are at home. They knocked over chairs and spilled stuff making a ruckus everywhere! This time they left goudes laying around instead of US dollars. That was kind of cool.
The kids made this trap, but it was unsuccessful again. Someday we will trap one for sure!

One of the traps we spent days making.

A little Bit Haitian

I think it is official we are becoming a little bit Haitian. We have been without power for quite a while and survived. Until today when SF's feeding pump went out. Then the Mama Bear had to come out and get things taken care of. The people of Haiti are already a little curious why we don't feed "the golden ticket", imagine when I told them she would starve if they did not fix our power situation. Lets just say we have power again :)

In the mean time, we have gone to bed at 8:15 after dying of boredom for too many nights and now I will be catching up on the blog. So sorry in advance for all the posts!

This kid is more than a little Haitian.

He dumps out the shoe bucket in the pitch dark with his little flashlight to find his shoes. In fact, he has been having a blast roaming the house with the stinkin flashlight at all hours of the night. (I wish the flash did not go off on my camera to do this picture justice).

He can be found sleeping on the floor at times.

And he uses the bathroom wherever he pleases.

One day this week, mind you it was laundry day and all the clean laundry was out to dry, they were burning the field next our house. We went up on the roof to get a better look. Sure enough smoke was billowing up and onto the clean clothes.

So the kids made paper airplanes out of their completed homework and aimed for the fire. CT made it in a few times!

This week the rest of the household talked me into giving the dog to our guard who was elated. Now I am stuck with this cat who thinks she is a dog anyway.

The other night Justin was reading this book in bed only to turn it over and find this tiny, squished, dead lizard stuck on it! I guess better there than in my bed.

As our power was out most of the week, the water pump would not work so we had to fish water out of the pit under the house. Roselie is an expert.

She is also the expert laundry doer. Although this week she had a lot of help. One thing is for sure, they have the Haitian squat down!

Also a little Haitian. Sometimes the little people who are thinking about potty training do not wear pants. It is just a lot less to clean up. And sometimes they do not get their underwear on correctly either, but really nobody cares here.