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The next Ministries of Transformation seminars were held today at the Christian Reformed Ministry Center. The seminar will cover 2 days. Pastor Pierre and members of his churches came along with Pastor Valery from Belladere. They are serious about improving their learning. Some of them got up this morning at 3:00am to start their travels.

It was good to see that most of the people who attended were Pastor Pierre's group :) The seminar was run by Jenny (who was too chicken to get her picture taken :) and Mario, who are not pictured.

On the way back from dropping everyone off at the seminars we gassed up at the National gas station and watched a long line of UN vehicles head up the street. This pick-up was the lead vehicle.

Lots of personnel carriers traveled up the road.

One by one. They moved too slow for us and once the coast was clear we passed most of them :)

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This is Marie making lunch using the medium size pot. Soon we will be buying a gas stove with funds that Angels to Haiti raised for us.

She knows exactly what size portions to give.

The children love to play games. Here are some of them playing at Snakes and Ladders

It can get quite heated sometimes as some like to cheat more than others.

Skip Bo is one of the card games they also play.

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Benji and his mother spent some time here at Coram Deo after he had surgery at the end of October.

His mother is a nice lady and she appreciated a place to stay while Benji healed from his surgery.

Carlos is 2 years old. He has a tiny body for a 2-year-old but he is alert.

Carlos and his mother headed out to the Jacmel area in early December.

Vanessa is a happy 3-yr-old who had surgery in October as well. Her mother in the past year has handled multiple emergencies within her family and extended family. She is the one who runs into Port-au-Prince with sick family members. Vanessa and her mom are now back in Fond Verettes.

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While I was home in November I got to meet some "Haiti Alumni" :) Max used to live here at Coram Deo and now he has a family in Canada. Max is doing great and it was good to see him. Hans and Jantje stayed here at Coram Deo when they came and finished up the adoption of Timo. Timo is one bundle of energy and is a good athlete.

Francine is also a Coram Deo alumni and she now has a Canadian family too. She has really grown and is doing well. She is a good big sister to her younger siblings.

Hans and Jantje have a dairy farm and that is where we all got together. The children had lots of room to run around :)

I enjoyed the cooler climate in Canada. Here is a Haiti Team Picture! It is encouraging to meet and talk with people who are enthused with Coram Deo and are working to help us out here in Haiti.

I made sure to take my camera with me so that I could show the children here in Haiti a Canadian dairy farm. It sort of is a scary photo with the gleaming eyes of the cows as 2 of the younger children walked by them.

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Some of the young children of Yonel's community followed us in our walk down the canal. This young girl kept wanting to get her photo taken and this is one of her poses :) Behind the children is a house that has been patched back together. It sure doesn't look like it could withstand another earthquake.

Some people have taken to the roofs to live. Here a home-made ladder leads up to the roof-top. The first floor is unliveable.

Phil couldn't believe why such a large canal is constructed. the same effect could have been done by digging deeper.

A mother came up to us to get a photo of her daughter. The girl doesn't seem to be too sure about getting her picture taken :)

Here is Manu peeking around a wall.

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There is a national holiday coming up tomorrow where people go and visit the graveyards and leave offerings to keep the spirits happy. There used to be a government building on this site but the building was destroyed during the earthquake. The rubble has been removed and now the government uses the site as a disposal yard for government vehicles.

Maintenance of vehicles is one of the big problems the government has. Many times you see yards of broken vehicles. These vehicles have been stripped of parts and will probably be sent to the scrap metal dealer and shipped to China I think.

The UN launched Operation Hope on some of the streets of Port-au-Prince. We were driving through the Bel-Air area and saw lots of soldiers on foot. It was a surprising thing to see. The Haitian people behind these soldiers are laughing at them I think because they are in full battle gear.

The press said that 7 people were arrested and some of them were escapees from the penitentiary. We saw one of the arrests that were made. A man was lying on the ground. Now I know why.

It was funny watching the UN play traffic cop!

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While Dan and Len were here they revamped the turkey burners with parts that Bill provided in order for the connections to match up to Haiti's style.

The guys helped them out and learned at the same time.

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It's rainy season right now and September is also the hottest month of the year. Here is what happens on the streets of Port-au-Prince during a rain storm. Usually the storms hit at night but every now and then there is an afternoon storm. When this happens traffic jams occur.

This line of traffic was heading down Delmas 31. Trucks don't have to worry about the roads so much as the smaller vehicles. Rain water always follows a path down hill.

It is every driver for himself/herself at intersections. It sort of is fun sometimes watching vehicle standoffs as each driver refuses to back off for another!

With rain roads turn into obstacle courses and the driver better know the road to avoid deep pot holes and drains without their cover.

It is particularly challenging for motorcycle drivers!

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Sometimes we are stopped in traffic on the streets and people come up to beg. This man was begging for money and I talked with him about his situation. He has been attending classes for a refrigeration technician and not having tools is blocking him. I told him that we would help him with tools and that he can then have the tools to do more than beg on the streets. Pray for this man. That he can support his family.

Tim, Bill, Dan, and Greg came for a visit to Coram Deo and they brought along a duffle bag of soccer jerseys. They are special soccer jerseys of European Division I soccer teams. You can see from this photo that the jerseys are high in demand. Everyone picked out a jersey from their favorite team: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United, etc.

It was serious business and they were all looking for the right jersey!

Here's a team photo with a Thank You sign for the donor of the soccer jerseys. You made a lot of people happy with this gift! Notice Reginald off to the right wrapped in a towel on the far left. He wanted to make sure he got a jersey. When I first looked at the photo it sort of looked like Reginald was wearing a skirt!

We visited Paulna's village in the countryside. The people who live in the village of Bonnette survive on farming. They work hard.

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We were in the offices of Food for the Poor last week and they have this beautiful poster hanging on the wall. The first part reads "To fall is human, to arise is divine..." Pray that the Haitian people turn to the Lord for strength.

On September 2nd, a neurosurgical team will be arriving to perform hydrocephalus surgeries. This mother and her young baby are from the Milot area and are staying here awaiting the surgical date.

They are staying in the "Hydrocephalus Hilton". That is what I call one of the dormitory rooms that hold 4 beds and are currently at capacity with 4 mothers and their babies. Please pray for the babies that will be receiving surgery.

Thanks to Wyclef Jean there is a cat scan at Ste. Philomene/St. Luc Hospital. This tent hospital has a trailer cat scan and the fee is $0. It's a blessing for these children. The private cat scan in the city charge $220US. Pray for the work of Yele Haiti and Wyclef. He is striving to help as many Haitians as he can through his charitable organization.

We also made a visit to Vanessa's home. We climbed the stairs up to her roof to get a "pigeon view" of the city.

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We went through some clothes a few weeks ago and there was this jacket that Benson liked. He started wearing it to school. I asked him why and he says that in the morning it is cooler. For a while I thought that maybe he was sick because it is pretty warm in the morning right now. I think he just liked wearing the jacket!

I encourage the children to be constructive and to problem solve. Instead of going out and buying a kite the children design and make their own. Here is a model that Manu designed. They actually fly pretty good.

The boy next to Manu is his best friend Kelly. They are both in Grade 5 at Christian Light Ministries.

In April was Yvens Cherisier's 16th birthday! He's a good young man and is responsible.

To celebrate his birthday we went out to Epi D'or for a burger and fries.