Bonn Ane! Happy New Year!! I decided to sit down and go back through 2015 and try to pick out some of the highlights from each month. There is no way to truely show you what our everyday life is like here in Haiti without you really being here, but hopefully this will give you a little better understanding of what we do.
**WARNING: This is long. (Don't say I didn't warn you!)
January -
January started out with a team visiting from Caton Island, Canada. This team has been coming for many years. They went to church at the village with the kids and taught them a few new songs. At the end of many trips, we like to take the teams on a hike up the mountain that overlooks the city. It's a great way to reflect back over the week and bring the trip to a close.
We work closely on a few different projects with another organization called International Ministries of Hope. In January, we worked together to plant a new church on the edge of the city. In March, we added a second service that is in English.
February -
Each year, the different groups who work on La Gonave come together for a Summit Meeting. This is done to make connections with other people who are doing work on the island and to also share what is already being done so that partnerships can be formed. Craig had the opportunity to lead a panel discussion about economic development with the former mayor and a well known business owner.
Morgan celebrated her 9th birthday! She had some girls over to play some games and have cupcakes and then we went to the beach to swim!
Grandpa and Grandma J also visited this month!!! It was their first trip to Haiti!
March -
March started out with a team of nursing students from Indiana Wesleyan University visiting and giving an annual CPR training for the house moms at the Children's Village.
Later in the month, Youth4Orphans came from Florida and taught the kids about Noah.
March is also the month that we got our donkey, Fiona!! Morgan and Jaron had been saving up to buy a donkey and a couple guys who were visiting from the States heard about it and gave them the rest that they would need to buy the donkey. (You can buy a donkey for about $75US) Fiona now spends most of her time up in the mountains since our yard doesn't have enough for her to eat.
We had another team visit in March and they did a lot of work on the housing pods fixing plumbing problems. The well water that runs to the housing pods has some salt in it since it is so close to the ocean, so the fixtures tend to wear out pretty quickly. The kids were very happy to have working sinks, toilets and showers again!! The boys were pretty interested in what was going on! It's also always nice to teach some new skills to our staff.
April -
In April, we headed back State side for the month. At that point, we were about 6 months away from our original "leave date." We were praying that God would give us clarity on that trip to know what we were supposed to do; stay in Haiti longer, or move back to the States. We were very thankful to have time to spend with family and friends, eat some of our favorite foods that we had been missing and make some great memories.
May -
We have a wonderful team from Canada who work together at Stepping Stones who come every year to work with the kids at the Children's Village. This team uses play and music therapy to develop social and emotional skills as well as encourage critical thinking. They spent some time with the house moms specifically this year as well.
We also celebrated Mme. Soliette's 40th birthday!!
Flag Day is celebrated every May 18th. We walked with some of the older kids from the Children's Village down to the city square where there were a lot of people marching and dancing in Haitian parade fashion.
Haiti is also nice to share some not so nice creatures ;)
This month we took a LONG hike up the mountain with some of our friends and fellow missionaries on the mainland to a village that has tapped a fresh water spring.
June -
This month Craig had to run new water lines for the entire house becuase we had a leak and all of the original work runs in between the concrete walls. Leaks are never a good thing, but especially when you're counting on that rainwater for showers, flushing toilets and running the sinks!
Once in a while, we have a night with my English students where they can come and practice speaking English with a team who may be visiting. Video of English Classes
Jaron celebrated his 7th birthday this month! He chose to have cake and presents and then go on a day trip exploring the island. Grandma L was here to celebrate with us!!
This month we had a teacher training on using manipulatives in the classroom and school also ended for the summer! YAY!
There was also a group who visited from our hometown and we helped them with a VBS for the children of the staff of the Wesleyan mission.
June was a busy month! Summers tend to be that way. At the end of the month, we had one more team who came and helped to teach some of the older boys from the orphanage how to make a cistern and how to do some electrical work.
July -
We celebrated the 4th of July with a small team from Midland Nazarene in Michigan. They were our first team of the summer and did a great job with an Olympic themed VBS for the younger kids at the village. They also taught about growing with God and each other. Every afternoon, two teams got to go swimming too! They also started our mural wall around the village.
Jaron's summer look - BLEACH blond hair and DIRT everywhere!! Such a boy!
Another team came this month; this one was a youth group from California. We were very intentional this year to make sure that our older kids at the village felt valued. It is easy for people to come and connect with the younger kids. We have partnered with the youth at Cornerstone Fellowship in northern California to build relationships each year with their youth and our youth here in Haiti. So this team took the teenagers on day trips on the island and held a "summer camp" for them.
Then something super exciting happened. President Martelly visited the island! We took the teens down to the town square and they were able to see their President in person!
July was a BIG month. This month we also built the greenhouse for the new aquaponics project!
While the aquaponics team was busy building the greenhouse, we had another team from Midland Nazarene who put on a VBS for the younger kids. This week's theme was learning about God's love and learning to trust and have faith in God. They also had an acupuncture therapist on the team and so the staff at the village had the opportunity to give it a try. They were a bit (okay, more more than a bit) leary at first, but once they saw Morgan do it, they were willing to try!
