MAIL!, Blue Door, White Truck

We got mail today. Some books for homeschooling from the few things that we still posses in the States - Thank you Becky! We also got some treats from my parents - Thank you Mom and Dad! These two deliveries brightened our day a little (which we need pretty desperately, lately).

Boring car stuff...

The passenger door on this 1995 steakbed International truck would not shut - the hinge mount was destroyed. I was going to take the dump truck door (also a 1995 International), but it too is broken but not as bad. I mentioned to Mr. Kyrk that we should look into getting a new one and he mentioned that maybe the 1985 steakbed International might fit. We checked it out and, sure enough, it fits.

I am proud to have put the first discolored vehicle together for the mission. I've always wanted to do something like that and now I had a good reason. The blue isn't that blue because it's faded, but it's different enough for me. A number of our Haitian workers seemed to enjoy my work and those who travel in it often were very pleased.

Automatic Transmission

A good ole work buddy of mine (Jay) recently got married and he and his family were in FL. His newly fashioned father-in-law (Steve) who had spent a year in Haiti with his family (including Jay's not-so-soon-to-be-at-the-time-wife) came to visit. He often comes to visit where they lived and came to the Mission yesterday with a group of about 8-10 people (including Jay's new brother-in-law John).

Unfortunately, their van didn't want to make it all the way up the mountain without blowing the transmission seal (it's an automatic) and without being towed. So we went to rescue them and bring their truck to a safe place to be worked on.

I have spent most of the morning working with a new Haitian friend, Story, who came with Steve's group yesterday. He has things to teach me and I have things to teach him - it's a great working relationship! He just left to go buy parts and will either be back this afternoon or Monday (I am hoping Monday right now, but we'll see). Here's a shot of the transmission and torque converter out of the van. Steve, we hope to have the van running once again to last another 20 years and 300,000 Haitian miles (at least the transmission).

A Marathon for Peanut Butter

Please prayerfully consider helping our friends to help Haitian children in need. They have a medicinally-induced and vitamin-packed peanut butter (Medika Mamba) that has proven to be life saving to children in one clinic in particular. They are working towards the goal of gaining funds to obtain more of this peanut butter. Please read more about their efforts here.

Caption?

Can you create a good caption for this photo? I was thinking something along the lines of a family of snails traveling and this one saying every couple of millimeters "I have to go the bathroom!"


Did you know that slugs don't have shells but snails have a shell? The common garden snail is the slowest moving animal and can travel about 0.03 mph (0.05 kph). Aren't you glad you read my blog? This information will come in so useful...probably tomorrow!

Eggs

One of the things that we missionaries have to do is clean our eggs - which cost us about $5 for 30. They are rumored to come from the D.R. (Dominican Republic). Once in a while we get bad eggs. Our whole last batch was bad - they stunk like... like... well... rotten eggs (ya had to know that was coming). When we get them we first burn the cardboard because of the bugs that they carry.


We then soak them in vinegar and water for about 5 minutes, clean them, and then they are ready to use - at least we haven't gotten sick from doing it this way. I exploded the view of the egg booger for you all to enjoy.

Things

First of all, I'll mention what I know about the adoption. What appears to have happened doesn't necessarily (at this point) appear to have made the time to completion any longer. The information that we have leads us to believe that the adoption could have been done in a matter of weeks from now instead of a matter of months from now. I still do not think that I have all the facts. When I know more, I post again.

Carter, Pump

Carter helped me hook up the water lines to a pump yesterday morning.


Food

We have been making various deliveries of food to our schools. This food comes in every other month. I went with to make the delivery yesterday afternoon and it was nice to help the people at the school with the food and to speak with the children in Creole - my Creole is getting better just about every day.

Tina

We don't always feel like Tina looks here (Bonjou, Mme. Cleaver), but we do have our good days.


Kayla

Kayla has been helping out in the house quite a bit and occasionally fishing in the pond with her brother. I am aiming to paint up the zoo here a little bit to spruce it up and make it look better, so Kayla is going to try her artwork on the crocodile cage some day soon. The animals are looking a little hungry so Carter and I are making it our daily task to catch some rats for the crocodile and snake. Our grass by our house is getting long and we may chop that up soon to feed to the other animals.



