Day Three

Hello everyone, we are staying warm and working hard in all areas. The building team was making trusses for the roof of the kindergarten building. We are making 20 large ones and 8 smaller ones. We got 14 of the large ones done with the help of the medical team and the water team. The people here are so simple and all have huge smiles for us. I feel very humbled to be able to be here and to help where needed. There is a huge need for everything. I pray we can put a dent in the huge picture. The best thing we do each day is traveling back and forth to the school. We get to ride in the back of the pick up truck. Tonight we got 16 of us in the small pick up truck. Ten in the back and five of us rode inside the truck. We are growing closer together to each other and the quiet ones are opening up and sharing with each other. Keep the prayers coming. One thing I forgot to let you know is that the pallet we sent on Feb. 18 came in today. If anyone sees Keith Stutzman let him know I love him and will see him early Sunday morning. God bless!

 Denise Stutzman

Today was the most eventful day I have had in Haiti thus farJ.  Lynn and I, along with our trusty guide/water project leader, Alain, traveled all around the city.  Our project has been slow going, but as Alain says, it is a “long term” project, and we are just starting on an adventure that will help to get clean water in the hands of many, many Haitians.  In order to install our bio-sand water filters there are tons of things we need.   We had a shopping list!!  Shopping in Cap-Haitien??  Lynn and I had NO idea what to expect, but we hopped in Alain’s car and off we went--at high speeds and with no traffic laws.   It was exhilarating!!  We started at what Alain called the “Haitian Home Depot”, which was a 20x20 shop filled to the brim with paint cans, sand paper, door handles, buckets, shovels, screens and much more.  We were able to cross many items off of our list, but left in search of just a few more necessities.  We trekked to a couple more shops and then Alain took us to the Market.  THE Market.  I have never felt like I was in a scene right out of a movie more than I did there!!  A feast for the eyes!!!  Alain warned us that it wouldn’t be prudent to take pictures there, so I did my best to memorize all of what I saw.  Hundreds of “stalls” were filled with any thing a Haitian might need.  Stalls is a relative term, cause most consisted of a person sitting on the ground, surrounded by their wares.  Shoes, shirts, pots and pans, charcoal irons, bananas, rice, beans, used TV’s, underwear, jewelry, used baby dolls and a myriad of other things filled up an area about the size of a football field.  It was covered by a large metal roof, which looked to be VERY old and classy.  A true Third World Market.  Lynn and I had perma-grin.  We just kept smiling and giggling at each other---all the while speaking our halting and sparse Haitian Creole:  “Bonjou!  Merci!  Bonjou!!  Bonjou!  Escuse’!! “  We even saw a well dressed man with a megaphone telling the people the Good News of Jesus. 

After filling our car, and sending others in search of a few hard-to-locate items, we traveled to the school where Alain’s children attend.  It was an American mission run school on the outskirts of Cap-Haitien.  We saw a few blond haired, blue eyed children and teachers from places like Indiana and Illinois.  We met Alain’s 10 and 6 yr old kids, and LOVED them!!  His son told us, in very good English, that he is 6, only because he has to get through that before he can be 7.  J Alain’s daughter is 10 and speaks English like a native!!  I wished, silently, that we could hire her to be a translator!! 

We dropped the children off at an aunt’s house, and went to the school run by FBC of Cap-Haitien.  There we found the construction team: sweating profusely and working their little fingers to the bone!!  I felt slightly bad for having toured the town while they put together 14 trusses.  But, God’s hand is certainly in all of our work here---and we can’t all be doing the same job!   All will give many blessings to the people here, and all is important.  There is no feeling quite like being the hands and feet of Jesus here on Earth!!   Thank you all for your interest and support, and especially, your prayers!!

Korlyn Leonard