Two weeks in Haiti

It has been 2 weeks since I've been here.  In some ways, it seems like I've been here forever, and in other ways I feel like I've only just arrived.  I would really like to thank everyone for all of the prayers for Rosa.  She did go to school today, and by the afternoon she seemed like she was play to her happy playful self again.  Thank you God!  Dorothy is going to continue the round of antibiotics on her. 

This morning, Miss Audette brought a Creole/French/English school book for me to borrow to practice.  She is so kind!  I just need to start making it a priority to practice every night.  After I took the kids to school, Dorothy and I went to the car dealership to have her truck serviced.  They asked if she wanted a quote on the body and she just laughed.  If you live in Port-au-Prince, there is no sense in worry about how your vehicle looks, ha!  We were very happy that we took our books along to the dealership, because neither of us expected it to take that long.  We were there for nearly 3 hours.  That is typical Haiti.  Everything takes 3 times as long as you would expect.  After we got the truck back, we stopped at a hardware store to get some garden tools, paint scrapers, and paint rollers.

When we got home, I cleaned the bathroom.  Then, I spent a few hours outside scraping the concrete wall.  I should have counted how many people starred at me as they walked by, particularly men.  One teenaged boy was riding his bike and he actually stopped right next to me and just sat there watching me work for a minute or two.  Awkward, haha.  I was sweaty, so by the time I was finished scraping, I was covered head to toe in flecks of paint.  But, the good news is that as long as the weather is nice tomorrow, I should be able to get a coat of paint on the wall!

Our water pump/pipes are still not working, and we have been unable to find someone who can figure out what the problem is and fix it for us.  Until then, it means lots of extra work for all of us.  The nannies are having to hand wash all of the childrens' clothes and diapers.  Dorothy and I are both hoping that we don't run out of clean clothes before we can get the pipes repaired, ha!

Thursday morning two friends of Dorothy's are coming to stay with us for a week.  One of them is Kervens sponsor.  He used to live here, but now he is in an orphanage in Gonaives.  She really wants to see him while she is here.  So, I think that Thursday afternoon Dorothy, Keziah, the two ladies, and I may be driving to Gonaives for a couple of days.  Dorothy has never been there (and obviously neither have I) so I think it will be really neat to see some more of the country.  Gonaives is the 3rd largest city here in Haiti, and it is about a three hour drive from PAP.  It might be an interesting journey, ha!

This is a picture of Dorothy's house from inside the gate.  It is difficult to get a good photo because of the wall.  Behind the blue tarp is part of the porch where we store supplies.  To the right of that (not in the photo) is where we do crafts and school.  On top of the house you can see where the water holding tank is and where we hang some of the laundry.