One last thing: Len and Adele are leaving today to go to our home state (MN) for a month and a half. We are going to try to find a way to fit all of us in their suitcases before they leave - if I don't write on the blog again for a while it's because we made it. Otherwise, I'll write again by the end of the weekend.

Another last thing: Connie from Canada is also leaving today after being here two weeks. She came to help out with two weeks of training that we have going on here (she works with ACSI). She has been a HUGE blessing to us by bringing in clothes and toys and school supplies for our family (and other families). Connie's daughter has been a huge blessing to Tina via email, too - her family has a child with Down syndrome. THANK YOU CONNIE!

Another last thing: The gentleman that borrowed money from me to pay for his daughter's immediate health needs said that he would be here today to give me my money back. I have more to add to the story and when he either does or doesn't come today - I'll let you know what happens.

Boring car stuff...

I'll spare you the details this time.

Adoption, Boat, Frog

We got some interesting news about the adoption (not positive), but we are in the middle of figuring it out. I'll write when I know more.

Boats

The kids made a boat out of a small tray, DC fan and an RC car battery. It worked well and it allowed them (mostly Carter) to experiment with various setups. He had the fans setup inline at one point and that went the fastest, but Kayla wanted one too and we only had two fans.



Frog high res.

We saw this frog this morning (Mr. Kyrk pointed him out) and he was really sticky. There were a few Haitian workers that didn't really like him when I showed them.

Still Here

Just checking in. We're still alive. Everyone is physically healthy (thanks to our Lord!). We continue to seek the Lord - always keeping a pulse on what His direction is for us. As usual...nothing happening on the adoption.

Boring car stuff...

Did a lot of small things today:

> Welded a new back rail on the newer pickup cage
> Fixed the back rail of the Isuzu cage (it broke...again...bad roads)
> Changed oil in the Montero and the Isuzu - and greased its dozens of grease zerks
> Changed the battery in the Montero
> Drained and flushed the radiator in generator #1

Tomorrow, Mr. Kyrk is going up north and will return Wednesday, so I am assuming that I am going to be in his office for the next two days.

The Generator is Running

Boring car stuff...

Mr. Len and I went with a couple Haitian workers to the camp/beach house to work on the generator. I took the end case off and found that a spring got disconnected because the mechanism to limit the travel of the throttle was bypassed which caused the spring to go beyond its normal range. Once I put it back together, it started up on the first try (it's a hand-crank start generator). The generator end needs some work because the voltage isn't being send out correctly at the correct hertz (60Hz).

Mr. Len headed up there today with a couple Haitian workers because we got the manuals (on CD) yesterday that I ordered a couple weeks ago when we arrived back. He's going to see if he can get the generator end working correctly.

Amazing Snail

On the way to say goodbye to one of the teachers of a class that we have going on this week, we walked by this snail (Kayla saw it first). It looked like a cartoon snail...something that a child would color in and a parent would say "Wow, interesting color combination Billy-Bob!" Our great Lord has a great imagination in his beautiful creations. I have no idea where this guy found his green house - we haven't seen any like it around here.

What Came First - The Chicken or the Egg?

I am assuming that the electrical lines were here first and then people created a road by driving along the path of the lines. Then the road got wider and paved

Hmmm....spend money to move the lines (ex$pensive)...or...paint the base of the towers. I just hope they allow you to cross the center line without getting fined.

Two Trips to Town, Rain

Wednesday I took two trips to Port. One was inside one of our passenger trucks with Tina to go sign paperwork so that we can get our permits to be here and to get my driver's license. We should have it finalized in a couple days (too bad the adoption doesn't go this quickly).

The second trip was to pick up a few (3) crates that had been shipped here from Michigan. I rode in the back of our steakbed inhaling all the dust, diesel fumes, and smoke. It started out sprinkling up in the mountains and then was HOT down in Port. It is nice to ride out in the open and see all that there is to see. The crates that came in weren't large so it wasn't too much work. There is a mentally and physically challenged worker of ours that went with us and we almost left without him. It was a pretty funny scenario. I had to help him up into the truck by lifting his legs over the walls of the truck. He, himself, was smiling.


