More work at Foison, moving dirt, cracking gravel, rolling rocks, tying rebar. There is not much to show for all this labor, it seems, but we know it is important. All this drudgery will contribute to the sturdiness of the final school building. Even the small pebbles we are making may save the life of a child if the column does not collapse because of its increased strength. Short day today.
Sarah, Delores, Deborah and Deb Robinson went to pray with Madam Vernix, the wife of one of the pastors as she was overdue in her pregnancy and would soon be traveling to Port de Paix to deliver her child. It was a special moment of praying for a first-time mother. I prayed in English, then Deb Robinson prayed in Creole.
Later most of the team stopped to sing and pray with a worker who had a fever. It seemed to bring him joy!
Bruce takes most of the team to view various projects. Back at the team house, we all eat lunch and do various tasks, mostly related to packing the tents back up. Rob and Dan assemble a basketball goal. About 3 PM it rains! It rains enough for Bruce to come pick us up for dinner in the truck. It is a light, refreshing and nourishing rain for the parched land -- enough to keep it green a while longer, enough to provide a little more food for humans and animals. We are a bit inconvenienced, for the humidity skyrockets after the rain, but who are we to complain about that? Praise God for life-giving rain!
Here is Deb Robinson's report on the day.
"The gang went to see projects today, will find out tonight where all that
was, guess they aren't tired yet of bouncing up and down on the roads! Bill
has been a huge help and stayed behind the past 2 days working on the ham
radio set up and antennae and computer work. P Chrisbon's computer is about
dead and we have a new laptop that was donated in March but I didn't feel
techy enough to transfer all the data from one to another and so Bill has
been doing that, some of it is rather complex. This job is almost complete
and I think he has some work on the radios. Mason has been playing the
'team' guitar and the kids have really enjoyed this at Foison.
"With all the computer work the past 2 days the team house exceeded the
allotted band width for the internet with needed downloads for P Chrisbon's
computer and survey work the interns are doing. You then have to wait 24
hours for it to be up to speed again, it will run but extremely slow and
thus difficult for lots of email. This computer work and the work the
office men do is really important and we are sorry there has not been an
ability for each one to communicate lots of info, please apologize for us.
This is just how it is here with our technology abilities.
"Thanks for prayers. Everyone has really enjoyed the mangos and the market
experience was good and educational yesterday for all. I was able to get
some grenadia or in English they are called passion fruit and made a nice
juice last night and that was our appetizer there were lots of oohhhs and
ahhs did you hear them?"
Today I am going to write about Sarah. We knew she had a helping and giving spirit from her work at the fund raisers. Here, she reminded me a lot of Maria King, although they are very different people: hard-working, easy going, full of love for the kids and with the love of God in her heart. Deborah summed it up with better words than I have. "Sarah was our heart. Sweet Sarah. Never complaining, always ready to do what needed to be done, showing love especially to the children. She was our comforter." Thank God for Sarah.
I will add Jym to today also, for I am running out of days. Jym had shopped for most of our provisions, to help us get ready. He prepared our breakfasts and our lunches, and masterminded the special meal for the Robinsons on Sunday. He organized us at the team house and kept us “watered” at the work site. He was also often our sense of humor, breaking tension and helping us laugh at ourselves. He was a great contributor to team cohesion. Jym came to Haiti 18 years ago. This place gets into your blood, into your soul. He, like others of us, had to come back. Thank God for Jym.
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Thanks for catching up with the blog. Deb has kept me posted and that has been helpful. Even though the team is getting in very late on Friday night, if there are any college students or others who would like to do the food bank on Saturday morning I would love to have them. Delores, John and Suzanne are coming. I told John he doesn't really need to be awake, just standing. Mason, I hope you will come. Dan, Sarah, and Rob we would love to have you too. It is the college and recently graduated group this time. Are you guys going to the beach tomorrow?
ReplyDeletePete gives a good report on Liz. Deborah, the boys seem to be fine.
Sandi