Another Week

It’s 8:40 Saturday morning, the breakfast dishes are washed and our little generator has been charging our inverter batteries and running our little chest freezer for almost two hours now. My little MP3 player is tuned to Horizon (4VEH) which is rebroadcasting Christian radio out of Montgomery, AL. through the computer speakers it fills our living room with music. Jane has been gearing up for English class inscription (registration) staring Monday.

Last Monday I met with Susan Rakoczy with LifeWater Int. and John Beasley from the Dominican about helping out with the ongoing maintenance of a fleet of German military trucks used throughout Haiti by many different mission organizations. Tuesday I was able to spend five hours with John and their Haitian mechanic getting to know the inns and outs of these vehicles. Wednesday Jane and I made our way to immigration to start the annual renewal process of our Permis De Sejours (Visas) along with picking up some needed items and groceries from Cap. Thursday it was airport day; it has been exciting to see the ongoing renovations at the Cap-Haitian International airport. The terminal has had many changes, and now the runway is being lengthened and built new from scratch in sections all while the airport continues to function. I was told at MFI on our return that I would not recognize the airport and sure enough it is changing each week into a very modern day facility. Friday, Jane had a meeting about English class and we took the Rakoczy’s up on their offer of a few free chickens. We boxed up two pullets and a young rooster for our yard. Upon arriving home I started to open the box and Jestlin our yard keeper said NO! against his better judgment I let the young chickens escape, they took off in three different directions. I can remember that my parents kept chickens when I was a preschooler but I never really knew much about their care. Enel showed up just as we started to try and round them up. He went on to exclaim that you need to tie a string to their ankle and keep them leashed for a period of time until they come to understand that they are to stay in their new safe place. Well between “No-name” the neighbor, Jane, Jestlin, and I we were able to get the three back together in our yard, some feed, water and after a few hours found that it would be their new home. Jane named them Rudy the rooster, Matilda & Betsy. They seemed to like to hide beneath the cactus thicket fence by our house. They would hang out and eat together in the cooler times of the day checking out the yard. At about 15 minutes before sundown I watched Rudy fly up into a small mango tree in our front yard then making his way to higher branches to roost for the night. The girls were out behind our garden wall but were making their way around the house to where Rudy had been. Betsy could hear him and when she spotted him got excited and also flew up to crotch in the tree about six feet and made her way near Rudy. Matilda tried her best to fly up but only got about three feet off of the ground and clung to a lump on the trunk there. Poor Matilda was desperately looking at the other two and knew that the daylight would soon be gone. She jumped to the ground and once again tried but to no avail. I was able to slowly lean a piece of bamboo up to the crotch of the tree and stepped back, Matilda flapped and climbed the bamboo to safety with the others. Jane & I laughed at how all had turned out throughout the day.


Continue to pray for Haiti, they have been in the grip of a long drought. Many of the water wells here have dried up and the better wells are struggling to keep up with the strain. We have heard stories of long waiting lines at some wells and how one Pastor has been trucking containers for miles to keep his congregation in safe drinking water. Susan told me Thursday that they have fifty requests for new wells and ten came in the last week. The Haitian crew continues to drill new wells along with keeping existing wells repaired.

Bud