Rain

About an hour after we got back it started to rain and it rained HARD! We got three inches in no more than two hours. Our cisterns are full now! I was very happy that it didn't rain that hard on us as we climbed the mountain with materials from the crates.

We got some more rain today, but not as much. Tomorrow I'll be going back to the beach house to fix the old Lister generator - or at least try to get it running again. There is another group using the camp for an event this weekend so if the Lord wants the generator to be fixed, He might be pleased to fix it through me. I don't think the family will be going with me this time.

What's wrong? Why?

How old are we before we stop looking? How many times must we see people in this situation in order to walk by without giving a second look or thought?

The Office, Permit, BCS

Yesterday was my last day in the office sitting in "the chair" behind the desk. Now it's time to get dirty again. Pastor Rob and his wife and Mr. Kyrk got home last night. Now we'll see if I messed anything up while they were gone... We'll see if I still have a job after this morning. Here's a shot of the office (can you find Waldo [Carter] in this picture - hint: I think he has a good idea?):


Permit

I was told by one of the workers yesterday that this morning we'll be going down (Tina and I) to sign papers for our permit to work/live here as well as possibly pick up my Haitian drivers license. About a month ago (time flies so it may have been longer) I decided that I shouldn't be driving because it is against the law here - and because there are few police around does not mean that it's OK to do. So, once I get my license, I can start to drive around on the streets once again.

Boring car stuff...

Late last week, the blue Isuzu came back with a broken cage. The back bar that had been bolted in (so we could remove it) was off because a bolt broke and the back driver's side of the cage broke. That will be one of the first things that I do when I start doing my blue-collar work. Don't look at that poor welding job in the picture - I am a newbie and that was my first real project (see why we have real welders working at the mission?).

Amazon Wishlist

We just posted our wishlist at Amazon because we have had number of people ask if they can send us things. Check it out on the bottom of this post or on the right-hand side of page near the bottom of the "gadgets." If you want to send things, do your best to make sure that one single box is not more than 5 lbs. or it will go through customs. We are planning to put only books on this list. Thank you!

Our Friends Brought Their Son Home!

Congratulations to our friends - they brought their son home over the weekend (Mother's Day weekend) from Haiti!

We first met these guys as we both took our first trip to Haiti together back in June of 2007 and we are so very happy for them. We met at the airport hotel in Miami and hung out with each other over the next week as we visited the orphanage that we both were adopting from. They have been a great blessing to us by bringing things to us as the came to visit.

We pray that everyone adjusts well together in their newly reformed family!

Happy Mother's Day!, Busy Sunday AM

Happy Mother's Day!!

We called our mothers last night, but would like to pass on this hope for a good Mother's Day to all mothers!

Busy Sunday AM

It started with me hearing a truck that wasn't ours and shouldn't be here on Sunday (at 7:30AM). It followed with one of our guards (I'd argue he's our best guard) coming to my door to say that we have a delivery of food here. I told the guard that it's Sunday and was figuring out what to do. If we work now, we wouldn't obey the 4th commandment of keeping the Sabbath holy - there would be no other whole day in the week to rest and focus on the Lord because Mr. Kyrk and Pastor Rob are gone - things start bright and early Monday morning.

There was hardly a soul around because we have no workers (except the guards on Sunday) so, I would have had a lot of work to do. Though that was NOT the main point (I like work) I would be happy to not have to do it all myself.

I ended up getting an answer from calling Mme. Kyrk after trying another source. She said that the place that was delivering food was told not to deliver on Sunday. That made the decision right there. The people that brought the food up were not happy. So the truck will sit here until tomorrow when, after we unload it, they'll leave.

Minutes later, I get a phone call that revealed that our caretaker at the mission's beach/camp house was hit and killed by a vehicle while he was walking/standing on the road going to church.

So we had to scramble to figure out what to do. Our hospital administrator (a great guy) is Haitian and he knows how things work here. He wanted to make sure that we had someone going to the house/camp to watch it. He feared that if word got out that he had died that people would go and try to steal things from the house/camp.

