Friday, November 28, 2008

Our Thanksgiving Day

For us, until the evening it was pretty normal. I did more work on the cage for the Landcruiser and then spent a couple hours playing with the kids before we went to dinner. We played frisbee (monkey in the middle) and basketball.

When it came time to eat, Patti had done a great job putting the dining hall together. The kids helped to decorate with placards/nametags on the table as well as signs on the walls.

(once again, blogger rotated this image on me and I can't fix it - this is Kayla's picture)

There were beautiful napkins with part of Psalm 100 written on them. The turkey was well cooked and the mashed potatoes and corn tasted great - everything was great including the pumpkin pie.

(I should have taken the picture before we dug into the food)

We had Dr. Bernard and his wife attend as well as Bricie and her husband Gregory (and three children). Those two families live here on the mission with us and we invited them to celebrate this American holiday with us.


Pastor Rob talked a little bit after dinner and thanked everyone of us for being here and playing a part in where the Mission is today - he does a great job here! We are so thankful for Pastor Rob and Patti!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

We would like to wish a very Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends! There is so much to be thankful for - we, personally, realize that now more than ever since we are not with our families. We hope that you all have great conversation and fun together and stay safe. We hope that you all give glory to God for what he has provided for us all in America. We thank God for all of you and appreciate your care and concern for us these last 5 months since coming to Haiti.

Unfortunately for us, since Thanksgiving is an American holiday and not a Haitian holiday, it will be a normal work day around here with one exception: we don't normally get together to do dinner on Thursday nights, but tonight the families at the mission will be getting together and we'll be having the traditional Thanksgiving food. The Haitian workers of the Mission, need/want all the money that they can get and so taking a day off for an American holiday isn't something that they necessarily want to give up.

We were planning to call family today so we could talk with them, but because everyone is working here and our internet is slow already, that won't be happening until after we get back from dinner. So, we'll be calling around 7pm your time or shortly thereafter.

Some additional thoughts on being thankful.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

BHM: Ken's Field Journal, Millipede

Word got out here at the mission that I was keeping a blog and that sparked conversations. I offered to keep one for the BHM website and it is now a done deal. I have yet to write my first one (within a week, Lord willing), but the BHM website is all set up for it. It will focus on the things that are going on at the Mission at the very least and may have things from my perspective (as the newbie) as well. I'll put an update on this blog when I have made my first post to the BHM site.

Carter found a millipede today. Look at all the legs on this thing - it seems to have a pretty hard shell on it too. (How do you like this bug, Sharon?)




Boring car stuff...

I have been doing various things lately like working on a motorcycle, a generator, a and a generator powered welder. I fixed (after MUCH troubleshooting) someone's Hyundai Tuscon - it had a fuel issue that turned out to be a busted hose INSIDE the fuel tank, inside the fuel pump assembly - a really odd thing in a really odd spot. The dealer tried to sell them an EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculator) valve (it's a turbo) and a new fuel pump to the tune of over $1000 US dollars and we ended up fixing it for free with what we had (just some spare hose sitting around). I am also continuing to work on the cage for the new pickup - I hope it is done soon because I feel like it's hanging over my head. I should have parts tomorrow to start putting the transmission back in the old Landcruiser.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Eye Doctor, Lou, Time, Christmas / Low Temperature

I took my first visit to the local eye doctor yesterday. I got a piece of weld stuck on my eyeball right on the pupil. It made everything blurry with that eye (mostly far distances). The doctor told me to put in ointment for two days and then drops for a day and then visit him Wednesday again. He thought that it was small enough and not deep enough where it would come out on its own. It didn't hurt much - it was just annoying. I have few options for goggles/glass to wear so I think I'll start wearing them. I already feel all spiffed up because I wear thicker pants and gloves to protect myself when all the other Haitian workers don't have any of that, but I suppose I'll start being smart and lead by example. The piece worked it's way out last night so now there is no issue - Praise God!

