Saturday, Dec 1,2018

Mayette

10:06 pm

Bonswa!

Today was a good day! Tim and Marlowe and I walked all over Mayette. Visiting and exploring.

Cherlene made a delicious lunch, spaghetti and fish, with a fresh salad of onions tomatoes and peppers. My kinda meal.

We sat and talked with Patrick and Cherlene for awhile after lunch and then headed out, no destination in mind, just out walking. Walking and talking, maybe one of the best parts of living here. I love my walks with my little family, interacting with Haitians and soaking in the culture. Tonight Marlowe fell asleep at 8! Because she didn’t have a nap, and was up since 6. 😖 I wasn’t a big fan of that, because I know she’ll wake up early in the morning. I tried to wake her to go bath but she whined a little and then slept through her bath. Are you kidding, what kind of child does that😂😂

Wouldn’t you know it Tim just walked in with a plate of fruit! Bananas papaya mango!! Like breakfast at 10:30pm. I’m not complaining 😋😋😋

Patrick plans to go to Marigoane on Tuesday to start the process of getting the truck out of customs. Please pray that there will be no complications, so that we may soon see the TRUCK!! Yayyyyy!!

Tim and I plan to take Philippe to O’Cayes on Monday. He needs some things for his wedding, and we need to buy some things.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and tonight is tonight!

Love you all!!

Love from Mayette

My faith is stretching, my patience is growing and that’s what He wants for us isn’t it! We grow in Christ, we make mistakes, we learn from them, we trip and fall and realize we’re on our knees, we may as well give it to Him! How weak I am!! How much I need Him!

So many things to be thankful for! Not one of us has been sick at all since we’ve came to Haiti! People praying for us, no doubt! We have energy, good health, and good food to eat!

Praising the Lord for good friends in Haiti, who see past our cultural differences, cultural flaws, even. For their forgiveness when we act and do things not accustomed to their culture.

My heart is steadfast oh Lord. My heart is steadfast and I will sing your praise.

Friday , November 23

Aquin

8:29pm

Were home! We had an adventurous day today. We woke around 5:30 and were on the road to Aquin by 6. Marlowe lay in the backseat on a bed I made for her with a quilt and a pillow. We rolled the windows down and listened to the sounds of early morning in Haiti. We stopped in La Haute for gas, and got coffee and bread at a roadside stand. Noi’s mama was serving. Kiki, Phadia’s brother, and Mili’s papa were all there too. I know people by their children😅🤷🏽‍♀️

While sitting in the ditch drinking black coffee, we noticed that the rear passenger side tire was a bit low. Tim asked around, to see where we could get van, air, for the kawoutchou, tire. So we headed back about half a mile to the “tire shop,” a small hut right before the river with an air compressor and about 50 used tires, a crow bar, and some pliers. No one was around so we honked real good and low and behold a man appeared from behind the hut and 30 minutes later, and $4 US, we were patched and blown up and zooming down the road again.

We made it to Aquin around 9, and I cheered when I turned my cellular data on and all my apps started beeping notifications. Waw, what an America thing to say, I’m aware, but you try doing with very very limited internet for 2 months and tell me what you think when your phone lights up again! 😅 We ate lunch at the small restaurant in Aquin. Surprisingly, we knew some people, and some people knew us!

After lunch we went to the hardware store and bought some things for Philippe. He had sent money with us. Then we went to the store and got Marlowe the ice cream we’d promised her. Man that tasted good, it was hot and humid out, and we had been talking about ice cream for a while!

Then we headed home. We saw Rigo on the way back, on his moto, headed to Pos Bodom. Then we passed Kali, Plim Tikit, and another guy, all squished onto a moto, headed to Aquin. We talked to them for a bit and headed on. Tim saw a roadside stand in Flamo, just before Pos Bodom, selling gasoline, vegetable oil, and donuts. So we stopped for donuts and Miss Mary Lou from Pos Bodom asked if we could give her a ride home. So I hopped in the back with Marlowe and she sat in the front with Tim. She was an interesting lady, and grateful enough for the ride.

We arrived home just as it was getting dark. We drove to Philippe’s to unload and Marlowe and I walked to a friends house while Tim and Philippe and Cleevens chatted. Thankful for another good day.