We sent a couple guys with a truck and money to keep an eye on the place, pay for funeral-type things, and go with the police to the person's house who hit and killed the caretaker. (From my understanding, in Haiti, if you hit someone, you better run home or you might end up getting beat/killed by the bystanders of the incident. Let the police come to you and you MAY be better off.)

The first scenario was like this and the second like this. All in one day and it provided a great example to my children (and myself).

Please pray for this man's family of three sons and a wife. I don't have an idea of what will be in their future short-term or long-term.

Another Day in the Office, Family

I spent all but about a half hour of my workday (7am to 5pm with an hour lunch) in the office. Things went pretty good - just a couple things that were not real straight forward, but not a big deal. I spent most of the day continuing to work on the Access database by adding a section for entering and reporting the electricity usage here. Some electricity is delivered by the country's power (EDH) and some is by our generator - this makes the reporting and tracking a bit complicated. I also worked more on the payroll aspect of the database. All of these things are on Excel and not integrated like they will be when I am done with them on Access - Lord willing.

Family

Carter has been helping me out in the office. He has even listened to a guy speak in Creole and knew where the thing was that he was asking for - I didn't catch it and Carter just took over telling me where the thing was. He has been a big help lately in the garage, too, by helping to take care (clean and fill with water) a battery in the Montero.

Lou seems to be doing pretty well - learning lots. He is attempting speak more (largely unsuccessful) and is doing good with the potty training stuff.

Kayla is doing well, too. She came up for her own recipe for a bread that she calls "Yum Yum Bread" and, just as the name implies, it is yummy!

Tina is well, too. I am still sore form yesterday. Oreo is a good dog. Centipedes are gone (we tossed them over the wall). Hummingbird is still around, but I still haven't gotten a picture - he has been trying to drink from a large metal flower that can't taste good.

Ummm...that's about it - just another boring blog post. "Boring" can be good and "boring" is exactly what we need right now.

Busy Day, Break

I am "running the place" until Sunday when Mr. Chris comes back, but I will still be "running the place" through Tuesday when Mr. Kyrk gets back because Mr. Chris won't be in Mr. Kyrk's office where the workers are sent out daily to do various tasks. I am not really "running" anything, but just keeping whatever comes my way afloat. Yesterday wasn't too bad - I got everyone out and everything handled without any issues (that I know of - Mr. Kyrk will verify that when he gets back).

I even had time to coordinate and assist the cleaning of one of our depots and the movement of 300 50kg sacks of rice into that cleaned depot. I helped out our workers a lot and have sore muscles (mostly my upper back/shoulders area).

I spent most of the afternoon working on the Access database (lifting nothing more than my finger or a pencil). Things are coming along pretty good with the database. There are a lot of separated pieces that are coming together to make things more efficient. Here is a picture of what I have so far - I haven't removed the tables on the left, but when more people start using it I'll clean it up so no accidents are made (like deleting the tables):


Break

We could use a break sometime soon and are looking forward to the adoption being completed so we can take a much needed rest in the States. Some things are starting to wear on us here and it would be beneficial to take a break to reflect on things - to make sure that we are in the place God wants us and to make sure we are doing the things that God wants us to do.

There are so many things here that need to be done and could be done that it would be easy to get caught up doing everything and not getting the right things done. Things like this help to keep our eyes focused on the prize and to run the marathon race without being distracted along the way.

Beach, Boring (non)Car Stuff

There was an issue with a water pump at BHMs camp location up north. I had the family pile in to enjoy the beach while I worked with Mr. Len. Carter and I rode in the back of the pickup truck the whole 2 plus hours there and the whole 2 plus hours back. Here are some pictures of the trip.




The wind holding my mouth open and Carter enjoying the breeze too:


Boring (non)Car Stuff...

It appears that the water pump isn't situated correctly to do its job (that's the first problem). The generator runs that pump (the big old green Lister). That generator was about to shake itself apart because it has been abused over the years, but it ran. I did a little tightening up of various parts (and have the video to prove how bad it was) and then we tried to start it - it wouldn't start. I figured it was because a couple mechanisms were removed that limited the travel of the throttle. Those limits were there because internal things (like springs and levers) weren't designed to go beyond the limits. When they went beyond the limits, things either fell apart or broke.