Lou

Lou has been a real challenge lately. His eating habits are difficult to figure out and difficult to determine what to do. He continues to chew sometimes and not chew others. We are trying to figure out if its defiance or ignorance because he sometimes leads us to believe that it could be either one. He had been becoming more of a child of his own. He seems to be displaying a spirit where while at the orphanage (and until now) it was suppressed so much that it didn't show. So it's all new to us. With the Lord's strength we'll get through it.

Time

Time is flying. In one week, it'll be 5 months since we have been here. When I think about us being in the States, it seems like much longer than 5 months, but the days just click off like miles to a jet plane.

Christmas Music

We have to start playing more Christmas music around here so it starts to feel like the right season. This will be my first Christmas without snow and/or freezing cold MN temperatures. Speaking of low temperatures - Yesterday morning we recorded our lowest temperature since being here: 59.0. That same day looked like the picture below - we could see the sun shining on Port-au-Prince and could see the cloud above us but it was cloudy all day for us.



Boring car stuff...

We finally got the oil line for the generator yesterday morning and I worked on that a bit yesterday. That line vibrates really hard and quick so if has anything rubbing on it, a hole will be created rather quickly. I put the line on the first time and turned on the generator. It was then that I noticed it rubbing so I loosened the connection and turn the line a little bit. Well, that broke the seal and I couldn't get it to seal again. I had to take it off which meant draining 4 gallons of coolant (after just filling it up) - it's a goofy design which means that I have to drain coolant to get to the oil line. I had to find my own thicker o-ring and remount after filling it up with coolant again. Then it finally worked. It took much longer than I thought it would take.

We have all the parts but one gear to put the Toyota transmission back in. I'll probably work on it quiet a bit next week. The truck with the transmission/clutch problem from Mountain Made ended up being taken away to go to someone else to has more time - they apparently need it faster. I was thinking that I didn't want to have two transmissions out at one time, but all it probably needed was just a clutch so it wouldn't have been that bad, but at any rate it is gone now.

I have to work on one motorcycle and one generator carb - they are both probably all gummed up.

I have a bunch of oil changes to do. I have been working on increasing the capabilities of the Access database the last few days and the oil change part is lacking the numbers of the filters to order.

That's about it for now - Carter and I are still waiting for our boxes to come through customs. They have been there since August - ridiculous!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Sensor, The Day's Work

I ended up finding the sensor today. I walked to where I thought it might be and, after having the batteries out, I put them back in and it found a reading. I talked to Kyrk about it and since he knows the language better than me (although I am catching up), he talked to the dad of the home. Sure enough, one of the boys “found it on the ground” and so he still had it and I got it back. Yea!!! Sorry, Livesays – the temperature readings will continue!

Today wasn’t the greatest day for moods in the house. Louey, although he is doing great, does get challenging. Food is almost ALWAYS the issue. Today it involved more of him not chewing.

We had language classes once again today and so we’ll be practicing around the home. It sure has been nice to have a chance (and need) to use it while I work!

Here is a shot of Antoinne and Erilise (spelling?) taken this afternoon while I was petting the Mission’s cat (a fill in since our decided to check out the town and never come back). Erilise wasn't trying to hide his face - I'll get another shot of him later - he is an awesome guy!


Bird, Lookout, Louey, Sensor Stolen

Yesterday three Haitian guys stopped by here at the only zoo in Haiti and wanted to sell a bird (eagle? Becky, any help here?) that they found this morning. It was young and very hungry - it could barely balance and it could not hold its wings up very high. We tried to feed it some raw chicken by shoving it down its mouth which worked, but it seemed so tired and near death. Kyrk didn't think that we would be able to feed it a diet of rats often enough and so we didn't buy it from them.





Sunday afternoon we went out to lunch at a little hole in the wall that had great food. We then went to a look out that was close by and took this picture - there was an incredible view of Port-au-Prince.


Louey

We continue to lub-dub along. Louey is doing great and is now signing the words: please, thank you, more, yes, no, cookie, banana, potty

Sensor Stolen

Last night we got our outdoor wireless temperature sensor stole from INSIDE our window. It was located between the screen and window and someone felt that it was their right to pry the screen open and take it. We tried to do a little sluthing last night by walking around with the main unit until it found a reading, but I am afraid that we didn't wait long enough in one place for it to send a reading (we have to wait for 15 min for it to update). I have a few places that I think it might be and, thus, I will hide the main unit to see if it picks up a reading.

