Day 126

Tuesday, January 15, 2019 

Mayette 

4:23pm

It’s a rainy day in Haiti, somewhat dreary, but still beautiful.

Manda and I just got done baking cookies and bread. We did laundry on the roof, under the pavilion that Tim built, this morning. We should be folding it now but instead we are resting a bit first! Marlowe was a good help in the kitchen, pouring and dumping and tasting and what not.

We cleaned up our mess and ate lunch, rice and beans, with fish.

We have been incredibly blessed with good health, the entire time we’ve been in Haiti. We acknowledge that we are covered in prayers, and Gods protection is quite obvious. Many people in Mayette has come down with dengue fever and some kind of flu seems to be going around, and, by the grace of God, we continued in good health.

Tim is installing some windows today. He is teaching Tichrist to do it on his own.

After much praying, wondering, discussing, and more praying, we have decided to come home in two weeks!

We had originally planned to stay for at least six months and now it’s only been closer to 5 months. But the timing just doesn’t seem right to continue to be here and we feel that the time has come to go back home…

The trade school needs funds before it can move forward, so we have decided to take a step back, and see where the Lord moves. There is a lot of planning, organizing and delegating that needs to happen before we can reopen that book. We need to constantly remind ourselves that we are on a Haitian time line, not our own, and tho it can be somewhat frustrating, we will wait and the Lord will provide everything that needs to come to past before the trade school can open.

Tim is pretty excited to come home, to work on our own house, especially after doing construction for other people…designing their homes and framing them… to watching them move into their new homes, full of excitement! Now we’ll get to do it, our own home!

We have many things planned for this coming spring and summer and we are looking forward to coming home to our little camper, our horses, and Lace again. Still, it’s hard to leave Haiti, all of our very close friends, Nerline, baby Rejoice, Philippe, Benia and many others.

Amanda and I went to visit Tama, and Tichulu yesterday. They are the two children who had sores, whom I gave a remedy to help them. They are doing well, we gave them some adorable clothes that were hand sewn by some lovely ladies from Journey at south hutch. They were so excited and grateful for their clothes.

I am grateful for this journey, I have grown so much, seen much, felt much. Learning a culture is hard, frustrating, and sometimes embarrassing, but it’s also exciting, interesting and rewarding.

Well the laundry is waiting and I should go fold.

Hope you’re all doing well!

Love from Mayette

Day 107

Thursday Dec 27,2018

Mayette

Blog by Lori

12:11 pm

Bonjour! I am laying on the roof under the pavilion on a mat, Marlowe is sleeping beside me, Amanda is in the hammock, and Tim is at Philippe’s house right now. We haven’t had lunch yet, it should be ready soon. Joslyn is making it.

Leroy and Anita came to Mayette last night around 5 pm. We had a fun evening! My sisters helped me make pizza and breadsticks and jello and brownies! Benia, Phillipe and Cherlene ate with us. Patrick had ate already.

We sat around the fire on the rooftop under the stars and had a good evening with good conversation. We prayed for safety for Luke, Becca, and Kari as they return to the states.

This morning they left before I was up, around 5 I believe. Leroy and Anita and their four children ate breakfast with us and then we all went on a walk, to the beach and along the cliffs above the ocean.

They left around 10:00.

Now I feel tired, emotionally and physically. We had a great time but now resting feels just right.

Marlowe is doing well. She woke up twice during he night and asked if Becca and kar and luke were gone. She cried but this morning she sat up and said is Amanda here?? And ran to find her. She was satisfied and played well with Cohen.

The others should be at the airport by now. I haven’t heard. I called Amos earlier and talked to Kari and she said they had already had a somewhat exciting trip. There was a road blockage and someone sprayed tear gas to clear it out. Luke’s eyes got pretty watery but he jumped in the front and they said they are all fine. Later they got side swiped by a crazy driver and just so happened to happen in front a cop so they pulled over and ended up getting a ticket even though it wasn’t their fault at all. That’s life is Haiti.