Since we have two of these generators and one is back at the mission, I took a look at the one here and think I have the solution to get it running (reliably), but won't be able to make it out there until late next week because Mr. Len and I will be the only two guys (American missionaries) here for a while. We just ordered the manuals for this generator, too, so we can get them working again (and order the right new parts). After that, we'll have to figure out a way to keep the maintenance up to par and not let people destroy it.

Silica Gel, Sick

A while back I posted a message about how humid and moist things are here and that I wanted people to send their "do not eat" packets. It's safe to say that we are in the beginning of the rainy season and things are getting moist again.

About a week ago, I got this from Kathy in the BHM Michigan office - I don't think that I'll need any more for quite some time (THANK YOU KATHY!):



Sick

For one week now, I have been having these stomach pains. I think it's from something that I ate a week ago yesterday. Kayla and Carter had it a little bit, too, but they seem to be better. It's hanging on to me. I get these stomach pains about 5 times a day and they don't last long, but they don't feel good. It's causing me to have to be near restroom and there is none by the mechanic shop. So when I am by the shop and nature calls my name, I make a bee-line to my house hope that no one stops me to talk. So far, I have a pretty decent record of making it all the way (actually a 100% record).

Tire

Once again we got our money's worth out of another tire...

Delayed Post

I have been sorta taking an unannounced blogging hiatus. Haven't been in the writing mood lately.

Canter - Maiden Voyage

They loaded up the truck to go to one of our associated schools in Giraud, which is up the mountain further. This is the first loaded (over-loaded as usual) trip for the truck since repairing the frame. The "road" there is not one where we can drive the whole way. I wanted to go with so I could be there if something happened (like the truck breaking in half again). It has been raining every evening (praise God for the water for our cisterns!) and so the "road" and ground was went and slippery. We went as far as we thought we could go and unloaded the truck for the school folks to carry the food the rest of the way down the mountain.

As we started to go, we had significant troubles because the four-wheel-drive (4WD) was popping out of gear. Right before the frame broke in two pieces, we had sent the transmission and transfer case out to be fixed. One never knows what happens to a vehicle when it leaves. That was not a job that I thought I could tackle because I don't have the man power or equipment. Canters are so popular around here that are probably thousands of guys who know this truck better than I do. Ours is a 4WD version which makes it a bit more rare and hard to find parts for. It appeared that they didn't put the exact same make/model transfer case in. Since we didn't get a chance to use it for a while because the frame broke, we didn't know it didn't work well and pops out of gear. To make an already long and boring story short, I ended up having to jam a piece of rebar in the shifting mechanism to get it to stay in 4WD. It worked and we got back OK. The frame is still in one piece (again, praise God!).



Let's see...what else...

I saw a baby centipede like the 10-12 incher we found - the baby was only 2-3 inches (almost cute).

The Access database that I am working on is coming along well. Making new forms, reports, and tables. This should save a bit of time for various people and decrease the chance for error since there is only one entry being made and the calculations are automated.

Lou is doing great with his eating and food. We have taught him to keep his tongue in his mouth when eating (I bet this is harder for children with Down Syndrome) and to keep his mouth shut when chewing (and he is chewing better now, too). He is not re-sampling his food again and he usually makes it to the potty (barely in time). He is saying Mama and Dada and...that's about it. He can say eat, please, more, and some other sign language.

Kayla, Carter, and I have had some sort of icky stomach thing for about a week now. It's not too bad, but it is annoying.

Kayla is drawing up a storm - she has been picking Bible verses and drawing a picture for the verses.


Carter is busying thinking of things to make - his latest invention was a small popcorn maker to put over a fire.


Starting on Wednesday, Mr. Lenny and I will be the only two (of five) American missionaries here at the Mission. The others are out for a mission board meeting. That will be a busy time for Mr. Lenny and me.

The weather is getting warmer. It starts out about 64 degrees and ended up at 89 on the 27th (which was an especially warm day here).

We finished painting our main living area a nice light green color. That helped to warm it up.

I'll get my act together here and start to post at least every other day.