Order Up, One Toasty Generator/Welder!

For your viewing pleasure tonight, I offer you one of our finest cooked pieces of machinery. This welder comes straight from Honda and is aged appropriately. Cooked to perfection. The plastic is tender, the rubber all sauteed off, and the metal a deep color of black.


The only good news is that Mr. Kyrk and I got the motor running again on the concrete shop floor (only after I got NAILED by a projectile where the sun doesn't shine). The motor runs good, but I am not sure that it will weld or generate electricity again. We'll have to find a good use for the engine (can someone say go-cart? It's fun to dream, right?).

Sunday Drive

About a week ago, Pastor Rob asked if I wanted to go with him to another church of ours further out. It was a little joke here because he wanted to take the Ford Ranger and the joke was that he wanted to have the mechanic along to fix whatever broke.

We left at 6AM and had no issues with the Ranger. There were a lot of people coming with because we have visitors this week, so we took two vehicles. I drove the shortbox Landcruiser (we got that back a couple weeks ago after having the bodywork repaired from the meeting with the cow) and Pastor Rob drove the Ranger. I love driving and I love driving here on the difficult trails. I miss my driving buddy, though (Shannon)!

The "roads" we went on were difficult trails with huge boulders and narrow paths along the way. At one point, they were doing work on the road and we had to wait a little bit for them to clear a path for us to travel past. I enjoy driving here so much that I left it out of four-wheel drive for a little challenge. I made it all the way without using it.

I didn't get many pictures of the drive because I was driving, but when we got to the church area I did take a few pictures.

Here is one of the baptism area that was used by a couple churches in the area. It was really pretty - there was a 2-3 foot water fall just behind where they performed the service:


Here is my favorite shirt situation of the trip (you may have to click to read the pink shirt):


The church service lasted from about 9:45 to about 1:15. We were invited to sit up front. Sitting up front means sitting behind where the pastor stands, facing the congregation - not just sitting up front facing the pastor like everyone else. It's quite the experience!

It didn't feel quite as long as 3.5 hours to me. They had some great groups of singers come up to perform (one with a squeezebox, Dad! - they were my favorite and I got video of them).

I posted on the Field Journal of the BHM website a little while ago that Smile Train is coming soon to our hospital and it was mentioned at the end of the church service. After the service, a lady was brought to Pastor Rob who had a real bad cleft lip. I am guessing her age to be mid 20's (I am horrible at guessing ages). She had one of the worst cleft lips I have seen. She was given all the details of what to do and hopefully she can come in and get the free surgery. She is one of those cases where you would hardly recognize her after the surgery - she'll be a new woman.

One Year Makes A Difference

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOU!!

Lou has gotten much more healthy since leaving the orphanage - the visible difference is amazing! Personal time and attention to his needs does wonders. Malnutrition and other eating issues was not easy on his body. We don't have a shot of his new belly, but Weight Watchers would be happy to use his tummy comparison on a billboard. His face is no longer puffy and the rest of his body has slimmed down as well. The inset picture is '09 and the other is one year earlier in '08.



Last night after we ate dinner with everyone here, we ate a great cake that Tina made and Lou opened up some birthday gifts. We got packages yesterday just in time for his birthday (which is actually today the 24th). He is really enjoying the puzzle that G&G Schilling got him - and the card that sings when you open it is great! From everyone else, he got a couple balls to play with, a couple cars, a book, clothes, and a stuffed animal. Thank you all for the great birthday gifts!

It was so fun to let him go nuts on a cake - just like a one year old would. Tina made a cake that would be easy on his stomach (and the rest of us got a super chocolate cake). He dove right into the middle of the cake and he really enjoyed himself. I'll put pictures on later of the part (I didn't have my camera on me, so I'll be getting other photos).

We thank the Lord that we are able to be here and celebrate his 4th birthday! We have now spent half of his birthdays with him!

Chainsaw, Copper

We have three people from Canada here for 10 days. One of them is the Canadian President of the Baptist Haiti Mission board. They are great guys to be with!