I think that our MN missionary friends (the Livesay's) may have taken it because they once threatened us - the weather is so much nicer up here on the mountain! :-) At least now they don't have to read about our nice cool weather (oh, by the way, we have very few mosquitoes here)! Speaking of cool weather, here is the temperature readings for the last few weeks (this may be the last time you read this):

Max temp - 76.4
Min temp - 63.5
Max humidity - 91
Min humidity - 67

Boring car stuff...

On Saturday one of the generators got a hole in the oil line. With three of the four gallons of oil sprayed on the floor, the low oil indicator shut the engine off. We've been running the other one now until we get the new hose.


Kyrk and I worked on taking the transmission apart for the whole morning yesterday. It's been a little difficult to figure out how to take it apart because we don't have a manual for it. We got it apart enough to see that the synchronizer for the first gear is real bad and second gear is also worn. Now we have to get gears off the other end to get to the synchronizer. That will and has been the hard part because we don't have the right tools to do this. We may end up bringing it to the dealer, however, as with a lot of larger parts of cars you sometimes have to buy the whole units because they don't have the tools or need to sell the individual parts - we may have to buy a whole new transmission.


There is another truck that is owned by Mountain Made (the bakery and shop here at the Mission) that needs at least a new clutch, so I'll be taking that transmission out as well. It also needs new front wheel bearings, ball joints, CV boot and one axle/halfshaft. My garage is full - it runeth over. I have plenty of other vehicles that need work, too.

I bought a part from eBay for a lawnmower and it arrived last week. I worked on getting that together yesterday (I had to modify it a bit to get it to work). I fixed a workers electric stove last week as well. The broken items just keep on coming.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Happy Birthday Grandma Schilling!

We hope you have a great day, Grandma - we love you and miss you!

Wishing we could be there to celebrate with you!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Dog, Cat, Moon, Transmission

The dog likes to dig her nose into the ashes in our fireplace - we have nothing to cover it up and keep her out of it.


Cat

The reason we think the dog likes to do this is because the cat made a couple of "messes" in there during the night. The cat also recently watered the corner of our bedroom. We were getting a little sick of her behavior. We were recalling the real reason we got her which was to create more kittens. With that thinking, we decided to start letting her outside more so that she would get used to the great outdoors and raise her kittens properly (chasing mice and rats). She had been let out before and rarely strayed off the front porch. Well...we let her out yesterday morning and haven't seen or heard from her since. We not sure that she'll come back. We'll keep you posted.

Moon

Here is a shot of what reminded me of a harvest moon in back in MN. We saw it yesterday morning and, unfortunately, all you can see is the moon itself (which is still pretty).


Boring car stuff...

I have been working on the transmission for the Landcruiser 70 Series. I got it out and it took me a little bit of deciding (with various opinions) of whether or not to take it apart myself. In the end, I decided to do it. I started at the transfer case end because it was leaking and I thought I could take the whole thing off as one unit - I was wrong. I ended up taking all the pieces off that I could to get to the first gear which was popping out all the time. I lined the parts up nicely in the back of the Landcruiser.


I got this far yesterday and couldn't figure out how to get further. I may have to use a gear puller or some sort of bearing separator to get the rest of it apart.



I worked on the cage for the new Landcruiser 70 Series and hope to finish that up by the end of the day tomorrow - but we'll see.

Monday, November 10, 2008

ITS CURTAINS FOR US!

We got some boxes from customs Monday and the most important things that we got were curtains for our bedroom from my mom - THANKS MOM! We just put the tie-backs on today and I didn't take a picture yet - I am too lazy/tired right now to go do that. Maybe another day.



We also got some shirts and the kids were trying them out. I think that they were from our new friends Eric and Monica from Honduras - they were working here recently and are working with Samaritan's Purse.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

School Collapse in Haiti - My Perspective

This is what I saw from my perspective.

