Leaving for Airport

Leaving Wall's Guest House for airport. It has been a wonderful trip. Installation went smoothly. Had the opportunity to spend several sessions teaching. The Les Cayes area of Haiti is quite beautiful. 

Arrived Back In Port au Prince

Wall's Guest House

Dedication of the System

Teaching

System Finished

The Work

I didn't get a chance to write yesterday. Karen, Pat, and I are busy teaching. We spent time with the house mothers of the boys' village. We had been in the girls' village on Monday with all the girls and the house mothers, but now we had just the women. That is what we really wanted - to teach adults so they can carry the message on. The women at the boys' village didn't look too excited at first, but soon got into our activities. We did a new activity trying to get them understand that water might all look alike but it might have germs and a person needs to drink this purified water all the time. The women wanted to take the props from the activity so we let them.

The men finished the system which wasn't much work today. Some went in to town to buy new tires. A new thing here is that Fr Mark has an ice machine he wants hooked up. 

Afternoon was wonderful for the teachers. We had a couple of hours with the public health nurse and the 8 young men who work with her. These young men live here and this is the job they chose. We had them (and us) act out the crossing of the Red Sea. They looked skeptical at first, but when we all started putting on the props they got into it. Working with this group was very rewarding as we talked about the importance of the purified water.

God is good! 

And God said, "That's good."

Karen, Pat, and I taught the girls today. This was our first story - creation.

Starting the System

Clyde gluing pipe together with plumber Valdes looking on.

The Least Exciting Day Ever

Sunday, Feb 9

Danny, Karen, Tom, and I got up again at 4:15 to catch the 5:00 shuttle to the airport for our 7:00 flight. It was easy going because our luggage had been checked through from Shreveport to Port au Prince. Had breakfast, got to our gate for smooth sailing (flying). Not a hitch today - we can just feel it.

John was waiting for us outside the airport with the drivers and the rest of our group. Wow, that was easy! We got our luggage in the truck and headed to Les Cayes. We are finally going!

Les Cayes is about 4 hours from Port au Prince so we figured that our arrival would be around 3:00. We are behind schedule but will be ok. 

After driving a couple of hours, our driver starts to pull off the road - flat tire. No problem the other truck stopped too. The two drivers and Clyde changed the tire with John supervising (watching). We drove a little further and stopped at a little store to get a drink and a snack for lunch. Our driver went off to have the tire repaired. 

Back in the trucks to finish the trip. Another 30 minutes or so and the other truck pulls over. Yes, flat tire. No problem - drivers and Clyde change the tire with John supervising. Off we go. 

Another 30 minutes or so passed. We pull over - flat. The third flat tire in a little more than an hour! Only one of the trucks had a spare. This flat happened as we were heading down the mountain. What to do? Several headed off to see if it could be repaired or if they would have to go to Les Cayes for a new one or good used. Drivers talked, and it could be repaired just a few minutes down the road. They were gone almost an hour. I can't explain how it was fixed. Certainly not like anything you would see in the states - at least not these days. Now there is no spare either with more than an hour to Les Cayes.

We made it to Hope Village! They have built a beautiful water building for the system. That was nice to see. Then off to the guesthouse. Dinner of Haitian chicken and beans and rice. Very good. Dessert was yellow cake and chocolate icing. Mine had birthday candles!

All in all, it has been a good day. Now the work begins!

What Happens When You Get to Port au Prince!

John, Clyde, Pat, and Ed left Monroe for Haiti while the other four of us were trying to figure out how to leave Louisiana. As my group was flying to Miami, the Monroe group was flying to Haiti. As we were leaving, we got a phone call saying that our interpreter was not at the airport to meet them. What can we do when we are flying? I was able to get wifi on the plane and emailed Ancy, the interpreter. didn't hear from him while we were in the air. While we were waiting for the shuttle to the motel, I called Ancy in Haiti and found out that our group had made it to the guest house. Good news!

While it was good news that they made it to the guesthouse, it was extremely stressful for them to get there. Ancy had sent someone else to pick them up but our group didn't know that. They ended up finding a taxi to take them to the guesthouse.

Tom, Danny, Karen, and I stayed at La Quinta near the Miami airport. That was interesting too. When Danny and Karen tried to find us a motel, we found out that Expedia got us rooms alright - in two motels 20 minutes apart. Took a while but we finally got rooms in one place. We had a great dinner at a Cuban restaurant around 9:15 pm.

An exhausting day!

Snow, Sleet, Ice

Wintry mix was the forecast for Friday afternoon. On the way to Shreveport Friday afternoon, Tom and I saw what was a first for me in Louisiana - salt trucks. After having lived in Michigan for 12 years, it was not an unusual sight but for Louisiana it sure was.


Following a wonderful dinner of grilled red fish, we headed to bed around 9:00 because we needed to be up at 4:00 or so for our 7:00am flight. When I got up this morning I saw that I had a voicemail. It was from American Airlines saying that our flight was now scheduled to leave at 9:30am. Of course our flight from Dallas to Miami was supposed to leave before that. So Karen got on the phone to see what arrangements could be made.


It became obvious that getting to Port au Prince today (Saturday) was not going to happen. We are now confirmed on a flight out of Shreveport at noon and arriving in Miami after 9pm. Then we will fly out of Miami at 7 in the morning. So, an overnight stay in Miami tonight.


Four of our team are leaving out of Monroe, and there seems to be no problem with their flight. Now we have to get touch with our Haiti friends to rearrange where John, Clyde, Pat and Ed can spend the night tonight. Our original plan was to drive part of the way to Les Cayes today. That won't work now!


Continue to keep us in your prayers!

Less Than 24 Hours Before We Leave

Well, my bag is packed along with my backpack. The "teaching" bag has been taken to Monroe to go with the folks leaving from there. Tom and I are leaving for Gilliam (just north of Shreveport) to leave from there in the morning. We need 4 people to leave from there because the water system takes up 4 suitcases. We will each carry a personal suitcase and a system suitcase.

Keep us in your prayers as we travel tomorrow. We will leave from Shreveport at 7am going to Dallas, then Miami, and on to Port au Prince. We arrive in Haiti around 4:30.

Hope to have lots more updates for you!

Teaching Activity

How This All Started

Recently I was asked about how I got involved with the Living Waters water installations. Let me start back even before I was born. My grandfather, Rev. J.S. Crowley, was a missionary to the Belgian Congo in the late 1890s and early 1900s. So, even though I was adopted, I think mission work must be in my DNA.

I did some mission work to Washington, DC and other local work while I was in college. When our girls, Katherine and Rachel, were in 1st and 2nd grades, we went to Xpujil, Mexico on a mission trip to begin building a church. We made 2 more trips as a family to Xpujil. After our move to Louisiana I discovered that our church sponsored a mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico to build houses so I went on that trip several times until the border became unsafe.

Probably 6 years ago Danny and Karen Logan gave a presentation about a mission project called Living Waters for the World. I kept that idea in the back of my mind until I got a call from one of them asking me if I was interested in going to Haiti to put in a water system. I went on my first Living Waters trip in March 2011 and have been back each year since then.

I have attended two sessions of Clean Water U of Living Waters for the World. The first session I went to was how to install a system. The second was learning about the educational component that goes along with the installation. While I would enjoy the installation part, I have been mostly involved in teaching while in Haiti. We have activities related to washing hands and when it is important to use this purified water (drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, and for babies). We spend time hearing Biblical stories such as creation, the Red Sea, and the woman at the well - all stories revolving around water.

I leave for Haiti a week from today. The packing begins soon!