Five years ago today,

right at the mid-point of my first visit to HATS Mission, a two week work trip, Haiti shook with devastating results. The world news seemed to concentrate only on Haiti for the first while then their attention moved on to more current news. For the people of Haiti the memories are still fresh and the recovery continues. There is progress but never at the pace one would like to see. Please continue to pray for the country of Haiti and it's people and continue to support those who are doing good work in creating a positive future for this country.

Last evening we enjoyed a time of singing and worship with the children and house moms in the girls home. Always an enjoyable time...Jim

Evening devotions at the children's home

I now turn you over to Sandra for the rest of today's news.
A hot humid day and lots of hard work makes for sweaty and tired people, it does for me at least!

We took a lovely cool walk along the canal at 6:00 AM. Three of the bigger boys took their bikes and us old folk and three of the older girls walked.  It is such a wonderful way to start our day. The girls jumped over holes, climbed trees and the boys rode as fast and far as they could.  We met a lot of interesting people along the way as they are going to work or to look for work, to do laundry, to water their cows, tether their goats etc.

Sometimes we walk others we play

HATS three gorgeous monkeys in the tree

Sandra about to follow Josie

HATS biggest girl, Sandra, following the other big girls

After a lively time of devotions we each went our own ways.  Karen and I with JJ and Moise headed to the school to clean the office and library before school starts again on Wednesday.  Dickie and Jim headed to the kitchen at the school to fix water pipes. Then I started on the food distribution, Jim and Dickie fixed another door to the devotion room and then the boys painted it, they changed locks on doors and then started on Karen's bathroom. Termites have been eating her cupboard for years and today was the day they disappeared.  Dickie took a crowbar, saw and hammer and demolished it all and the boys helped carry it all out and away from the house.

Morning devotions

Cupboard in Karen's bathroom looked okay, but she lived with the problem too long

David's February team will be continuing with the work in Karen's bathroom

Dickie removing termite eaten wood

Proof that Karen really was living with termites

The rat saga continues with Eugene and Vladimy preparing what will hopefully be the rats last meal. It was a delicious looking concoction that was prepared then distributed around the compound where the rats were known to frequent and the children weren't.

Meal being prepared for rats, note the fine paring knife being used to slice ripe tomatoes

Marta helped me measure out 28 bags of 9 mamit of beans and 28 bags of 6 mamit of cornmeal.  Tomorrow I will do 28 bags of 18 mamit of rice and then we will be ready to start distribution and I will making more as we go along.  This is a blessing to the many hungry families around and is in response to the many generous people who donated to this as Christmas presents for them.

getting ready to bag all those mamit

Karen, Dickie (driver), Paulto ( inverter man), Richard (security) have gone to Saint Marc to look for a new inverter.  HATS has been operating off a borrowed one for a couple of months now and today it had to be returned.  While the boss is away Jim and I decided to play.  He went to read a book on his iPad but as soon as the kids saw him they wanted to draw etc that he has been showing them to do and listening to his Creole Bible he has downloaded.

Jim enjoying his break

I decided to wash my hair and chased around to four sinks before I found one I could use and then washed my hair 3 times...not because it was that dirty BUT because without my glasses on I couldn't tell what was shampoo and what was conditioner and got the shampoo 3 times before I got the conditioner!  Then I checked Facebook and had a good laugh at what Jim had posted of us watching TV.  The kids were treated to a video so all was quiet for a while.

The crew returned with the equipment needed and Paulto got everything connected by 6:45 and now we are going to enjoy our supper and a quiet evening.

Supper is now over and it has been raining hard for over an hour, so as I post this I must go and see if I can find a dry place to sleep tonight...Jim

Sunday is always a special day at HATS...

... and today was no different. We worshiped in the new Church which is a beautiful building even though it has some mainly cosmetic things to be done to be completed.

We were led in worship by one of the House Moms who is a very energetic lady and our little Karena. Karen preached a message on respect. After the main service the floor is open to anyone who would like to sing. Six or seven people or groups sang. I have never been to a service where at least one person did not sing. The service lasts about 2.5 hours and after, everyone is treated to a soft drink and a treat.

This mornings worship leaders

Nap time at church

one drum section of church this morning

Today was special because each child received a handmade bracelet from Emma Suley, a  seven year old from Washington State. Her Family has been our friends for 40 years starting in the Yukon.

