Back in Grand Goave after a good trip to Arcahaie. Travis and I were able to figure out the main issue with the welder up there, and now know what parts we need to be able to get it up and running again. It was a great weekend. More details to come, but just wanted to give you guys a quick update about where I was in the world. :)
To Him be the Glory!
1.30.2012
28 January 2012
I think if I ever end up on a construction site in the US, I'm probably going to start speaking Creole just out of habit.
One of the best things about this trip so far is that my creole (while still not good), is continuing to improve to the point that I can normally get the point across. I'm sure I don't sound as good as I think I do, but it is exciting to be at the point where I can actually use full sentences some of the time at least. :)
Most of this week has been spent helping with the Mission of Hope school project, generally getting up around 5am to get to the work site by 6am right as the sun comes up, working all day, and getting back to the Militone property by about 6pm, right as it's getting dark. Yesterday was a treat, because I finished when the workers all left at 4pm, and got back to Kay Militone in time to go for a quick swim and wash some laundry. The last ten minutes or so of laundry was done via headlamp because it got dark, but it got finished nonetheless. Laundry lessons: 1) wash the cleaner clothes first, then the really dirty ones last, otherwise they all end up still slightly dirty in the end. 2) detergent for a high-efficiency washing machine is potent stuff, which is great because you get really dirty working in dirt and concrete all day and 3) Haitian women will always be way better at washing things by hand than I will ever be.
Today, Travis and I left Grand Goave mid-morning and 4 or 5 hours later ended up at Children's Lifeline in Arcahaie, northwest of Port-Au-Prince near the coast. The goal is here is to try to repair a large Lincoln Electric generator/welder that hasn't worked since the earthquake. They have two, one that works, and one that doesn't. We took panels off and started both of them up tonight. The engine on the broken one seems to run okay, but there's no power output to run the welder part. One troubleshooting issue that we did get taken care of tonight: there may or may not have been a chicken sitting on eggs she had laid in the bottom part of the generator compartment. Turns out the chicken actually belongs to the neighbors, so it got returned tonight. We'll see what adventures await us tomorrow!
One of the best things about this trip so far is that my creole (while still not good), is continuing to improve to the point that I can normally get the point across. I'm sure I don't sound as good as I think I do, but it is exciting to be at the point where I can actually use full sentences some of the time at least. :)
Most of this week has been spent helping with the Mission of Hope school project, generally getting up around 5am to get to the work site by 6am right as the sun comes up, working all day, and getting back to the Militone property by about 6pm, right as it's getting dark. Yesterday was a treat, because I finished when the workers all left at 4pm, and got back to Kay Militone in time to go for a quick swim and wash some laundry. The last ten minutes or so of laundry was done via headlamp because it got dark, but it got finished nonetheless. Laundry lessons: 1) wash the cleaner clothes first, then the really dirty ones last, otherwise they all end up still slightly dirty in the end. 2) detergent for a high-efficiency washing machine is potent stuff, which is great because you get really dirty working in dirt and concrete all day and 3) Haitian women will always be way better at washing things by hand than I will ever be.
Today, Travis and I left Grand Goave mid-morning and 4 or 5 hours later ended up at Children's Lifeline in Arcahaie, northwest of Port-Au-Prince near the coast. The goal is here is to try to repair a large Lincoln Electric generator/welder that hasn't worked since the earthquake. They have two, one that works, and one that doesn't. We took panels off and started both of them up tonight. The engine on the broken one seems to run okay, but there's no power output to run the welder part. One troubleshooting issue that we did get taken care of tonight: there may or may not have been a chicken sitting on eggs she had laid in the bottom part of the generator compartment. Turns out the chicken actually belongs to the neighbors, so it got returned tonight. We'll see what adventures await us tomorrow!
1.24.2012
25 January 2012
The school construction project at Mission of Hope is in full swing. John and Lisa Armour are here from Jacksonville, and Daniel Paajanen is here all the way from Alaska. They are all construction masterminds who really know what's going on, and are making sure this building is being built right. There have been more than a few conversations like "in America, we'd have four guys and heavy equipment doing this job, and here in Haiti, we have no heavy equipment, but 30 Haitian guys doing the same job". We've been averaging 35-50 guys on the site each day, and they all work so hard. Friday was a big concrete pour day, meaning there was a cement mixer (not a truck, just a mixer about 8ft in diameter), a big square vat (about 10ft x 10ft) it dumped the cement in, and about 40 five gallon buckets. Talk about a bucket brigade: you've never seen this many guys having this much fun on a construction site. They would throw the buckets (full of wet concrete) to each other pretty much as fast as they could, and would all be laughing and jumping around, especially when someone dropped one. It was quite a riot.
