Jeremi

So about a week and a half we were approached by our leader John and he told us we were going to a town called kai for about a week, then it started to kinda fall through. On Friday of last week he told us we were going to a town called Jeremi and were going to start doing the footing for the wall  surrounding their soon to be church.  They had already started their wall but spent the entire budget for the wall on seventy feet of rock footings. They were using a technique which is extremely popular in Haiti but it is super primitive and very expensive. The four of us were going to Jeremi to start the new footing and wall and at the same time teach the Haitian how to finish it once we left. But we had to get there first, Jeremi is 10-12 hours away from Port-au-Prince. The Jeremi church project was perfect for us, so we were excited. We were soon to be dropped off in Jeremi with a couple tents and our packs.
 The trip ended up taking us 2 days and the first day was fine but it was crammed. There were 8 us total, 5 in the cab, 3 in the bed of the truck. The first day was fun until we ended up in the middle of a mini- rainstorm,  the three guys in the back got completely soaked. The next day we had to go through the mountains, none of us had ever been through there. Not anyone. Not even the drivers, they usually fly to Jeremi. Me and Gabe and our translator Emanuel were in the back and it rained for alot of the day, this rain caused land slides on the mountains. So for about 2 hours we were literally dodging falling boulders and rocks, it was one of the craziest things I have ever done but we must have had God's hand of us because not a pebble landed in our truck, when a boulder easily could have. So after a long hard second day of traveling we finally made it to Jeremi and it was beautiful. Jeremi was the most tropical, beautiful place we had ever seen. There was still trash and all that stuff but there was much more trees and plants and we were right on the beach. So they dropped us off and headed back home the next morning. Over the coarse of the next few days we started digging footing and getting all the rebar and forms ready for concrete. This method is nothing like what they do in Haiti... so they obviously didnt like 4 white boys showing them how to do things... but in reality we knew and they didnt. Everything is so primitive there, no electricity, everything is done by hand, so bending rebar and mixing large amounts of concrete was pretty tough. By the end of the week we had most of the first wall done and 2 awesome Haitian men trained on how to finish it. It was so sweet being able to teach those guys something so valuable and practical. John had told us that he was thinking of flying us back to PAP because the roads were so bad, but then he had a change of heart and told us that he was going to have a driver come get us on Saturday. Friday morning rolled around and we were getting ready to go to work, when John called us and said we had to be at the airport by 12:30. We went to work and stayed as long as we could, the morning consisted of us sitting back and watching these Haitians build the footing and the wall alone. We got to the airport and our plane was waiting for us, our pilot was the first white person we had seen in a week. We jumped out of the tap tap with our bags in hand and we hopped in the prop plane and thirty minutes later we were in PAP. It was definitely nicer than a 10 hour drive. Being in Jeremi and living so simply was an awesome experience and we have a new found respect for that way of life. We are really going to miss our family in Jeremi, they were so sweet and so much fun to spend time with. Hopefully we will be able to head a lot more time there.

Haiti Hecticness

Hello all! We have had a great last couple of days, we see something bizarre everyday. We have been having the weirdest flash storms lately. It will be cloudy and hot and then all of the sudden it will be raining cats and dogs. The odd feeling is it is still 90 degrees in the rain. It is hurricane season so it is to be expected to have weird weather. Gabe, Kevin, Willie and I are adjusting well to mostly everything, there is a lot to adjust too. The heat and the humidity is a huge thing to adjust too, we are just getting use to being wet all the time, in the morning, in the rain, when I sleep and definitely when we work… which is all the time.. The other thing that we are doing is we are learning creol…. I thought English was more prominent but creol is the language to know. Not knowing creol is proving to be super annoying because we don’t always have one of our translators with us. For example the driving situation is crazy, take everything that you have seen in movies about third world country driving and triple it… there is no laws at all, no dividing line….  We were driving in the back of our “tap tap” (which is a small truck with a camper and seating in the back to fit a lot of people)  we were driving and we turned left and a guy behind us went to pass us but he tried to pass us on the left, but we turned left… see the problem? So he ran into the back of us.. just a scratch but he broke his light on his truck… so we pull over and we stay in the back. Pastor John gets out and this guy that crashed into us thinks he was right and we were wrong… plus we are white so he thinks we will just pay him off…. John wont have that, so all of the sudden John is surrounded by a bunch of locals who want to see whats happening.. none of us speak creol.. so it was a very tense situation.. but it all got worked out, after an hour and a half waiting we had a translator come and we figured it out.. but it was weird!!  Being engulfed into a completely different culture is so odd but at the same time it is just fantastic.   Crescent City Foursquare Come to Haiti!!! You will have the time of your lives, you have no idea!!!!

Patrick, Kevin, Willie and Gabe

Oh Yah a big shout out to Mr.Carties Class!!

Crazieness

So yesterday was one of the most interesting days. We were for most of the day getting ready to put of a 20 by 40 foot tent which we will be living in. It was so hot that we had to be taking breaks every fifteen minutes. Around 2 oclock we saw some clouds rolling in and then all of the sudden there was 40+ winds and insane amounts of water. There was lighting and thunder, we were soaked within a matter of seconds. After camping out in the church anex we finally got out of it. The day was then over, everything was drenched and muddy... its still super muddy this morning. A new team rolled in last night and they will be going to the orphanage today and that will be awesome. We will be staying here getting the church ready for demolition, hopefully the new steel building will arrive soon. Hopefully we will be posting some pictures up within a couple of days, the internet is not very good here so uploading that kind of stuff is difficult. We miss you guys so much and keep us in your prayers.
Gabe, Willie, Kevin, Patrick

haiti

hey everybody we re here in haiti and we are just starting work for the day... it is really hot over here. we havent been here long but its really rad

We've arrived in San Francisco

It is now 5pm and we are all checked in and ready to take off from San Fran to New York. Unfortunetly our flight doesnt leave until 1030 pm.. so yah we have kinda of a wait.

Heading to the airport

We are leaving from Crescent City in the Morning at 7am and traveling to San Fransisco. We will fly from there to New York and then to Port-au-Prince. It is going to be a long day. Keep us in your prayers and thank you so much for your continuing support.

We have a date!!!

So we purchased our one way tickets to Port-au-Prince on Friday the 10 of September. We are leaving from San Francisco to New York then Haiti.  We are so happy to finally have a date we are taking off.  So if you haven't said your goodbyes make sure to get ahold of us.
-Patrick