Happy kids with their bracelets

Little ones showing their bracelets

HATS kids bracelets

HATS kids with bracelets

Karen has had problems with rats in the Compound almost her entire time in Haiti. Mind you they can be controlled with a little work. It is a Country wide problem. I brought some traps and was intent on catching some rats. I set them in various places the first day here. Friday night Sandra got up to go to the washroom and one of her sandals was missing. We sleep outdoors on the roof for your information.  Eventually she found it and it had been chewed by something.

Saturday night I moved a trap and tied it on next to her bed. Last night at 10:30 I woke up and thought I could here something being dragged on the cement floor. I listened for a while and then went to check. It was a rat in the trap trying to drag the trap away but it was tied on. Jim said he heard it snap around 10:00. I woke Sandra up before I did anything so I did not scare her, she never heard a thing.

Dickie's catch of last night

The hunter and his catch

When I checked the other traps in the morning I had caught one in the Storage Depot as well. Good night of trapping.

On Sundays we play with the children and rest, and normally do not work, but today we did a couple of small jobs. We repaired a couple of doors to keep rats out and unplugged a sink.

Jim with goddaughter Anne

Magdala in her princess dress

Three HATS princesses - Magdala, Sandra and Anne

Plumbing work upstairs

I never tire of coming to Haiti and to HATS, it has its challenges, but we get more out of these trips than we could ever give.


Dickie MacDonald

Day three started...

...with an early morning walk along the canal with some on bikes, some on foot, and some cold!  You know the three that weren't.

Early morning walk with some of the children

A short detour

Dickie wrote bike for awhile this morning too

Magdala hitching a ride with Ti Luc

I had an interesting night last night.  I went to bed around 8:00pm and kicked off my flip flops and was soon asleep, waking up at 12:30 to needing a sheet and to go to the bathroom downstairs.  I unzipped my tent and stepped out to put my flip flops on but could only find one.  The moon was so bright I didn't take my flashlight but had to unzip my tent again and get it out to look for my flip flop....couldn't find it so thought Dickie and Jim were up to no good so went down stairs with one on and came back up and took another look around for it and didn't find it so climbed back in my tent and to sleep again.  The next time I was awake it was because the moon had passed over the roof and was shining right in my eyes, I had to turn over to get back to sleep.  I lay there thanking God for his wonderful creation as I watched the stars and planes and brilliant moon.  Back to my story, I was the last one up this morning and so went looking for my flip flop and saw it over behind a pillar and thought they did hide it BUT when I got over there I saw that it had been chewed and gnawed on.  Mike Smith, how did you know that the rat would come to me?  Blair and Caleb, I am not going looking for them but seems that I don't need to, they come to me.  Dickie says he is going to set a trap under my bed tonight.  He hasn't caught one in the depot yet.

Jim and Dickie fixed a door and Vladimy, JJ and Moise painted it and then they put it back on.  Dickie built drums and Jim taped them and JJ and Vladimy decorated them.  J & D worked on a water leak at the school kitchen, and many other small outside jobs and played with the children.  The children are still a little shy of Jim and Dickie....Ti Sandra changed her name before we came to Ti Dickie and is now shy of him, she spends time with him but it is not the free loving side we saw before, she looks away and sidles up to him but runs freely to Jim.  Anne is sometimes shy with Jim and at others loves him quite openly and gets jealous of anyone else with him. Magdala was shy with all of us when we first arrived but is coming around now with both of them and goes to both BUT when she sees her big brother JJ she leaves us all.

The three yahoos painting the door

Reinstalling the repaired and painted door

Repair drums and making drums

Little Dickie with Big Dickie

Anne with her godfather Jim

Karen and I were in the office most of the day.  I did payroll books, payrolls, calendars, schedules for house mommies and playing with the children. Karen and I and all the children went to the school and church to get the church cleaned for tomorrow and pick up garbage at the school.  The kids did a great job!