Love from Mayette

Wednesday, Nov 14,2018

Mayette

9:50pm

We received word today that the truck would arrive in Marigoane, Haiti by Monday, Lord willing. That’s exciting!! We won’t be able to get it until Patrick comes back from the states, seeing as how it’s in his name and all.

We had a good day today. We went to the market. I was excited to find mangoes, tomatoes and sweet peppers. They’ve been scarce in Mayette lately.

Marlowe had a great day, she was happy and chattering all day.

The last couple days have been full of projects.

Tim finished the pavilion on the roof. I did some baking and cleaning. Tim organized the small work shop, that was quite a job. Tichrist and Philippe have been helping with small projects. They did some concrete patching in our house. Just a simple thing, I could have done it but they knew I was going to and offered. I was happy, I hate anything to do with concrete work. Tichrist didn’t exactly offer, more got suckered into it, by Philippe. I felt somewhat sorry for him, but he said himself he didn’t have much else to do. They both did alright, but it’s easy to see by their work that Philippe put his heart into it. 😅

Sorry for slackin on the blog, I’ve had a lot on my mind! 😅 Adjusting to a culture is a long term thing, and it’s not the easiest task!

Hope my Americans are all well!

Love from Mayette

Saturday, November 3,2018

Mayette

10:36pm

Bonswa zanmim!

This morning We headed out to work on the house again. Well, the truck didn’t start so we had to walk. It’s about half a mile which isn’t bad but we had to carry the tin there! It didn’t take long at all when a few of Arian’s boys helped. Besides his boys, Philippe and Tichrist helped again. They are probably the two best English speaking Haitians in this area. We always have good English/creole lessons as we work, and very interesting stories about both life in Haiti and in the USA. It’s like the more we work together the more we understand each other and it becomes a lot of fun. We are always cracking jokes and giving each other crap. We finished the roof before noon and carried our tools back to the shop here at the compound.

This evening I walked down the road and bought a few baking items from people here in Mayette with small stores. Meanwhile Lori started on a chicken pizza for dinner, it turned out good. Not like at home but it was still delicious.

As we were eating we started talking about language and so after we ate we got a few books and started going through some lessons with them. Patrick and Cherlene came home from Port soon after. So we took the rest of the pizza in to their house and sat and talked with them about their trip for awhile.

We’re in bed now and are watching paws and tales with Marlowe. They are good biblical cartoons that are actually kind of funny. Billy and Debbi loaned them to us for Marlowe because we didn’t have anything for her to watch in English.

Bon nwit -Tim

Love from Mayette

Thursday, November 1

Mayette

10:19pm

Bonswa! This morning Tim let me sleep in a little and woke me just before he left for work around 8, and left a note and breakfast for Marley and I on the kitchen table. Get you a Tim in your life if you can find one. 😉

After breakfast, Marlowe and I did laundry and hung it out to dry. Then we walked to Erian’s house, where Tim was working. We stopped and chatted with some friends, so the half mile ended up taking about forty five minutes to get there.

The project is a new roof, or tèt kay, in Creole. Which translates as house head, or the head of the house. I thought that was clever lol. The roof is for Erian, a hardworking man with a family of 10. Their roof was terrible, hardly a roof, if the purpose of a roof is to keep rain out. Erian has been saving up for a new roof for a long while, but with such a large family and so little job opportunity, his gardens weren’t bringing in enough funds to save next to anything. He’s a member in the Church and he works hard and loves God. His family seems to be ecstatic about the roof.

Franklin was supposed to help Tim today, but he didn’t show, and we didn’t hear from him, not sure why. He wants to learn construction and Tim is excited to work beside him and teach him.

But we had 2 young men, eager to learn, jump in and help. I sat with them and taught them basic fractions, how to read a tape measure to the eighth of an inch, and they learned quickly after that. Before they knew that, reading a tape was just a jumble to them. They worked carefully, slowly. Measuring and marking boards, and then carefully using the skil saw. Well, actually, only Joseph used the skil saw. Givenson wasn’t ready to learn that yet. Philippe helped too, Tim enjoys working with him. Tichrist had meant to help to, but his wife was sick this morning. She is fine tonight, I called earlier and asked if I could help with anything and he said Nerline is back to her normal self.

