Three Weeks and Counting…
Heidi and I have completed our first three weeks in Haiti as long-term missionaries with Global Partners. We hit the ground running and probably will not slow down until June! Here are some highlights of our first three weeks in Haiti…
- Haley’s school is going good and she really enjoys it. Her reading is getting better and better each week. Her teacher says she should be on a 2nd Grade level when she starts 1st Grade next year!
- On Tuesday her teacher heard a band marching up the street in front of the WISH compound and took the kids to the wall to observe. The music was loud and pretty good. After a few minutes she began to realize that at the end of the parade were people wailing and crying out. It was a funeral procession, and the band stopped right in front of them when they realized they had an audience! The casket was in the back of a pick-up truck!
- I (Greg) spent Thursday through Sunday (Jan. 6-9) in Port-au-Prince with a church rebuild team from Alaska. They had a General Contractor and his lead man on the team, and the other 5 guys all had construction experience. I had to leave Sunday to come back to the island, but I heard that they got all of the walls up and all the trusses set on this 40’ x 80’ building.
- It was a great reminder of the earthquake’s devastation as we poured the concrete footings in the middle of ten-foot tall piles of rubble that used to be a Citi Soleil Wesleyan Church. The church people broke up the destroyed building by hand and took out the rebar. They plan to use the rubble to build up the floor a couple of feet. About 7 or 8 men of the church showed up Saturday to help us begin constructing their new church building. They are currently meeting under a 50’ x 100’ tent on their property!
- The best for last…Dan (our mission director) called Monday afternoon and informed me that he got approval from Global Partners to build a new guesthouse. He said we could be ready to start moving dirt in 3 or 4 weeks. The current guesthouse is sitting right where the new hospital is to be built, and it desperately needed replacing anyway. We have a full schedule of teams between now and summer, but I have permission to recruit additional teams of up to 10 people to come work on the new building. The goal is to have the new guesthouse finished in 3 to 4 months!!!
- We need 10 additional construction teams to come to La Gonave, Haiti from late February through March.
- Teams need to have 2 or 3 people with professional construction experience and 5 or 6 willing workers.
- Contact Heidi at heidiedmonds@yahoo.com for more information about bringing a team.