The last three days I've been in charge of the 'dirt crew'. There's lots of different things happening simultaneously on the job site - carpenters working on concrete forms, Boss Leon and his guys working on rebar layout and tying, the masons building interior block walls on one side of the building, and my crew moving dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. The problem is that there's not a lot of extra room really anywhere, so when they excavated a while ago to pour some of the footers, all the dirt ended up actually inside the building perimeter, meaning we now have to move it again to be able to set the forms for the floor cross-beam footers. So the last two days have been spent moving dirt from here to there by about 10 guys using pickaxes and shovels and wheelbarrows and a super great laser level thing that sends out a signal from a tripod that goes to a sensor on a long vertical yardstick so you can tell if this thing way over here is exactly where it's supposed to be. Yesterday they dug out two big trenches through a huge dirt mound so the rebar can be laid for the rest of the footer, and today they dug a third trench and moved another big chunk of the huge pile to backfill around some of the foundation that's been poured.
More to come tonight (and hopefully a few pictures tomorrow), but that's the short version for now.
To Him be the Glory!
The last three days I've been in charge of the 'dirt crew'. There's lots of different things happening simultaneously on the job site - carpenters working on concrete forms, Boss Leon and his guys working on rebar layout and tying, the masons building interior block walls on one side of the building, and my crew moving dirt. Lots and lots of dirt. The problem is that there's not a lot of extra room really anywhere, so when they excavated a while ago to pour some of the footers, all the dirt ended up actually inside the building perimeter, meaning we now have to move it again to be able to set the forms for the floor cross-beam footers. So the last two days have been spent moving dirt from here to there by about 10 guys using pickaxes and shovels and wheelbarrows and a super great laser level thing that sends out a signal from a tripod that goes to a sensor on a long vertical yardstick so you can tell if this thing way over here is exactly where it's supposed to be. Yesterday they dug out two big trenches through a huge dirt mound so the rebar can be laid for the rest of the footer, and today they dug a third trench and moved another big chunk of the huge pile to backfill around some of the foundation that's been poured.
More to come tonight (and hopefully a few pictures tomorrow), but that's the short version for now.
To Him be the Glory!
24 January 2012
been a good last couple of days. most of last week, yesterday and today have been spent working on the school project.
short version: big three story concrete building with offices downstairs, classrooms on the second floor, and a big multi-purpose room for church upstairs. the foundation has been poured already, and we poured a second round of the back wall (4-8 foot high section) last week. it's been quite an education, seeing how large-scale concrete construction happens in Haiti. time to get back to work for now, but i'll most a more detailed write-up soon.
To Him be the Glory!
short version: big three story concrete building with offices downstairs, classrooms on the second floor, and a big multi-purpose room for church upstairs. the foundation has been poured already, and we poured a second round of the back wall (4-8 foot high section) last week. it's been quite an education, seeing how large-scale concrete construction happens in Haiti. time to get back to work for now, but i'll most a more detailed write-up soon.
To Him be the Glory!
1.17.2012
off on another Haitian adventure! 17 January 2012
Hi Friends!
I know it's been a REALLY long time since I posted an update, and I apologize for that. Things have been pretty crazy this fall between finishing up school, working, looking for a 'real' job, and planning for time in Haiti . More the rest of that later.
Here's the highlights:
-graduated from A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) Mechanic School in December
-leaving today for Haiti until the end of March (2.5 months total trip)
-mainly working with Mission of Hope in Grand Goave, Haiti. http://www.mohintl.org
-also doing some projects with F1 Engineering / Travis Knipple. http://www.f1engineering.org
I'm also now 'officially' the short-term teams coordinator for Mission of Hope, helping coordinate logistics of the different groups that come to help out. Amongst other teams, there's currently three in the works that are going to be led by people connected with Campus Focus that have been on previous trips with me. Exciting stuff.
Please be praying for Haiti, for all of the different missionaries and mission teams doing so many great things in the name of Christ. One of my goals for this trip is to more finely tune what it looks like for me personally to be in the mission field longer-term, and learning from those who are already on similar adventures is a huge asset of being part of the body of Christ. Each group has a niche and a way that they uniquely contribute to the greater cause, and that's what makes the body function together as a whole. Please be praying for discernment and wisdom as I move forward over these next few months.
Also, I am still in need of a few hundred dollars more to cover the remaining living expenses for this trip, including this like health insurance and return plane tickets. Please contact my parents if you'd like to assist with this [2753 Eight Mile Road, Cincinnati, OH 45244], as they are handling finances for me stateside while I'm gone.
