This past month has been a whirlwind - literally!!!!

The H2H school has been in session for just over a month but this rainy season has left us with lots of days off and lots of muddy uniforms!!


The bad weather hasn't just affected our school...

- no sun means clothes don't dry... we have over 100 kids... that's a lot of dirty, or clean but 'wet for so long that it's smelling musty' clothes and sheets!!!

- gardens that supply our local market have been badly damaged in the rain so fresh produce is scarce & very expensive - the price of dried beans has almost doubled in the past month!

- the damp weather is perfect for mosquitoes which means malaria season... Hasannah is just getting over malaria... not a fun first for Mommy.


- power & internet has been intermittent at best due to wind storms & broken power lines

The biggest storm was obviously Hurricane Sandy and it had terrible timing!  Right in the middle of it we had a caravan of trucks leaving H2H to go to a funeral (Gran Bar, Pastor's Luc's mom passed away) in Bouva.  We left as soon as there was enough light to see & didn't make it to Bouva until 10pm!  Here are a few pictures I took in Leogane (a small town 30 minutes away from H2H).

this is the main Highway into Port-au-Prince:

The funeral in Bouva was a 3 day affair and was huge!  I don't have many pictures as it rained most of the time but here are a few of the procession to the cemetery. 

On a personal level, this past month has had it's challenges...

- While we were in Bouva, Hasannah started having fevers.  She had no other symptoms of being sick & the fevers were very high - 102/103 (taken under the arm).  We were in the mountains so tylenol & a cold cloth were the only medical care I could give her.  We returned to Grand Goave 3 days later and immediately went to the hospital and she tested positive for malaria.  She responded immediately to the medicine and was back to her smiley self within a week.

- Renel & I are responsible for raising our financial support and our support has declined this past year and we've just been advised that we are significantly short of our support for 2012.  If we are not able to raise the funds before the end of December... and increase our monthly support for next year, we will have to reconsider our full time status with H2H.  This is a tough situation for us as we consider H2H home and the kids & community our family.

We would appreciate your prayers for our family in both of these areas.

On a more positive side, Hasannah is doing well and becoming more Haitian everyday...  her favorite foods are goat meat and black bean sauce (seriously, she loves them!!) and she has stolen a few licks of sugar cane when I'm not looking.  She loves going to church (even when the services stretch past 5 hours!!) and the heat doesn't seem to bother her at all.  Hasannah loves the attention she gets from the kids but she gets more excited when the chickens & roosters come close.  Here she is with her hair braided, enjoying her bath tub.

First Day of School!

Yesterday was the first day of school and the H2H school got a bit of a makeover!  

Here is the main entrance that the students use (at the back of the compound):

And here is the front view of the classrooms:

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac has left it's mark!  Here are some pictures from yesterday...

Our compound:

Outside our compound:

The river beside us:

Compared to other towns, our flooding is minimal & will quickly return to normal.  The challenge for our area will be the damage done to gardens & the risk of water born disease.

Here's an article that will give you a glimpse of what's happening in other areas, particularly Port-au-Prince:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/26/hurricane-isaac-2012-haiti-death-toll-7_n_1831449.html

MEI Team

One of the team that is currently at H2H is keeping a daily blog - check it out at http://mei-haiti-2012.posterous.com/

Guest house is finished!!

The new Guest house is officially finished... and the first team arrived last night!!!

      

Grande Savande

Renel, Hasannah & I took a trip to Grande Savande to see the progress on the Church Pastor Luc is building there.

The roof was just poured on the church a few weeks ago & it looks great.  Here are a few shots of the land surrounding the church.  Grande Savande is a very poor village & Pastor Luc's vision for this church is to have a community center that will help meet their physical & medical needs as well.

They have started having services in the church but without doors they're fighting a loosing battle with the goats!!  It will cost ~$1200 to make & install the 3 iron doors they need... if you know of any groups that would like to fund-raise for this project we'd appreciate it!

In addition to visiting the church we also wanted to take Hasannah to visit Bouva (a stone's throw away from Grande Savande), the village where Renel grew up... and where many of our relatives still live!

Here is Hasannah sitting with her grandpa in front of their home in Bouva.

Hasannah got to meet her Great Grandparents for the first time.

We also took a bit of a detour so I could see the famous "Saline"... where they make salt!

Maily & Roodlay

This past Sunday Maily & Roodlay were dedicated and we had a party to celebrate! 


All of the kids at H2H are assigned an older "brother/sister" to help look after them.  Here is Maily with Bolo and Roodlay with Naomi.

The party started in the courtyard and continued in any covered area that could be found... it started pouring rain just as the snacks were being divided!!

Late for school!

This is Ti-Ne...

He's late for school and dressing on the run... good thing the school is in our compound!!

H2H's garden

The kids at H2H have made several attempts at a garden but their latest attempt is actually producing!!  They are very excited to show off their beans & spinach... both of which are ready to eat!  They also have green peppers, tomato, corn, okra, egg plant and the favorite - sugar cane!!

 

Luc's been busy!

 Pastor Luc has been very busy giving the buildings a facelift!

Here is the Children's Home:

Here are the new offices & depots:

Welcome Junie Honorat!

Garry (the Principal @ H2H's School) and his wife are very excited to welcome their little girl, Junie Honorat, to their family!

Little Junie was born at their home on Sunday morning at 1am.  They only live a few houses down from me and I arrived at their house just as she was being born... I even got to see her cord being cut!! They were planning to go to the hospital but the truck didn't arrive in time so a local "midwife" assisted with the birth.  Mother & baby are doing great!

Back on line!

We have been back in Haiti for almost a month but have had power / internet trouble but we are finally back online!!

I have lots to update you on but today you'll have to be satisfied with 2 quick pictures...

Here's Hasannah meeting Maily for the first time - Maily has since discovered how to get from the Children's Home to our house (which really isn't that hard since we have a connecting door) and sneaks over on a regular basis to wake Hasannah up from her nap to play... so far it's cute but I might have to remember to shut the door!

Here is Hasannah meeting her Great Grandma - Gran Bar!

Hello from Hasannah!

Here are some new pictures of Hasannah:







We're very excited to be heading back to Haiti in a few weeks as a family... with the Grandparents in tow to help us get settled!