Update on the Five (5) Homes for Haiti Project

Below is a little update concerning the next team from Canada, that will be helping in assembling the Homes for Haiti in Lajeune. From an email from Marilyn:

Hi team members: just want to let you know that Mark Pratt and another gentleman, Keith Burke are travelling to Haiti tomorrow (June 28^th, 2011) to hopefully build houses.
Mark is pumped about the project. Keith is from Three Hills, AB and is new to Haiti.

I would ask that you please pray for the fellows in the coming days.
They arrive in Port-au-Prince tomorrow at 1:15pm on AA. The plan is that Pastor Giordani or one of the chauffeur's, Frere Ismaye or Frere Emmanuel will meet them at the airport, and take them directly to Hinche. They will gather up tools that are in Hinche.
On Wednesday, they will travel early to La Jeune. Mark's plan is to start with the house with the view, then go out to Pignon to build Pastor Gusmaye's. After that they will do the next 3.

Please pray for the guys that the plans and the project will go smoothly.

Pray that they get to Haiti without issue along with their luggage.
Pray for safety as they travel on the roads.
Pray for some dry days to do the building. Ian your prayers for rain have been answered over and over again. They have had lots of rain and there is lots of mud.
Pray especially for safety as they travel on that road out to Monak. That would be extremely treacherous if it was wet.
Pray for strength and good health for the fellows as well.
Pray for good working relations with the new team of builder men.
Pray for other details that come to mind. ie that the generator would work well.

The Homes are finally up country in La Jeune!

Below is a message from Marilyn, concerning good news for the homes:
Hi Team:
I just received the email below from Pastor Abdon. Here are the details of the house panels etc.
"I hope you are well. Pastor Altidor arrived with the container in Hinche on Friday evening. Frere Elizer (with dump truck) carried materials on Saturday but there was lots of rain; the road became mud (as you can imagine). Thanks to God, almost all the materials have arrived in La Jeune. They will finish with the final load today. Everything arrived in fairly good shape except that everything was mixed up?? Because there was so much that the garage was full up; they needed to put panels in the dining hall. Today they brought in the doors and windows in 2 trips. We will communicate more later."
So that is the scoop.
Blessings to all.
Marilyn

Finally, some creature stories.

This morning, while the teens cleaned out a cluttered garage, we had our first critter encounter. A blackberry sized tarantula crawled out of a pipe and hid in a pile of cement bags that we had to move. After a careful dismantling of the pile, we found it, and after playing with it, killed it. The adrenaline kept us on our toes, and we were paranoid for the rest of our cleaning.
Later, while moving rocks, we found four more, all bigger, over the span of an hour. Made for quite an interesting day of work.
James, for the Haiti team.
Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel

Just another day of Haitian consistency

The entire team is very thankful for the prayers, please keep them up, we will most likely need them.
I know that reading vague blogs can be unsatisfying, but many stories so far have too much context to type on a blackberry.
We are all looking forward to church tomorrow, and as we sing, we'll miss Derek and the band but also thoroughly enjoy the passion surrounding us.
About half way through our trip and still going strong while looking forward to what the second half will bring.
Have a great sabbath,
James for the Haiti team.
Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel

Cement again

Well, we might be doing different work than we intended, but regardless this trip has already taught us some very new things. We thought we'd be assembling houses, instead we are carrying cement. Good thing we had all that practice on our previous trips. The kids were a highlight of the day, helping and laughing and playing.
In general, a good time was had by all, along with farmer tans, fried salami, balloon animals and mild heat stroke.
And now, as I sit and listen to a violently funny game of euchre, I say goodnight to anyone reading back in Canada.
James for the Haiti team.
Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel

Hi, we're alive.

I believe this is the first entry of the blog so far, it would've been sooner but it's been quite the process working through the technical problemsAnyway, our first day of work has gone well, even if it wasn't what we expected. The main thing Brian wanted to make known to canada was the fact that it's 43 degrees C on the work site. Hope to give more frequent updates in the future.

James for the Haiti crew.

Sent from my BlackBerry® device from Digicel

Homes for Haiti Building Materials!

What a wonderful sunny day we had last Saturday April 9^th for our Assembly Training of our Homes for Haiti. We discovered what muscles are needed for this project, and now we also know that we all need hats and sunscreen as we got a little burnt too. What fun to pick up a cordless drill and make a difference in teaching and assembling Homes for Haiti!

Now for a little update about the materials for the Homes:

The Container left Cobourg yesterday on its way to Port au Prince with the first 5 houses for the IDP's (Internally Displaced Persons) in La Jeune.  Please be praying for the process: as it travels to PauP, arrives in the port, passes through the customs process etc.  Pray that our paperwork is in order and approved.  Pray these houses right up to Hinche and on to La Jeune.  Pray that the roads stay reasonably dry between Hinche and La Jeune so that the big truck can maneuver over them.  Pray for all the little details to fall into place.  
Pray that all of this happens prior to May 8, 2011.
Marilyn