They brought quite a few goodies for the mission. One of them is this great, big chainsaw to replace one that was crushed by a tree and will now be used for parts. It has a large engine and will come in handy. When hurricanes come and trees fall, there are VERY FEW chainsaws around to clear roads and peoples' houses. This will come in handy - no doubt. Mr. Kyrk and I will probably fight over who gets to use it first. The weight of the machine will prevent one person from using it all day, so it should be fair. :-)


Copper

I spent most of the day on Thursday taking some transformers apart that have been sitting around the mission for a while. There is also a large, old welder that I have to take apart yet. We are taking the copper out of them and will be taking a trip to the Dominican Republic to sell it to benefit the Mission. I'll take a shot of all the copper we get out of it. It'll end up probably being more than 50 pounds. (ignore the Kitchen Aid mixers on the workbench - we are not taking the copper out of them)

Accident

I found out this afternoon that one of our driver's daughter was hit by a motorcycle this afternoon. She is hurt pretty badly and was taken to a different hospital. Please pray for her and her family - that they would draw closer to God in this time of struggle and depend on Him.

LATE EDIT:

His daughter is doing OK. She has one broken leg and it is broken in a number of spots. Please continue to pray for her and her family. We also want to pray for the gentleman that hit her. Things are different here in Haiti and the man could have been killed on the spot by the crowd of people but he wasn't. He will probably get in big trouble - the whole process is very different than in the US.

Humble Pie, Refr

Well...people who read this blog frequently will recall that the Ford Ranger had a number of issues one day awhile back. It has continued. The latest is because it recently broke down and some Haitian guys (non-mechanics) helped to repair it before Kyrk and I got there. They took things off that didn't need to be taken off in order to make the repairs. When they put things back together, they didn't put them on tight enough and didn't use the original parts (cotter pins). When the truck made its way back to the Mission after that incident, I checked everything out - or at least I thought I did. It turns out that I missed one part - the part that came apart yesterday when Pastor Rob was travelling. The ball joint made it's way lose and in the process destroyed itself beyond use. We were fortunate to find one in a town nearby. I feel bad because it is something that I should have looked at, but missed it and it cost Pastor Rob about 4 or more hours. I am certainly not an ace mechanic.

Here is a shot of where it broke down. The photo doesn't show how steep the road was.


Yesterday was a day filled with one issue after the other.

Refr

Tina just went to the frig this morning and realized that it was left cracked open all night. We didn't have any EDH (city electricity) which was probably a good thing because our electric bill would have been real high. The good thing about not having much food is that very little has to be thrown away. Most things in there are at room temperature. When I turn the electricity on at 7:30, things will cool off once again.

Cooking, RV, 99.99% Used

Tina was doing some cooking (again) - this time with Lou. He likes food (which is the biggest understatement of the decade).


RV

The following picture is our next project since the Flintstone car - it's going to be a Recreational Vehicle (RV). Just joking! It's the roof for a playhouse that is being moved. It was interesting to see them move this (and to help them lift it on the truck - it was VERY heavy).


99.99% Used

Do you think we got our money's worth out of this tire, cords showing and all? This tire is just about at the end of its life - it probably has a good couple of feet left in its life.

Teeter Totter, Concrete, Mun Cheez, Gasket

The kids teeter totter is finished. Mr. Kyrk and I were the first ones to test it out - much to Kayla's disappointment. She was saying that she wanted to be the first on it. She was just over a little ways when we tried it out. I called her to tell her she wasn't the first and she ran over with Carter. It seems to be a pretty decent hit with all the kids around. It's a little big, but it's good.


Concrete

This is one way how Haitians get concrete above the first floor. There were guys standing on a homemade ladder in one place and they lifted the concrete up bucket-by-bucket to a chain of guys at the top who put it where it needed to go. They then sent the bucket back the ladder side of the place and sent it down using a rope. They were singing while they worked. We watch them for a little while right from our house. It was amazing teamwork and something that you just wouldn't see much (if at all) in the States. One guy in a cement truck would come and dump it all on the second floor using a pipe/big hose.


Mun Cheez

Mr. Kyrk and I had talked about going out to eat and we had picked yesterday to do it (our personal first time going out as a group of missionaries). We had everyone but Chris and Kelli who come back on the 30th. We had pizza at a place called Mun Cheez and it tasted very good. We ate on the second floor of an open balcony area that faced a pretty busy intersection. There were all sort of sights and sounds: Dominoes delivery motorcycles, fancy cars (Jaguars, Mercedes, Gen. 3 Rx7), loud motorcycles and four-wheelers (even one trying to do a wheelie on the main drag), and more. The vast distribution of wealth is pretty evident and those who have it seem to flaunt it - just like in America. Here is a shot of the menu: notice the biggest pizza size - "duperduper":


Boring Car Stuff...

