February 6, 2007

February seems to have flown by. Sometimes the weather throws me because there really isn’t a major change in seasons like I experienced in Canada. My mom keeps asking what the weather is like and I feel like a parrot most days because the response is usually the same – sunny and hot - just like the day before. When we get the odd overcast mornings I get pretty excited because it’s so much cooler. It usually doesn’t last long though. I know a lot of you are still buried in snow, and for that I’m sorry. Don’t worry, spring is coming soon J

We’ve had a pretty busy month. Work wise we finished off the shop expansion. It only took Chris and Jean a day to get all of the metal roofing on which was great because Chris was estimating 3 days. Our guys are loving the extra space. I can tell by the fact that everything got organized and has stayed that way for over two weeks. They keep it swept up and cleaned. I can actually walk in now and find what I’m looking for in about a minute as opposed to walking in, squinting because it was so dark, trying to see if I can find the general area where the thing might be, then giving up and asking someone if we even own it. Chris overheard one of the guys make reference to the shop as a depot blan – a white man’s shop. We took that as a compliment. The great thing is that it was all built by our staff so not only do they like the space, they have some ownership and pride in it because they did it all with their own hands.

Last week Chris went in to Port to pick up David from the airport. David is from Chicago and is a roofer by trade. Actually he’s 25 and owns his own roofing business. He took a week to come and help us by putting the new roof on the mission house. It’s been leaking since last year and progressively got worse through the last rainy season. It wouldn’t have made it another year. Last Monday we ripped off all of the old roofing and started doing the prep work for David. Chris and I had talked about whether it was a good idea to rip the old roof off three days before David would be able to start work, but Monday and Tuesday were sunny and hot so we didn’t see any problems. The rainy season hasn’t started yet, but we have had sporadic rains. Usually they’re not much more than a drizzle that barely gets the ground wet.

I’m sure you can see where this is going…Tuesday evening we got a drizzle. That wasn’t a problem - it just cooled things off a bit and didn’t make its way through the ¾” plywood separating us from the great outdoors. It was the downpour that hit at midnight that did us in. It was a case of Murphy’s Law at it’s finest. Chris and I jumped out of bed and started grabbing anything electronic and threw all of it on some shelves that didn’t seem to be getting wet. It rained hard for an hour. There was water pouring in the house in streams. There was so much coming in upstairs that it came right through the loft floor and into the bathroom, kitchen and our bedroom. The only thing we could do was set out a few buckets in the bad places and sweep and mop the water out the doors. Our house is typical Haitian construction where the foundation is rock walls with rubble and gravel filled in between, then the floors are poured and tiled. We have some spots where the floors have cracked and thankfully a bunch of the water drained right through into the ground below. We were finally able to crawl back into bed around 2 am and managed to get a bit of sleep before our 6am wake up call. Chris headed off to Port and I stayed home to clean the house up. All in all it didn’t make much of a mess. All of our electronic stuff survived. The toaster was a bit touch and go. The first couple of times I tried it, it sputtered and sparked, but eventually it dried out and started working again.

Jean, Chris and David working on the last bit of the roof.

So, the last week has been full of banging and thumping overhead, but that will all be over in the next hour because the last shingles are going on as I type. I’ve given up on trying to keep the house swept because every nail that goes in seems to knock down more dust and mystery items. I’ll worry about doing a good cleaning on Thursday after David is gone and we resume life as usual here. Until then shoes are allowed in the house and the dog can track in as much mud as she feels necessary. David has been great to have around. He’s managed to work so quickly that by late morning or early afternoon he’s done for the day, which is good because it gets so hot on the roof. Yesterday afternoon the two of us went into St. Marc to get our friend Barb and tour around a bit. We took David to the market and walked around for a while, saw a couple of other things in town, then David and I headed home on the beach road with a stop at the lighthouse to snorkel. I forget how beautiful Haiti can be in places. Tomorrow we’ll leave early and head into Port au Prince to do some errands and take David to the airport. One thing on the list is going to Megamart, a new store that’s a lot like Costco, right down to the membership cards that sadly look better than a Haitian drivers license. They should hook up and combine efforts in that department.

Heading home from market.

