Good Morning ..and a fine one it is! The plants and shrubs are glistening in the morning sunshine from last night's rainfall...what a beautiful site to greet us as we gathered at the picnic table for breakfast this AM.

Yesterday afternoon our Internet problem was fixed..what a great relief it is, despite the pain it caused to the pocketbook. It is amazing how fast one quickly acclimatizes to the instant news and messaging and "feels" the inconvenience when it is not available. I kept reminding myself that in my early days in Haiti, I was thrilled to have mail delivery once a week!!

On another positive note, Jean and crew were finally able to fish the motor out of the well. The fellows deserve a medal as far as I am concerned, for their ingenuity in rigging up the "fishing pole" and their persistance it resolving the problem. The down side is that we have discovered the problem and it means we have to order a new pump and motor in order to get the well up and running again. So it looks like we will be having a few more tanks of water delivered to the school in the meantime. ......at least we have that option so we feel fortunate for that.

Jean has been returning to Hope House late each day as a result of the work he has been doing. One evening he joined us for a few minutes after dinner and graced us by playing the guitar and singing several songs in French and Creole and then a few Christian songs in English. It was a special moment for the team members.


Today is flag day, a National Day in Haiti as we salute their flag, which was first made in Archaie, a town about an hour north of Port au Prince. This will be one of the new President's first official engagements as he attends mass at the St Pierre Catholic Church in Archaie and then joins the Mayor in saying a few words to the public afterwards. If tradition holds they will also enjoy watching a number of youth groups performing their precision marching and chanting. Yesterday was hot dog day at school in recongnition of the special holiday. The visiting team members who were at the school painting the rafters in the chapel, enjoyed seeing the kids march out of the school waving their flags and singing with much gusto and enthusiasm.


Saturday past, was the inauguration of President Martelly. I was able to watch a bit of the ceremony on TV in between my various chores and activities. Two great stands had been built on the grounds in front of the ruined palace for the Presidential contigent and all of the honoured guests and special invitees. It was quite a site and it hit home once again the amount of work that still needs to be done and the many challenges the new President is facing. Many people on the street interviews seem to indicate that in general they are pretty hopeful that Martelly will be able to bring about positive change for them. Please continue to pray that it will be thus.

and that my friends is it for this time around. Wishing you all a great day. .....Debbie

Catching you up to date with a few photos.......

The Joyful Spirit team enjoying Jean's evening serenade

The "Rock n Block" team leader, or in his words (definately not mine) "The Blockhead".....getting a little road repair accomplished

Flag Day celebrations getting underway at the school.

Health Center retaining wall....as Bert puts it "a real work of art"..and much greater endeavor than we imagined.

Good morning:
It is a refreshing morning after another night of rain. It has been falling regularly in the evening the last three nights. At the same time we are also discovering more work for the current and future teams as we have felt rain drops falling on our heads....inside instead of outside. Poor Bert and Roberta even had to get out of their comfy bed last night to get out of the way of the drips and I know where not to stand in the kitchen if I want to stay dry. There is always something to attend to. Water seems to be our issue this month. We are still dealing with the problem of the well pump at the school. Yesterday the technicians came to pull the pump so we could look to see what the problem and horror of horrors as they were pulling it out one of the couplings came loose and sepated the pump and down it fell into the well. This definately was not good news! .....and we thought we had problems with our leaky roofs. Today they will try and fish out the pump with some sort of device that Jean and the technicians will be concocting.

The construction side of the Joyful Spirit team have been hard at it constructing the small incinerator and putting the roof over the latrines at the back of the school. They now really know the meaning of "hot" having been laboring away under the Haitian sun. It doesn't take them long to get through the 5 gallons of water we send out and the last two days we have doubled that and more to make sure they don't "dry" out in the course of their day.

The other half of the group has been attending to things at Little Children of Jesus. The kids are enjoying their company.

Construction carries on with the health center. Wouldn't you know it though,, they are at a point where they need a lot of water to be preparing the concrete to pour the footings. Definately not a timely moment for the well pump to go on the fritz. Such are the vagaries of life though and our engineer is used to dealing with such challenges. So he is going to start digging the foundation for the latrines and will use that excavation as a reservoir for water and he will have a tanker or two delivered to hold the water so they can attend to the other part of the project. .....as the saying goes.."if their is a will, there is a way!"

Hi folks.....It's May 5 today as I type away at this note. We awoke to clear and fresh skies, after a night of rain...good for the farmers and keeping the dust at bay but still a challenge for those living under less than ideal conditions.
We have had a quiet couple of weeks, as you have probably gathered from the dirth of updates on the blog. It's just been taking care of daily business. The construction at the health center continues..more holes are dug and one of the retaining walls is even on its way up. We are quite pleased with the progress and are on schedule according to our engineer....even better!
It just stands to reason that since everything was going along so smoothly that something was bound to come along to upset the apple cart..and so it is thus. The last several days we have been dealing with a water problem at the school since the pump in the well gave up the ghost. Bert and Jean have earned their keep tracking down well drillers who can pull the pump, purchasing a new pump, organizing a delivery of water to the school and purchasing a new holding tank for said water. All I have had to do is hand over the money......well we did have several pow-wows together over the situation so I wasn't completely out of the picture. At any rate I was thankful that the two gents took on the problem which left me free to do banking, budget and university student disbursement duties. Clovis as well has had his hand in helping to sort out the situation...especially keeping and eye on the reserve of water. So keep us in your prayers with the hope that everything can be changed over on the weekend as planned.
Now we are gearing up for the May/June teams, one of which arrives this Saturday. They arrive just in time to greet the new President Martelly as the inauguration takes place on Saturday. I haven't heard too many of the details but I know there is a big ceremony planned. It will be interesting to follow his course of action over the months to come.
The last time I wrote I had trouble uploading pictures to the report but today I am having more luck so here are several to get you up to date.
1. The blushing bride is one of our grade 4 teachers. She was beautiful...just as all brides are.
2. Two of our "Wedding March" team as they braved the watery streets on our way back from the wedding.
3. Our kindergarten teachers presenting the eggs they decorated with the kids for their Easter baskets
4. Progress on the work site...chipping away at the hard rock. Just imagine doing it under the hot noontime sun!
In Haiti, Mother's Day is celebrated the last Sunday in May, but back home it is this Sunday coming up. So as I say goodbye for this time around, I leave you with this little Jewish proverb.
God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.- Jewish proverb
Wishing you a Sunday filled with the loving warmth of motherhood, happy gatherings with your Mother's and for those unable to be with their mother for whatever the reason, may cherished memories fill your cup.....mine runneth over!












Happy Mother's Day Mom....Debbie