Haitian Exhaust Gasket

I helped one of our workers work on his own vehicle. He had a broken stud that held the exhaust to the manifold so we cut the exposed part off, drilled the old one out and put a bolt through it. He then made a gasket out of oil soaked rope. He told me that it will last a couple years - he's done it before. A couple years doesn't seem like a temporary solution, does it? It rarely ceases to amaze me how ingenious they are around here. I don't think that I am that ingenious. I can put a square block in a square hole, but I don't know that I could make some of the things that they do - like make a square block to fit it in the square whole like they do. We'd just buy the right parts in the States. Buying the right part will lead to more reliability and length of life of the related parts, but when they don't have much money...

Cold

Boy it sure is cold here. We woke up and it was 58 degrees!

(I am only writing this post because the temperature where most of our friends and family live is 78 degrees COLDER - it is 20 DEGREES BELOW ZERO in Minnesota and that is NOT including the windchill!)

Late Edit:
My sister wrote to me and she said that in St. Cloud (an hour north of the Twin Cities area) they had 34 DEGREES BELOW not including windchill!

Due to Popular Demand...Pictures

Here are the pictures of butchering. I wish I could think of more to write right now, but cannot so there won't be much "header" to scare you away from the pictures.

We cut it all up this morning after letting it hang over night. It was my first time and I followed Mr. Kyrk's instructions. It took all morning with the two of us cutting it up. Two Haitian guys were helping/watching and Mme. Kyrk was helping to wrap the meat. We'll freeze the chops and bring it to the market (they'll cut it for us for free). The rest we'll be eating the upcoming weeks. We'll be doing another pig or the cow in a few weeks.

OK maybe I did think of enough to write, but it will depend on your resolution whether or not the pictures show up by surprise. Here are the pictures. No detail spared (well, maybe a little because these won't be high resolution).

They shot it in the head first and then removed the head (which is when the body stopped twitching):


Then they poured boiling water over the fur/hair and skin. This made it stand up more and then the dark colored skin and fur/hair came right off when they scraped it with a knife.


They kept it clean by putting it on top of banana leaves.


Then they gutted it.


Hung it up to dry.


And then we started to cut it apart.


Here is the tongue and beginning of the throat. The tongue was more than 12 inches long.


I was surprised how small the brains were. Here is a picture of half of them after we cut the head in quarters (the hospital will use/cook all parts for food). Notice the roof of the mouth and half of the teeth in the lower left of the picture. There are so many interesting parts. We even found the bullet.


And that's the end of it.

This Little Piggy Went To The...

Butcher.

Yesterday, they butchered the largest pig that we had (out of three). It went better than when they did the goat because they used sharp knives this time (and Mr. Kyrk shot it first with a .22 revolver - circa. early 1900's, perhaps - it was old but it did the job). It was very interesting to see how they did it and how they cleaned it up. Today, they'll be cutting the meat up (are you achin for some bacon?). I have more pictures and video, but I will save that for people who ask to see it instead of me throwing it in their face on this blog. (As you can see in the picture, Carter was a bit nervous to be this close to Miss Piggy.)

A Delivery, Trailer

Yesterday, we had my Mom's friend's niece come to drop off some things that we requested. She was gracious enough to offer to bring things to us (Thank you very much Deb and crew!) that my parents bought for us (Thank you Mom and Dad!). They were on a short-term trip here in Haiti. We met with them around 12 and talked until 1:30 when they had to leave. The kids got new shoes (which are very nice to have and they needed). We got a lot of other things and the best things were the snack food items and plastic containers. It's been a long time since we had Whoppers and York Peppermint Patties!


Dog's collar and rope:


Lou's slippers:


Here is the picture of the trailer that I promised to include. You can see (mostly) the old wheels on the picture in this post.

Latest Log Creation

I am personally ready do be done with these logs because I am so tired from using the chainsaws everyday for more than half the day. It is very hard work. We finally finished cutting up the real big ones and moved them to the area where they will stay. Pastor Rob wanted us to get all of them cleared up because they were an eye sore sitting where they were and they were killing the little grass that is there. The tire popped off the trailer for the four-wheeler and it was impossible to get it back on. So we took the tires off the rim and welded the old rim to a new rim with tire (which is much larger). It looks like we pimped it out. I'll get a picture and put it on by the end of this weekend.

This is the latest creation that Mr. Kyrk was trying out as a car - just like the Flintstones (well, close anyway):


It's going to be the entrance to a kid's fort with a king and queen chair as well as a table - all made out of the wood from the tree.

The teeter-totter has been put on hold. We are waiting for out mason guy to back (next week I think) so that he can put it in.

From what Mr. Kyrk said yesterday, the gasoline shortage may be over. There is apparently enough gasoline again in Port and soon it should be making it's way up the mountain here - this is a very good thing.

