Monday Night we had a Great Rainfall

Monday night we had a great rainfall, it cooled the air and gave us a damp night, but it was wonderful! Our tents were all out in the open when the rain started so Dickie quickly got them back under the roof and we expected it to be hard and quick but it lasted a long time and was still raining lightly when we made our way to the roof for bed. Jim’s suitcase was soaked and everything in it, so he laid it all out to dry overnight. We usually don’t get rain in January.

Tuesday was a busy day: yummy Haitian oatmeal gave us the stamina for all that had to be done. Propane tanks were removed and leaks fixed, doors were fixed at office in school, Dickie spent hours in the tool room tidying and arranging. We weighed and bagged all the food for distribution to hungry families and when time came to do the blog we decided we would teach Leica, Djemima, Moise and JJ to play Train instead of doing the blog. We had a lot of fun and we will try to play with them each day while we are here so they will be good at it when we leave.

Measuring food for hungry families

The guys and Martha also involved in measuring food

Kids are loving playing the game of train

Karen and I spent a bit of time in the depot getting new runners, socks and underwear for the children. It is a lot of fun looking through socks and underwear to fit feet and bums for age 2 to age 19! She has everything marked and organized so one can easily find it BUT with everything removed when they were rat hunting it has all been just put back in any and everywhere so our job was a little harder than usual. Karen was called away and I thought I am fine here by myself, I don’t mind a rat. I kept looking until I heard a sound and my heart rate picked up and I wondered how long I would last before I found an excuse to go in the house. After a minute the door moved and started to close and I moved so fast I startled myself. If that door closed it would be totally black in there and I didn’t want to be there in the dark with a rat. I had to jump over 3 big plastic tubs to get to the door and all was well, I caught the door before it closed.

School re opened today after the Christmas break. Haitians won’t go back to school until after the anniversary of the earthquake. Our HATS kids were all dressed in uniforms and hair beautifully done and up here for prayer by 7:15 AM, before they all left for school. JJ and Djemima were already at school as their classes start at 7:00 AM. There was lots of activity and energetic children on the grounds today and not all of them showed up. Papa Luckner was back in the office and the HATS children hadn’t seen him in a while as he has been going to school (for his Masters) in Port Au Prince with Canadian Professors. At recess they all came to the office to see him and he sat them on his lap and gave them all a mini chocolate bar…..I saw that and knew what I should do but there were parents there waiting to see him and I thought it might embarrass him if I did. Darn, I really wanted a chocolate!

We are trying to finish off the students photos and letters for their sponsors and today we caught 7 of them, we will try for more tomorrow Liette.

We had some new construction started today, a new house was being built. Hopefully we have a photo to show the construction workers and the foundation.

House construction.

Ti Luc, Dieunel, Judel and Karena building a house

We just sent Jim and Dickie to Saint Marc with an inverter to return to the store and to go to the grocery store to get peanut butter and some chocolate. Karen and I have laughed so hard at them trying to figure out the money (Jim thinks in goudes and Dickie Haitian dollars) and just what they were looking for (jars of peanut butter without hot peppers….Jim loves hot peppers so they may come back with a jar of that too) that we are useless. Truck wouldn’t start so Karen and I had to lift the hood and adjust the battery to get them going. We are a comedy routine today. Laughter is good! We have had our share for a year!