Patrick and Cher are in PAP still, for the church conference. The truck broke down on the way there but they made it after about 12 hours. The truck isn’t fixed yet so I’m not sure what will happen with that. Because of a Haitian holiday this weekend, mechanics may be hard to find.

Our truck has a bad battery connection so Tim has to mess with the wires every time we try to start it. 🤨🤨🤨 we need to take Billy’s to Posbodom tomorrow morning at 5:45 so I’ll cut the blog short so I can sleep. Hopefully the truck will start. 😉

Bondye beni nou.

Don’t forget to do everything you do to bring glory to the One who made you!!!

Love from Mayette

Wednesday, October 24th, 2018

PAP

10:06pm

We had another busy day, going to different stores and businesses.

To bring the trade school to life, we must learn from other people. There’s no need to make the same mistakes when we can learn from their mistakes. We went to Stefan and Elis’ business, Maxima. It’s a beautiful business that provides top quality cabinets, countertops, caskets, and starter homes and more. They’ve sold over 14,000 home kits and are the largest granite and quartz distributors in PAP. They are also one of the leaders in providing caskets. They buy most of their materials locally, and invest in their workers, much like a trade school, teaching them responsibility, hard work, and respect, so they can grow into reliable, respectable, successful business men and women. They have a nice set up, assembly lines, about 40 employees now. They’ve had over 300 employees at a time before.

We learned a lot from him, sat and talked for a few hours about what works best and what will never work. They are very wise, they have learned the culture well and care for the people and the country, and invest their whole lives into it. They’ve lost a lot, but continue with faith to make a change.

Tonight we went to blue ridge to be with my cousin and his family again. We had a good night, talking and eating together.

Tonight I’m sketching up a budget outline for the trade school. It’s hard work and fundraising will be a greater challenge but I believe God is pushing the mission to do greater things and we will strive to do everything we do to glorify Him and He will walk beside us as we take steps to building plans for the trade school.

I’m writing my dreams out, like my friend is teaching me. 😉😉 Praying over them, and praying for wisdom, to know which of my desires are the Lord’s desires for me. I believe He has a great plan for LWM, and He lights my fire for it.

Also Tim drove in Port today, like a champ, weaving through traffic like it’s nbd. Made me jealous lol I will drive in the city someday. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you probably don’t know traffic in Port. It’s something. Like fish in the sea, except fish swim a bit more gracefully I think. There’s no road rage in the sea. Is there? Haha Bon nwit y’all.

Becca will post some pictures so if they’re not here they will be later.

Love from Mayette

Tuesday, 10.23.18

PAP

11:57pm

6am: Our alarm went off too early it seemed, reminding me I’m not a morning person, especially when I don’t sleep before 1. Marlowe woke up in the night, confused and scared because we were in a new different and strange place. Plus our bed was nothing to brag about. I reluctantly dragged my body outa bed and splashed water on my face. We got dressed quickly and ate bread with peanut butter and loaded up into the truck and east. Are we gonna do what they say can’t be done. We arrived at the hospital around 7 and dropped Cherlene and Sonya. Sonya went into the OR around 2, surgery took about 3 hours, and she is recovering now. From what I’ve heard, things went smoothly, and she hadn’t had any complications. Many people praying for her, thank you all. God is good! We will see how she recovers and decide when to make the trip back accordingly.

I learned a new phrase today, tét ansanm. It means head together. It’s a reminder of the importance of unity. If we put our heads together, things will go much smoother. Unity is what gives us power. It’s even written on the Haitian coin. Diversity is one of the biggest problems in this country, and it’s important to keep our tét ansamn. After I saw it written on one taptap, I started noticing it on billboards, cars, and graffiti writing on the walls. Tét ansanm.

Our day was very busy, we went to many different construction material stores, checking prices for different things we need. We’re always trying to improve the way we build houses and do construction here, both quality and price, if possible. Things are very expensive here, sometimes more than 50 percent more than American prices. I want badly to buy a lawn mower but they are almost $400, and would only be around $300, maybe under even, in the states.

For lunch we went to Epi Dor, a nice restaurant up the mountain a bit, still in PAP. They had everything from grilled chicken legs to hotdogs and hamburgers but we chose pizza! It was good, we were happy and full.