Thanks so much friends!
To Him be the Glory!
I know it's been a REALLY long time since I posted an update, and I apologize for that. Things have been pretty crazy this fall between finishing up school, working, looking for a 'real' job, and planning for time in Haiti . More the rest of that later.
Here's the highlights:
-graduated from A&P (Airframe and Powerplant) Mechanic School in December
-leaving today for Haiti until the end of March (2.5 months total trip)
-mainly working with Mission of Hope in Grand Goave, Haiti. http://www.mohintl.org
-also doing some projects with F1 Engineering / Travis Knipple. http://www.f1engineering.org
I'm also now 'officially' the short-term teams coordinator for Mission of Hope, helping coordinate logistics of the different groups that come to help out. Amongst other teams, there's currently three in the works that are going to be led by people connected with Campus Focus that have been on previous trips with me. Exciting stuff.
Please be praying for Haiti, for all of the different missionaries and mission teams doing so many great things in the name of Christ. One of my goals for this trip is to more finely tune what it looks like for me personally to be in the mission field longer-term, and learning from those who are already on similar adventures is a huge asset of being part of the body of Christ. Each group has a niche and a way that they uniquely contribute to the greater cause, and that's what makes the body function together as a whole. Please be praying for discernment and wisdom as I move forward over these next few months.
Also, I am still in need of a few hundred dollars more to cover the remaining living expenses for this trip, including this like health insurance and return plane tickets. Please contact my parents if you'd like to assist with this [2753 Eight Mile Road, Cincinnati, OH 45244], as they are handling finances for me stateside while I'm gone.
Thanks so much friends!
To Him be the Glory!
8.24.2011
24 August 2011
so the last few days have been somewhat quiet actually, interspersed with the occasional moment of chaos, of course.
organized travis' truck monday, and while it's not completely finished, it's not half bad. went up to the school yesterday and helped pepe and wilson continue work on renee's new office. stopped by hands and feet to drop off donations from the team, including a brand new guitar that they had brought for the kids. it was perfect, too, because they have a keyboard for the kids, but no guitar yet, and some of them had been asking about one. glad to see it will be put to good use. :)
headed back to militone for a while, played some soccer with nahomie and romy and aj, and watched the ocean for a while. it was literally washing right up to the beach perimeter wall - not really high or anything, but the highest tide line was right at the bottom of the steps. crazy! no church because it was raining(ish), so back to kai militone for movie night with Kera. we watched August Rush [great movie, by the way], and then not more than 10 minutes after, just as i was going to sleep, Kera comes running out of the bathroom in the dorms, literally unable to make complete sentences. all i got was 'spider' and 'bigger than my face'... translation: there was a tarantula on the floor next to the toilet in the first stall. after much hyperventilating (mostly on kera's part ;) and general freaking out, we woke up marieyve, who came to our rescue. she initially wanted to kill it with a sandal, until we showed her that it was way too big for that. her plan of attack then was to chase it out of the guesthouse with a broom, and then to throw rocks at it until 'fini'. however, upon inspection this morning, no dead tarantula was actually found out on the rocks, so this episode might have a sequel in the future... let's hope not, though. :)
today thus far has been spent fixing renee's broken printer (which works now!) and working some on the new office again. however, today it was just me and a few of the kids, so "working" mainly translated into kid management and keeping small children away from power tools. headed back over there this afternoon to attempt to get a little more work done today, now that the rain has stopped and hopefully the kids are calmer...
to Him be the Glory!
organized travis' truck monday, and while it's not completely finished, it's not half bad. went up to the school yesterday and helped pepe and wilson continue work on renee's new office. stopped by hands and feet to drop off donations from the team, including a brand new guitar that they had brought for the kids. it was perfect, too, because they have a keyboard for the kids, but no guitar yet, and some of them had been asking about one. glad to see it will be put to good use. :)
headed back to militone for a while, played some soccer with nahomie and romy and aj, and watched the ocean for a while. it was literally washing right up to the beach perimeter wall - not really high or anything, but the highest tide line was right at the bottom of the steps. crazy! no church because it was raining(ish), so back to kai militone for movie night with Kera. we watched August Rush [great movie, by the way], and then not more than 10 minutes after, just as i was going to sleep, Kera comes running out of the bathroom in the dorms, literally unable to make complete sentences. all i got was 'spider' and 'bigger than my face'... translation: there was a tarantula on the floor next to the toilet in the first stall. after much hyperventilating (mostly on kera's part ;) and general freaking out, we woke up marieyve, who came to our rescue. she initially wanted to kill it with a sandal, until we showed her that it was way too big for that. her plan of attack then was to chase it out of the guesthouse with a broom, and then to throw rocks at it until 'fini'. however, upon inspection this morning, no dead tarantula was actually found out on the rocks, so this episode might have a sequel in the future... let's hope not, though. :)
today thus far has been spent fixing renee's broken printer (which works now!) and working some on the new office again. however, today it was just me and a few of the kids, so "working" mainly translated into kid management and keeping small children away from power tools. headed back over there this afternoon to attempt to get a little more work done today, now that the rain has stopped and hopefully the kids are calmer...
