Crocheting Girls

An energetic and lovable group of six native girls live here at the Leogane Girl’s Home. In July we are expecting ten more girls to join us. The girls who join our program are from the ages of 7-10 and come from the poorest of the poor homes. The main goal of the program here is to teach the girls about God, to show them His love, and to give them a chance to improve their lives. Four days a week, a native lady comes in to teach the girls how to crochet. With time the girls become very swift at crocheting and some can even do a 30” doily in two days.

Most of these girls have been here for several years…

These girls love to crochet… especially with yarn. It amazes me how fast they use up the yarn. I plan to buy some yarn when we go back home for a visit and get one of the girls to crochet an afghan for us! There is never to much yarn here…

 

It’s time to take a break!!

Stone for the Drive

This is the truck that was used to haul the stone from the river bottom.

Don, Dale, and Do went to the river bottom with the skid loader and the dump truck for a load of stone for the drive. They brought small stones for the drive and larger ones to edge the drive. I think it really looks nice…

The Scout comes out of Customs

This forenoon  Don, Do, and Erik headed to Ti Goave to meet Pastor Levy. Ti- Goave is about 45 minutes from Leogane. From there they all went to Miragoane to get the Scout out of customs. Some anxiety stirred within me for I knew that Don was loaded with cash to pay taxes on the Scout. They tell us that Grande Goave can be a rough area. (They drove through Grand Goave on their way) In fact earlier this morning the town was blocked off for awhile and several houses were burnt. It is my understanding that some nationals were upset with the results of an election of some sort.

I took my burden to the Lord several times through out the day and I found peace in doing that.

Upon arriving in Miragoane, Don said that they headed straight for the bank! Pastor Levy had scheduled the customs officer to meet with them there. Pastor Levy has been such a blessing, straight from God! He took care of the necessary paperwork and they were good to go!

Don says that the system here is unbelievable! After the transaction at the bank they headed for the lot where the Scout was kept. First they went inside the wall where the office building was… several guys were sitting outside  the wall of the office building with old fashioned typewriters. The customs officer handed one of the guys a paper. The guy was sitting at a rickety desk with an umbrella to shade him from the hot sun. The wind took the opportunity to blow hard enough to knock the umbrella over so the man moved his desk to what he thought might be a better spot. Several concrete blocks served as his office chair. The man typed something on the paper. Pastor Levy paid the man for his services and they headed for the next “office”. The next “office” was inside the building. The customs officer took the paper into the building while the rest of the men waited outside. From there they walked out the gate, down the street, into the gated lot where the Scout sat  and walked in the side door of the building that they had just come from! (Don says he can’t figure out why they couldn’t just walk through the building to the next office!)  They visited a couple more “offices”.. one an outdoor one and the other a “shack”. Each time Pastor Levy dished out some more money! Finally everyone was satisfied and they received the “go ahead” … keys were sticking in the ignition of the Scout. Don asked Pastor Levy if he was going to get the title for the Scout. Pastor Levy said, “No”! He informed Don that it would be sent to Port and that it would stay in Port. If a person decides to sell his vehicle, he does not have to have the title! Don is glad that he at least made a copy of the title before handing the title to the shipping company in Miami, Florida! ( I have a smart man!) ;)

It took Don a little over an hour  to drive the Scout from Miragoane to Ti Goave. He drove it down the main road like any other vehicle..up the mountain and down. He says that it drove nicely.

The Scout is now  parked in Ti Goave at Pastor Levy’s house.

Thanks for your time! Keep praying for us!

Until later~ Karole

Creole Class and Tarantula

 

A person who moves to Haiti, feels handicapped if he or she doesn’t know the language that is spoken by the nationals. So we have decided to overcome that barrier and learn the language….. at least try to!! It has been my dream for a long time to learn another language, so here is my opportunity. I would have preferred learning Spanish for it seems to me that there would be greater opportunity to speak that language at home. However, since Haiti is where God has called us to serve, I will assume that it is his will that we learn Creole.

We have Creole class scheduled for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons. Trish and Dou Dou are the teachers.

Trish and Dou Dou live here on the compound. Dou Dou is assistant administrator and is in charge of the foster program that BRIC is involved with. Trish has lived in Haiti quite a few years and has the language very well… by the way… they are expecting their first child the beginning of September!

We are starting out, with what they say, are easy works and phrases…

This is Elizabeth Showalter, from Stuarts Draft, Virginia. She is the secretary here… we go to her for money!.. She also helps with the resident girls, plus is involved with the foster program.

Shortly after class today, Dale comes running up to our apartment and tells me that I need to come and look at the tarantula that they found outside! I grabbed the camera and headed out to see….

Notice how that ugly spider blends in with its surroundings?! Don had fun teasing it a little. Once he hit the ground real hard with a pipe and immediately the spider fell front and acted dead! But when we tried to put it on the paper plate that I took out, it woke up and decided to look threatening! I got several pictures but didn’t dare go as close as Dale was going for fear the thing would take a huge leap and land on my arm or somewhere else.. I would have screamed with fright!! I would rather have a rat run through my house than have a tarantula jump on me!!!!!!!! ( Erma, don’t tell Kari about the tarantula! lol)

   

The tarantula did a good job at looking scary! I think I will watch the ground I tread after this!….

