I know, I know...this is terrible! I haven't updated once since we've been here.
So, here goes a somewhat detailed rundown of what we've been doing.
Saturday:
We arrived in Port au Prince around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Ana (our 'leader') picked us up at the airport, and took us to the Sous Espwa Ministry Center, where we're staying for the week. We had the night to relax, and the cook at the ministry center made us pizza, which was very good! We all crashed pretty early, as it was a long day.
Sunday:
We went to a Christian Reformed Church here in Port au Prince. They had us sit in the front, and we sang and there was a sermon-it all lasted about 2 hours. After the service, we met with the leaders of the church so that they could tell us a little bit about the church, and what's going on. We then went to visit the land where the church is hoping to build their new building. They are currently in the process of fundraising to buy the land. After that, Ana and Kristie(a CRWRC missionary) took us to a restaurant that had a pool, so we hung out there and ate, and swam in the pool (Bill and Ryan did...I just thought it was nice to relax :)) Kristie then took us on a tour of Port au Prince. It was very cool and interesting to see all the different parts of the city, and very saddening to see the parts that had been destroyed by the earthquake.
After the tour, we went to the VanDam's house (missionaries), and met up with the rest of the Sous Espwa staff and another work team that was here from Lakeside CRC in Grand Rapids, MI. For me, as a Michigander, it was fun to play some Dutch Bingo!
Monday:
Today we went with the Lakeside CRC team to Leogane, which took us about two hours to get to. We went to the CRWRC offices, and Kristie did a presentation of the work that they've been doing there since the earthquake. Basically, they've been building core houses for families. These are small starter houses, which are meant for the families to add on to when they have the resources. We were able to visit a couple beneficiaries of this project. We then headed back to Port au Prince, and hung out at the ministry center for the rest of the night.
Tuesday:
Today was when we were supposed to start work. But, due to some problems with the bank and buying materials, we weren't able to do much. We instead went to Fort Jacques, an old fort way up in the mountains. It was a gorgeous view of Port au Prince, as well as all the farmland on the mountainside. Last night we went to Zach and Sharon's (missionaries) house for dinner, which was an enjoyable time.
Wednesday:
Today is when the hard work began. We are working on building the second floor of a building, which is going to be used for an apartment. Today's work consisted of setting rebars, and pouring the concrete columns. It was a lot of hard work, but we made it through the day! We started at about 7 this morning, went until 12, and then started again at 1:30. We went until 4:00 this afternoon, and then we cleaned up and went to the Van Dam's house for dinner. We played ping pong with their kids, and had a delicious meal and learned a bit more about Sous Espwa and the ministries.
So, that's what our time here has been like for the past few days (in a nutshell).
It has been a very exciting experience, and I can't believe that tomorrow is already Thursday!
We appreciate your prayers and support, God is definitely working here in Haiti!
Thanks,
Rachel
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