Here is something that I read this morning that I thought was very good. This does not necessarily mean that He'll answer in the way that we expect. He is, perhaps, looking to have you draw closer to Him. Ask!

More Towing & Logging, Gasoline, Books

I felt a bit like a bunch of hillbillies today as we tried to tow the Canter up a steep wet hill using the big dump truck. I was "driving" the Canter. It took about 10 tries. There are concrete strips but they were partially dirt covered and the big dump is a little wider than the strips. They had pushed the Canter down there trying, without success, to start it. It sounds like they are planning to bring it back to the person they had fix it a couple months ago to make him fix it again without having to pay. We'll see what happens. Here was my view as we tried to pull it up (that's Johnny to the right):


Mr. Kyrk and I are almost done with the logs that were taken down by the hurricane. While cutting, two ladies came and chatted with me. They were from Rosemount, MN. It was fun to talk about the weather there in Minnesota.

Gasoline

There appears to be a significant gasoline shortage going on here. We have had a number of people well over 20), coming here looking to buy our gas. Most vehicles here in Haiti are Diesel (it seems the ratio is the opposite of the States - percentage-wise for what there is for gas vs. diesel in Haiti). The one exception to this is all the motorcycles that run around the country - they all use gasoline. This shortage could prove to be a significant issue if it lasts too much longer. We have four vehicles that use gasoline that we use for our daily running. With the little amount of gasoline left in our big tank, that won't last a whole lot longer. I have not heard a definite reason for the shortage, but I hope that this doesn't cause people to get upset here and start causing problems.

Books

Tina's small group sent us a bunch of books to read - THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!! We got some good titles and a variety for everyone in the house including Lou. We also got a number of Christmas cards yesterday (THANK YOU Gordy & Sue, Layt & Rene, Jennifer, John & Kathy!!).

Boring car stuff...

With the gasoline shortage, I will be working to make sure all diesel vehicles are running well (the Montero is my first job of the day so they can use it today) and I anticipate having more time to work on the gasoline vehicles in the coming week or so.

Fire, Family

We have had a couple fires in the fireplace the last week or so. It had been a little cool (lately it seems warmer, though). We used the four-wheeler and the trailer to get the wood and I had Kayla and Lou come with me. They liked the ride.


Our dog, Oreo, was in front of the fireplace the whole time it was burning.


In addition to the wood playground equipment (which is now going to take the form of a fort for kids), we have built a teeter-totter. It's about two days from being completed and I'll take pictures (we need to cement it in). The kids are going to love it and it will be a lot of fun to see the Haitian kids play on it, too.

Tina and the kids are doing well. Finding the right thing to do for Lou is tough. His stomach is rarely in good shape. Tina has been trying to find the right foods and trying to diagnose what his issue is (celiac, reflux, etc...). This is almost a full time job in itself. Lou is doing great in training pants. The only problem is still existing - he doesn't tell us when he has to go - we have to ask. He hasn't had any accidents lately.

Kayla has been helping Tina a lot in the house and it's been great for both of them.

Carter has been coming to the shop with me lately - he got a small chainsaw working with a little of my help (no, I am not letting him use it quite yet).

Boring car stuff...

I have been doing mostly basic maintenance stuff lately. The Ford Ranger needed a new battery, the Canter supposedly needed battery work (one was bad) but it really needs starter work (whenever battery terminal connectors don't fit well [because they over tighten them the first time which stretches them out] they then try to hammer in nails and screw in screws to make it a tight fit - this ruins the batter terminal itself and the connector - this is something I really want to teach them because it causes so many problems), I replaced the glow plugs and plugged a tire in the Montero (will be doing the fuel filter soon), and various other things. Being able to work on the teeter-totter and other things like that is really nice because it gives me a nice break (my knees mostly).

Logs and Misc.

It's been a little while since I last posted. Mr. Kyrk and I have been working a bit on cleaning up the large logs that were left by the hurricanes. We hollowed a number of them out. We have been making various things using them including this little playground, a bench, and even some coffee table tops. It's been a lot of work. We have gotten some good wood chips out of it that makes for some great fire starter.



On Tuesday this week, I was asked to look at a centrifuge (I like the variety). It turns out that there were two of them (of three) that were broken - they didn't turn on. I looked at one of them and all that the motor needed was some brushes/carbon so I took some extras that fit closely and it worked. The other one was a bit more complicated, I took it apart and saw that there was a short against the metal case - one of the wires had broken insulation. I repaired the wire and it worked again.


Here is a picture of a very pretty caterpillar that one of the kids found: