photos - electrical - part 1

On Tuesday morning we had a surge of 220 coming down the line. Other people in the neighborhood had things damaged as well. We had to get the electrician to disconnect the wire from the box as it was a constant 220 power coming in. The guys took our broken electrical products apart to see how they work.

One of the problems was a branch pushing up on the line. The tree was electrified too at times and there was no way to trim the tree on our own. Friday afternoon an EDH crane truck came.

The guy in the basket started to chop at the branches with his machete.

EDH has some good equipment but not enough available to handle a large city like Port-au-Prince.

The top part of the tree is ready to fall. The core was rotten and a trimming of the tree was turned into a chopping down of the tree. The front is nice and sunny now! The walls sort of look like a prison now with all the barbed wire and no trees.!

photos - electrical - part 2

The elderly lady who sells cookies and candies in front of our wall is shown cutting small branches to use as a support for her tarp. She told me "better to sit in the sun than to have an electrical line come down" on her.

The guys worked hard at cutting up the tree. We made about 10 trips to the dumpster on Delmas 33 with garbage and trimmings.

The guys took turns at using the axe.

Fedner is using a machete to cut the base of the tree.

Jn. Eddy is holding the rope to make sure the tree falls properly. Now we will have to make supports for holding our large tarp as a shelter on clinic days.

photos - electrical - part 3

We found out that the core of the tree is rotten. It was a good thing we had this electrical problem or we never would have known.

The inside core was rotting.

Early Sunday morning there were a lot of "pop, pop" sounds. The repair that EDH made to their line broke and here is the dangling wire.

The entire line has shifted downwards. Hopefully they will repair it. Maybe we'll have electricity again next week!

We are going to sell the wood to local dry cleaners. The money we get from the wood can go towards repairing our electrical equipment. I really didn't let the children cut with the axe. They just wanted to pose for the photo.

photos - various - part 1

Some visitors from Kentucky helped us out on Thursday by painting benches and tables as preparations for the opening of the school program on September 7th.

These colors will freshen up the classes.

Designs were also painted on the tables as well.

We give the Lord thanks for their efforts!

This young girl is 13 years old. Her mother told me that her hair is falling out. When I weighed her she only weighed 10kg (22 lbs). The family lives in Merger which is on Rte. 9. The mother has 4 children and when the father left them the family started to suffer. We shared some of our Feed My Starving Children food with the mother and asked her to come back every week for more. Pray for this family as they struggle.

photos - various - part 2

This week we were blessed with some more Feed My Starving Children rice meals from Love a Child as being part of the ODEO organization.

With these donations we are able to help poor families in the community with food. This child is 2 years old and can not yet walk. Part of the problem is that she doesn't eat regularly. Pray that the child will strengthen and one day will walk.

Sister Genevieve of Bernard Mevs Hospital contacts me when parents of hydrocephalus children come for assistance to the hospital. These parents have a child who has both spina bifida and hydrocephalus.

At Healing Hands on Monday August 31, 2009 this spina bifida child will be examined by a doctor.

This girl also has spina bifida and hydrocephalus. In the last couple weeks we have seen 4 children like this.

VIDEO - THE GREAT COMMISSION

The call of the gospel is to go. This video is about this call of missions. Please follow the link to:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOudumvY9W4

