Sunday, January 4, 2009

haiti update - january 3, 2009

“But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful.” Psalm 68:3

Hi! This week was a quiet week. A lot of offices are closed in between Christmas and New Years. In Haiti, January 1st and 2nd are both celebrated as holidays. On New Years Eve people celebrate the new year by setting off fireworks and there were a lot going off. We got some firecrackers and joined in the fun too! Instead of setting off the whole packet at once we set it off in individual pieces. That way there is more “bang for the buck!” Manu was my assistant and he had a lot of fun. The dog though doesn’t like fireworks. When people in the neighborhood started setting off fireworks the dog ran inside and hid. When we wanted to start, the dog tried to keep on interfering by trying to grab the firecracker before I lit it so it became Jacob’s job to hold back the dog. The dog ended up spending the rest of the night hiding under Manu’s bed.
On January 2nd it was not a normal day around here. The first surprise was when I went outside to see what everyone was up to and they were all washing the clothes by hand together. They usually have to be told to wash their clothes so it was nice to see. A little bit later I called Manu to tell him that there was a snack and he replied by saying not right now because they were busy working. That wasn’t like Manu at all! The city water has been coming down the lines regularly and our reservoir was full to the overflow pipe. The water pump has also not been working for the last while and we haven’t been pumping water to the roof as a result; instead we just carry water into the house with buckets. Everyone decided that they would like to fill up the water reservoir on the roof, so a line was formed to carry buckets to the roof. This is what interested Manu more than a snack! While they were doing this though they kept repeating over and over “Coca – Gateau (cake) – Coca – Gateau. I think that they wanted a party. Later in the afternoon Marie made a cake and we also had snacks and Coca Cola. While everyone was hauling buckets Kiki kept himself busy giving himself a pedicure. He’s a determined guy. I took photos of these things and put them on my blog site
The “Rat Patrol” was also busy this day too! Shilo, the dog caught a large rat in the yard first thing in the morning. Later he was in my room and he started barking to get my attention. There was a large rat on one of the shelves hiding behind a box. Everybody in the rat patrol got together and took care of it. Jacob is the youngest member of this group. It was good that 2 rats in one day were taken care of! Besides fixing the water pump the team that is coming in February will also address the broken screen problems. The rats usually climb in through the open windows. One of the team members is a mechanic and he will fix the pickup truck as well. A little while ago we had an accident with a motorcycle. The guy driving the motorcycle says he didn’t see our vehicle and drove right into the front left tire. He wasn’t hurt and he apologized. The people watching on the street thought it was funny and were laughing. The truck seems to shake a little at higher speeds and I notice it more on the smooth roads. I kicked the tire and it seems to be solidly in place. I am going to take it easy with Kimosabee though and avoid using the higher gears for the time being until the team gets here. With the funding problems that we have we aren’t able to make repairs, so it is a blessing when a team comes down to fix things!
Benson visited his aunt for the Christmas/New Years vacation and had a good visit. He was able to spend some time with his older brother who lives with his aunt. He also saw his mother there after she made a visit to the family. She still lives on the streets and is crazy but Benson keeps praying for her. Benson also turned 8 years old over Christmas. Paulna also spent the vacation time with her family and will come back to Coram Deo when the schools open again on January 5th.
Someone from Paulna’s village came to the house with a baby boy. His name is Samson. The mother is crazy and can’t look after him. The aunt was looking after him as best as she could but couldn’t afford to buy formula for him. I contacted Linda of Holy Angels and they will take him in for a few months to give him better nutrition. Pray for their efforts.
A few children on our medical search list died this week. Davidson Francois, a hydrocephalus child died after an illness. Maxon Marcelin, whose passport was just recently obtained, died in hospital. We were hoping to send him to the United States for surgery but God had other plans for him. He had hydrocephalus as well. Peterson Lamy is a baby boy who was born with spina bifida. He died at home after an illness. Pray for the families of these children.
On January 5th classes begin here again at Coram Deo. Pray for the teachers as they teach the children.
That’s all the news for today. Have a good weekend!

Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

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