Various

Adoption

After a couple emails, one voice mail and a couple more ignored phone calls, the orphanage director called us back yesterday to say that we might be on for Friday morning to go do the DNA testing with Lou's mom (the USCIS changed their mind about the dad getting tested - thankfully - which saves us money). She said that she was going to confirm with us today. I took the opportunity to ask about the other things that we have in process (she was waiting to hang up at the first opportunity so I had to keep her going). She thinks we have about 3 weeks left in the MOI stage. That will make it 7 months and 1 week in that stage - much longer than we ever expected and longer than many other folks. We'll keep you all updated.

Team

There was a large team (about 20 people) here from the States and they brought lots of goodies for themselves and shared tons with the missionary families here. We got lots of good American food (like chicken breasts!!!) as well as some clothes. A gentleman named Mike gave me some leather gloves and a Leatherman-like tool - these are great blessings!

They all came to work on our conference center. We were reconstructing the roof and raising it on one end as well as taking out a wall (that's where all the concrete is coming from that we are using the four-wheeler to haul). Here is a shot of the team the morning they left:


Illness

There is a cold-like illness that is going around. It includes a one-day fever, runny nose, sore throat, and coughing. Carter got it first, Kayla got it second, and Tina has it now. I may be getting it, too, but my body seems to be fighting it fairly well as I have had some slight symptoms for a couple/few days.

More Rats

One of our workers asked to borrow the rat cage that I had been using. He took it and hours later he came to me to tell me he had caught three rats. We have caught two in one cage (mom and baby) but three is great! They were like three teenagers. They were interesting to watch when we threw them in the cage with the crocodile. One ended up going into his mouth right away and the other rode the croc for a while - they did eventually get eaten too.



Sunsets

We have had some real nice sunsets and sunrises lately:


Boring Car Stuff...

Yesterday afternoon as I was trying to get some work done at the computer, I got a call that the Ford Ranger broke down on its way back up with a team from Pennsylvania. When we got there, the Haitian driver was saying that there was something wrong with the fuses. I got in and the important things looked good (no clock or hazard lights though). I tried to crank it and it seems to crank just fine and the glow plugs were clicking on and off. So I pumped the manual pump on the fuel filter and it seemed to be sucking air. I rapped my knuckles on the tank under the truck and sure enough...out of diesel. We towed it up, filled it up, and it was good as new (well...good as it was before).