Progress

Bonjou!-Hello!
  

     Enjoying pumping water from our well. Pouring the foundation, which takes lots of buckets of water. The foundation is deep & sturdy for quakes. Charisier, our neighbor is an architect and Philip hired him to oversee the project. He knows who to hire and he is doing a good job, relieve to Philip. Philip helps Charisier by going to get rebar- bags of cement-etc. Pastor Enel where we live has a dump truck and hauls in the gravel, rock, & sand for the project. Most of all this is loaded by hand, you should see them flip it up into the truck bed with their shovel. The neighbor next door Madam OOlie has been fixing lunch for the workers. Rice & beans with some type of sauce. A few veggies& a little meat,(fish, chicken, or kabrit (goat) added to the sauce. Her two daughters help her & I try. They let me rinse the dishes the other day. Whoopee! The kitchen is part of their house, most Haitians have a separate kitchen shack outside. The kitchen is cement block, dark and smokey, due to cooking over charcoal. No work table, so you squat or sit on low chairs. Hot pads are long pieces of fabric that gets occasionally draped in the coals. Madam uses her fingers to rearrange the hot coals. Who needs a modern kitchen with all the stuff? Some pretty yummy food comes out of here! This  is a nicer kitchen then a lot of homes. They have a nice dining room with the heavy wood Haitian furniture.
      Some thieves broke into our container  a while back and stole some things. Philip welded a cylinder pipe on & put a round lock inside, so they can't  use a pry bar as easy. Several nights ago he decided to leave the cement mixer. They tried to break in again, moved the barb wire fence to pull   the cement mixer out  and was trying to break off the cylinder. The neighbor called the police and they came -unusual. They scared off the thieves or otherwise Philip thinks they would've got in. So he rewelded the cylinder and takes the mixer back to Blue Ridge (BRIC) each night. That involves extra hour driving over bumpy road and traffic. We don't want to jeopardize the neighbors though, it does scare them when they hear the thieves.

Foundation for the house

   On  good note the foundation is about completed and getting ready to pour the slab.  The weather has been wonderful! Need block layers sooooooon! :)
  There's about 3 big mud holes on our way to the land from where we live. The other day a big truck broke down in one of the holes and was completely crossways in the road. So that made one lane traffic, which turns into a major TRAFFIC JAM. Everyone tries to get through on each side 2 lane road turns into 3 or 4 on one side all headed in the same directions and the other side with the same idea all headed, head on with the other side. NOBODY MOVES!!! Someone will finally get one side to back and finally let one side start to flow, till someone sees a lapse in the traffic and they quickly try to squeeze thru and guess what again-TRAFFIC JAM- Philip set for 5 hrs. one night waiting, one truck was on its side and another broke down in the mud holes. He said for the most part everyone was happy and acted like it was a party. :) The next day a big payloader was there from Canada  (CNE  a big road  company).  getting ready to fill holes  with gravel, They was just waiting for an OK from  the government. It's better, but it don't last to long because there's so many semis hauling rebar & cement from the Dominican Republic . Lots of traffic .

view from the roof where we stay

  Planted some seeds in halved plastic pop bottles, then transplanted them. I have a few things coming, the load of gravel engulfed some of them, & the chickens enjoyed a few morsels of plant. Ready for some veggies and the neighbors may think they do too. :):) The weather has been wonderful 80 degrees and breezy. Come on down! They could use some rain for the crops though. The view from our rooftop is beautiful .
   The nights are are great. The compound dog,  Patience enjoys keeping time with other neighboring dogs, especially outside our window. Around 3:30 or 4:00 the roosters start a wake up call, with the donkeys adding their two bits in the key of  G. Life is good, only some mornings I don't look so good.

the dear neighbors girls 

 May we be faithful where we've been planted - serving Him - Thank you for your prayer.
Until then-
Bethany