Love from Mayette

Christmas Day

Merry CHRISTMAS everybody!! We had a feast for lunch today. Becca and Lori had been planning the menu for awhile- A whole turkey stuffed with dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, peas, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, pumpkin and cherry pie, sweet tea, and eggnog. We weren’t sure who all we were gonna invite so I went ahead and set the table on the porch for Patrick and Cherline too. Lor went over to make sure they were planning on eating with us and found the cook was here planning on making food for us, and Tchrist and Sonell were in the shop working for Patrick just like any other day! Patrick had said that they don’t really celebrate Christmas here that much and he wasn’t kidding. So we invited them all in to eat with us and set the table for 3 more. The cook was ready to walk the 2 hours up to Zabo again, so we filled her a plate to take with her because she wanted to share some with her family.

Tchrist and Sonell joined us pretty soon though and Patrick and Cherline came over later.

Last night we had our gift exchange that we had drawn names for with the youth from church here. We got a bit dressed up and went down to the church expecting it to be just the youth, but soon found that the whole church had been invited, and it was more like a church/program event, then just a little party.

They started off with singing, then some little competitions like putting a string with a piece of candy attached to it hanging from your mouth, and seeing who can get the candy in their mouth first without using their hand. And eating a cracker and trying to be the first whistle after eating it. They all got pretty fired up lol. Then Erland, Cherlene’s sister, started calling people up to find their person that they had gotten a gift for. They would walk around the room searching for their person then everybody would cheer when you found him or her. Anyways the whole thing lasted for like 3 1/2 hours! It was a good day.

A trip to Port-au-Prince

8:56 pm on Wednesday December 19

Becca blogging

We are in Port Au Prince tonight! At Laramie’s house. This is the house Tim and Lori have stayed at before… the neighbor has a pool. Remember? We’re in a gated community and the house is very nice. No American amenities like curtains, rugs, or dishes, but there is electricity and even AC!! And hot water! Thank goodness for hot water because the grime we collected from driving all day was stubborn. Lori brought towels, sheets, and pillows. This house seems more American than Tims’. I think it’s because of simple things like matching tile and trim, lots of lights, and the layout makes more sense than some of the other Haitian houses we’ve been in.

We woke up this morning at 4:30 to rain. Rain is a beautiful necessity and it sounded and smelled amazing, but we had one issue: we had planned to ride to Port on the truck bed. We had two choices: out a tarp over the cage on the truck bed and tough it out, or stay home. I wondered if God was trying to tell us to stay home, but I prayed about it and felt good about going, especially after Lor said, “This is just how things go in Haiti. You just deal with it.” Y’all know me – I’m not always super good at going with the flow, but that’s something you gotta learn here!

We planned to leave at 5, and at 5:55 we left the compound. Patrick, Lori and Marlowe in the truck, and Tim, Luke, Manda, Kari, and I on the back underneath a tarp. I’m sure we looked ridiculous but we were dry! The rain quit soon after we started driving. We stopped to get gas and took down the tarp. Manda and Tim rode in the front too and Luke, Kari, and I made ourselves quite comfortable on the truck bed. We drove to Pos Bodom to pick up Billy at Kevin’s house and all of us but Tim were on the truck bed from then on. We had blankets, pillows, and suitcases and made a homey little nest. I hope the pictures upload!

Tim started driving at some point and drove the rest of the day. We got to Port and drove through town for a looooong time to get to Billy’s first destination. Then we dropped him at the airport and went to eat at the same American-ized restaurant we ate at the first day. Good food. We shopped for our Christmas dinner at the little grocery store there. From there we headed to Eko Depot, a building materials store that is a lot like Lowe’s but not quite as big. The prices were all in USD. Tim, Lor, and Patrick (I’m thinking about nicknaming him Pat so it’s faster to type) bought what they needed (including slime for the UTV tires, since we’ve had like 3 flats already) good thing Harls thought to put better quality tires for it on the box truck, they will be needed soon!and we headed out into the grimy, dusty, busy streets of Port again. It is not boring to drive/ride in Port. There is so much to see! Lor and Kar saw a dead man laying in the street. 😫 Tim drove like a champ. There were a few close calls, but they were mostly not his fault. 😆 Nah, he did real good. He said it took longer to get where we were going because he didn’t have a working horn. Horns are more important in a vehicle then seatbelts here!