It started right after finishing up our first class of Creole lessons which lasted two hours. On our way home, we ran into Patti who asked if I was going with the guys. I asked her what was going on and she said that a school roof collapsed and that they were going to help. They were down gathering things to bring and were about to head out. Carter wanted to go with as he usually does, but I told him that it may not be a good idea this time – he complained as usual because he likes to go with me everywhere.

On the way down sitting in the bed of the Ford Ranger, I found out more information: the school was not one of ours, the building was more than two stories tall, the event made the front page of Yahoo!, it occurred around 9AM, etc… As we got close and saw many UN and Haitian police vehicles around as well as a huge crowd of people, I started thinking to myself “What are the seven of us going to do to help? We’ll probably end up in the way of the rescue efforts.”

We drove past various police barricades looking for a place to park. At one point there was a sudden but short burst of a crowd of people heading our direction. We never found out what that was about, but it was concerning to me at least. We parked the truck about ten blocks away from the school, gathered our tools, and started walking. Part way there, there was a little crowd and some policemen were beating a few people off with sticks. We went through a few areas where police were not letting people through. A few times the crowd was so thick that we were nearly pushing and shoving our way through. At times I found myself taking positions that left me either a way out or a way through using either my body or the tools I was carrying to help me. On the way there we ran across the president of Haiti and the Chief of Police who made an appearance.

The construction of some, if not most, buildings in Haiti is of very poor quality. A general lack of money means that some people cut costs by using less mortar between cement blocks. Materials used for construction can often be of bad quality like the cement blocks themselves or a bad ratio in the cement makes it less able to hold together. This is very commonplace here. Often the foundations are insufficient for the weight of the above floors and the floors above are about a foot bigger than the floors below (almost looking like an upside-down pyramid). There do not seem to be any codes to follow or anyone following up on construction.

For those who don’t want to read about the more vivid details, I’ll use “**” at the beginning of paragraphs that contain things you MAY not want to read and “****” for things that you WILL not want to read. I am including these details to show the reality and the magnitude of the situation.

**Our first glimpse of the school was from the street side where at the entrance. We stepped past the police tape and into the entry way. There I saw someone’s body under a sheet with her foot sticking out. We set up our tools against the interior wall and awaited further instruction. As we waited I noticed two other bodies laying there with us in the small entryway of about 12 feet square. Moments later, three people came in with body bags and uncovered the bodies right in front of us. Before they removed the sheets, they gave us a glance as if they were checking to see if we knew what was about to happen. They laid down the body bags and lifted up the bodies into the bag and zipped them all up. The last one took a little longer because the person’s arm was not conveniently situated.

Shortly thereafter, we were directed to another area. I was thinking that we were going back, but instead we were brought around the back of the school where it collapsed. We made our way past a number of people and then set our tools down to the side of the building.

That’s about all the detail I can remember as far as what we did when we first got there. From that point we partially worked together and partially apart. Pastor Rob, Kyrk and Chris were up on the front lines of where we were clearing the debris and looking for people. They were helping the main engineer-like person determine what steel support to cut to get various pieces off to lighten the load on the floors below – the floors that we were standing over. That guy was trying to make sure that people were not hitting the concrete or making strikes downward as it could cause more collapse. He also instructed us to cut the rebar without using any tool that would cause vibration. That limited the cutting to only torches. There were times that the floor beneath us would shake quite a bit. Some parts of the floor that we were standing on were no longer level but rather caved in middle.

I was back just off the front line as a worker ant lifting the big chunks of concrete, dumping the buckets of concrete that were collected, and shoveling debris over the edge. It was good to work with the people that were helping. There were a couple guys that I recall teaming up with quite a bit – that’s more of the good stuff. It was an amazing scene to have the mountain/hill on the other side of the valley be filled with the typical downtown Port-au-Prince, Haiti homes with people EVERYWHERE a person could be - up step, on roofs and just all over.

