Haiti Trip 2014 Friday

Bonjou. Wakey, wakey.

It had been quite some time since I had slept in a tent (Amy and I are not really camping people), so I was pleasantly surprised to wake up having had a good night's sleep with little trouble from the roosters. The earplugs definitely helped, but I do that that I had acclimated to their crowing during last year's trip and now they were just a familiar part of the atmosphere for me.

I went about the morning routine as best as I could given that I hadn't had any coffee yet as more of the team emerged from their tents. The morning started quietly as we had a little bit of breakfast. We then started to get ourselves organized for the day's events. We would use part of the team to carry out day two of VBS covering the story of Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The rest of the team would tackle our primary construction job for the trip and help put a roof on the school.

Tom & Shawn getting their man cards stamped

This was definitely Tom's time to shine and he quickly took charge of things. A makeshift ladder was quickly built that would span the gap between the building's walls so that the guys could walk across from one side to the other as they positioned trusses and nailed boards into place to hold the trusses and support the tin.

In what seemed like no time at all, we had five Americans and about a dozen Haitian youth on top of the school helping to get trusses in place. Tom was a great field general helping direct traffic and make sure that the project kept moving forward. It was great seeing Tom, Nelson, Jeff, Scott, & Shawn mix it up with so many of the youth and help them make a contribution to the efforts. I felt a little less than helpful, but managed to carry some boards and trusses to make something of a contribution. Mostly, I just hung out, had conversations and stayed out of the way knowing that my gifts would be better used on other days. Things kept progressing through the morning and eventually we had the skeleton of the roof pretty much in place. A Haitian crew was going to put the tin on, so after half a day of work, the heavy lifting was done.

Aubrey Dale shows her strength. #crossfit

Of course, it wasn't all work & no play. At one point mid-morning while everybody took a break, guys started showing off how many pull-ups they could do. This escalated to Nelson showing off his core strength by displaying some gymnastic prowess. Of course, the Haitians decided they needed to try to show up the old man to (usually) unsuccessful ends. The coup-de-tat was Aubrey who had bragged that she was able to do five pull-ups and then had to prove it. #crossfit

There were also plenty of indicators that it had been another successful morning for VBS as well. The most visible sign was all of the glitter on the faces of the kids after their craft for the day. The glitter was gold in color and was absolutely impossible to miss on the faces of the kids. At the end of the morning I was talking to Aubrey when a girl walked past. Aubrey stopped her and tried to help her wipe some of the glitter from her face with Aubrey's skirt, but the effort proved fruitless.

A little bit of glitter w/ a side of unintentional photo bomb

We took a break for lunch and the early part of the afternoon was spent tying up loose ends on the morning projects, prepping for Saturday's festival to wrap up our time with the kids in Jabouin, and plotting to figure out showers. A small tent had been brought and set up that we could take bucket showers in with water drawn from a nearby pool. The only option to a bucket shower at this point was baby wipes and most of the team members were looking for something to make them feel a little fresher.

The best was when, later in the afternoon, Aubrey decided to hit the shower tent. Once she was in the tent, a group of us were standing 20 yards or so away having a conversation. I was standing next to Art and picked up a small rock to throw at the tent knowing that Aubrey would blame Art for throwing it. I threw it and, sure enough, Aubrey yelled, "Art! Stop it!" We sat back and laughed, but also saw that the gentleman "trimming" the tin work was trying to get our attention. They had finished laying the tin on both sides of the roof and he was hacking back the tin sheets where they met at the peak with a machete. He was needing to drop the first sheet to the ground and wanted to know if the coast was clear.

Hacking away the tin. The shower tent is on the left.

The shower tent was near the end of the building that he was working on and we indicated that he should toss the tin off to his left so that it wouldn't land near the tent. He did so, but it landed on the cement of the portico which made enough noise to startle Aubrey. We, of course, found this hilarious and Art seized on the opportunity to terrorize Aubrey by yelling things like, "Look out, Dale! Here comes another one!" each time a piece was dropped. The worker was being very careful to miss her and obviously knew that we were having fun at Aubrey's expense, so he simply continued doing his job while laughing at the crazy Americans.

There was one sheet that caught a little wind and hit the side of the cement and landed just a few feet from Aubrey. Art took advantage of the near miss to escalate things by grabbing a softball sized rock and yelling, "Oh no, here comes another one!" and then throwing the rock at the tin on the ground. By this point, we were all in tears from laughing so hard, but the boss that was doing the job was less than thrilled with Art beating up the tin scraps with a rock since he intended to use it to finish the job. Art picked up on this pretty quickly and tossed the rock to the side and walked away like a seven year old caught doing something he shouldn't. He said, "I think he's mad at you, Dale." as he left the tent for the safety of the rest of the team.

Gretchen w/ a crew of kids in their Ambrase Lekol shirts

We spent the time right before dinner getting chairs set up for a showing of The Jesus Movie that night. The plan was for Julie to give a message while popcorn was being prepared under the big tent for us to serve to the folks that came out for the movie. Mike set up a portable screen that was hung from some rebar on what will be the portico for the first school building. We had a little something to eat while people began to fill the school yard. Julie did a great job with her message. The night before, she had shared what a stretch it was for her to speak and to lead stories for VBS. I was super proud of her for putting herself out there like that and for doing such a great job.

After Julie was done, it was time for the movie. They were able to get the projector and DVD working after a few mis-starts, but the biggest issue was sound. They tried a couple of different things out, but they just weren't able to kick out much volume. They also had to compete with our team hanging out in the compound and the youth having conversations even closer to the movie while they made popcorn. I wound up in our tent for a little while just to pray. I prayed against distractions and that even if the sound continued to be an issue that those that needed to hear the Gospel would hear it and respond.

I came out of the tent for popcorn and a little conversation until the movie ended. After the movie, an invitation was offered, but I honestly can't remember if it was the pastor or Pam that gave it, but two young men responded to receive Christ.

After things had cleared out a bit, we gathered as a team in the corner of the compound for high/lows and a time of worship. Aubrey led us in several songs and even after we adjourned for the night, the songs kept coming. I was pretty beat, so I called it a night and climbed into the tent, but I could hear Aubrey and Shawn taking turns sharing some songs. It had been another long day, but Saturday would be our last day in Jabouin and we had a festival to put on for the kids, so rest was definitely needed.