October 18th Update

Today it was back to the school routine. Dorothy, Molina, and I took the boys to their school. With all the morning traffic, it took us about an hour and a half until we were back home. I spent some time downstairs with the 2 and 3 year olds in the morning. While I was down there, I helped the nannies fold laundry. I am trying to make a relationship with them in any way that I can. That can be quite difficult considering the language barrier. I'm still working on my Creole. I've gotten a little better at understanding what people are saying, but it is still difficult. Knowing French would help a lot. I would love to be able to take a course in French when I am back in the states.

Before we went to get the boys at school, Dorothy and I drove to take some large trash to a dumpster along Delmas, a main road near us. While we were out driving, I noticed that there are a lot more armed UN and Haitian police out patrolling. There has been an increase in the riots the past few weeks. We think it has to do with the upcoming presidential election next month. Here, a presidential term is five years. I was not surprised to hear that the elections are very corrupt. Last election, ballots were found in dumpsters. Dorothy said that she has even heard of presidential candidates being murdered. I have no idea how many candidates there are, because there is no limit. Also, as far as I know, there is not really any campaigning. I've seen some small posters here and there and a few small billboards advertising candidates. More often than not, it is spray paint on a wall that says, “Vote so and so”. I expect that the rioting and uprising will continue to get worse as we near the election date. I heard that this week, there was a riot at the local prison and several Americans and UN soldiers were taken hostage. Many Haitians want the UN to leave, so there has been some rioting outside of the UN base near the airport also. Prayers for safety and the presidential election would be much appreciated.

After we picked the boys up from school today, Kez stopped by. She came in and asked me if I wanted to get out of the house and do something different. OF COURSE! I'm always up for anything here, ha! So, I went with Kez and my new friends, Marc and Teresa, to help at a feeding program. It is actually just down the road from our house at the Manaseros (spelling?) orphanage. They have a boys' house, girls' house, guest house, and then a house for the Manasero family. Next to the boys' house, they have a small basketball court and courtyard type area where they have a feeding program every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They feed mostly local street kids. So, we all just played with the kids until it was time to eat. Then, we helped distribute plates of food and clean up afterward. There was a group of Americans there helping out as well. They all had lots of questions about what we each do here and how we came to Haiti. It was really nice to get out and get to know other people in the area. One of the best things about being here is getting to meet so many amazing brothers and sisters in Christ and learn about what they do here in Haiti.

I have a PRAISE for today. EDH finally came back this evening! PRAISE GOD! So, we should hopefully be able to have electricity through the night. YAY for fans and a good nights rest! Thank you for your prayers! My prayer requests for today are:

-the kids here are all starting to get colds again
-Johnny has an ear infection
-Emanuella has pneumonia
-the daughter of one of our nannies has Typhoid

Thank you prayer warriors!!