Ti Luc took his mama's place in the hair dressing chair

I think tomorrow is someone else's turn to write.
Sandra

We all had a wonderful night's sleep

well, all of us who traveled here. Kaen not so much apparently - she kept closing windows and trying to shut out the noise.  I had a wonderful sleep and did not hear a rooster, dog, cow, donkey, the alarm truck or even the night club that blared until 2:15 AM.  I heard the night club when I first went to bed BUT I thought it was a church service and soon fell asleep and stayed that way until Karen came with her flashlight at 5:40 am to see if we wanted to walk along the canal at daybreak. We all did and were soon on our way.  The older kids love to walk too but none were up or at least didn't see us leave so there was just the 4 of us.  We met a lady with her donkey laden with supplies, a man walking his cow, men and women walking , one lady already doing her laundry in the canal and saw a "mad" cow...actually a "mad" bull and he was a little scary as his rope was broken and I feared he might decide to run after us instead of the cows!  It was a beautiful walk as we watched the sun rise.
Home to breakfast of fruit and Haitian porridge...yummy!  Next came devotions led by Djemima a wonderful time of praising our Lord!

Sunrise on our early morning walk

 The work day started with Dickie and Jim opening a box and getting a big propane stove out of it and moved into the kitchen and then getting it hooked up and running.  All instructions were in Spanish so the Creole, French, and English speaking people were all at a loss to read them.  JJ who is learning Spanish in school took the instructions down to his room with his books to try to decipher them BUT to no avail.  Next a call to the man who Karen bought the stove from gave no help so Dickie and Jim went back to doing their own thing and it was soon up and running!

Sandra sewing underwear while the men working on stove

Kitchen boss and supervisor keeping a close eye on the stove and Dickie

We had electricity troubles today several times.  All is well that ends well, we are now up and running again.  Dickie and Jim took the truck and took Moise and JJ with them and headed to the local "hardware store" for parts and glue but had no luck there.

They piled wood and debris and demolished a table etc that needed to go to the dump and Friday is dump day so they wanted it ready to go.  Jim worked on Karen's computer for a while and Dickie was busy somewhere.

Kids helping with stacking wood

Karen was busy here and there as usual and one can't keep up, she did take us on a tour of the new church and I am eager for church on Sunday!

It doesn't sound like I did anything, and I didn't do much! At supper time I said "I didn't break a sweat today" and was quite excited about that until Dickie said "you didn't do much then", and he was right.  I was working on payroll books, forms, and calendars with Jim's computer help.  I made a cake (2) for Josie's birthday today and broke in the oven.  We all had soupe joumou for supper and then had birthday cake, pop and birthday wishes, hugs and a gift for Josie!

Beautiful Birthday Girl

Birthday girl, Josie, opening her gift

Anne and Djemima

Magdala at birthday party

Magdala finally allowed Jim to get near without her feeling the need to run away screaming.

HATS printer/copier/scanner left Keith and Joan's house today, where it was set up for service to scan letters and photos for Liette's huge job when here,  and returned to it's home at Karen's place.  Karen is a tad pleased about this.

Copier-printer-scanner going to its real home at Karen's

I am more than ready for bed again, it is only 7:30 and when I finish this I am off to bed while someone else puts photos in and posts it!  We are up and walking at 6:00 AM again and this time the kids have put in the call to go with us.
Goodnight, God Bless you all
Sandra

We are here!

 We went from -19 to +35 in 33 hours, with no sleep! We were up at 4:00 AM Wednesday and spent all the time on the road, in airports  or in the air until 1:15 today when we arrived safe and sound to the sounds of welcome, smiles and hugs by all the kids and staff.

Sandra getting a few minutes lay down in Miami airport

First one to come through today was Jim

Here we are Karen

We are in Haiti airport once again

It truly is a treat to be here.  Not much being accomplished today, we did unpack all our treasures and sorted them...sort of...and promise to be much more productive tomorrow.

We made a stop to purchase fruit - melons, pineapples and lots of mangos.  Three happy amigos in the van

Dieunel and Sandra

Dickie with Ti Dickie  (name changed from Ti Sandra to Ti Dickie)

Anne & Karena with Jim

We are in a zombie like state and the only  rush will be to get to the shower and into bed.  We are sleeping on the top roof tonight and I hope we need to pull a sheet over us at some point.  It is cloudy now so maybe no stars, it would be a waste anyway, because who would see them?

Goodnight, sleep well under your duvets as we crawl into our mosquito tents with no cover... but with a hope of wanting one before daybreak!
Sandra