Thoughts from Haiti

Good evening everyone.....

Whew!!!.... Is it hot here tonight. I hope someone put a few snowballs in Pastor Jim's luggage for us. Dickie really got into it today.... He was up to his knees in yukky effluence, as he worked on the sewer problem... Sandra and Ti Mili gave the new kitchen shelves a second coat of paint and I helped Karen in the office. Trueman worked on the second computer and tore out the bathroom mirrors in the childrens home which have to be replaced. Sandra had an exciting 15 or so minutes. The children hit the soccer ball and it went over the wall. She took Vladimy with her to speak in Creole if needed. She didn't realize how far she had to go along the road to get to the next gate. At first the gatekeeper did not want to let her in, but when Vladimy explained he let them through. As she went toward the ball which was quite a way into the property, two men came toward her with a rather beligerent swagger. She said she felt a moment of real fear and realized Vladimy was feeling it too. She took his hand and they both bravely continued toward the ball. It turned out the owner of the property spoke excellent English, as well as French and Creole. He showed Sandra around his rice mill and began asking a lot of questions like when she was leaving etc. When he wanted to know exactly when, Sandra realized this needed some evasive answers. Vladimy ran to get the ball and Sandra was left alone with this rather intimidating man. Finally they were able to get away without having devulged too much information. Karen said it was a good thing, because there is a very good possibility that if he had known the exact time he would most probably have had some hoodlums in the Bandit's Garden waiting for us. Never a dull moment here in Haiti. I suppose if we could read the thoughts running through some of the Haitian's minds, we would wish we couldn't. But there are enough beautiful people here to make it all worth every bit of the possible dangers. Alex had a great day, he and I spent some time down at the children's house, where he stayed for lunch and I came back here to eat. Then he spent the afternoon outside under the care of Sabine. They watched the other children playing soccer. Oh the look of desire in Alex' face... How he would love to be out there with them.
Tonight we are hoping to put all the food items back on the shelves and get them out of the living room. Then tomorrow Dickie will put the new doors on, and Martha will have her kitchen back. Karen leaves tomorrow morning at 5a.m. to pick up Pastor Jim at Port au Prince.
We are beginning to wonder if anyone is out there reading our blog as we have not been getting many comments (only one) for several days now. We'd love to hear from you folk back home !!!
That's it for tonight folks..... Sandra and Dickie will write tomorrow....
God Bless you all.
Trueman and Gail