August -
There were elections held in August and UN Troops were sent over from the mainland to help make sure that everything went smoothly. It was quite the excitement for our little island!
The second youth group team from California's Cornerstone Fellowship came this month. This was an exciting trip! They took all of the teenagers to the mainland for 3 days to visit different places and experience parts of their country that they'd only read about in school. Most of the children had never even been off the island. This team raised the funds for the kids to stay in a guesthouse for two nights and visit several museums. We are looking forward to what next summer will bring!
September -
We had been telling Morgan and Jaron for a couple years that when they turned 7 and 9, we would take them to Disney. Well, this summer that happened, and they didn't forget :) So at the beginning of September, we took a trip to Disney.
School started for us as soon as we returned. Our days are spent with the kids and I doing school and Craig working every morning. Then in the afternoons, we spend time on Haiti "stuff." This year, Morgan started 4th grade and Jaron started 2nd. We were excited to have a real school room at a new school that was just built.
Sometimes, we get a chance to go out on the sailboat on Sunday afternoons with the Wesleyan mission to swim at the sandbar! Such a treat!!
In September, I started teaching English to the preschool classes twice a week. They always make me smile!! I love to hear them practicing the English they're learning.
October -
In October, some friends of ours, Jason & Allison, moved down to manage the aquaponics program. It was so nice to be able to spend a couple days in Port au Prince (without the kids!) when we went to pick them up from the airport.
This month, the designer/founder of the aquaponics system came down and did a training for the staff who would be working on the project with Jason this year. The goal is for them to train a Haitian manager who will then train some of the older kids. We also started planting this month and added tilapia to the system. Lots of excitement!
Video of the aquaponics system.
Tessa also had puppies this month! She had four puppies. One died, but we actually had an abandoned orphan puppy that Tessa took in as one of her own.
November -
Another team from our hometown came down in November. This team has been working with the Children's Village since 2010 doing medical checks. Since Morgan and Jaron have picked up the language so well, they are always a great help when teams are here.
This month, Craig and I got the rare opportunity to go out on a fancy date! One of the supermarket/gas station/restuarants on the island held a dinner just for couples. It was a nice break from the norm. (Yes, our fancy date was at a gas station!) Video of our date!
Most of the month, Craig had been working with another small local supermarket. He installed a new point of sale software and trained the staff so that they could be more successful with their business. One night the staff came to the house and surprised the guys with cake and gifts for their help.
Holidays are difficult in Haiti, especially American holidays. It's sometimes hard to make them feel special. This year, for Thanksgiving, we got together with all the other missionaries on the island and some from the mainland and had a big Thanksgiving feast the evening before Thanksgiving. The missionary kids put on quite the show including singing, dancing, drama and even puppets! Then, Thanksgiving day, one of our friends made amazing chicken and biscuits. Definitely not the traditional Thanksgiving meal, but we have to make our own new traditions as we figure out life here :)
Video of our Thanksgiving
At the end of the month, we had some very rare weather. It was overcast and rainy for about three days. We were actually all pretty cold...even though the temperature was probably somewhere in the low 80's to upper 70's. :) It was fun to get out the sweatshirts and hot tea. We also saw two water spouts on the sea!
December -
This month, we took a trip to Port au Prince. We needed groceries, we delivered one of the puppies to his new home and we took time to just rest. We stayed with new missionary friends who have kids close to our kids' ages. We also got to eat Mexican AND pizza! One of the highlights for me was worshipping with others in an atmosphere that is more "normal" for me.
Video of a grocery trip to Port.
Now that we've decided to stay in Haiti longer, we've been looking for a new house since we had already promised Jason and Allison our current house. Well, we found a house that was not quite finished and negotiated a price cheaper than our current house as long as we were willling to finish what was still left to do. So during December, we worked a lot at the new house painting, and finishing the electric and plumbing. We spent our first night at the new house on Christmas Eve...even though we still have some work to do. :)
Christmas Eve is celebrated here even more than Christmas day. We had a program at the Children's Village of the preschool classes, and we went around and visited lots of friends. Most people in Haiti stay up all night Christmas Eve and all day on Christmas.
Video of the Preschool Christmas Program
The secretary at the Children's Village, Monise, got married at the end of December. She asked Morgan to be the flower girl and she asked me to sing. There were numerous practices for the wedding party to learn their walk/dance down the aisle. We even had a practice Christmas morning!
New Year's Eve fun...getting BBQ from our favorite roadside vendor, Ti Jwet, visiting a party with friends at school, visiting the orphanage for their program and party and then watching the ball drop on the computer via live stream. It was really neat seeing all the fireworks going off across the sea on the mainland at the resorts right at midnight!
Well, there you have it! What a year! I'm not sure how many of you made it to the end but if you did, thanks for taking the time to remember our year with us. We are so thankful that we are able to live here in Haiti for this season. We are learning and growing and realize that it is a blessing that our family has this opportunity. Thank you to all who help to make it possible for us to be here and for the encouragement you give us.
We are excited looking ahead at 2016. We have a lot of goals, and we're don't know exactly what this year will bring, but we're trusting that God will go before us and prepare the way just as He has so far.
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