Latrines for Thomazeau

An organization in Thomazeau, which is the closest community to us, approached me a few months ago to help them find funding for community latrine project. This is a local organization of young men and women who want to help improve the living conditions of the population of this area. The name of the group is "The Organization of Devoted Youth for the Development of Thomazeau". They have proposed putting in ten community latrines. Each of these latrines will be 3-4 seaters. The community will provide the labor for digging the pits and will donate $5000 Haitian dollars to the materials cost. With labor and materials, each latrine will cost just about $1000 US. On "my status" on Facebook a couple weeks or so ago, I wrote, "I wonder how many people out in Facebook world would be interested in donating to putting in a latrine in Haiti". I immediately got responses. So I am putting it out there! What if families went in together to raise $1000 for a latrine that would provide a good many people with a more hygienic place to use the restroom? This would help to improve community health. Just think, a latrine in Haiti could be named in honor of your family! How many people can boast of that? So many of us in America have so much more than we need and we take for granted the things we have. What if 10 family units, Life Groups, clubs, youth groups - whoever - got together and put their funds together to build a latrine. Families could give potty dollars instead of Christmas gifts to each other! If you want more details of the breakdown of labor and materials, feel free to contact me. I have a detailed document from the group making this request. Contact me for more info or how to donate! Pass this info along to your family and friends and let's see how many toilets we can provide for Thomazeau!

Right after the medical trip to the north I left to go to Charlotte. Myrlene had surgery on the 8th, to remove a softball-size cyst from her ovary. She is also almost 5 months prgenant, so we were concerned for both her and the baby. She has a large incision and is recovering at home now. She was in the hospital for 4 days. The baby (Jayda will be her name) has a strong, regular heartbeat. The picture below is of a miracle taking place: Myrlene does not eat fruit, and has ALWAYS refused to eat citrus of any kind. In this photo she is eating an orange, which I did not have to try to coax her to eat. It is a real miracle! Those of you who know Myrlene know this is true!

The other night there was a huge fire in a nearby village. We have not yet heard what burned. We're hoping someone was just burning off a field.

A blog is not complete without a shot of the cutest puppy in the world!

June 29 - July 6, I went with the Medical Mission Team from Providence Road Church of Christ (our home congregation) to Northern Haiti for a week of moblie medical clinics. It is always good to get back up norht nad visit our "family" there. The trip was a success. I think we consulted with and treated between 800 and 900 people during the 5 clinic days. It was a blessing to be able to spend the week with the folks from Charlotte and meet some new people who were a part of the team.

Translators for medical clinics

Medical Mission Team "Oh Lord, my God, you are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps Himself in light, as with a garment; He stretched out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of His upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds His chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants. He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." (Ps.104:1-5)

The Cite Soleil Christian School held kindergarten graduation exercises on June 28, 2009. Tim, Jeantyrard, a couple preachers from the Thomazeu area, Bwa and I all attended. THey go all out, no holds barred for kindergarten graduations! This was almost exactly like the high school graduation we attended a couple weeks prior. There were 20 graduates in the class and they were dressed to kill! They were really cute. It was amazing how these kids belted out songs and speeches!

These are the HFHC sponsored grads (above)

The processional

This is Carline and her baby. Carline used to be in te HFHC education

program. Her younger brother was one of the kindergarten graduates. It was good to see her and find out how

she is doing.

Bijou on the standing watch in the guard house

During a recent visit, Steve arm-wrestled the boys, but could only win with the girls James and Steve came for a weekend to do a lot of re-wiring on the house and well pump. Thanks to James' expertise we can now pump water from the well to the cistern and the invertor holds a charge for longer than a couple hours. It was fun having them for a couple days.

Bijou Helped by moving rocks