to Him be the Glory!
8.21.2011
21 August 2011
thoughts from the last few days, in no particular order:
this trip has been great for a few reasons. i feel like i've been able to be a little more independent, mainly in small ways, like driving travis' truck to the hardware store to pick up more nails or paint for a project, or being able to communicate [somewhat] better with people. just little things that make me feel much more efficient and useful here, rather than waiting on someone else to go to the store and get supplies for me, or waiting for a driver to come get us, or whatever the case may be. don't get me wrong, it's wonderful how everyone at mission of hope takes great care of us, and i absolutely love that. however, it's nice to feel 'familiar' here [as kelley put it], and to feel like i can help get things done without being as reliant on other people or circumstances. obviously, i'm still very reliant on others in some ways, because that's how the body of Christ is designed to work, but it's nice to see how i can function well here in this capacity, how i do feel like i'm fitting a role and a need and it's working well.
on the other side, it's also been really good to be reminded of how life can be simple and laid back. our American mindset so often is "i have to get these 23 things done in the next 10 minutes", rather than "we're going to do this, then after that, we'll do whatever the next thing is." things get done when they get done, and while sometimes that requires a little more patience, in the end it is good. i have a tendency [subconsciously or otherwise] to value productivity above other much more important things, such as relationships with people or even my walk with Christ. without even realizing it sometimes, i slide into the mindset of measuring my current state of satisfaction by my level of productivity, by tangible ways i can see things moving forward in one way or another. however, it is most often the intangible things that we as Christ followers should value above everything else, whether that's spending time resting in the Lord, or having a conversation with the village kids at the gate, or listening to someone share about their life experiences. these empirically immeasurable things are what will impact our lives the most in the end, not whether or not we finished painting a wall or hanging a door, or whatever other project we happened to be doing that day. don't get me wrong, i love seeing the progress of projects being finished and necessary things being built or improved upon, and the impact that those projects can have on people's lives. however, as kelley said this week, i'm going to choose to love the child more than the building.
to Him be the Glory.
this trip has been great for a few reasons. i feel like i've been able to be a little more independent, mainly in small ways, like driving travis' truck to the hardware store to pick up more nails or paint for a project, or being able to communicate [somewhat] better with people. just little things that make me feel much more efficient and useful here, rather than waiting on someone else to go to the store and get supplies for me, or waiting for a driver to come get us, or whatever the case may be. don't get me wrong, it's wonderful how everyone at mission of hope takes great care of us, and i absolutely love that. however, it's nice to feel 'familiar' here [as kelley put it], and to feel like i can help get things done without being as reliant on other people or circumstances. obviously, i'm still very reliant on others in some ways, because that's how the body of Christ is designed to work, but it's nice to see how i can function well here in this capacity, how i do feel like i'm fitting a role and a need and it's working well.
on the other side, it's also been really good to be reminded of how life can be simple and laid back. our American mindset so often is "i have to get these 23 things done in the next 10 minutes", rather than "we're going to do this, then after that, we'll do whatever the next thing is." things get done when they get done, and while sometimes that requires a little more patience, in the end it is good. i have a tendency [subconsciously or otherwise] to value productivity above other much more important things, such as relationships with people or even my walk with Christ. without even realizing it sometimes, i slide into the mindset of measuring my current state of satisfaction by my level of productivity, by tangible ways i can see things moving forward in one way or another. however, it is most often the intangible things that we as Christ followers should value above everything else, whether that's spending time resting in the Lord, or having a conversation with the village kids at the gate, or listening to someone share about their life experiences. these empirically immeasurable things are what will impact our lives the most in the end, not whether or not we finished painting a wall or hanging a door, or whatever other project we happened to be doing that day. don't get me wrong, i love seeing the progress of projects being finished and necessary things being built or improved upon, and the impact that those projects can have on people's lives. however, as kelley said this week, i'm going to choose to love the child more than the building.
to Him be the Glory.
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