****I can’t tell you how many shoes I shoveled over the edge - each shoe belonged to someone. We ran across a few backpacks and a few school books. There were bodies in various places and in various conditions. At times we would be lifting, cutting, and moving concrete right over a dead child. To move various pieces, we had to move parts of the bodies. When a body was uncovered, it would be put on a stretcher, covered up, and taken away. The worst that I saw consisted of parts of a person’s face/jaw that we had pick up and find a plastic bag to put it in – the body just left on a stretcher. Another body that we moved had internal organs out and exposed. Another girl that we exposed from the concrete had her cell phone stuck in her hands as we put her onto the stretcher. These are the pictures that keep flashing through my mind.

The Lord had us in this place and at this time for a reason. As we worked, one of the biggest surprises to me was that how we, the people of the Baptist Haiti Mission, could be on the front lines. Besides the main engineer guy, there didn’t appear to be anyone else from any major area like a policeman, firefighter, or UN. There appeared to be little help from the UN folks (I am not saying that they didn’t do anything at all, just that there were few with us at the time). At one time, this guy with the UN from Nepal was helping to break concrete – he looked built for the task because he was short, strong, and stocky. I know, as the news reports, that there were Red Cross people there and USAID folks as well, but it was not obvious who they were on that first day (Friday). There were some people working on the lower floors underneath where we clearing debris – they could have been from the bigger name groups. I saw pictures of people working before we got there and pictures after we got there that contain people from various groups, but while we were there, there didn’t seem to be many people from those groups. There was little crowd control at the site so we had just about anyone who wanted to coming up and working. Some people seemed to be there just to take pictures. I see today in the new story pictures that there is much better crowd control and it seems that only people from USAID or similar places are being allowed at the site.

As we were digging out, I looked to the broken concrete above that was suspended by the steel rebar. At times I pictured that concrete coming down and had occasionally planned an exit route should that happen. I also pictured myself being caught up in the concrete – hoping that it would not happen.

I noticed that where Kyrk was they found a boy alive. The main engineer guy was planning to clear debris across and get to the boy because of the way the concrete above was situated. We operated under that plan for about 15 minutes. As you might expect, there were some differences in how people thought we should go about getting to the boy, yet everyone handled it well. After that 15 minutes, the boy managed to somehow free himself a little bit – enough to get a drink of water that we passed to him. I think that this, along with the slow and dangerous progress of removing the concrete above, made the engineer change his mind. Kyrk was down in there giving the boy a drink and holding a flashlight for him. After clearing some debris, the boy was freed and carried out (his picture can be seen in the slide show of the Yahoo! news story). People clapped and cheered when they pulled him out. It’s amazing how much energy that can give a person. People seemed to work harder after the boy got out.

I was mentally prepared to work later than we did. I was also still physically OK. They had occasionally passed water up to the workers, so we were hydrated. I am not sure who or what caused the decision for us to leave, but shortly after we got the boy out we left. Part of me wanted to stay. We managed to walk back with most of our tools. One of our electric cords was left because it was running one of the large lights.

When I got back home, it was nice to see my family. It was sad to think that not everyone would be going home with their children that night. Through all of this, I hope that people are pointed to Our Lord Jesus Christ as the sovereign ruler of the universe and all that happens in this universe. His reasons are not always known, His methods are not always understood, but His ultimate purpose is made known in the Bible – that He be glorified. We are all sinners, but by His grace, by His Son dying on the cross, we can be saved into eternal life with Him if we believe and follow him with all of our heart. We need to be ready to meet our Maker at every hour of the day. We need to be seeking Him at all times whether we are in a poorly constructed church school in Haiti or in a super-structure like the World Trade Center because one never knows when the Lord will come calling our name.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Thank You For Your Support!

I appreciate the emails and comments on the blog. I am doing OK still. There are a number of pictures that keep going through my mind. I didn't sleep the greatest last night, but a 4 hour trip out east today helped me to forget about it - for less than four hours. Now I am thinking about it again.

Here are a couple pictures of us from the Associated Press (view the slide show).

EDIT (11/8/2008):

Here are the pictures (I am in the left corner of the first picture with my back turned to the camera and Kyrk is in the second picture):


Friday, November 7, 2008

School Disaster

This, this, and this is what I was doing all afternoon. (some of what is written in these news stories I cannot agree with in terms of who was helping and what was being done - my version of this stories will have to be for another time or in person).