I know that people like to read about cultural things and learn more about life in Haiti. Last month someone asked me if we’re connected to a church here or not because we don’t really talk about the spiritual aspect of things in our updates, which has been true. Haiti has a really interesting spiritual background. People here are very open to Christianity and many people go to church regularly. Unfortunately going to church is a very socially acceptable thing to do so often people go because they want to look good to their friends and neighbors rather than because they have a relationship with God. Appearances are very important here. There is also the underlying issue of voodoo and it’s not uncommon for people to attend church, and be involved there as well as being involved in voodoo practices because they are so ingrained in the culture. Haiti also has a history of corruption on so many levels, including the church, so it’s not uncommon to have a pastor leading a church, not because he feels really called by God to do it, but because there is a lot of prestige and often more money involved in having that role. Coming from a pastoral background that’s something that’s hard for me to see. We have had training classes here that have had pastors in them and it’s been hard for me to see everyone else in the class put them on a pedestal when I believe that a pastor’s role is to serve people. It’s important to know that these things are generalizations that we’ve seen or know of. There are many pastors that are called to lead a church, and there are many churches that are Biblically based. We are currently going to church up the road at an orphanage that we love. Pastor Henri and Sister Gladys strive every day to do what God is calling them to do and to teach the kids there to live Biblically based lives. We’ve been really encouraged by their friendship and challenged by the things we see them teaching the kids. Those same things are taught in their church services and we feel very much at home worshiping there. We go there every other week, and attend a missionary meeting on the other weeks where we get to do a Bible study and visit with other area missionaries.  

Power lines and a dump truck – and yes, they work!

The UN has been occupying Haiti for quite a while now, but in the last three months they’ve been able to start making some progress and things are starting to change a bit. In December they were finally given the go ahead to start raiding Cite Soliel. Cite Soliel is the worst slum in all of Haiti, full of shanties built on garbage piles. There are about 300,000 people living there and it’s know that most of the gangs in Haiti call it home. These gangs are responsible for much of the problems that we see here. In the last few months the UN has been able to capture some gang members and take over gang houses, turning them into UN bases and clinics for the people inside Cite Soliel. The effect this has on the rest of the country is HUGE. There is a noticeable difference in people already. They seem calmer and a bit more content, not aggressive and angry like they were before. People want some order and stability. They need it. The UN has started moving some of the people out of Cite Soliel which unfortunately leaves them looking for a place to live, but it’s necessary if there is going to be any lasting change there. There have been many rumours that the UN isn’t here for the long haul, but from what we see in Port au Prince I don’t believe them. Their bases are constantly being built up with more buildings and machinery, vehicles and equipment. Soldiers are more visible and we know that contracts have been signed for at least another year. It’ll be interesting to see how things progress over the next 12 months.

St. Marc traffic.

The next two months are going to be quite busy for us. The next couple of weeks will be prep time for a couple of things. The first is our first Vision Trip. We weren’t anticipating anyone coming for the first one’s this year because of the time needed to get ready, but we’ve got a couple of people making arrangements to join us on our March 31-April 7 week. It’ll be good for us to start out small and build from there. The day after they leave we will have people arriving for a Technician Training class. It’s going to be a small class and there is a chance that this will be the first one we teach in English, but we’re not certain yet as the registration list hasn’t been finalized. After that we get a two day break and then we start babysitting for two work weeks. Some missionary friends of ours have 6 kids, one of which is 3 ½ months old and in the process of being adopted by them. We’ll be taking her and her older sister (they’re literally sisters which is so cool) while their mom goes to the states to take care of some family stuff with their two older sisters. Their dad is staying behind to run the mission and will keep their two boys, who are 5 and 3. To give them a hand and to help Troy keep his sanity we’ll take Phoebe, the baby, and her sister Hope who’s 5. It should be good parenting practice for us.

Well, the hammering has stopped so I think that means the roof is done. Yay! No more flooding! Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next month or so. We’ve got a few trips planned into Port and would like safety for that, and also for the prep that we need to get working on for April. We’re very grateful for your love and encouragement. We wouldn’t be here without it.

Blessings,

Chris & Leslie Rolling