A Quick Update

First, I just want to say thanks for all the encouragement and support from people in the midst of what is going on here in Haiti.  It is great to get comments and emails from friends and family who remind me there are people behind me and the work that is going on here.  

Over the weekend we had Hurricane Ike pass well north of us.  It was a category four when it was passing by, so we did get some rain and a steady amount of wind, but it was extremely tame and quick compared to Hanna.  We only got a couple inches of rain here in Pierre Payen, but we did hear that some parts of Haiti got more and again had problems with flooding.  Because of Ike, we had to cancel the missionary meeting.  There have been a lot of people that have returned to Haiti in the past couple weeks and it was going to be a chance for everyone to reunite, and for me to meet most for the first time, but we'll have to wait till next week.  However, Elsie and Mark, from Canaan ended up stopping by in the afternoon on Sunday.  Mark has just arrived in Haiti and is heading up the school and education program at the orphanage. He is planning to be in Haiti for at least a year. It was good to have another person here to relate to, especially someone close in age...most missionaries I've met here are older than me and there is nothing wrong with that, but it is nice to have someone in a similar stage of life to communicate with.  

Today, we started welding the support structure for the solar panels.  This proves to be a little more complicated than it sounds because the structure is very large and we are using scaffolding that sways a decent amount since it is so high in the air.  I didn't take any pictures, but I'll try and do that soon so you have an idea of what I'm talking about.  After that I went with Jean and Israel to deliver around 35 filters that we had sold last week.  We had to carry a lot of the filters up rocky paths and through mud....by the end of it I was completely exhausted.  However, when I got back Chris asked if I could would help him go on a diesel run.  We were told that of all the gas stations in the area, most were out of gas, and some were starting to run out of diesel.  This is happening because a lot other roads and bridges are impassable and fuel trucks can't get around the country yet.  If we are unable to buy diesel and run out of fuel for our generator, we are can't continue welding.  So, we loaded up all the containers and headed for the closest station we knew had fuel.  When we got back we grabbed a few guys and unloaded the tanks.  We have a few tanks that are 40 gallons...we estimate these to be around 300 lbs when full.  We had three guys and we were unloading them off a truck and onto a shelf in a small generator room.....not the easiest thing to do, but we got it done.  After that I jumped in the shower and tried to stay awake until dinner.  

Tomorrow, Leslie is leaving to fly home for a while.  Chris is driving her into Port and will spend the day there getting different things accomplished.  This will be the first time any of us has gone to Port since the hurricanes so it will be interesting to see the condition of everything.  They are going to have to walk across the Montrouis bridge and borrow a vehicle, since traffic is still not allowed to pass over the bridge.  I'm going to be staying at the mission making sure things are alright here, but my main task will be taking care of Olivia.  I have to be up pretty early and I can barely stay awake while I'm typing this, so I think I'm going to head to bed.