We drove to Leroy’s at Blue Ridge next. Leon and Barb are there. They were about to eat supper when we got there so some of us ate too. I connected to their WiFi and caught up on some WhatsApps. 😊 We talked for a while then headed to Laramie’s. We are unpacked, showered, and ready for bed!

Tomorrow we will hang out with Leroy’s and Leon’s. We’ll eat lunch at Blue Ridge and then visit CAM, eat burgers for supper and idk what else.

Tomorrow in a week we start home. 😬😐😌

A trip to Amazon

Blog by Becca

Sunday morning we woke up to church music at like 7:30. While eating breakfast, they sang 2 songs that we recognized – ‘When the Roll is Called Up Yonder’ and ‘You Are My All in All’. Their singing is beautiful and quite voluminous.

After church,We ate and headed to Amazon. The 7 of us, and Amos, Patrick and Cherline. The truck bed also had a bunch of boxes of backpacks and shoes to distribute .The ride really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. We drove on some narrow roads, but they didn’t feel much bumpier than the road to Cotes De Fer. We crossed a small river a few times as we got closer to Amazon. We made it in like 2 hours, I think.

When we got there, Pastor Willy and his wife served us coffee and bread. As soon as we had eaten that, we had a huge supper of rice with sauce, some ‘salad’ with breadfruit (lam) that resembled potato salad, and goat meat. It was very good. As we were eating, a bunch of kids started showing up. Turns out they were Kingdom Kids, waiting for their backpacks! We had a lot of fun handing out backpacks and shoes. I think there were 5 kids who didn’t get anything, but Pastor Willy knows who they were and will make sure they get something. The kids were shy and didn’t seem too excited when we handed them bags, but then they’d turn and start taking to their friends and opening the bags and got pretty fired up. We opened some of the things inside to make sure they knew how to use it all, but they seemed to know already. The kids who didn’t get backpacks lined up to get shoes, and the Haitians that were in charge called them out one by one and gave them shoes that fit. Luke, Manda, and I handed out socks and I helped a few kids try on their shoes. It was fairly organized and I felt like it went well!

Pastor Willy and Patrick talked to the kids for a bit and had a couple of them recite verses in Creole, and Patrick explained that there were kids in the states who donated backpacks and bought the supplies for them, and then they thanked us.

Once the kids left, us Americans went on a walk up the mountain. Have I told you how beautiful Haiti is?! Haha, I know I have but I can’t get over it. We couldn’t see the ocean from up there, but the mountains were just as gorgeous. On the way back, Pastor Willy met us and took us to meet a few of his church people and see their houses. There are villages in the mountain side that you can’t see at all from the main road. We talked about how it was like a little subdivision – houses with barely any backyards, butted up close to their neighbors. Most of the houses we saw were framed with sticks every couple feet and then had a clay/white mud mixture slathered on. Tim said the people who have money use concrete because the mud mixture washes off slowly with each rain. We did not see much concrete. I barely would have noticed how the houses were built – small Haitian houses are small Haitian houses to me – but Tim is very knowledgeable about the different techniques they use and is very good about explaining them in laymen’s terms for us girls.

7 of us slept in a 10x 10 room, and somehow we all were able to sleep! We were thankful for the cooler mountain air especially then.

Around 6 this morning, people started making food right outside the back door.

We got up and had coffee and bread, then lam and sauce, then oatmeal made from wheat (not ground as fine as flour). It was all delicious. We left shortly after consuming all the foods.