I can't believe that we (Pastor Rob, Kyrk, Chris and myself as well as 3-4 other Haitian workers of the Mission) were on the front lines of the rescue efforts beginning around 3pm. At about 6pm we all rescued one little boy still alive (the "we" here is everyone helping - primarily, but not just, the BHM folks - Kyrk in particular). I saw lots of things that I have never seen before and I will need some time to process what I saw. Lots of dead people - most of them kids. I don't know what to say at this point so here are some pictures.

The rubble from the rubble (Chris is in the about center of the picture and Pastor Rob is in the black shirt in the bottom-center):


The people watching the event from the other side of the valley:


Here is Kyrk down by the child that we saved alive:


and as they were taking him out:



We did what we could to represent the hands and feet of Jesus this afternoon.

Kayla's Tooth, Lou's Food, Carter's Push Mower

Kayla lost a tooth just recently and the tooth fairy came by. (We don't lie to our kids about the existence of the tooth fairy, santa, Easter bunny or anything like that - so they are fully aware that I am the tooth fairy and I do it up real good for them just for entertainment purposes). She got some good gourdes for the tooth as I bopped her on the head with a cat toy and bell that their grandparents got the cat. It was a good time!

Lou's Food

Tina did some research and found out that the swallowing of food is a significant issue. He is now getting mashed up food prepared in a coffee grinder (because it works and that's all we had). One little success was that he was actually chewing popcorn last night with his teeth - it was great and we were making a big deal out of it.

Push mower

Carter found a push mower in one of the storage rooms a few days ago and so he has been pushing that around on the grass lately. He is having a good time with it and the Haitian workers think that he is a good worker - they have made comments to other people and we found out about them. I should get a picture of him doing this sometime.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Work, Relationships

These last few days have been a bit rough - lots of food is coming in and going out. We are unloading trucks into our depots and then unloading our depots into our trucks for delivery to communities through our schools and churches. My muscles are once again very tired and sore. I find that physical work like this is more taxing and tiring than my previous mental work at a desk job. My brain never got visibly bigger, but my muscles are visible bigger.

I am growing my relationships here with our Haitian workers. It's nice to go out and have struggles with where we are a team and do teamwork. From working in the garage to going and have to unload a lot of crate - it create a good camaraderie and friendships! As I learn the language better (I am doing pretty well now and can understand most of what people tell me in the garage), the more I will be able to build friendships/relationships. I am looking forward to this! We start our Creole lessons tomorrow afternoon.

Boring car stuff...

I finished replacing the bushings on the Ford Ranger this morning after helping a little bit to unload food. I am still waiting to take out the transmission of the Landcruiser - it's always going out, but I think I'll just have to take it apart so it can't go out.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Pluggin

We're just plugging away here. Doing life in Haiti.

Tina made tortillas last night - I mean made here own tortillas. They were great! That was our first Mexican like meal here.

Lou is getting smarter, but he still has no interest in telling us he has to go potty. If we ask him, he'll sign "potty" or shake his head no, but he won't tell us when he has to go. We are still struggling with having him chew his food. He'll take big bites, not chew and then choke on it. We'll tell him to chew when he puts food in his mouth and then he just sits there and gives us blank stares. He waits until 5-10 minutes go by or we just get distracted and then he'll swallow it. We'll take the food away and tell him he has to chew. The hard part about this is that sometimes he seems so smart and that he gets it - then we have one day where he is not firing on all cylinders (car talk).

Carter has been ahead on schoolwork and Kayla has been behind, so Carter has had a bit more free time and has been spending it down in the shop with me. He can't always be doing what I am doing so I have him playing with a few trashed lawnmowers. I think that Kayla is almost all caught up now.

We got a few more boxes from customs. I got parts for the four-wheeler that I ordered from eBay and we also got coffee creamers for Tina sent by my parents in August (I think it was August) - Tina thanks you guys so much Mom and Dad! We are looking forward to receiving ALL of our stuff. Hopefully things will start to move a little bit faster now.