We also went to a supermarket, Giant, that I was very excited about but ended up not buying the things on my list because they were too expensive. Shredded cheese was like $10 a lb. 🤨 We did buy ice cream tho which made up for it!!! Marlowe’s day was made. “Mesi!!!” She loves greeting people, and thanking them too.

Patrick was patient with us, asking too many questions, trying to figure out prices; we stayed at some stores for a while.

We met a very talkative guy on the road tonight, walking back from a small boutique close to our house, where we bought water. Turned out he had a vacation house right close to ours, he lives in Connecticut most of the time! Just before we reached our house (he was walking with us), he told us he had a pool out back and that were welcome to swim anytime. 🤪 didn’t take us long to drop our groceries and jump in. Marlowe loves it. Man, I wish I’d have a picture of her face, jumping in. It was good, she would jump right off the side and go under, and come up grinning. She’s a fish, apparently. It was a nice pool, with lounge chairs all around and a nice bar next to it.

We splashed for about an hour then came back to eat our leftover pizza and talk for a few hours. All of a sudden it’s midnight and we need to sleep! Should be an early morning again tomorrow, we have some more places we’d like to go and people to see before we head back.

Bon nwit y’all, and God bless you.

Love from Mayette

10.22.18

Port au Prince

9:04pm

We got up and ate a quick breakfast and threw our clothes in a bag and headed towards Port around 7 this morning. Sonya, (Cherlines mother) has surgery scheduled for tomorrow.

Sonya, Tim, Marlowe and I crammed in the back seat, Patrick drove, and Cherlene rode shotgun. After about 5 hours of driving I was envious of the shotgun seat, my legs were crammed and Marlowe was like a wild monkey crawling around all over me. But, heyo, I survived. We arrived at the blood bank around 2, would have been quicker but, traffic.

Then, giving blood/ taking blood for Sonya was supposed to take only an hour or so, but Tim and I ended up staying for about 3 hours. The whole time we were there, they took blood from 4 people only. 2 besides us. It’s a bad setup. There must’ve been 6 or 7 nurses there but they just sat and talked rather than take blood from the 30 plus people in the waiting room. After waiting another hour, we finally left Cherlene there to go to blue ridge for dinner. Cher was waiting to get blood to take to the hospital, for her mothers surgery. There may have been 30 other people waiting for blood too. Many said they’d been there since morning. The Red Cross staff seemed to not give a single care, much less two cares, to the fact that people were waiting. They moved slowly, and it seemed the longer I was there, the more I watched, the slower they moved, and the more I wanted to let them have it but by the grace of God I kept my tongue, I don’t know how. See? Patience.

I felt fine after giving blood, Tim about passed out, but he’s fine too. He said he got real hot and felt like throwing up. He was dizzy too, but he’s fine now. I think it was partly because we didn’t eat a lot today, except a piece of toast and avocado this morning. I was jealous of the cookies they gave Tim, I about told them I wasn’t feeling good either to see if I could get some too hahah. Marlowe did well, considering. She was very patient waiting for us. She sleeping now, Tim’s holding her.

So we went to blue ridge. We had planned to be there around 5 but traffic was bad, so we arrived at 7:30. Thankfully they’ve lived here long enough to understand, and didn’t seem to mind is being late at all.

It was great to see my cousin Leroy and his family. Anita had prepared a feast for us, hotdogs, hamburgers, salad, spaghetti, fruit, and cake. I ate too much. I like Haitian food but it was good to eat American for a change. Blue ridge is a beautiful compound, almost doesn’t feel like you’re so close to Port au Prince when you’re there. Leroy told us to come back to hangout again and I would love to. We’ll see.

Anyway, now we’re headed back to pick up Cherlene, she finally got the blood. Then we’ll head to a Haitian friend of Patrick’s for the night.

It’s hard for me to concentrate on writing right now because of the rain pelting down on our bags with clothes on the back. We couldn’t find a tarp and it’s too full inside the truck to put bags inside. Anyway, it’s fine, I’m trying not to think about it cause I can’t do anything about it lol. My America mindset is worried about wet clothes, while there are people who can’t sleep well tonight all around me because they don’t have a dry bed.

Ok now we picked up Cher. She plopped into he truck and said, “mesi Jesi!!!”

Our bed will feel good tonight. Remember to keep Sonya in your prayers, her surgery is scheduled for tomorrow around 11am. Thanks for praying.