The road home seemed much bumpier. All my muscles are shook so loose, maybe I won’t need a chiropractor treatment at all when I get home. 😆 The scenery was gorgeous as always. Mar fell asleep as always. She seems to love blutzing around. It seems to relax her? 🤷🏽‍♀️ We stopped at the new hospital on the way home that Lor has wanted to stop at for a long time. It is very nice and American-ized. We also stopped in La Sous to return the gas can from the other night when we filled up the mower and Tim and Lor made an offer on a turkey that was for sale. We made it home and had a lazy day. Tim and Luke did some work – I think did an estimate? We had a late supper and hung out tonight. 10:43 now and almost bedtime. I wrote this blog on the roof. 😍

Day 93

Wednesday dec 12,2018

Blog by lor

Bonswa!

We had a fun long exhausting day! Remember that all good things are blessings from our Father, and today he blessed me richly as I got to spend time doing what I love with people that I love.

We woke up and made a quick breakfast of french toast with blueberry pie filling, around 7:30. We had planned to leave for market around 8 but Haiti being Haiti, left around 9. Piled onto the utv, Tim Kari and Luke in the front seat, Becca Manda Marlowe and I onto the back. We are very thankful for dads welded cage, we definitely would be working on making something like that if he hadn’t thought of it first!!!

We thought we were pretty loaded down, we had 2 cases of empty glass bottles and a big bag that we use for groceries. The road was bumpy but no one complained, the family time has been amazing, God is blessing us again and again, being with us in our conversations and actions.

We got to Cote in about 30 min, not a bad time! We walked through the sea of the market buying this and that including some gifts for the gift exchange that we are participating in. It’s for the youth here at Calvery Chappell Mayette. Kari even did some shopping by herself. She can speak the language well enough to get by easily!

By the time we got to the other side of the half mile long market, everyone was tired, Marlowe looked like she could throw up and we hadn’t bought everything on our list. Manda and Marlowe plopped onto a pile of sand to rest. Becca Kari and I joined them after a while while Tim kept shopping. I was grateful for Luke, carrying our heavy grocery bags like a true gentleman, Tim, for his bargaining and money handling skills and knowledge, and Manda for lugging a heavy and tired Marlowe through he market. She loved it, but didn’t want to walk. Plus I accidentally let her have too much sugar and that didn’t help.

We wished we didn’t have to walk all the way back through the crowd again. Low and behold, Luke ran back and jumped into the utv and, could you say, swam, through the market, to give us a ride. He said he found out that you have to drive fast to make people move! If you go slow they just stand in your way! We laughed at his logic, but he did maneuver through the swarm of people pretty well!! We then bought a goat, which Tim haggled for, and ended up getting a fair price. $45 us. I believe the first price they said was $70. Lol they like to see how much they can get out of us.

So by now we had all kinds of fruit, vegetables and food and gifts and goodies, and a goat on the back with us.

We took it all to Carmels house and dropped it off. Tied the goat in the back yard and went to the guest house where we visited missionaries Enos and Lois, and then to Lysner’s school for a quick look around. Then we hung out in La Haute for a bit and then back to cotes de fer, load down and truckin. We then picked up 2 cases of full bottles, and strapped the goat over the hood like so. We still weren’t as full as some of the Haitians motos!

When we got home we rested for awhile. The guys took things to start the project of Phillipe’s roof.

Then around 5 bec kar man started making pizza. Noy, Cherli, Mili, and Kali had planned to come for a pizza party in celebration of noys birthday party. Around 5:45 Noy and her bro Mishe showed but were very timid and quiet. Noy has thought they were supposed to be there at 5, so when the rest hadn’t showed up yet she thought she had misunderstood but I convinced her to stay until 6:30, telling her that I was sure that the others were coming. They showed around 6:30, right on time, because we had planned for 6. Hahah island time, right?

Cherli wasn’t allowed to come but Kali, Mili, Plim Tikit, and kalis brother Jonas all came! We had just enough pizza and Kari had made a delicious and yummy cake for dessert. Conversation picked up through dinner and after a round of old maid and the girls braiding bec and mans hair and the guys watching bull riding videos.

We talked about Christmas traditions. Billy had given us his families Christmas tree because Debbie and the boys are in the states and we set it up right before they came. It’s very pretty, with lights and everything. They thought that was pretty cool and told us about how they light homemade fire crackers and go to the beach together and eat pumpkin soup with their families in celebration of our Savior being born on earth.

