Thursday, 4/11
It was a month ago; we were gathered for the Davis’s early fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration here in Haiti prior to them going to the US to celebrate the actual date with family & friends. Sammy was in his walker and zipping around the banquet hall. A number of friends told me that it is very important that children master crawling before walking in order to learn a very important skill of arm/leg motor development. As a typical parent I went home and worked with him on the floor, coaxing to get up on his knees to get crawling (rally: to pull or crawl in Creole). Jane was more optimistic and said that he will do just fine, just watch. Now he crawls around the house on our ceramic tiles almost as fast as you can walk. He likes to stand and find his way around hanging onto the furniture. He will be walking, exploring and getting into everything all too soon.
Last Friday we were blessed with a hot water heater. We had planned many times to purchase one here but always something more pressing would come up. Last Saturday I was able to install it and connect it to our shower. We didn’t have any problems taking the cold showers, but during cooler weather they became quite invigorating to say the least, it’s also quite nice to run a pan of hot dish water than to monkey with the tea kettle on the stove.
Saturday evening it started to rain at 7PM getting harder and harder. About 8:30 our landlord called and asked if we were OK. We had a few drips here and there but nothing to be concerned with. Jane opened the front door and shown the flashlight around and we see that the drainage ditch that crosses our drive way had dammed up and filled the driveway with soft ball size rocks that flowed down the mountain. The storm finished at 9PM but produced many, many inches of rain. Back in November we had the same thing happen but with sand and at that time we had opened a large hole in the cactus fence next to us to prevent it again. Just last week two of the guys patched the hole with fencing to contain the goats in the field next door and low and behold the fence plugged with debris during the storm causing the flood again. Now the hole is open again. The guys spent a couple of days getting the rocks cleared and us back to normal. Our wonderful watchman/yardman Juslain found that his fiancée and their two kids who live down near the river were flooded, so Sunday morning we went and waded through 29 inches of water to move them up to Juslain’s house in our backyard. It was a busy place for four days with added house guests, meals, and school uniforms. By Tuesday they were able to clean the water from their house and return home on Wednesday. By the way if you are wondering the wedding is May 11.
Monday: it was work at Lifewater as Paul had brought parts in from Alberta, Canada to repair one of the drill rigs.
Tuesday: the Davis’s flew out for their time in the US and we are helping babysit 18 month old Savanna (Sammy’s kissing cousin)
Wednesday: I spent the morning out at an orphanage were we are drilling a new well. We had had some problems which Paul, Edrick, Junior and I was able to resolve. While returning at noon to Davis’s to take my turn at watching the kids so that Jane could teach at 1PM, I noticed a man at the tire repair next to the Total gas station was filling an assortment of 1 gallon jugs with gasoline and lining them up on a table next to the road. This is a “sign” that they are out of gas and he will sell you a gallon at a scalper’s price, hopefully it is 100% pure! I didn’t think much of it as that Total station often runs out. About 5PM Jane called me and said that they were at the National station closer to town and that National was out of gas. Oops, I told her about the guy by Total at noon but disregarded the “sign”. She had Juslain with her and later I found that she was able to purchase gas at the Sol station. She waited in line with many anxious cars & motorcycles with jugs, buckets and Tap-taps, some with 55 gallon drums. She was able to buy with what she had with her, 2000 gourdes ($50.00 USD) for 10 gallons. That will keep us going until the delayed shipment arrives from Port-au-Prince or Venezuela. Thankfully we have had quite a bit of EDH [Electric-du-Haiti] so the generator has been off most of the time. This happened about a month ago after Hugo’s funeral; usually we get word of a shortage thru the grapevine to stock up.
Thursday: This morning our internet was very fast for a while but it seems to have slowed down again, maybe just a tease. Our monthly bill is due tomorrow but we have been registering complains about the recent weeks of very slow or no speed. They continue to say that they are awaiting equipment to make repairs at our local cell tower, hopefully that is the case. Jane is off for the day to teach ESL and run some errands. She has been shopping for an outfit for the wedding. Sammy is in the middle of his morning nap so things are quite peaceful. MFI [Missionary Flights Int.] is not flying here today as they are headed with their staff and families to retreat at a mission in the Bahamas and will back on schedule next Tuesday. Hopefully they get some much needed rest and family time!
Please pray for:
• A Haitian friend’s protection,
• A friend & brother Ironworker’s chemotherapy treatments,
• Sammy and Savanna’s adoptions,
Bud
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