They Call Me The Breeze

Monday started with quite a stir, from the wind that is.

Sometime overnight we must have had a small weather system move over us that sent in stronger winds than what we have experienced to date.  We saw some rain in mountains to the west, but that rain never made it down to us.  While the increase in the wind velocity may have helped move air through our sleeping areas during the night, it made it very uncomfortable to be in as the rest of the day unfolded.

There are a few trees here and there, but not ground vegetation.  The main roads are paved, but the side streets are full of potholes and the road itself is composed of a hard packed mixture of sand, rock, and dirt that gets blown around by the wind.

Typically it does not tend bother you much but merely leaves a constant layer of dust everywhere you see.  However today the stronger winds turned the dust into blowing sand and rock and added to the challenge for the day.

Immediately following breakfast the staff and teachers gathered for devotion.  The school focuses on teaching the bible to the children, and the daily devotionals help them with their bible lessons with the school children.

By now we have mostly settled into a routine of breakfast, work, lunch, work, dinner, devotion, bed.  The work needed around the school is never ending, and the mission teams that come down work alongside staff in a whatever needs to be done.

As with any mission trip, there is always something that needs painting.  Here Doug has heeded the call and got to work to painting the walls along the third story.

Several of the ladies took on the project of establishing a sewing classroom.  They cleaned out and cleaned up a room that was being used to store numerous bolts of material and donated sewing machines.  After moving out everything that did not need to be in a sewing room, they moved in shelves and organized the room so that one of the teachers could hold a sewing class.

As our team works on their projects, the school day goes on.  Classes are taught in small rooms usually with one window that has no screen.  The children all wear uniforms to school each day including shirts that include the school name.  With the classrooms so close together and being as close as they are, and being so open, there are sounds coming from every different direction.  It is a busy place to be so small.

We haven't heard much from the youth team other than they had travelled to La Neuvelt today where they had completed fluoride treatment for 180 Haitian children.  We are certain they are enjoying their time on LaGonove and are doing good work.  Bill Gingrich has promised more pictures and I am hoping to get them posted soon along with details of the work being done on LaGonove.

Tomorrow we have some more folks going to the Ravine to check on the children there.  I hope to bring you information and pictures of these area nearby the school.  We are also looking forward to the youth team getting back here Wednesday and the opportunity to get the entire group out into the country to see some of the areas of Haiti outside of our small compound here in Port-au-Prince.

Until then, goodnight from Haiti.