It was a good night.

Tomorrow maybe we will butcher our goat!!

God bless, thank you for your continued prayers for your favorite Haitians!!

Love from Mayette

Day 87 by Becca

Dec 9

Sunday.

Got up around 7:30 and ate breakfast with the church singing in the background. Tim made french toast that we ate with blueberry pie filling, cream cheese, and homemade syrup. We are eating like kings here! Went to church around 8:30. Patrick preached from Ephesians 4 and 5. A few churchgoers shared from the Bible and sang beautiful songs. It rained softly during the service. It was a beautiful Sunday morning.

After church, we snacked on some Kansas grown and shot (by Luke) venison summer sausage, crackers and Nutella, and cookies before we headed to the beach! All 7 of us piled onto the UTV and drove to Dinagoch beach. There is a gorgeous cove with turquoise water surrounded by rock walls and caves. Instead of sand, there are tiny stones or pebbles that dust off much easier than fine Siesta Key sand! Marlowe napped on a blanket while some of us waded out into the powerful waves. The sun was hot and the water was cool, but not too cold. Perfect beach day.

Lori drove us home in record time. We are having so much fun with the UTV! Tim and Lori say it is so helpful to finally have it here. Late lunch/early supper was ready for us soon after we got home. Fritay, pikliz, goat meat and lobster! Yum! Praise the Lord for the blessings He provides!

We rested, drew names for the Christmas gift exchange, and took a joyride on the UTV, and now we are on a couch that just got here on the truck last week watching a movie. We’re on the porch on the main floor of Tim and Lori’s house. There’s a soft breeze blowing, bugs chirping, a trash fire burning in the street, and music playing from down the road. Another peaceful evening in Mayette.

Marlowe is loving having her aunts and uncle here. She has picked up lots of Creole words! Everyone in Mayette knows Tims, and they all seem to love Mar. She is as goofy as always. She usually has a doll or stuffed animal with her and has a great imagination. She’s turning into quite the storyteller! Earlier today she told me a story about a monkey, a frog, Jesus, and a baby. The monkey and the frog were on the church and then came into her house and she told them to get out! Jesus and the baby were very important in the story, too. I think Marlowe is already pretty used to having us here. I’m not looking forward to trying to explain to her that we’re leaving when that time comes.

Yesterday, us girls drove to a small market in La Sous. We didn’t find what we were looking for, so we drove around for a bit and ended up checking out the blowholes by the ocean. There are holes in the rocks where, when the water crashes in the caves underneath, the pressure shoots out wind and mist! It’s really cool to see. Our God’s creation is amazing.

Last night we made pizza and Patrick and Cherline ate supper with us on the patio. After supper, we played Scummy and did a little devotional before heading to bed.

On Friday, we explored Mayette and met lots of Tim and Lori’s friends. It’s fun to have faces for the names of people we’ve been hearing about! Baby Rejoice is as adorable in real life as she is in Lori’s pictures. 😊 We took a little hike, following the canal up to the mouth of the river. I can’t get over how beautiful Haiti is! So thankful to be here in this peaceful town on this slow paced, luscious island. I’m excited to see what God has for me here in the next few weeks.

Becca goes to Mayette!

Thursday, December 6

written by Becca

Luke, Manda, Kari, and I left Wichita at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon. We flew to Houston, then Miami. In Miami, we got our checked bags and then walked around for close to an hour looking for the perfect place to settle down for the night. We did not find it. We ended up stowing our 7 suitcases under a table close to a check-in desk and we laid on the cold tile floor to try to catch some sleep. I think Luke dozed off, but the rest of us were too cold to sleep. About 2 hours later, at 3:15, a lady told us we had to move. We killed some time until we could check in and check our bags, then went through security, and found our gate with no issues. Killed some more time, charged our phones, ate some breakfast and at 7:20ish, we left America! I slept on the plane for close to 1.5 hours, the only sleep I got that night. I didn’t care about that though because by 9:30, we were in Haiti!!

