First Team's Departed!

We just finished a movie night, watching The Blind Side in the big hall of the residence building.  Its a great movie, and a quiet and relaxing finish to the day.  This morning I accompanied the Prosser team in to the airport.  I managed to find a few items we needed and we had only one incident on the way, a fist fight next to the van while stalled for traffic when a woman hauled off and punched out a guy selling wares on the street, igniting a brawl.  It was ugly, and temptation  was to step out and stop it, even though we hadn't a clue as to why it happened.  Horns blared, fortunately some others stepped forward, and the traffic cleared and we moved on.  Later, upon my return I learned that this is sometimes a scam tactic to involve foreigners and extract cash for "damages" warned about on the Canadian Travellers Advisory site... you never know.

I greatly enjoyed the Prosser team, and made some friends I hope to keep up after our return.  The last few days were a mix of projects, concrete preps, equipment repair, praying for house dedications, & new land, ministry at church alter calls, clinic clean-up, re-plumbing the clinic and pouring a pad for the school toilets and a shower, and oh yes, how can I forget giving the gift of goats or the baseball clinic?  They accomplished a lot and many were really changed by the experiences.  

Yesterday we headed off to the beach for part of the afternoon, where I tracked down and photographed a Lionfish, yeah, which was quite beautiful as it was hunting, luring in small fish before darting out and gobbling them up.  

There was a final debriefing with Marc & Lisa, packing then off to the airport.  Last night it poured down rain for over an hour an really soaked up the ground and stilled the dust clouds from every footfall or motorbike going by.  Mud instead, dust doesn’t seem so bad... Seems each trip I see a bit more of Port Au Prince, it is pretty lively and active.  At some point it would be nice to get up into the high suburbs to get and overview of the whole region...  The mountains nearby rise up to almost 8800ft from sea level so they’re pretty impressive...

With the team gone it is much quieter here, they had 4 teens... Each time a team comes they are reserved but open up as they get more comfortable and relax after the drive in from the airport.  Every person that changes alters the dynamics of those left so it'll take a couple of days to get used to the current situation, then the second team will leave and it will start all over again.  

Tomorrow will be more concrete tying and pouring in the morning, then off to the beach with the Nelson team.  Really most of the concrete work is done by Haitians, its their work so we basically oversee quality and make sure the equipment is running well, with assistance in spots.  You would have noted Cathy is getting good at tying wire, and wants everyone to join in... but there's other jobs too.  Roy, who's overseeing the technical school rebuild wants to finish the slab Monday which should be easily obtainable, notwithstanding breakdowns.

Its been three weeks since we arrived.  The biggest challenges and prayer needs are figuring out how to fit in, to direct the teams effectively and to work together with often conflicting demands and requests, without getting impatient and mad at each other (Cathy & I).  Its a new day tomorrow!