Haiti island of contrasts

Haiti island of contrasts, a set on Flickr.

Haiti is a beautiful place. It is a beautiful place with lots of people who work very hard to make a living for themselves and their families.

Celebration at Pastor Daniel's Orphanage

Valiere celebration, a set on Flickr.

Here are some photos of the celebration at the orphanage. We praised God, prayed, handed out certificates to the operator trainees and the health and hygiene students and dedicated the new water purification system. Members of the community lined up to receive pure healthful water.

Celebrations!

On Sunday morning, we celebrated the dedication of the water systems at both sites. In Les Cayes, Rick, Chris and I attended worship at the Baptiste Church where we were treated as honored guests and invited to address the congregation. Both celebrations were joyous occasions with plenty of community participation. Rick spoke at the site in Les Cayes, Darenda spoke for Bower Hill at the orphanage. Most of our health/hygiene class participants as well as operator trainees showed up to receive their certificates at both sites. Then folks turned the attention to receiving their water. It was broiling hot, so toasting the water was highly appreciated - and many requested seconds!

I only have some pictures of the Les Cayes celebration - we spilt up with some team members attending one celebration and some attending the other since both were held at 9:30 am. I will post more photos later when I have access to those taken by other team members.

Folks crowd in to see the new system

Rick and Chris fill celebration cups at Torbeck

Folks from the community line up to receive pure water

Filling bottles and handing out water

More pictures . . .One of

Pat and a new friend at the orphanage

One of the girls at Pere Daniel's orphanage

Pumping water at the orphanage well

Our class of 30 in Les Cayes!

Pastor Daniel's education group

Darenda meets with the water board at Torbeck to discuss progress and possible improvements

A water customer at Torbeck

Our crack water system installation team in Les Cayes

Finishing up the work, then some recreation

Saturday found Betsy and me teaching our last class while the installation team participated in training the operators to run the systems. All the operators trained at both sites.

Betsy and I were pleased that our new young friend, Jackson Coudo, will be one of the operators for Frantzou's system. Jackson is studying agro-forestry at the American University of the Carribean. He was not originally involved at all, but became so because we held our classses at his aunt's house. His English is pretty good and he wanted to be more involved in what we're doing so we suggested he  talk to Frantzou. He did, and now he'll be an operator!

When all the work for the week was done, we took the opportunity for some recreation with our Haitian teammates - we all drove to Port Salud where there's a beautiful beach to hunt for shells, enjoy the scenery, wade in the warm water and watch a beautiful sunset. We were serenaded by a steel drum band while we enjoyed a delicious dinner on the beach. What a lovely end to a rather frenetic week!

Today we'll celebrate the installation of water purification systems at both sites. Praise God! He is good, all the time!

Photos are more difficult to post. I'll try to get caught up with them as I am able.

Another beautiful day in Haiti!

Today was amazing! With all the frustrations, all the roadblocks, amazingly both systems are done!!!! We haven’t got water to Frantzou’s cistern yet but Pere Daniel’s system has been shocked and water has been made there. What a crack Amazing Dayteam!

While all that frantic work was going on, the Red Sea parted for Moses and the Israelites once again. Well, at least in a theatrical sense Israelites in Valle where Pere Daniel’s orphanage is where Betsy and I started our training began today. Our original group of 9 today grew to 14. I hope that means the 9 talked to others and told them how great our educations sessions are so they decided to come, too! 

Our amazing cast of thousands act our Moses crossing of the Red Sea

After the morning session, we walked back to the orphanage where most of the kids were back from school. These kids were more shy than others we’ve encountered, but we overcame that with crayons, coloring sheets, paper chain making and by taking lots of pictures of them!

Proud makers of paper chains

Enjoying coloring sheets and new crayons

The kids show off their coloring skills in front of the huts they live in

Current housing for Pere Daniel's orphans - he's building them a permanent building

Then in the afternoon Betsy and I had our final session with the group of 30 at Frantzou’s – explaining how the system works. The day topped off with a class field trip to the water building to see the real thing. What a great group they’ve been!