You know you’re in Haiti when you see broken airplanes along the runway, the guys that direct the plane to the gate are wiping sweat off of their faces continually, and you’re greeted by live music when you get off the plane. We made it through customs and got our luggage again, which seemed to take forever! We knew that Tims would be waiting on us outside. We walked through lots of people, looking for familiar white faces. Marlowe was so surprised to see us. She definitely knew who we were, but it seemed like she didn’t know how to handle her two worlds colliding all at once. She acted like she was in shock! It probably didn’t help that there were people everywhere, talking and laughing and I guess waiting to greet people coming out of the airport? We barely glanced at Tim and Lori before we hurried out to the truck. Marlowe didn’t talk for the first five minutes. Just kept looking at us… she looked happy, but not ecstatic like I thought she might be. Once she warmed up and realized it was really happening, she started goofing off and hopping from one person to the next, trying to take it all in. 😊

We ate lunch at an American-ish restaurant close to the airport. Tim and Lor thought it was great and so American, and the 4 of us that had just come from there were like, um… it’s taking 45 minutes to make ‘fast food’… that ain’t American. 😂 The food was very good! Lori took us sisters to an American-ized grocery store while we were waiting on the food. The shelves were stocked with cans and foods you would find in a grocery store in the states, but things were priced in Goudes and were very expensive. For example, a big bag of frozen berries that would have probably been $8-$12 in the US was like 1850 Gdes, approximately $26! I’m guessing when Americans fly in and want to buy food they’re used to, they’ll pay whatever they need to. 🤷🏽‍♀️

After shopping and eating, we started the long drive to Mayette. We picked up a guy who turned out to be Clerveou’s brother, (Clerveou was driving) and he rode with us for a few minutes to his house, where his wife jumped on. His wife rode with us back to Mayette. Enoch did not. He has a job driving a bus in Port-Au-Prince. Lori, Kari, and I rode on the back of the truck with Enoch’s wife and Clerveou, Tim, Luke, Manda, and Marlowe rode inside. We stopped for ice cream (Marlowe ate almost a whole pint!) and a bathroom at Corner 44. There was no toilet paper in the bathroom, so Tim went inside the little convenience store and bought some while Lori wiped down the toilet so it was clean enough to sit on.

Lori, Kari and I got into the cab with the others before the blacktop ended and the road turned white, dusty, and rocky. Manda and Kari got a couple little naps while Marlowe and I watched out the windows for goats, (caprites) cows, (biffs) and chickens. Tim and Lori pointed out places they knew, including Lysner’s house and Harley’s sponsored twins’ house.

We made it through Cotes-de-Fer and through the river (like, directly through a couple feet of water because the bridge is washed out) and we were barely out of town when something underneath the truck went CLUNK! Still not exactly sure what that noise was, because the problem ended up being a hole in the tire from a huge spike that was in the road. Manda, Kari, Lori, Marlowe and I started walking while the guys changed the tire, and jumped back on when they caught up. Lori said we were only a few miles from Mayette, but I was standing in the truckbed right in front of the loose tailgate that was secured only by tarp straps and the truck was hitting big holes in the road to miss the huge ones and we climbed a few small ravines and I declare it felt like closer to 15 miles, but we did make it to the compound with all the passengers still onboard and all our luggage still intact. It was probably a little after 6.

The house Tim and Lori live in is bigger than I expected. Marlowe showed us to our rooms, us girls are sharing one and Luke has his own. Everybody has their own (comfortable) bed and our own fans! We brought our luggage inside and showed Lor a few of the things we brought for them before we went to Patrick and Cherline’s house for supper. Rice with sauce and some goat meat, very tasty food.

After supper we all showered and sat on the roof for a bit, but we were all so tired that didn’t last long. We were in bed by probably 9:30. Time doesn’t mean too much here. You sleep when you’re tired and eat when the food’s ready and work when there’s work to do.

I slept so good, y’all. I was out like a light when I got in bed. Marlowe wanted to sleep with Manda, then Kari, but she cried for her mama very soon after the lights went out. Lori says she woke up during the night and asked, “Is Manda still here?!” 😆

Long day, exhausting day, exhilarating day. It’s good to be in Haiti.