haiti update - august 30, 2009

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Hi! This week was a noisy week. On Tuesday morning I was working at the computer in my room when there was a large “poof” sound from the television and then it caught on fire. It was good I was right there when it happened. Unfortunately the radio and Macdonald’s computer went “poof” too at the same time. We raced around disconnecting everything and turned off the main electrical switch. A power surge had come down the line. Instead of 110 we were receiving 220 current. Other people in the neighborhood had stuff damaged too. The cause was a branch from our tree in the yard that had pushed up the electrical wire (I think). Later in the afternoon the welders from the welding shop in front of our wall were fiddling with the line to see if they could still set up to work and there was a large “pow”, followed by a “zzzt” sound and the line they set up broke and landed in our barbed wire at the top of the wall. They had to remove the live wire with a stick. They were scared after that and never tried again for the rest of the week. Because the tree was contacting the wire it was a little electrified too as well as our gate from the barbed wire contacting a branch. Over the next couple of days we went to the local EDH office to ask them to deal with the broken wire and they kept saying that they would send someone. They finally said on Thursday afternoon that it wasn’t their responsibility but the emergency department’s office downtown. Friday morning we drove down there and they sent someone out late in the afternoon. They did some tree trimming with their crane truck and then came back again on Saturday morning. What started as cutting the tree back ended up as cutting the tree down when we noticed that the core of the tree was rotten. The guys and their friends took turns at cutting up the tree. The people in the neighborhood told us that we could make a lot of charcoal out of this tree, but we are going to try and sell it to local dry cleaner shops who can use wood as a fuel source for their iron presses. Then we can use these funds to repair some of our fried electronics equipment. I had a good surge protector on my computer equipment and it is all still working. The photocopier was direct connected to the wall outlet but didn’t have any damage as well. We don’t know about the invertor yet. EDH repaired their electrical line running in front of the house, but early Sunday morning there were a lot of “pop, pop” sounds and the line was broken again. As of writing this update the line still spits sparks from time to time. Pray that EDH will come again and repair the line. I read in the news this week that EDH will be raising their fees 100% starting with the August billings.
At around 1:00am on Friday morning we heard 2 gunshots in front of our house. Everyone jumped out of bed to see what was going on. We heard someone talking on the street and one of our neighbors turned on their outside lights. A motorcycle then started up and drove away. It went up the street and then we heard it coming back down the road again. The neighborhood dogs were barking but Shilo wasn’t. That was when the guys thought that he might have been shot. After a few minutes we saw him walk by the side of the house. He had been hiding and keeping quiet while the neighborhood dogs were barking. One of the guys tried to dial the emergency 114 number but kept getting a busy signal. After a while things became quiet again. The next morning Lukner told us that there were 3 gunshots near his house too that night.
The state exam re-writes for the rheto (grade 12) and philo (grade 13) levels started on Monday. While we were out driving around in the morning there were large groups of students waiting outside of a couple of testing centers. It wasn’t clear to the students who was eligible for the exam rewrites. In the past only students who had “adjourne” on their exam results were eligible. Those who had “elimine (eliminated)” were disqualified. Samuel Marcelin and Jackenmy Milien both went to their testing centers. Samuel had asked me if I had heard what the minimum mark was for eligibility. A friend of his didn’t know if he was eligible for the exam re-writes. I gave him the advice to show up and see if his name was on the list. This is what all the students did at the various testing sites. The education ministry did not publicize the eligibility requirements clear enough for the students. When they found out they couldn’t enter some got angry and some of the testing centers had problems. The exam center where Samuel was writing had no difficulties. The exam center where Jackenmy wrote though had some problems. He was able to finish writing the exam but the students who were not allowed to write forced their way inside and ripped up the written exam papers. In one exam center the protesting students smashed all the computers in the computer room and ripped up books in the library as well as trying to set the school on fire. A policeman shot at one of these protesting students and killed him. Angry students and people from the community blocked police from removing the body. It ended up that alternate exam centers were set up for the remainder of the exam period and Monday’s exams were repeated on Friday. The students who wrote on Monday were not intimidated. The next exam day they showed up at their center and took the exams without problems. Being able to pass the philo level and move on to a post-secondary education was their goal. Hopefully Samuel and Jackenmy will pass these re-writes.
We had a few visitors from Kentucky paint some school benches and tables on Thursday. They did a good job and even painted some designs on the tables. We give the Lord thanks for helping hands!
That’s all the news for today. Have a good week!
Karen Bultje, Coram Deo

“Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hand upon our shoulders.” F.W. Faber

photos - sheila's wedding - part 1

The funeral for Sheila Rene was at the Montfort Paroisse. The church is on the 2nd floor. This is a photo of everyone leaving the church. The church is located in the Cite Aux-Cayes area.

The bride and groom and their entourage were late for the wedding. The wedding was supposed to start at 3:00pm and when it was 4:30pm the priest got tired of waiting and decided to start the wedding service without the bride and groom! Here the youth choir is singing.

The bridal party was surprised to find the service almost over by the time they arrived. This is one of the bridesmaids.

Sheila was accompanied by her godfather. Mdm. Lukner is her mother. She is on the left. I think she was telling her to hurry and not trip over her dress!

The bride and groom arrived at the front just as the priest was beginning the vows. Good thing they showed up!

photos - sheila's wedding - part 2

After saying their " I do's" Sheila and her husband signed the marriage contract at the front of the church.

The bridal procession never got the opportunity to perform going down the aisle but they led the procession leaving the church.

Here is Mdm. Lukner and her daughter Sheila with her new husband. I think that Mdm. Lukner is thinking about the race down the aisle to say their "I do's"!

The flower girl was cute and everyone was nicely dressed.

Here are Sheila and her husband in the vehicle that will take them to the reception.

photos - church celebration - part 1

On Sunday afternoon was a special celebration over at Pastor Octaves church which is across the street from Coram Deo. The children enjoyed it although Benson didn't like the heat too much.

The celebration was for the 17th anniversary of the church choir "Amies de Dieu" (Friends of God). Here the choir is walking to the front of the church. They were singing as they entered and throwing candies to the congregation.

The choir sang well.

Manu walked up to the front to better see them (and hoping that they would throw more candies his way.)

The choir sang to a full house. The church borrowed our school benches so that they could fit more people in.

photos - church celebration - part 2

The "Amies de Dieu" sang well. The man standing in front is the choir director. He is wearing a suit. The inside of the church was like a sauna because of the heat, but it didn't bother anybody.

There were several choirs that sang. This choir is made up of different age groups. The girl in the pink dress is the youngest.

The people sitting in front of us recorded the songs on their cassette player. The church was freshly painted inside on Saturday afternoon and decorations put up as well.

This small choir sang without any instruments. They sang well.

Here is another choir group.

photos - bonnette - part 1

The village of Bonnette is where Paulna's family lives. We stopped by the spring. You can see how fertile the area around the spring is.

The villagers come here to bathe, wash clothes and water their animals. It is located in the plain area.

Common transportation for the villagers is donkey.

The road to the village is a mud bowl. The donkey grudgingly went through the mud carrying his owner.

Our main purpose of the visit was to pick up Rachel, a one month old baby girl. Deedee is taking her into her home to look after. The mother had a stroke a couple of years ago and she is not able to look after her.