Haiti 2013 Monday, July 8, 2013

Kirk

Well, we started work today.  The guys have been conscripted into working digging out the footings of a new building for the Bercy campus near the ocean.  It was a slow start.  At 8 am we went down to the “depot” where they keep the vehicles.  The plan was to load up some equipment into a semi-trailer, one that had not been used in a few years.  The trailer jacks had sunk into the mud and were broken, requiring about an hour of welding, banging, and the assistance of a forklift to get the trailer connected to the semi-tractor.  Jonathan and I offered our opinion that if the jacks weren’t fully raised that the trailer would bottom out on the rough roads en-route to the village.  Our concerns were summarily dismissed.  Well, guess what?  I posted the photos on my Facebook page.  The truck got so stuck on a hump/culvert crossing an irrigation ditch that the semi-tractor’s wheels were off the ground.  It took about another 30-45 minutes to get a bucket loader to lift the trailer up so the truck could get traction and pull the trailer off the concrete hump.  We spent the rest of the day digging trenches, with a short break for peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches.  It was wicked hot.

April, Micah, and Andrew helped with VBS on the mission, and painted the inside of a house in a nearby village.

Jonathan

Monday proved to be an exciting day. The day began with a little quiet time and a chance to read my bible. I noticed the colonel was sweating when he got back from his quiet time. Later I found out he had been doing leg exercises! My breakfast consisted of pbj, watermelon and oatmeal, good stuff! We went to the motor pool to get things for a day of digging footers for a foundation which will become a pastor training center. Before we could leave the 53’ trailer had to have the jack repaired, kinda. Later on the way to the site to drop off the trailer we high sided a bridge and stuck the tractor trailer. Nothing a backhoe couldn’t fix. Speaking of which, I got to run one the rest of the afternoon while the rest of the crew suffered with shovels. I must say I’m impressed, I’ve never seen a harder working crew of young and old men. There is hope for the next generation. I’ll have to watch what I say because the humility in the work I saw today was inspiring. Well, I must go spaghetti is waiting and the Colonel took the last piece of orange cake!