Building Team, Tarantula, Guinea Pigs, and Tap Taps

Building Team

This week was busy, but amazing. I feel like we have made progress in moving in and have also been able to assist with the ministry in various ways. Still no running water at our house, but we're praying! Always in God's timing, not our own. We do have a washing machine now, but without water and consistent electricity, we aren't able to use it yet. Tomorrow we hope to pick up some used furniture that we were able to buy.

There was an amazing mission team from Arizona at Mountain Top Ministries completing various building projects this past week. They just left this morning. Over the week, they worked on the trade school, almost completed an entire home for a family, and also assisted at an orphanage. We were blessed to spend time with the team. Ron was able to help them part of the time while he was up at the school doing some plumbing. A few of the team members were also a big help counting pills in the pharmacy. They had some down time in between projects and since I was there doing inventory, they were gracious enough to jump in and help.

Billy, Steevenson, Linda, Naomi, and Christelle

We took a few of the kids down towards the river bed to see a house that the team was building. When we arrived, some of the team members commented about me walking down in flip flops with Naomi on my shoulders. I guess I'm trying to be Haitian. It is always amazing to me how people can carry so many things on top of their head and walk in these mountains. Something about the elevation and the heat makes it really tough for most of us. Billy on the other hand has been running along singing, "I was born in these mountains! I was made for this mountain!" Whew...I know God has called us to this mountain beyond a doubt, but by body is not yet convinced of that fact, especially with a 40 pound princess on my shoulders.

Tarantuala

We had another visitor over the weekend. Our friend the tarantula was hanging out in our entryway. The kids were all excited to see the HUGE fuzzy creature, but the adults were thankful that the spider was actually OUTSIDE of our house instead of crawling across our bed!

Guinea Pigs

We had the great pleasure of going to the Baptist Mission on Saturday with our creole teacher Rosias and visiting the zoo which consisted of guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, birds, a snake and a goat. There used to be an alligator and a monkey, but apparently they died. 

Jordan- age 8

Steevenson- age 8

Naomi- age 3

We also visited the museum in Kenscoff. Below Julia and Steevenson are looking at a map at the museum and pointing out where we now live. It's a very small museum, but has many interesting artifacts and historical details about Haiti and the mission. 

Tap Taps

We traveled in two separate groups and hopped a couple of tap taps for the trip. Tap Taps are basically the bus system in Haiti. They are generally little trucks that are very colorful and full of people. We are blessed to currently have access to a ministry vehicle, but due to our family size, we do not all fit in the vehicle (not surprising since in Oregon we drove a bus). 

So, the younger ones traveled in the car and Ron and I traded off going on tap taps with the older kids (he went up the mountain and I came back down). It was a lot of fun. As soon as I got in the tap tap with some of the kids, it started just pouring down rain. We were thankful to be in a tap tap that actually had a cover. Overall it was a wonderful weekend! 

David and Roseminique in the back of a tap tap