Today has been a busy day for me… I cooked breakfast for my family, did school with the boys, (not finished), cooked lunch for the staff, had Creole class, cleaning our apartment in preparation for Bible Study tonight…. You all have a good evening! Keep us on your prayer list!! love you all…

The Foods of Haiti

 

I thought that you all might be interested in knowing what we have to eat here in Haiti, especially you ladies! We eat a lot of rice and beans. There is also a lot of American food available and we have our share of that too.

I had hopes of slimming down a bit by our move to Haiti. I assumed that our diet would make it easy to lose weight BUT that is not the case! I’ve decided that in order to keep trim and fit you need to apply the same principles that you do at home! #1. self-discipline!

I am going to start out by showing you a picture of our pantry:

Hmm… you can see some of the dust that I have to deal with on a daily basis! Anyone want to come and house clean the pantry for me?

We also have a several air conditioned rooms in the "”anba” house where a lot of food is kept.. especially food that is used to feed the girls that are here at the home.

The yellow barrels  have rice, corn, wheat, milk, etc. in them.

There are also two refrigerators in the “anba” house… one holds goodies for the Americans and the other is the vegetable refrigerator. We also have two refrigerators in the house…

I am in charge of  Wednesday and Friday lunch for all the American staff. On Monday, Thursday, and Saturday we get a Haitian meal that is prepared by the Haitian cook that lives here at the Leogane Children’s Home. The staff girls and Trish take turns for the Tuesday meal. For breakfast and supper we are all responsible for our own meal. We also take turns making the pizza for Saturday night and the meal for Sunday.

Following are some pictures of traditional Haitian food…

The Haitians do not eat a lot of meat, therefore the chicken in the first picture is a real “treat”.. The second picture is something similar to fried bananas and there is also bread fruit on the same platter. Bread fruit reminds me of french fries. It is good with salt and ketchup! The last picture is cabbage and carrots tossed in a delicious sauce… I haven’t asked the cook what she puts in it! All I know is that it is really good!

We have several mango trees here at Leogane and we have enjoyed mango shakes a number of times. Dou Dou likes to make mango shakes.

Mango shakes are a refreshing drink on a hot day!

Erik likes to eat fresh mangoes.

We have been enjoying fresh bananas as well… there are several banana trees here.

I promise you, these bananas taste a whole lot better than they look!

We have been eating with the girls on Mondays and Thursdays… they do not come home from school until 1:00 PM which makes for a late lunch.. but we have a good time together.

Sometimes we are able to buy fresh grapefruits at the market… talk about delicious!!!! They are great juice grapefruits…

 

I found this electric juicer in the cupboard and made good use of it already!

That’s it for now! You all have a great day!

… Continued…

….  after all the “sticky” weather we were having in Leogane, the cool breezes of the mountain felt wonderful! The air was fresh and clean and the scenery was spectacular.

After a pleasant evening with Rhonda and her children we, retired for the night. The night was quiet and peaceful. No fans were needed and no mosquitoes bothered me.

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful Lord’s day. We enjoyed the freshly baked oatmeal that Rose prepared for our breakfast, (Rose, who is 14,  is Rhonda’s oldest “daughter'’)  after which we helped dress the little ones and get them ready for church.

The children admired the “machine” that we had brought and wanted to ride to church with us! Our children wanted to ride with Rhonda on her husky so we traded some of the children!

The children were thrilled to be riding with us.

It wasn’t long until the husky passed us! A vehicle like that is a good way to go here in Haiti.

Since we were planning to eat lunch with the missionaries at Allegre, we stopped by there on our way to church and dropped off our ice chest, which contained  some food that I had prepared for lunch. Don decided to leave our vehicle at the mission and walk the rest of the way… I am guessing that it took us about 15-20 minutes to reach the church. It was a bit of a strenuous walk… but I enjoyed it! Makes me feel young.. :)

On the way into the mission at Allegre, there is a VERY steep hill, called Jack Rabbit Hill. I do not like that hill!!! We made it down okay but I worried about our ascent. And I was not the only one that wondered if we would be able to make it out with the vehicle that we were driving! Even Don was concerned! And if Don is concerned… there usually is a good reason! (The vehicle’s four-low didn’t work… but we had four high.)

After spending the afternoon with the missionaries at Allegre, we decided that it was time to head home… Steve Simmons offered to go ahead of us with his four wheeler and help us up Jack Rabbit hill! The first attempt was unsuccessful… the four wheeler “fish tailed” in front of us and we came to a dead stop on the steep hill.. unable to go any further. I “bailed out” again and hiked up instead! ;)

 

I hope those pictures give you an idea what we were dealing with!!

Well they gave it a second shot… they roared up the hill and the black smoke blew out the back of the Montero… but they made it! Thank God!

To sum it up.. we made it home AFTER dark and in the pouring down rain! We once again praise God for His mercies and for giving us a great weekend!

Thanks to all of you who are praying for us.. Prayer TRULY helps! We can feel it!!! Love you all…