We had a pretty poor night's sleep last night because there were cats outside. They were meowing almost all night - it is really frustrating. I am so tired physically every day that a really do need a good night's sleep.

Some pictures of:

A caterpillar


I ran into this guy when I was test driving a motorcycle that I was working on. He was struggling with six cattle - trying to get them down the road and stop them from eating on the side of the road.


Boring car stuff...

I have been working on replacing the bushings on the upper control/a-arm of the ranger. The driver's side was so bad that it ruined the control arm and we'll have to replace the whole thing.

The canter differential has been holding fluid better after replacing it with the used unit. It seems to be leaking out the back where there are no parts to remove/replace. I may put a few seams of weld on it just to seal it up because I cannot pinpoint where it's coming from. I took apart the other two differentials and found the parts we need to replace. We'll most likely end up replacing the parts and either hanging on to both of them or selling one perhaps.

The two pathfinders have been the worst in the fleet in terms of consistently having issues. I had to weld a large hole in the exhaust, fix the wiper, tighten the belts, and when I get the parts, I'll replace the spark plugs. I adjusted the timing on it as well.

I haven't worked on the cage of the landcruiser in a while because we are waiting for more metal to come in. I also fixed the blue Isuzu cage a little and am waiting on metal for that as well.

I don't think that I'll run out of things to do in the shop.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Fruit, Moth, Frog

Some cool looking fruit. I have tried the three smaller ones and they are very good. The one that looks like a blowfish, I have not yet tried.


Just a couple fairly recent shots of a moth and a frog:



Saturday, November 1, 2008

TIH (This is Haiti) - Containers

Yesterday Kyrk asked me if I wanted to go down to Port-au-Prince with Willy to load up some containers that were sent to us by a gentleman in the States. Since I was working on repairing the new blue Isuzu’s cage and that’s the vehicle that was going, I said that I would go along. When we left, I asked how long and Kyrk said about two hours. Usually when any time is given you usually add on a range of at least 100% more - this went beyond my expectations.

We called and asked if they had a forklift ready for the unloading and they said that they did. Well, TIH, they did not have a forklift when we arrived. So after a while of figuring out how to fit the stuff on the truck and after talking to Kyrk on the phone, we determined that we would send the old Canter as well because all of the containers would not fit on the new one. We managed to barely push and fit two containers on the blue truck by driving it next to the semi-trailer and lifting the dump a little. We didn’t have very many tools, but thank God that in one of the containers that we knew we had to break apart we had a basic tool set of a hammer, adjustable wrench, and pliers. We had to take part of the cage off the blue truck to get the container to slide on. As difficult as that was, that was the easy part.

When Rogin came with the old Canter we started to break apart the container. They were all screwed together and it took a lot of effort and time to just unscrew the containers. Then we had to empty them and then load them into the trucks. We used the wood from the containers/crates as sides to the trucks so we could pile in the stuff. It was the most difficult work that I have had here yet. Packing the food bags was a steady work over many days, but this was heavy, difficult work in poor conditions. It was is in the heat of the day in Port and I, personally, am not used to working so hard in the heat with very little shade (I like our mountain air conditioning where we live). We bought filtered water in little 8-10 oz. plastic bags to survive while we worked.

On the way back, we hit a major traffic jam and with about a half hour left in the trip it started to rain and we didn’t have tarps to cover anything up. When we got here we had to unload everything. I got in the truck to unload since I knew where things were and lifted them out to a chain of people putting them inside a building.

I ate a tiny breakfast yesterday morning and that didn’t help me with energy. We left at around 10am and did not get back until 6pm. It was quiet an adventure and today I am sore! At least it got my thoughts off of customs...which we continue to sort out in our brains whether or not to bother having anything sent here. This container deal that we loaded up seems like the ticket – as long as it may take by boat, customs seems to let the stuff slide by better and faster – the boxes in the container were not even opened. If you wanted to get ANYTHING in, that would be the way to do it. My fingers hurt so I am done typing.