Love from Mayette

Tuesday, 10.09.18

Mayette

10:27pm

Bonswa, y’all.

Patrick has been watching lots of woodworking videos, and wants to start a woodworking shop. He’ll name it The Nazarene Woodworking Shop. Jesus was a carpenter in Nazareth. So, he’s been teaching Tichrist some simple woodworking things for a few months now.

So, today we thought we’d check it out. We ended up making a shelf for our bedroom and a bed. I’m very excited for both. We didn’t have much storage, and our bed was.. ok. We rolled to the middle and it was real squeaky, but honestly, it was fine. But now I have a bed fit for a queen. I’ll post pics later. No internet tonight.

I asked Patrick why we didn’t have any service on our phones. He said, “what do you mean?” I said, “it just says, no service.” He says, “what is your question…?” Ummmmm, why is there no service??? How can I fix that? He laughed and laughed and told Cherline what I had asked and she laughed, and Patrick laughed some more. Turns out, when there’s no service, there’s no service. You don’t call Verizon angrily, you don’t pay some cash to fix it, there is just no service. When it comes back on, it comes back on. 🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

I’m not in America, I’m still learning guys.

Anyway, barb told me you don’t have to pray for patience in Haiti. If you live in Haiti, patience will come. It’s forced on ya, and you have no choice, but to be patient. Lol.

Marlowe’s friend Claoujda, came over again this afternoon. Marlowe squealed, “my friend is here!!!!” They swung on the swings for awhile then Marlowe commanded her to stop. So she stopped. Mar commanded her to come with her, so she came. From then on they basically played Simon says. Marlowe told her what to do, sternly, and she obeyed. 🙄🙄🙄🙄 they crawled underneath our bed, in the yard, through the selves, all over the boards and plywood and tools in the shed. Tim and Tichrist just kept working patiently around them. I kept yelling at Mar to stop yelling at Claoujda. But Claoujda didn’t seem to mind. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I came outside at one point and found Tim, bald. Cher’s cousin had come by, and knew Tim had been asking for a tandez, haircut, so he gave Tim one so I didn’t have too! He used a comb and a razor blade only!

The guys, Amos, Philpe, collected honey from the hives today. They got a little more than 4 gallons of liquid gold. Patrick was disappointed, though; he said we should’ve gotten about 10 gallons. He says wax trays inside the boxes aren’t good, he should buy others. But they’re expensive, about $200 would get him all good ones.

Clerveou stopped by with fresh mangoes, avocados, onions, tomatoes, even lettuce (!!!) and a lot more. I like that guy a little more every time he does that!!! Hahaha he loves Marlowe too, every time she sees him she runs towards him with her hand out cause he always gives her cookies or fruit or a donut or something.

Tonight Patrick taught a lesson on lajan again. Tuesday night bible study. Remember what lajan means?? 💰 I sat in, but I wish I would have left Mar with Tim; I missed half of it because of her. I have to pay close attention to what’s being said, to understand. Then Marlowe would say, “look mama, I’m gonna stomp the bees!!” while she was barefoot. Or “look mama, Amos!” And then try to run across the gazebo, during prayer, to give him a high five. And then I’d loose my focus and have to try to find my way into the conversation again!

At one point a coconut fell on the tin roof, and I grabbed Marlowe and stood up, ready to run, because I thought it was a gun shot!!!! None of them even flinched I tell you!!! Cherline was in the middle of talking and laughed so hard she forgot what she was saying!! Hahahahah silly Americans, afraid of the coconut.

I did understand some things though. The importance of giving, in order to be blessed. God blesses us, when we give. It’s our duty to serve Him, and to give what we have. For some of us, that may mean all the money we have. Can we do that? Is that foolish? Not save any for food, house, clothes? If we’re worshiping money, God wants us to give it all to Him, so we can serve Him, alone.

Here’s a lesson example Patrick used.

Suppose you felt God calling to go to an island in Haiti, I can’t remember the name of it, but it’s the poorest place in Haiti. Depressing. No jobs, hardly any food…to share the Gospel with these seemingly forsaken people, would you go?

His response was a groan from the group.

Then he asked them if you had the chance to go for a great job, and could make lots of money, would you go??

And they all sat up a little straighter, almost eager to go!

Be careful who you’re serving, God, or money.

Love from Mayette