Day86

Thursday Dec 6

Mayette

9:44pm

Bonswa!! How are you all! Guess what happened today!!

Well, we dragged ourselves out of bed and into the truck around 3am. Maline is the “lab tech” here in Mayette at the clinic. She will get married in January. So she hopped in for a ride to port, to plan the wedding and what not. Then we headed to La Suess, the next village over, to pick up a chipper Clerveou. He hopped in the back seat with Maline and we headed for PAP.. we thought. 15 min down the road Clerveou remembered something he forgot, so we turned around and went back, and then turned around and headed again. 30 min late. We picked up 2 more people on the way. Another 30 min lost waiting on them!! I just knew my fam would be waiting at the airport without a ride or phones!

We got to the airport around 9:30, their flight was scheduled to arrive at 9:13. So we thought we were right on time, but we ended up waiting about 30 min, which, to Marlowe all excited, seemed like hooours😬😥.

Then they came!! I took a video to capture Marlowe’s expression, thinking she would jump and run to her aunts. She was so excited!! And then she saw them…. and she froze. It was pretty funny, like she was shocked almost. I think she was experiencing too many emotions, and she needed time to process.

We walked out to the truck, with a few “helping” Haitians, pushing and shoving, batting their eyes, all the while assuring us that they were giving us the very best help in all the west. They helped load the bags onto the truck and stuck their hand out, waiting for a tip. Although we paid them a generous amount, we thought, they still pouted and begged and tried to guilt Becca. God bless them. We headed to a cute restaurant where we sat and ate and caught up and Marlowe quickly remembered how to talk.

We ran into the small grocery store there and bought a few small things, and then headed home. The trip was long and hot but we made it safe and happy and I KNOW that God was watching over us, and blessing our time together. It was sweet!! Marlowe! Oh, she’s so happy to see her Becca, her Manda, her Luke, and her Kari!!! I am too, I tell ya what.

We unloaded and unpacked and got settled in, hopefully comfortably, and now all the girls are in bed, and Luke and Tim are sitting on the roof, catching up and talking bull rides, business, life and what else.

Cher had a delicious meal waiting for us. We dug in and talked to Cherlene and Patrick awhile. Tomorrow I’m excited to show my sisters around town, introducing them to my friends.

God is so good, my heart is so full tonight. Thank you for praying for us, and thank you thank you thank you for sending things!!!!

When the UTV was arranged to send to Haiti, not a penny was lost. It is so handy, so smooth, perfect for the rough country side!! And the cage dad welded is just perfect, and the Haitians are amazed by it! “Your dad? He did this?? At his house??” Haha good work!!

But most of all, I thank you God for giving me what I need, covering me with blessings, like You are kissing my head. My cup is full.

Love from Mayette

Day 83

Mon dec 3,2018

Mayette

8:08 pm

Bonswa, fanmi mwen! Koman nou ye?

I hope you are all well!

Tomorrow Tim is going with Clerveou and Patrick to start the process of getting the truck! Patrick is confident that we can get it out of customs tomorrow! We will see. I hope so, wouldn’t that be cool! Just in time for the arrival of the Kansas people!

I’m excited for my water filter my sisters bought for me so graciously, in August! I still haven’t used it, as it is on the truck.

Tim has a list of things to buy, I hope he finds them. Mattresses for my sisters when they come! Patrick gave all the beds we had in the guest house away. PVC, and some other plumbing parts. Cement and tile, propane for the cooking stove and a few other things.

I’m excited for him to be able to get out of the compound and see some other parts of Haiti! Marlowe and I will do laundry. I’m not sure what else. I would like to bake but don’t have propane.

Today I cleaned the house and Tim did many things today, stained and varnished some things, and organized a room full of things, burned trash and worked in the workshop.

Marlowe is exhausted. She fell asleep 2 min after I put her in bed. 👍🏽

Goodnight, sleep well!

Love from Mayette